Saturday, April 5, 2008

One Vietnamese Man


HappyNews.com has a great story about a Vietnamese man (Tong Phuoc Phuc) who has become a safe haven for single mothers. He is an alternative to abortion for these women. Here are some clips from the article.


Phuc, a building contractor, started saving money to buy a craggy plot of land outside town. He then began collecting unwanted fetuses from hospitals and clinics to bury in graves on the property. At first, doctors and neighbors thought he had gone mad. Even his wife questioned spending their savings to build a cemetery for aborted babies.


He says word of his unusual graveyard eventually spread, and women who had undergone abortions started visiting to pray and burn incense. Phuc urged them to tell others considering the same option to talk with him first.


Phan Thi Hong Vu looks lovingly at her chubby 7½-month-old baby boy sucking on a pacifier surrounded by all the other babies on Phuc's floor. She shivers at the thought of how close she came to losing him.


''I actually went to the hospital intending to get an abortion, but I was so scared,'' says Vu, who was 3½ months pregnant at the time. ''I decided to go home and think about it. Two weeks later, I met with Phuc.''


It costs about $1,800 a month to care for all 33 babies and the women. Phuc gets donations from Catholic and Buddhist organizations and from people who have heard about his work. On a recent day, a local family dropped by with an envelope sent from their daughter in California who had read about Phuc on a Vietnamese Web site. Two years ago, he even got a letter from Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet praising him for caring for women and children scorned by society.


''I will continue this job until the last breath of my life,'' he says. ''I will encourage my children to take over to help other people who are underprivileged.''


Here is a blog where you can find out more about him and a way to donate if you wish.

Friday, April 4, 2008

Where is Expelled?

In a previous post, I encouraged everyone to go see the movie Expelled. It is going to be in theaters nation wide on April 18th. If you would like to see where it is in your city, go to their website where they have current locations. More are being added. In case you haven't seen it, here is the trailer.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Abortion Ban Going to Vote in SD

God bless the people of South Dakota. They haven't given up. They are trying once again to pass a law that would ban abortions. In 2006 they ran into problems because people wanted an exception for rape and incest. They have added that this time around. If you would like more information, go to VoteYesForLife.com.

Here is a video from their site.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Elective Bible Classes in the Public Schools

The Texas Board of Education approved (13 to 2) elective Bible courses in TX public high schools. Read more about it the press release from Free Market.

I applaud the Texas Board of Education for having the guts to go against the anti-religion lobby. While I support this decision, I was wondering if I would recommend it to young Christians. I think that would depend on who was teaching the class.

My husband read a book about the battles in the Bible. As a Christian history major, he thought it would be right up his alley. I was very disappointed because the people writing it did not believe the Bible. They tried to explain away all of the cool God stuff as odd (but natural) occurrences.

So, if a non-believer were teaching the Bible elective, I would be wary of sending a kid to that class. If the teacher was a Christian, it could be a great experience. I probably would have wanted to take it if it had been offered in my high school.

Competent Christians

There is a really great post at TheRebelution that I encourage you all to check out. Here are some quotes from it.

This is a generalization, but there’s truth to it: We’re in a battle between competent sinners and incompetent saints. And the sinners are winning. Why are they winning? Again, this is a generalization, but they’re winning because they are competent and we are not. In the areas of science and entertainment, they dominate the field.

It wasn’t always this way. America grew out of Christian competence. Modern science was birthed in a Christian culture by incredibly competent Christian men and women, like Galileo, Copernicus, and Francis Bacon, all the way up to Isaac Newton and countless others. The Christian church used to be the chief patron of the arts. Much of the remaining greatness of America is because of Christians in the past who had the competence to match their good intentions.

Monday, March 31, 2008

Public Breastfeeding

Everyone acknowledges that breastfeeding is the best food for your baby. God designed things are better than man designed things. There are many benefits to it: better nutrition, better health, better immunization, less allergies. If you aren't familiar with the benefits, google benefits breastfeeding.

Anyway, many Christian women have a hard time breastfeeding in public. I think this is a mistake. Younger women need to see that it is normal and natural. I also understand about modesty. I am not a topless kind of woman myself. Anyway, I found a cool video that shows how modest public breastfeeding can be. It also gives tips for breastfeeding clothing.


Sunday, March 30, 2008

Painting Elephants





I found this video on Great Homeschool Videos. It reminded me of when we lived in Phoenix and Ruby the painting elephant died from birth complications. The whole city was sad. Here is a painting by Ruby. It is not as amazing as the one in the video, but I still find it interesting.





There are two things that I find very interesting about this. First, I am amazed at how much money people are willing to pay for elephant art (hundreds to thousands of dollars). I think elephant paintings are cool, but I don't think I would pay more than $50 for one.

Second, I am amazed (much more so) at the Creator and his handiwork. If an elephant is wonderful because it can paint, the Creator is infinitely more wonderful because he made the elephant.


Least I be labled as prejudice towards elephants . . .

Here is a painting by Tillie the Dog.



And there are even books about painting cats.