Dear Beloved in Christ,
 
It is by the grace of God that I received Christ in my life, knowing the truth and the truth have set me free, having known the truth; I had no choice than to do what is lawful and right in the sight of God for eternal life and in the sight of man for witness of God & his mercies and glory upon my life.
I am Mrs.Edwards the wife of Mr. Spelling Edwards, my husband worked with the Chevron Texaco in Egypt for twenty years before he died in the year 2002.We were married for ten years without a child. My Husband died after a brief illness that lasted for only four days. Before his death we were both born again Christians.
Since his death I decided not to re-marry or get a child outside my matrimonial home which the Bible is against. When my late husband was alive he deposited the sum of ($6, 000, 000,00) with a Bank in Nigeria. Presently, this money is still with the Bank and the management just wrote me as the beneficiary to come forward to sign for the release of this money or rather issue a letter of authorization to somebody to receive it on my behalf if I can not come over.
Presently, I'm in a hospital in Ghana where I have been undergoing treatment for esophageal cancer. I have since lost my ability to talk and my doctors have told me that I have only a few weeks to live. It is my last wish to see this money distributed to charity organizations anywhere in the World. Because relatives and friends have plundered so much of my wealth since my illness, I cannot live with the agony of entrusting this huge responsibility to any of them.
Please, I beg you in the name of God to help me Stand and collect the Funds from the Bank and as soon as the fund enter your account take 30% of the total money, while 70% will be for work of God.
I want a person that is God fearing that will use this money to fund churches, orphanages and widows propagating the word of God and to ensure that the house of God is maintained. The Bible made us to understand that blessed is the hand that giveth. I took this decision because I don't have any child that will inherit this money and my husband's relatives are not Christians and I don't want my husband's hard earned money to be misused by unbelievers. I don't want a situation where this money will be used in an ungodly manner. Hence the reason for taking this bold decision. I am not afraid of death hence I know where I am going. I know that I am going to be in the bosom of the Lord. Exodus {14 VS14} says that the lord will fight my case and I shall hold my peace. I don't need any telephone communication in this regard because of my soundless voice and presence of my husband's relatives around me always. I don't want them to kn! ow about this ! d evelopment. W it
As soon as I receive your reply I shall give you the contact to the Bank in Nigeria where the money is been deposited. I will also issue you a letter of authority and deposited certificate of claim that will prove you as the new beneficiary of this fund.
Psalm 23
Your in Christ,
Mrs.Edwards

Read more here.

Somewhere in the middle of my four day spree I filled up my motorhome with 10% ethanol fuel...not too much later I vapor-locked because of that self-same ethanol and lost an hour of travel time waiting for the engine to cool down.

Needless to say I was unimpressed with ethanol.

Now my feelings have turned more toward outrage. I had lunch with a good friend this past Sunday -- someone involved with agriculture who spends a lot of time traveling in poorer countries. He gave me a few more facts I almost wish I hadn't heard. For instance:

• Because of outrageous government ethanol subsidies, a vast amount of American farmers have turned their fields over to corn production. It's more profitable than growing anything else these days.
• Because of that turnover, there are now shortages in all kinds of products. Potatoes are generally grown for $4 a 100-weight and, for the past several years, have been sold for $5 or $6. This year potatoes are selling at $40 for the same weight. Farmers who didn't switch to corn will make up 10-years of loss in just one season. And that increase holds true for many products across the board.
• And finally, the kick in the gut that exposes the whole ethanol debate for the scam it is -- it takes more than one gallon of diesel to produce one gallon of ethanol. We're losing with each gallon we make!

My agricultural friend sent me a link this morning to a New York Times article celebrating Florida's purchase of a sugar refinery. The state will buy United Sugar for almost 2 billion dollars in order to return their land to its pre-white man purity. Are you kidding me? And where are we going to get sugar from then...the pristine purity of China?

I'm not anti-environment by any stretch of the imagination. I think we should take care of the planet God granted us; we should certainly be more careful than we are...but there are other factors to consider. National security and stability for one -- what in the world are we going to eat if we get to the point where we're importing everything and the world decides it's in their best interest to cut us off?

