VOICES OF AMERICA - DR. JERRY UMANOS

Chicago has a reputation for some rough neighborhoods with much gun violence, but the light of Christ shines in dark places.

Thirty years ago, the Lawndale Christian Health Center was born, birthed out of Lawndale Community Church.  They are folks who love Jesus and are committed to loving their neighbors.  Annually now they serve 150,000 visitors in four locations (plus an eye center, fitness center, legal office, and dental center with eighteen chairs).

LCHC's letterhead banner says it all:  "LOVING GOD/LOVING PEOPLE".

Lawndale Christian Health Center lost one of its pediatricians last week.  Perhaps you read of the three Americans killed in Afghanistan.  Dr. Jerry Umanos was one of them.

What was an inner-city Chicago doc doing in inner-city Kabul?

Dr. Jerry Umanos finished his pediatric residency 25 years ago and went to work at Lawndale for the same salary he made as a resident....proving he sure wasn't "in it" for the money.  Then his heart for the underserved took him 7,000 miles away to the poor in war-torn Afghanistan.  And for the last 10 years, Dr. Umanos has worked half the year in Chicago in order to fund the other half that he (and his wife Jan) spent in Afghanistan.

In Kabul, the doctor wore several hats.  He saw pediatric patients at the Cure International Hospital, which is funded by a Christian charity.  But he also worked to train Afghan medical residents, and he put together a community health training program for Afghan women.

Jerry Umanos must have been a special man.  He leaves a wife and three grown children.

This tragedy seems to bring harm to everything it touches.  Foreign doctors who are in the country to do good...will be dissuaded.  Afghan medical staffing will take a hit as will the community health outreach.  Dr. Umanos' family and friends and colleagues and home church will all be grieved.  This episode illustrates well the Bible verse that says the enemy comes to steal and kill and destroy.  Only the Lord can bring good out of what looks like such a tragic waste.

At this LINK Dr. Umanos' wife Jan speaks of her husband:

"Jerry always wanted to serve the under-served populations.  Afghanistan was just one of them.  He always had a desire to be the hands and feet of Christ.  He had a love and commitment that he expressed for the Afghan people because of that love for Christ. I know Jerry would also really like everybody to know about his love for the Afghan people and that we don't hold any ill will towards Afghanistan in general, or even the gunman who did this.  We don't know what his history is." 

  
Jan is right.  We don't know the shooter's history, but we know HER HUSBAND'S HISTORY that brought glory to God.  Jerry Umanos and the others who died that day were very likely Christian martyrs.  


* LINK If you would like to know more about the father and son who were also killed, their story is similar in their commitment to God and Afghanistan.  

A LITTLE CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM

Would you think me a Mimi if I told you Will was a genius?

This little feller is only two, but is putting words together in sentences.  Many of his words are about trains and he doesn't like to leave home without a fistful.

One of the first times we noticed Will making sentences was when he was gibbering something and his mother/translator said "read Bible?".  Will said "Becky Bible"...and Beth said "Miss Becky reads the Bible?".  He beamed.  He likes it when we get things.

Last week Mike and I took Will to "school" so that Beth could sub for the Benchmark testing.  Miss Becky and Miss Linda are Will's teachers that he ADORES on Tuesday/Thursday mornings.  The church program is called Play Learn.

As we turned onto College Avenue, Will brightened and said "Becky house?"  Yes, the good news was we were going to Becky's "house".  As Mike let us off at the door, I couldn't stop him.  He and the other little toddlers went RUNNING into the church.  Will was grinning and hollering over and over "Becky house!  Becky house!".

He went straight into his room and over to the observation table which had a carton of fat, wriggling worms. What a great way to draw children in!  No wonder Will was pumped.  It made me want to stay and play and learn.

Old kids should also draw near to what is good, too.  "I rejoiced with those who said to me, 'Let us go to the house of the Lord'.  Let's go running like Will!

TONIGHT'S BLOOD MOON

If we get up in the middle of the night tonight, we can see a full lunar eclipse that will turn the moon to a burnt reddish color.  

Set your CST clocks for the three phases:  12:58-2:06AM (beginning the partial phase), 2:06-3:24AM (for the total eclipse with the middle happening @2:45), and the final phase from 3:24-4:33AM.

