Well Said Penn

This was our topic of discussion this week. What do you think?

Represent!

The Night We Combined for 70 Points!

As I was preparing for Sunday school this week and I read about how Peter, in Acts 4, had so confidently expressed himself before the Sanhedrin, the religious lawyers of the day, it reminded me of a not so famous quote. Stacey King, a center for the Chicago Bulls once said, “I’ll never forget the night Michael Jordan and I combined to score 70 points.” Stick with me here. After Peter’s exquisite rebuttal to the Sanhedrin’s accusation of blasphemy their only response was, “This man has been with Jesus.” Now, what does that really mean, “to have been with Jesus?” I used to claim that one time I hung out with Michael Jordan on his Birthday. Have I been with Jordan? Sure, along with the 40,000 other fans there for the game. So I’ve been with Jordan but he doesn’t know me. The Sanhedrin could see how Peter knew Jesus and how it had changed him. What is even cooler though is that Jesus would say that he knew Peter.

Stacey King’s quote doesn’t share the whole story. That night they combined for 70 points, Jordan scored 69, King scored one. Yes, they did combine for 70 but I don’t think Jordan is going to remember King’s contribution. It is my hope that those around me say that I have been with Jesus. And I am confident that Jesus says he has been (and continues to be) with me.

May

Compassion International

A few years back, I (Stacy) accompanied some lovely young ladies from our youth group to a Girls of Grace conference. It was an awesome event. Compassion International was featured at the conference as the women of Point of Grace had recently returned from a trip in which they met the very children their families sponsor. Their stories and video were amazing. Compassion had a number of sponsor packets available at the conference and the girls in our group decided that they wanted to accept the invitation and pool their money together on a monthly basis to sponsor a child. They chose a young girl from India named Pooja. Our group continues to provide sponsorship to her - she is now 6 years old.

Currently, there is a group of people in India (Calcutta to be specific) visiting many of the Compassion centers located there, as well as meeting a number of the sponsored children. One of the women on the trip is the author of a blog that I enjoy reading (though I do not know her personally). She is linked on our blog under the "I'm a Sunday: Bring The Rain" icon. Another of the women is the daughter of Beth Moore. Anyway, all of the group is blogging about their experiences while in India. I have been following them quite closely and am finding their stories to be eye-opening, heart moving and even life changing. It is quite amazing to see what the $32 per month that our youth group sends for Pooja really does. If she is anything like the children being written about on these blogs, for Pooja, it seems, this small amount of money quite possibly means the difference between death and life - TRUE life.

For the past couple of days I have been thinking I should post about the trip and the blogs so that others might follow their journey and even possibly be led to sponsor a child with Compassion - but then life goes on and I neglect to take the time to write the post. However, I just finished reading the entries from today and I decided that I couldn't put it off any longer. I encourage you to click on the link below. It will take you to the Compassion India 2009 site. From there, you can link to the various blogs - just click on the pictures of the group participants on the right hand side. God is doing a mighty work through Compassion in this country and I think that some of you might just want to be a part of it.

Stacy


http://compassionbloggers.com/trips/2009-india