But I think the more important issue is that of responsibility to our fellow man. It is pure, unmitigated arrogance on our part to be so wrapped up in environmentalism <which is at the root of this ethanol nonsense> that we significantly impact the fate of the rest of the world's stomach. As if we didn't already have enough to be held accountable for.

While all residents may ask to be called by a preferred first name rather than their legal one, the policy says males who believe they are female must be called "she" and females who believe they are male must be referred to as "he." Staff must use the preferred name and pronoun in any documents they file.

There've been numerous stories recently about new laws under consideration in Florida, California, Colorado, and the New England states where public restrooms and locker rooms are being opened beyond the traditional -- and quite frankly logical, rational, reasonable, etc. -- definitions.

And as we've been doing for decades, we're exporting our cultural degeneration to the rest of the world. Here's a story out of Thailand I saw recently:

For teen boys who prefer to dress as girls at one rural high school in Thailand, taking a bathroom break no longer means choosing between "male" and "female" restrooms. There's now a "transvestite toilet."

For a very interesting read about where this is all headed, check out this article about the clash of gay rights and religious liberties over at NPR. It's sorta long, but well worth the read. Pay particular attention to Act Three.

• A father was having trouble with his 12-year-old daughter's internet use and ordered her to stop surfing. She disobeyed and posted inappropriate pictures of herself, so he grounded her from going on a school outing. Sounds reasonable so far, right? Too bad they live in Canada, where the girl was able to retain an attorney and find a judge to rule that staying home from an outing was "excessive" punishment for the crime <via WND>.

• Again in Canada, a case of suspected sexual abuse was opened for an 11-year-old autistic girl...because the case worker saw a psychic who told her a girl with the initial "V" was being abused. There was no other evidence besides the psychic's, um, report, but the mother had to defend herself in an investigation <via WND>.

• And finally, a couple has been sentenced to three months in jail...for homeschooling. No, for now this couple isn't from California <although we might be seeing that story soon>, they're German <via WND>.
  

Aberdeen is home to the thickest accent in Scotland so my teaching partner and I were really relieved to find the church we chose had a visiting Brit as interim pastor. We had difficulty understanding the announcements and singing, but at least we heard the sermon...so you can perhaps imagine how well our students did with their immersion experience. But I digress.

It was a fairly stressful episode in my life, and one thing my teaching partner and I did was institute routine whenever we weren't working. We got home to our flat around four, completely exhausted from the day's efforts, and flipped on Oprah. After that hour I'd drag myself off the couch to make dinner while she watched Star Trek, then she'd clean while we watched another American show I can't quite remember.

Yesterday I flipped on the television, which happened to be left on NBC. Oprah talked in the background while I was scanning through the guide, and I eventually tuned in to the fact that she was talking about polygamy. I flipped the guide off and listened for awhile, then paused <don't get me started on the joys of TiVo> and went for a piece of paper to take a few notes.

I missed the first 10 minutes or so, but watched the rest of the show and was a bit stunned when I finally flipped the TV off. The first segment I saw showed a polygamous family living in a compound of like-minded individuals in Arizona. A man and his three wives and ten children were portrayed incredibly favorably in Lisa Ling's on-site report, then they came on to speak with Oprah in person.

The first thing I noticed, and frankly what caused me to go for a piece of paper, was when Oprah said something like this is a polygamous family. Excuse me, the politically correct term is plural family. The man and his wives answered at different times, but I heard things like this is about family, we take care of each other. There was an incredible exchange that could have been lifted right from several different arguments I can think of off the top of my head -- this is about choice. We want people to have the choice to live how they want. We're being prosecuted for choice. I'm standing up for choice. There are so many alternative lifestyles in America, we don't want to be considered criminals for choosing this lifestyle.

These folks had some slick preparation. There was no mention of the illegality of polygamy in the first several segments -- merely a lovely, rational discussion about how great their situation is, how much they love and support each other and enjoy their alternative lifestyle.

