Wednesday, October 30, 2013

BETTER WAYS TO QUIT SMOKING

4 Ways States Could Spend Big Tobacco’s Money




Just 15 years ago, tobacco companies were told to give $246 billion over 25 years to state governments. During this lawsuit, Mississippi led the pack, with the state attorney general, Mike Moore, filing the first state lawsuit against the tobacco companies, and not without good reason.
While, at the time, the tobacco companies could hold individuals accountable for their choice to smoke and thus not having to pay out on individual lawsuits, Moore contested that, since the states had to cover medical bills for low birthweight babies, heart disease, lung cancer, emphysema, and other tobacco-related health problems, that big tobacco should have to foot some of that bill. He won in the largest civil litigation settlement in history.
Now, about $100 billion of that $246 billion has been paid to states. Part of the settlement money was supposed to go to public service announcements like the infamous Truth campaign and smoking cessation programs, but lots of it came without stipulations, meaning that state governments could use the fund in whatever way they chose. This meant that every new governor could tap the fund dry for things other than anti-smoking public service announcements and/or education.
It could be worse. In Mississippi, as in many states across the nation, teen smoking is down 50 percent and adult smoking is down 25 percent. For that, we have public service announcements, prevention programs and cessation support groups to thank — many of which are funded by the tobacco settlement. However, these funds could be put to better use to make even more of a difference. Here are some more ways states can spend big tobacco’s money to make even more of a dent in their profits.

1. Develop Better Quitting Techniques
Nicotine patches, electronic cigarettes, nicotine gum, prescription medication — all of these methods have proven effective for some who are trying to quit smoking. However, many people don’t quit or delay quitting because it’s hard to do. If the money from big tobacco could fund research whose sole goal was to develop ways to make it easier to quit smoking, more people might take the plunge into a smoke-free life.I

2. Start Publicly-Funded Fitness Centers
Total health is not just about not smoking; it’s about getting a good workout and fueling your body with the right stuff. Many athletes I know wouldn’t touch a cigarette because it would be detrimental to their athletic performance. I also know just as many people who have addictive personalities and, once they realized how good going to the gym could make them feel — and how much better it made them feel than smoking did — decided to quit smoking once and for all.
In fact, a 2006 study in Austria found that people who attempt to quit smoking are more likely to do so if they follow an exercise routine. Publicly-funded fitness centers could aid in reducing smoking by involving kids in free fitness courses at a young enough age that they understand health and wellness before it’s too late, and it can motivate others to stop smoking or not start in the first place.

3. Bring Anti-Tobacco Education into Elementary and High Schools
I cannot stress this enough: stopping the smoking epidemic starts with prevention as the most important element. D.A.R.E. or Drug Abuse Resistance Education has been around since I was in grade school — almost 20 years ago — and, while the program is wildly popular, it has actually been found to be ineffective. We should avoid popular programs like D.A.R.E., but spend the money into more effective programs.
Effective programs should target teenagers, who often start to smoke because they feel insecure and stressed out, and they think cigarettes will make them look cool and reduce their stress level. Programs that take into account cultural and peer issues students face and use those issues to show students how to make smart choices.  This would be a great way to spend big tobacco’s money.

4. Develop a Reward System for Remaining Smoke-Free
Kids and adults both love being rewarded, especially for things they are already doing. Actually, the reason smoking is so addictive is because it tricks the body’s reward system into activating itself. Why don’t we spend some money working on a real reward system that will reward people for not smoking rather than the fake rewards we get from smoking? It would be a complicated thing to do, but if states could develop a reward system for non-smokers with the money big tobacco pays them, it could be cheaper than healthcare costs for those who do smoke.
Why not give non-smokers a refund check at the end of the year, or a little something extra like a gift card or free month at the gym? Rewards help people stay on track, and remind them to do what’s right for themselves.


Tuesday, October 29, 2013

SEVEN COUNTRIES THAT STILL KILL WITCHES

7 Countries That Still Kill “Witches”



Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/7-countries-that-still-kill-witches.html#ixzz2jB6KFWJg


You know how the long-ago witch hunts were stupid and hateful? What a relief those days are over.
Except they’re not. In many countries, people are still killed on suspicion of witchcraft. United Nations experts cautioned in 2009 that murders of women and children accused of sorcery were on the rise. Following are just a few of many examples from around the world.

1. Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia’s religious police department has an official Anti-Witchcraft Unit that it dispatches to catch sorcerers and break their spells. In 2007, the Saudis executed an accused sorcerer. A woman awaiting the death penalty for alleged witchcraft died in prison.
Like the New England witch hunters of yore, those in Saudi Arabia use magic as a convenient excuse to silence inconvenient people. Accusations of sorcery have been leveled against foreign women working as domestics for Saudi families who charge their employers with sexual assault, according to Saudi Arabia expert Christoph Wilcke.

2. Tanzania
This east African country killed approximately 600 elderly women on charges of witchcraft just two years ago. The Pew Forum on Religious and Public Life found a strong and pervasive belief in magic among Tanzanians. It sometimes leads to reverence rather than murder. One woman who claims to be a witch charges between $20 and $120 for services including medical cures and exorcisms — in a country where the average income is under two dollars a day.

3. Gambia
Gambia’s dictator Yahya Jammeh rounds up, tortures and kills his citizens under the pretext of hunting for witches. Amnesty International estimates that at least six people died after Jammeh’s minions forced them to drink a mixture of unknown substances. Dozens more hallucinated and suffered severe and lingering pain. Those who survived suffered shame from the accusation in a country where people believe in and condemn witches.

4. Nepal
Last year a mob burned an accused witch alive after a shaman said she killed a boy. Their faith in the shaman suggests that Nepalis believe that sorcery can be used for good, but the punishment for black magic is death. This year another mob beat a 45-year-old woman to death based on accusations that she cast a spell on a neighbor’s daughter. The Nepali government is not on board with killing witches: police arrested three women suspected of participating in the murder. In the past it sentenced men to 20 years in prison for killing a woman suspected of practicing black magic.
5. India
Last June, a primarily female crowd killed two women believed to have murdered several children through witchcraft. As in Nepal, police arrested people suspected of participating in the mob. Some Indian states have adopted laws banning violence against people suspected of witchcraft.

6. Papua New Guinea
A crowd tortured and murdered a young mother accused of killing a boy through sorcery. They burned her alive before a large audience, some of whom broke off to chase police away before they could intervene. The prime minister lamented that violence against women is increasing because of the popular “belief that sorcery kills,” despite a law that specifically prohibits burning suspected witches.

7. Uganda
After burning a man’s house down and driving him from his village, locals tied him up and beheaded him for alleged witchcraft. While Ugandans kill some suspected witches, they pay others to help them with things like ensuring job security.

This is a small sampling of countries where natives believe in witchcraft and kill people for it. While the governments of some nations, including Saudi Arabia and Gambia, embrace this belief and use it to their own ends, others are working to end it. Either way, accusations of black magic empower people to eliminate individuals they dislike and to terrify others into conformity.
It all makes Halloween witch costumes a little less funny.


Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/7-countries-that-still-kill-witches.html#ixzz2jB8PjMbe
Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/7-countries-that-still-kill-witches.html#ixzz2jB6hSX00

TALK ON HALLOWEEN


Last year just before Halloween, Our Lord asked me to give a talk on Halloween. I did not do it. Last week He reminded me I need to give it and be obedient.

The message I received was: Halloween is not of Me. No costumes, witches, goblins, makeup to cover insecurities that people feel. My Name and Holiness is desecrated on that day. Black masses and witch’s brew mix with total evil and tear apart the family values that so many of My People try to form all year long. Satanic music blares over loudspeakers. They think it is acceptable but it is not. Tons of literature saturate the classroom, libraries, and bookstores.  Parades of costumes glorify the untruth. Stores fill their shelves with grotesque items.

It is the same with movies and posters on Halloween. They are evil and not of Me. I do not profess My Love with weapons of destruction such as swords that people carry. Snakes and tarantulas are as lowly as the serpent that tempted My Son in the desert. He is the same serpent that tempted Adam and Eve in Paradise. My Son was strong and you should be, too. You need to give a talk on the evil that abounds rather than participate in their shenanigans.

A candlelight service to the dead is respectful. There should be more of them.

