Quick Facts Friday

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I've joined Compassion International's Child Advocate Network in an effort to increase awareness (AND promote sponsorship). Quick Facts Friday is my attempt to provide you with "Quick Facts" pertaining to various issues as reported by Compassion. This week, the quick facts focus on HUNGER.

• One person in seven battles hunger every day.
• Approximately 963 million people across the world are hungry.
• More than 9 million children under age 5 die every year, and malnutrition accounts for more than one-third of these deaths. Most of these children live in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
• About 5.6 million deaths of children worldwide are related to under-nutrition. This accounts for 53% of the total deaths for children under 5.
• More than 140 million or 25% of all children in developing countries are underweight and at risk from the long-term effects of malnourishment.
• Nearly 15% of babies in developing countries are born with low birth weight compared with 7% of babies in industrialized countries.
• More than 6 million children die from malnutrition each year.
• Worldwide, 161 million preschool children suffer from chronic malnutrition.
• Already 923 million people are undernourished, and there are more than 9 million deaths related to hunger each year.
  

What stands out most to me is the fact that under-nutrition, defined by UNICEF as the outcome of insufficient food intake (hunger) and infectious diseases, accounts for over half of the total deaths of children under 5.

Can you imagine holding your child, grandchild, niece or nephew in your arms as they starve to death?

Mother Teresa once said, "When a poor person dies of hunger, it has not happened because God did not take care of him or her. It has happened because neither you nor I wanted to give that person what he or she needed."

Your sponsorship will not only provide a child with supplementary food (if necessary), but the opportunity to learn about Jesus; regular Christian training; educational opportunities and help; health care and hygiene; a caring and safe Christian environment to grow in self-confidence and social skills; personal attention, guidance and love.

Please consider sponsoring a child today.

"If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has not pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth." 1 John 3:17-18

Forgotten God

If you know me, you know how much I like Francis Chan. It all started when I heard him speak while volunteering at the Passion Atlanta Regional in 2008. His first book, Crazy Love, is extremely challenging and I'm sure his next book, Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit, will be as well. The book will be released September 1st. Here's a preview:

How it all started...

I've recently joined Compassion International's Child Advocate Network in an effort to increase awareness. I envision regular postings related to Compassion in the future, but for now I'd like to share how it all started:

I've always been touched by the photos and statistics of children living in poverty, but was never more touched until we had Maddie. There are a multitude of of statistics, but the thought that children just like mine die every 7 seconds from hunger-related causes is unfathomable. Maddie made those statistics tangible -- REAL tangible.

Shortly after Maddie was born, I was reading Francis Chan's Crazy Love. I had mentioned to Emily my desire to sponsor a child. We had talked about it in the past, but never followed through. This time didn't seem any different -- we were trying to figure out whether or not she could quit her job and the goal was to REDUCE spending. I'm pretty sure Dave Ramsey would have suggested holding off.

One day I found myself sitting on the couch reading Francis' chapter on lukewarm people.

"Lukewarm people give money to charity and to the church as long as it doesn't impinge on their standard of living. If they have a little extra and it's safe to give, they do so."

That's when it hit me -- If we give up ESPN, maybe we can use the money we save switching programming packages to sponsor a child! And that's what we did.

It wasn't easy -- I experienced a tightness in my chest as I called Dish to switch. A sports-friendly household without ESPN? I felt so un-American. But I knew every time I was missing Monday Night Football I'd be reminded of WHY I was missing it -- for the sake of a child who has SIGNIFICANTLY less than I do.

Now I'm in no way suggesting sports are the devil. In fact, my Troy Polamalu jersey arrived yesterday! It's just that for us, giving up ESPN was a way we could make it happen.

For more information, Email me or check out Compassion International today!

Maddie's Re-mix

"Dear Jesus: Mom, Dad, Ap-Pie. A-Men!"

It's a re-mix from one of her FAVORITE Veggie Tales episodes -- one with Madame Blueberry, of course. A little green bean, or something like that, sings: "I thank God for this day; for the sun in the sky; for my mom and my dad and my piece of apple pie..."

It's so sweet -- especially when her dolls, Care Bears, Little People, etc. do it.

Who's your Nathan?

Our community group is currently reading Everbody's Normal Till You Get to Know Them. While I don't particularly care for the book, there have been a few chapters worth reading, especially the one we discussed last night -- The Gift Nobody Wants: Confrontation.

The chapter focuses on the story of David and Bathsheba. David seduces Bathsheba, wife of Uriah. David learns she's pregnant and summons Uriah from war with the hope Uriah will sleep with his wife and think the baby is his. Uriah returns, but doesn't sleep with her. David orders Uriah's death and marries now widowed Bathsheba. God sends Nathan, a prophet, to confront David and hold him accountable. David ultimately confesses his sin.

Now before David even slept with Bathsheba, he was questioned by his servant who appears to have had the foresight to know David was headed in the wrong direction. "Isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" In other words, "This is somebody's wife. Somebody's daughter. Be careful."

"If David were in a spiritually sensitive place with God, [those] statements would have stopped him in his tracks."

I'm a BIG advocate of having a Nathan in our lives. "Without a Nathan...we have a way of drifting off course." But what I've learned from this chapter is, no matter how many Nathan's we have in our life, it's not going to make a world of difference if we're not "at a spiritually sensitive place with God."

Who's your Nathan?

"Nothing can be more cruel than the leniency which abandons others to their sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than the sever reprimand which calls another Christian in one's community back from the path of sin." -Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Our Little Singer/Dancer

In an earlier post, I shared one of Maddie's favorite songs -- Let God Arise. The song came out when Maddie was a baby. The beat is great for bouncing around, which is what we used to do as she laughed HYSTERICALLY. Now she's learning the words and requests: "Jesus saves. On!"

I've tried my best to secretly record our little singer/dancer. Here's what I have so far.

My favorite is when she throws her hands up and yells "Saves!" Oh, what fun it is to capture these little moments!

G'ma & G'pa Mauntel Visit

My parents came in town on the 4th to meet their newest grandbaby. We celebrated by grilling out with Em's parents. Maddie hadn't taken a nap all day, so she crashed early only to be awaken by the first BOOM! My parents got to check out North Point for the first time on Sunday and we hit Maddie's favorite spot -- the mall -- on Monday.

Here are the three generations.


And two of my favorite shots from the weekend.

America

This is one of my favorite songs -- especially on the 4th.

Lift your eyes up

Look to the sky

The Lord is coming

Coming to America

Micah William

I've been somewhat slow to dedicate a post to our newest addition to the family - Micah William. While Em has done MOST of the work around here, for some reason just having two kids is enough to wear me out. When they're down, I don't feel like doing ANYTHING aside from checking facebook and watching The O'Reilly Factor. What an EXCELLENT use of time, huh?

Micah was born on 6/18 at 7:16 PM. For some reason we believed the myth the second one comes faster. Not so with Micah - he came 12 hours after Em started her patossin. Our little guy weighed 7 lbs, 1 oz and measured 20 inches. It was so exciting to run out to the lobby to tell Maddie he was here. I don't think she knew what to think at first, but quickly warmed up to him. In fact, she demanded he walk as they were cleaning him off!

Mi-Mi brought Maddie down to visit on Friday. She picked out a balloon and handed out "I'm a _____" buttons for everyone

Em and Micah were discharged on Saturday.

Maddie was waiting at the house for us. As soon as we walked in the door, she wanted "baby brudda" to play. She showed him all her toys, including her favorite Veggie Tale - Madame Blueberry!

I'm sure we'll have more stories the more comfortable she gets with him. For now, it's "Da-Da! Get him!" whenever he cries.

"He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8