The next segment was when I really got stunned. Oprah turned to one of the Jeffs compounds in Arizona, especially emphasizing when she did the voiceover: the FUNDAMENTALIST Church of Latter Day Saints. The whole tone was different; it seemed to me the picture was even darker, like they'd tinted down the footage. Lisa Ling and a woman who had escaped from that compound went back and talked about the horrible life she'd led. Cars honked as they went past, lots of shots of people looking out from behind darkened windows, people not answering the door. Lisa called it "secretive," she had "chills" from being watched.

The next segment was back in the studio with Oprah, talking about how terrible this FUNDAMENTALIST branch was. I was amazed at how Oprah managed to separate the reasonable and loving folks who were just making an alternative lifestyle choice, from those other people. It seemed to me she worked really hard to humanize the first family -- telling them she'd been misinformed, thanking them for their courage to come on, calling them the "moderates," that they'd shown her another side and changed her mind. Whereas the FUNDAMENTALIST branch was presented as just plain evil all the time.

Now I'm not saying they aren't plain evil all the time, I'm just saying I found it extremely interesting and somewhat disturbing to watch a very calculated line being drawn between your regular-average-Joe "plural" family, and the fundamentalists who were taking it to the extreme and giving the lifestyle a bad name.

The show ended with a discussion about legality. Oprah asked the gal who had escaped whether she thought polygamy should be legalized. No, that'll never happen. Ok then, should it be decriminalized? <As an aside, can someone tell me the difference between legalizing and decriminalizing, other than Orwellian doublespeak?> The woman said yes, for sure it should be decriminalized, because after all you can't prosecute everyone. We need to bring children out of the dark, mainstream them. They referred to themselves again as the "moderates" and condemned the Jeffs compound, likening it to living in Iran.

I am by no stretch of the imagination an expert on the topic, but it seems from what I've read that one of the top arguments put forth against gay marriage is the "slippery slope" argument. If you take away the classical and historical meaning of marriage as one man and one woman, there is no legal way to stop any other combinations you can possibly imagine. In my opinion, Oprah's show couldn't have been a better opening salvo in the battle to have polygamous marriage legitimized.

Was it merely coincidence that the show aired on the first day gay marriage was legal in California?

• Closer to home, a couple in Ohio requested time in their local library to offer a financial planning seminar, using a room available to any and all non-profit organizations. Unfortunately they planned to quote the Bible occasionally in their discussions, an admission so heinous their request was refused. Maybe they should have said they were going to have a discussion on pornography -- that would have garnered them a top spot on the reservations list.
  

• Wonderful news out of England where a mother attempted to abort her baby, then found a few weeks later that the procedure hadn't worked. The language in this article surprised me -- the author continually referred to the baby surviving the abortion procedure, the son of the woman, etc. Don't they know it's supposed to be called a fetus, a by-product of conception? But I guess the Webster definition doesn't really apply anymore -- you call it a baby or a by-product based on whether or not the mother wants it. Yeah, that makes sense...

• And finally, England tries again for outrageous story of the week, and succeeds. A man got to laughing so hard at something on the telly that he fell off his couch, whereby the neighbor called the police because he thought something was wrong. The police came and eventually pepper-sprayed and arrested the aforementioned laugher after he got mad and tried to shut the door on them.
  

]]> tag:as4me.com,2008:/blog//1.629 2008-06-10T18:21:57Z 2008-06-10T18:22:06Z

Saturday we had spurts of rain and one brief hailstorm, but Sunday broke beautiful and sunny and the mountains were calling to me. I struck off just after noon on a little hike, telling my parents to expect me back by four at the latest but probably sooner. As witness to the fact I was expecting a short hike, I only took two small bottles of water and no food, although I did take a sweatshirt in case the rain started up again. Oh, and the ever-present mace I carry that makes dad feel better, although I did hope not to have to test the efficacy of mace against a rattlesnake... :p

I'd left myself just under two hours to get down before the panic deadline, so I thought I was in great shape. I even jogged a little when the footing was stable enough, thinking I might make it back in half the time...until I looked up and realized I'd jigged when I should have jagged and ended up in the wrong canyon. I'd been using the river and a huge rock as guides, trying to be real careful about my direction, but after about a half hour of power-descending I realized I'd picked the wrong rock and an abnormally curved point of the river.

