Coffee 101

• do you ever think of the labour that goes into that cup you are enjoying?
• travel to Costa Rica with a Kiva Fellow to see how the small farmers manage.
• then surf to Kiva.org to make a small $25 loan to help out a neighbour.

later man, jan

for facebook

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGrrpjJ5e34

XacBank-Kiva Christmas and New Year Ecard

sweet...

XacBank video describing the Kiva loan process at XacBank, Mongolia. Made by Jane Lim, Kiva Fellow (KF9) in December 2009.

later man, jan

My Grown Up Christmas List

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7zRtLptyc4

This video slide show was created to help bring more awareness to the plight of homelessness not only this holiday season, but every day. No matter where you live, you can make a difference. Please help in any way that you can. A small gesture can help to better a person's future - and help get them off the streets for good.

Song is Kelly Clarkson's rendition of "My Grown Up Christmas List."

my personal favourite...
later man, jan

CCT Christmas Fun

Here's 'a short collection of videos' from the blog of the Kiva Fellow, Ujwal Kharel, currently in the Philippines.

I watched the last minute of those kids over and over :)

CCT stands for Center for Community Transformation Credit Cooperative (CCT) and is one of the financial partners you can loan through at Kiva.org

"... CCT reaches micro-entrepreneurs, service workers, itinerant vendors, orphans, and abandoned children in urban poor communities. In addition to CCT, the Center for Community Transformation operates training and development programs, clinics and disaster relief operations. CCT also runs a generic pharmaceutical distribution business called Tindahan Para Sa Bayan which allows micro entrepreneurs to access low cost medicine while funneling any extra income to social service projects."

enjoy - and Feliz Navidad to you and yours
later man, jan

Jesus and Santa...

Santa lives at the North Pole.

JESUS is everywhere.

Santa rides in a sleigh

JESUS rides on the wind and walks on the water.

Santa comes but once a year

JESUS is an ever present help.

Santa fills your stockings with goodies

JESUS supplies all your needs.

Santa comes down your chimney uninvited

JESUS stands at your door and knocks.. And then enters your heart.

You have to stand in line to see Santa

JESUS is as close as the mention of His name.

Santa lets you sit on his lap

JESUS lets you rest in His arms.

Santa doesn't know your name, all he can say is "Hi little boy or girl, What's your name?"

JESUS knew our name before we did. Not only does He know our name, He knows our address too. He knows our history and future and He even knows how many hairs are on our heads.

Santa has a belly like a bowl full of jelly

JESUS has a heart full of love.

All Santa can offer is HO HO HO

JESUS offers health, help and hope.

Santa says "You better not cry"

JESUS says "Cast all your cares on me for I care for you.

Santa's little helpers make toys

JESUS makes new life, mends wounded hearts, repairs broken homes and builds mansions.

Santa may make you chuckle but

JESUS gives you joy that is your strength.

While Santa puts gifts under your tree

JESUS became our gift and died on the tree.


It's obvious, for me, there is truly no comparison.

I need to put Christ back in my Christmas.

Jesus is still my reason for the season.


May the Lord Bless and Watch over you and your loved ones this Christmas 2009
And may He prosper and bless the work of your hands in the New Year.

check out our Christmas Events calendar at Living Spirit United Church

and thanks Pat...
later man, jan

One Love | Playing For Change | Song Around the World

Playing For Change

"From the award-winning documentary, "Playing For Change: Peace Through Music", comes an incredible rendition of the legendary Bob Marley song "One Love" with Keb' Mo' and Manu Chao. This is the third video from the documentary and a follow up to the classic "Stand By Me" and the incredible "Don't Worry." Released in celebration of Bob Marley's birthday on February 6th, this tribute to the legend is performed by musicians around the world adding their part to the song as it traveled the globe.
...
Join the movement to help inspire people from around the world to come together through music."

later man

Heartsick at the news from Uganda

Stephen Harper slams Uganda on anti-gay bill
Harper told reporters he met privately with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni during the Commonwealth leaders’ summit to express “Canada’s deep concern and strong opposition to the bill.”

“We deplore these kinds of measures,” Harper said. “We find them inconsistent with any reasonable understanding of human rights.”

Why is Uganda attacking homosexuality?

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

* Human rights groups: Bill would spur a witch hunt of homosexuals in Uganda
* President blames foreign influence in promoting and funding homosexuality
* Media outlets have inflamed sentiments by publicly pointing out gays and lesbians
* Canadian PM tells Ugandan president bill is deplorable, inconsistent with human rights

If Uganda Executes Gays, Will American Christians be Complicit?

..."American Christians who help sow such sentiments may be held liable -- at least morally -- for the results. A Nov. 18 report, "Globalizing the Culture Wars: U.S. Conservatives, African Churches, and Homophobia," from the liberal think tank Political Research Associates (PRA), documents how extensive -- and influential -- those contacts are.

"Just as the United States and other northern societies routinely dump our outlawed or expired chemicals, pharmaceuticals, machinery, and cultural detritus on African and other Third World countries, we now export a political discourse and public policies our own society has discarded as outdated and dangerous," Tarso Luís Ramos, head of the PRA, says in the foreword to the report. "Africa's anti-gay campaigns are to a substantial degree made in the U.S.A."

Whether those campaigns will succeed is still an open question. Despite wide support for the bill in parliament, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni may seek to stall the legislation for fear of losing international support.

But many Ugandan church leaders have also signaled their support for the broader bill if the death-penalty provision is removed. "I think the death penalty is not acceptable," Anglican Bishop Stanley Ntagali of Masindi-Kitara diocese has said. "I think taking someone to jail for a period of time would be sufficient."

With an estimated 500,000 gays and lesbians among Uganda's 31 million residents, they better start building prisons fast."

What to do, what to do?

Here are links to two petitions where you can add your voice against this bill:
Christian leaders must condemn Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill
Rick Warren: Please Denounce Anti-Gay Bill in Uganda

For help for myself...
well, some days the news makes it difficult to call myself a Christian... and one of my Jewish heroes, Rabbi Rami, always manages to put me back on track just when I need help the most.

This manifesto was written by Rabbi Rami Shapiro (author of many books including 'The Sacred Art of Lovingkindness')

"An Open Letter to Peoples of Faith
WE BELIEVE God transcends theology; that no idea about God can adequately encompass the reality of God.
WE BELIEVE that revelation is not given to a people, but through a people to the world.
WE BELIEVE that the truth in each scripture is common to all scriptures, calling us toward justice, compassion, humility, dignity, respect, love for both person and planet, and the transcending of self through service to others.
WE RECOGNIZE that filtering divine revelation through human hands allows fear, greed, anger, ignorance, and violence to masquerade as truth.
WE RECOGNIZE that much if not most of the evil plaguing our world is rooted in this masquerade, and the violent image of god that comes from it.
WE COMMIT ourselves to ending this evil by rejecting religious violence and the false god who sanctions it.
WE COMMIT ourselves to separating timeless truth from time bound bias in our respective scriptures; affirming the former and moving beyond the latter.
WE COMMIT ourselves to teaching the God of justice, compassion, love, and respect Who speaks to us through all scriptures, and Who calls us to free ourselves from fear, greed, anger, ignorance, and violence.
WE CALL upon peoples of every faith to liberate the wisdom of God from the xenophobia of tribe and ego, and to free religion from fear and violence by distinguishing the holy from the merely sacred.
WE CALL upon peoples of every faith to share their wisdom with the world, to fearlessly speak out when their faith is kidnapped by evil, and to remind us all that there is no god but God, and that justice and compassion are the way of God for all time and for all people."

To participate in this project please copy
this manifesto and pass it on.

-jan-