Last week CNN reported that Oxfam was concerned for the safety of their staff now deployed in Haiti.  They said that both the unstable environmental conditions as well as crime and violence threaten those aid workers now on the scene. Each of us has a role to play in supporting the relief efforts much needed in Haiti, not just in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake but in the weeks and months and years going forward.  Yes, we can certainly donate money to organizations skilled in responding to human tragedies.  But even more needed is the ongoing gift of prayer for each and every worker on the ground there. (more…)

What I remember about seventh grade is finding myself in a new school about five times as big as I’d ever known—I was stumped by algebra, and the girl who wanted to help me get through that class was my only friend. Neither of us were cool, and she didn’t care, but I longed to be accepted by the in-crowd. But every attempt to connect with them ended up in some awful embarrassment. It was a painful time of learning how to make friends and how to be a friend.

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Als ich letzten wieder mal am Flughafen war, sah ich all die Schilder, die vor der Schweinegrippe warnen. Und was man Alles tun muss um sich zu schützen.

Soviel Angst und Furcht steckt dahinter. Ich dachte kurz darüber nach wie stark diese Furcht und Angst die Gedanken der Menschen beeinflussen wollen. Gleichzeitig dachte ich darüber nach, wie man sich vor dieser angsterfüllten Beeinflussung frei halten kann. Ein Wortspiel half mir dabei. Schweinegrippe ( swine flu) = Schweineinfluenza ( swine influenza)= Influence =der Einfluss, Beeinflussen (Influence). (more…)

Recently I was at the airport and I saw signs all over the place warning about swine flu. And about everything you have to do to protect yourself.

There is so much fear and anxiety behind these directives. I considered for a moment how strong the influence of that fear is. At the same time, I thought about what we can do to keep ourselves free from that fearful influence. A play on words helped me there: swine flu = swine influenza = influence. (more…)

For many Filipinos, the day typhoon Ketsana hit was memorable.  Everyone remembers where they were, what they were doing, and who they were with.  Although it has already been three weeks since the storm hit, some parts of Metro Manila are still flooded in knee-high waters that may not recede until December. Ketsana was immediately followed by Parma, though bypassed Manila and hit the provinces of northern Luzon instead.  This category-5 typhoon caused a lot of landslides in Baguio and its neighboring areas. (more…)

Sometimes the word faith gets a bad rap. That’s because there are different kinds of faith. There’s blind faith, for example, which hopes and wishes something were true, without any logic to support it. There’s also faith based on intelligent reasoning—a deduction of scientific facts, which expects consistent results.

Actually we rely on faith (the scientific kind) in all sorts of ways every day. One really easy example is that we have faith that the earth is round, even though it looks flat to the naked eye. We also have faith that if we take a cruise across the Atlantic, we will never be in danger of falling off the edge of the earth. We hardly even think of this kind of basic reasoning as faith because we are so certain about the shape of our planet.
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Hearing about H1N1 or the swine flu? People are confused and afraid. And when we’re afraid, we tend to change our behavior to try to protect ourselves.

People who would normally hug each other keep their distance. A simple handshake becomes a source of distrust and fear. But I won’t do it! I won’t let fear turn me into someone I’m not! (more…)

Are you nervous about crowds because it could mean catching something, like the flu? Here’s how I’ve been thinking about this.

When I walk to work in the morning, I’m always amazed by the numbers of people gathered at the intersections waiting for the lights to turn.

Sometimes there can be as many as 20 people on each side of the street. The light turns, and then those 40 people converge on each other, passing within inches of each other yet rarely touching. The same is true when it’s raining and we’re all maneuvering past with umbrellas. Sure, sometimes there’s a bump but I’ve never seen anyone hurt. Certainly there’s no intent to injure someone.

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With fears circulating rampantly about swine flu, this is a good time to know your immunity from contagion.

“What?” You might ask. “You mean I have to hurry up and get a shot?”

If you’re worried about that, you can relax. That’s not the kind of immunity I’m talking about.

I’m talking about your spiritual immunity.

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by Daniel Koku Atidzon

I didn’t know it yet, but on April 1st, 2009, I was about to witness—for the first time in my life—a case of robbery. I was walking back to my home after seeing a friend off—an old schoolmate who had visited for the day. It had been a good day for me, too; just that morning I had attended a job interview at the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI). Now it was late,—around 10:30 or 11:00 PM—my friend was gone, and I found myself about 500 meters away from the house in question. (more…)