If eclipses happen randomly during the year, why is this one special?

NASA says getting a spring/fall eclipse for two years back-to-back ON THE SAME DAYS is called a tetrad.  And this tetrad is not just happening on any spring/fall day.  These are happening on Passover and The Feast of Tabernacles.  So let's begin at the beginning...

1.  First, what is a blood moon?  When the earth moves between the sun and moon, the sunlight is refracted through the Earth's atmosphere and gives the moon a reddish glow. It's the same phenomenon that happens at sunset. 

2. How does such an astronomical event intersect with God's calendar? NASA tells us there are just 7 times since the first century when four blood moons have happened on Passover/Feast of Tabernacles on two consecutive years. From God's perspective, He has told us in Genesis that He will use the sun, moon, and stars as signs and seasons. That's how the Wise Men found the baby Jesus; the Bible is full of examples of communication using the sky billboard.

3. So what? The Talmud says that when the moon is in such an eclipse, it is a bad omen. When the face of the moon is blood red, it is said that the sword is coming to the world. 

4. Does history bear out the "bad omen"?  Jesus was crucified during the tetrads of 32/33AD.  What else has happened on the timeline when blood moons fell on Passover/Feast of Tabernacles for two consecutive years?

*162-163AD. Four total lunar eclipses coincided with the persecution of the Jews in the Roman Empire, followed by a flood, then famine. Within three years, the Antonine Plague struck which killed 8 million people, a third of the population.

*1492. Listen to how Christopher Columbus began his journal: "In the same month in which their Majesties [Ferdinand and Isabella] issued the edict that all Jews should be driven out of the kingdom and its territories, in the same month they gave me the order to undertake with sufficient men my expedition of discovery to the Indies."

It is estimated that 200,000 Jews were expelled from Spain. Tens of thousands died while trying to reach safety. Some paid exorbitant fees for a ticket on a ship, only to be taken out and dumped in the ocean. But Columbus' discovery of America provided a safe haven for what is now some six-eight million Jews.

*From 1600 to 1900, there were NO blood moons.

*1948. Blood moons happened on the year Israel proclaimed her independence...and in less than 24 hours, the regular armies of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq invaded. The fight lasted 15 months and claimed over 6,000 Israeli lives (nearly 1% of the country's Jewish population). The next year the United Nations declared Israel's statehood.

*1967. Blood moons happened when Israel fought the Six Day War. 

According to NASA, four successive total "blood-red" lunar eclipses will begin tonight, April 15th, 2014 (@Passover)...and October 8, 2014 (@Feast of Tabernacles). Then they will repeat on Passover 2015 (April 4th) and on the 2015 Feast of Tabernacles (September 28th).

Just for the record, NASA sees no connection between blood moons and judgment. And just for the record, God is a God of order and He means what He says.

"AND I WILL SHOW WONDERS IN THE HEAVENS, AND IN THE EARTH, BLOOD AND FIRE AND PILLARS OF SMOKE. THE SUN SHALL BE TURNED INTO DARKNESS, AND THE MOON INTO BLOOD, BEFORE THE COMING OF THE GREAT AND AWESOME DAY OF JEHOVAH." Joel 2:30,31

"THE SUN SHALL BE TURNED INTO DARKNESS AND THE MOON INTO BLOOD, BEFORE THAT GREAT AND GLORIOUS DAY OF THE LORD." Acts 2:20

VOICES OF AMERICA - BILL DONOGHUE

Have you seen this man on television?  His name is Bill Donoghue.

Wiki describes Bill Donoghue as an author, sociologist, and civil activist.  He also is a warrior for religious freedom.

Dr. Donoghue (he has a PhD in sociology from NYU) has led the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights since 1993, defending individual Catholics and the institutional church.

Donoghue's position has put him at the front line of the culture war.  He is not dissuaded by all the incoming flack.  He is pugnacious as a bulldog and the "Winston Churchill" of his faith.

Some of his book titles will tell you what's on his heart.  He has written "Why Catholicism Matters", "Secular Sabatage", "The New Freedom", "Negotiation of the Basics", "Twilight of Liberty", and "The Politics of the American Civil Liberties Union".