I probably should have come up with a great spiritual application -- like how following your favorite spiritual leader instead of the true-north guide of Scripture could get you wandering off in the wrong direction...but the truth was I was so tired my brain wasn't working that way. :)

Thank heavens I didn't know then how truly far off-course I'd gotten or I might have just sat down and waited for rescue. The initial few-degrees-mistake I'd made at the top had compounded the further I descended, til I was almost 90 degrees off my original path. But I didn't know; assuming I was only one ridge over.

I veered right and began descending into the valley, then crawled up to the top of the ridge. Sadly, another ridge lay in front of me. I crawled down again, then climbed even slower to the top...to find yet another ridge. By, I think, the sixth up and down I'd given up all semblance of an ordered climb. I slid on my rear when I could, busting through underbrush, stomping through muddy rivulets of water in the valleys, scraping arms and legs as I slowly crept up and up, each time hoping it'd be the last hill.

At four I spotted the bridge across from our campsite; unfortunately it was still one ridge away and no way to contact my parents thanks to the previously mentioned dead-cell zone. An hour later I finally dragged my sorry self into camp, finding my father loaded with a tournequet and other safety supplies and just about ready to head out to look for me. They gave me water and fruit juice and I practiced a spirit of gratefulness as I laid flat while we drove home. :)

Today I'm no longer tired, only dreadfully sore and not that big a fan of the stairs! Maybe that's why I can focus on the spiritual metaphor. I'm thinking about how one seemingly small, wrong moral choice we make can send our lives in a completely different direction; one that is sometimes difficult to recover from, sometimes impossible.

When reading about the problems in the Middle East I'm often reminded of Abraham's decision to sleep with his wife's maid. I'm sure Abraham wasn't deliberately trying to defy God, he just thought he'd help God out a bit since the promised child wasn't coming quick enough to suit Abraham's wishes. One seemingly small, wrong moral choice, and all these generations later the bloodshed between the half-brothers' descendents continues.

Hopefully I'll remember those six or seven ridges the next time I'm faced by a seemingly small moral choice. Down life's trail, the difference of a few degrees can be monumental.

• ...the $8.8 billion in giving from American religious institutions to developing countries was $1.5 billion more than the total giving from all private sources in 30 of the world's major industrialized democratic countries combined.

• When consolidating all assistance funds flowing from the United States to developing countries, the total is $129.8 billion. This is the total of government aid, philanthropy, and remittances -- funds sent directly by private individuals to other private parties in developing countries, often family members. A far second in total giving behind the United States is the United Kingdom at $20.7 billion.

• Barack Obama spoke at the commencement ceremony at Wesleyan University the other day. He talked about national service and, recalling John F. Kennedy, committed to doubling the size of the Peace Corps if elected president. From what I see and what the data shows, Americans don't need government to make them care, contribute, and volunteer. If anything, they need less government so they'll retain and keep control of more of what they produce and subsequently share with those in need.
  

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Romans 1:24-27

• An English teen was told to remove the English flag he had spread out in the back of his car because it could be considered racist toward immigrants or risk a 30 pound fine. And yes, he was driving in England.

• A woman with a 2-foot high swimming pool was told by local health and safety officers that she needed to get a lifeguard or purchase special insurance. 

• A man wearing an Optimus Prime <a Transformers robot> t-shirt was refused access to a flight at Heathrow until he agreed to change the shirt. Apparently the picture of the robot's arm/gun was deemed too much of a threat to the flight. 

• And finally, two American Christians were threatened with arrest on the charge of a "hate crime" for passing out leaflets in a predominantly Muslim area of England.