In this LINK from the April issue of the Limbaugh Letter, Bill sat down to talk with Rush.  The article flies over the landscape of American life and articulates today's challenges, particularly in relation to religious freedom.  Bill Donoghue is a straight shooter who "gets it".

Hope you enjoy the article.

HOLD TIGHT!

HOLD TIGHT because we live in challenging financial times that feel out of control.

Our attempts to spend our way out of this sluggish economy didn't' work. We owe 18+ trillion.  The young cannot get jobs.  The (ahem) older retirees feel their savings hedge on the future melting because savings accounts no longer deliver interest payments.  There is more governmental dependence and less free enterprise.

Into that scenario, what can help us dig out of our hole?  Can you think of any economic success story these days?  If there were one, wouldn't it be in all the news?

Governor Scott Walker in Wisconsin has a comeback model that has proven results.

The Governor's conservative policies saw considerable opposition.  He is a "red" governor elected in a "blue" state.  Wisconsin is strong in public teacher unions and they came against him with guns blazing.

The unions intimidated loudly and imported protestors, flooding the capital.  That didn't work.  They tried to recall him and funneled more than $80 million into the recall election (as compared to $37.4 spent on the 2012 election).  There were threats against the Governor and his family.

But Scott Walker stood firm throughout.  And the people in Wisconsin who had voted 52% for him the first time... voted 53% for him in the recall election.

Now the state has a $1 billion budget surplus and an unemployment number far below the national rate.  As of December, it was 6.2% and is falling.  He is proposing a $504 million dollar property/income tax cut to return some surplus to the people.  HIS POLICIES HAVE WORKED!

If you didn't know about this, ask yourself...why?  Why wouldn't the media pick up this bit of good news so it can be celebrated and copied?  Don't we need financial solvency?

Ask yourself something else.  Why was this good man (and his family) threatened during this whole process?  What is WRONG with opposition that tries to destroy "the other side" because of differing political views?  Is their position so indefensible that it can't stand or fail based on its merits?

Conservative values WORK.  But there has not been a conservative able to articulate our position since Ronaldus Maximus, The Great Liberator.

Next weekend a meeting is scheduled at Amelia Island in Florida to gather Republicans (John Boehner, Eric Cantor,  Kevin McCarthy and 25 other members of Congress) to collaborate with a group dedicated to defeating conservatives in Congress.  Shame on them.

Conservative principles founded the Republican party and conservatives are not the ones who have left the tent.  We need policies from grown-ups like Governor Scott Walker, not more watered-down Republicans.  We are desperate for leadership and a firm hand on the tiller.

This VIDEO offers a breath of fresh air and the possibility that (as Bob Dylan would have said) "the times they are a'changin".

ROSANNE

Mike and I can finally agree on a Cash!

Friday night we went to see Rosanne Cash at the Walton Arts Center and the show was a delight!  We LOVED her...and her strong voice that filled the room.

Rosanne sure got her Daddy's love for telling a story in song.

How would we describe Rosanne's music?  Her style is more varied than just country; we heard everything from blues to rock-n-roll to slow ballads.  Her band had some of the best guitarists we've seen and it was fun to watch her guitar war with her talented husband and with another band member on the lap steel guitar.

At 58, Rosanne Cash seems to be at a "making peace with the past" place.  She and her husband, John Levanthal, chose a tour through the South and wrote songs about their impressions.  Here is a LINK to the CBS Sunday Morning segment which explains her journey.

The evening's first set played through her new album called "A River And A Thread".  Here are words from one of the songs:

I'm going down to Florence

Gonna wear a pretty dress

I'll sit on top the magic wall

With the voices in my head.

Then we'll drive on through to Memphis,

Past the strongest shores

And on to Arkansas

Just to touch the crumbled soul.

Rosanne has that pathos that she inherited from her Daddy, eh?  When she introduced that song, she said she couldn't wait to sing the word "Arkansas" IN Arkansas.  She had the crowd eating out of her hand and they roared their approval.

Another thing we particularly liked was the way Rosanne set up each song.  When she introduced "The Sunken Lands" (her song about the Delta where her Daddy was raised) she made reference to the 1811 New Madrid earthquake which caused the Delta to drop and the gumbo soil to be filled in.  Their homeplace in the Delta near Dyess, Arkansas, is where Rosanne is working in conjunction with ASU to redo her Daddy's small frame home.  This is the front porch of the Cash house.

If you saw the movie WALK THE LINE, you know that this little girl was raised in California after her parents divorced.

As an adult she lived in Nashville, but remarked that city felt like a fishbowl.  She and husband now live in New York City.

Everyone knows that Johnny Cash had his roots in gospel music.  John Leventhal told Rosanne that a collection of songs about the South would not be complete without a gospel song.

Rosanne told her audience "the two of us are not traditionally religious". But they wrote the song "Tell Heaven", a song full of "spiritual" and emotional words sans good news.

Heavy hearts in empty rooms

Tell heaven

The empty sky will never 

take our burdens

Something good will someday 

come our way

Tell heaven

This daughter of the South talks about being a "Buddhiscopalian", saying  "The Buddhist because I actually studied more about Buddhism than I did any other religion, and it makes the most sense to me - self-awareness, compassion, nonviolence, etc.  And Episcopalian because my girls went to an Episcopal school and I loved the church.  It's in Greenwich Village and they do a lot of outreach to gay, homeless, young people.  So that's a progressive church; they're very ecumenical."

People find it easy (as we did) to fall in love with this passionate woman who is so talented.  Rosanne says people write her all the time with concern about where she will spend eternity.  They ask "Don't you want to be with your Daddy?"  For whatever reason, this poet-from-such-pain hasn't found the Healer.

One of Rosanne Cash's songs is called "The Long Way Home".  I'm praying that her journey will end at home.

  

WHAT'S IT WORTH?

How do we determine what something is worth?  Yesterday was a good reminder of the value of things that are bartered, bought, or given freely.

I did a ridealong with Mike as he delivered something he had sold on Craig's list.  It was a carrying case for a bow/arrow that he bought so many years ago that he couldn't remember what he paid for it.

Yesterday he sold it for $30.  The buyer couldn't have found a case for anything close to that price, so the convergence of value, benefit, and price caused BUYER/SELLER BLISS.

Then we stopped by the Jeep dealership to pick up a part Mike had ordered when a carwash knocked the old one off.  See it over there in the white wrapper?  It was a piece of plastic formed in Mexico...just a black plastic disc about 2.5" in diameter.  It cost $27. REALLY?  I looked at it all the way home.

It put into perspective how much money will buy and inflation will steal.  Our recently acquired $30 flew away in a rather unequal exchange.  NO BUYERS BLISS.

Last night Condoleeza Rice spoke at UofA's Barnhill Arena.  It was FREE, but we didn't go because we didn't want to slosh/slip on the ice.  The Hogs were in town (beating Ole Miss on Seniors Night) and they drew 16,000...so Ms. Rice only drew 3,000.

We read in the paper this morning that she was paid $170,000.  I love Condi and I'm glad she commands that fee.  But isn't it crazy how much things cost?

According to the newspaper article, the former Secretary of State spoke on various subjects relevant to the  student's future/finding a match to how they were made.  But she also made remarks about Russia and about what an "intimidating and ruthless" man Putin is.  She said in their 2005 meeting, the Russian leader abruptly stood up.  So Rice instinctively did the same.  "I'm 5'10"; he's 5'7", Rice said.  "So at that moment, there was a little bit of a standoff.  He's an intimidator.  It's important to let him know you're not intimidated."

In this dance between what something is worth vs. what it costs, the University of Arkansas set value on ideas.  I hope those college students (and adults) who landed on a rare free opportunity...were challenged by this accomplished woman.  I wish we had heard her.

What do you value?  Won't we take ideas over plastic any day?  The best things in life ARE free.

One day when this earth is done, the plastic will melt like snow.  The two preeminent ideas...the ideas that God the Father loves us fully and has the next destination prepared...will rule the day.  Amazingly, that assurance is free (to us) for the asking.  It is pure BLISS to consider amazing grace.  Are you familiar with this older verse from the song "Amazing Grace"?

THE EARTH SHALL SOON DISSOLVE LIKE SNOW

THE SUN FORBEAR TO SHINE;

BUT GOD, WHO CALL'D ME HERE BELOW

WILL BE FOREVER MINE.