The following is taken from a talk I give on Inner Healing at Prayer Healing Ministry and also included in the Life in the Spirit Seminars:

Lord, for any dabbling in the occult: horoscopes, crystals, crystal ball gazing, Ouija boards, tarot cards, fortune telling, tea leaves, palm reading, gambling, sorcery, hypnotism, new age, ESP, telepathy, psychic healing, some martial arts, some yoga, believing in UFO’s -- free me. For dealings with supernatural forces, secretive phenomena, Celtic beliefs, leprechauns, four-leaf clovers, good-luck charms, Halloween, Jack o’ lanterns, ghosts, poltergeists, witchcraft, sorcery, skulls, voodoo dolls, love potions, books and movies that talk about these subjects, especially the Harry Potter books – unbind me.

For familial diseases that have been passed down through my ancestors in my blood line to the next generation, especially those that surface between the ages of 12 and 16 – break that generational curse right now, Lord.  For any type of sin that may have been transferred to me just by touching or listening to those with evil spirits through the radio or television, Internet, vile movies, lustful pictures, pornography, heavy-metal music – I plead the Blood of Jesus to cleanse me.

Lord, for the sin of omission, I ask forgiveness. For those times I sat back and failed to evangelize, to stand up for Christian beliefs, for not sharing with the needy, not going to church – I ask you to make me bold in the Spirit.

On the brighter side, I put this on my Small White Hearts blog: being a Christian is like being a pumpkin. God lifts you up, takes you in, and washes all the dirt off you. He opens you up, touches you deep inside, scoops out all the yucky stuff –including the seeds of doubt, hate, greed, etc. Then He carves you a new smiling face and puts His light inside you to shine for all the world to see.

God bless.


Norma Morrison
October 29, 2013
Given to St. Kateri Prayer Group
Permission to share

 

 

 

Monday, October 28, 2013

VACANT CONVENTS OPEN DOORS FOR SERVICE


Open the Doors

Karen Gargamelli
Vacant convents offer a new opportunity for service
Christ in the City missionaries clean up the courtyard of Seton House in Denver, July 2012. Nearly 30 missionaries from across the country moved into the former convent to begin work serving the homeless.
We live in a unique time of possibility and hope. Although the number of women religious is dwindling, they remain the lifeblood of our church, and their convents are holy and fertile ground for new communities of faith. My suggestion: Keep the convents. Open the doors to lay people. Welcome migrants and the homeless. It is a simple plan with a simple mission as old as the church itself: Form local communities of faith where people can practice the works of mercy and grow intellectually and spiritually.
In New York City each night there are approximately 55,000 men, women and children who are homeless. As a housing attorney, I know that thousands more face (and fight) eviction each day. Rather than look to the state to meet the need for shelter, Peter Maurin, co-founder with Dorothy Day of the Catholic Worker movement, suggested that clergy and laity set aside rooms within their own homes for hospitality. Maurin, following St. Jerome, called them “Christ rooms.” The Catholic Worker movement, as originally intended, relied on small acts of service and hospitality by millions of Catholics. Dorothy Day wrote in 1938: “When we succeed in persuading our readers to take the homeless into their homes…then we will be known as Christians because of the way we love one another.”
This call to hospitality is not burdensome, but an opportunity. The Catholic Church is the largest landowner in New York City, and there are nearly three million Catholics in this archdiocese. We have the space in New York—and elsewhere. In many cities across the country, where there were 20 sisters living in a convent in 1980, now there are only two or three. Floors of bedrooms with beds, nightstands, closets and desks are ready for use. Kitchens with industrial-sized pots and stoves with extra burners—all sturdy and scrubbed—are waiting to serve. Bathrooms are ready to offer hot showers. Moreover, convents are often connected with and accessible to parishes, which can offer many resources. The community members could pay (fair) rent, bringing much needed money to struggling parishes or congregations. In this way, we could act as good stewards of the land and safeguard and cultivate the property God has given to the church.
Although convents are equipped for volume and there is a tremendous need for housing, I am not advocating for packed houses. The works of mercy are not “operations” or “programs.” The goal of our work must be love. The community’s growth must be guided by the Holy Spirit and be the result of reflection and dialogue.
Many people in the church have heeded the call to service and justice, but lack community. So we kindly and humbly turn to those religious who have served before us and ask: If you are no longer using the convents and rectories, could lay Catholics help form supportive communities and offer hospitality in these spaces? Lay and religious could live together and learn from one another. In this way, we can create a continuum from strong and vibrant communities of vowed religious to a strong and vibrant community of lay Catholics, and we could discover new ways to conceive of “religious” and “lay.” There may be new kinds of vows and new commitments. The evangelical councils of poverty, chastity and obedience will take on new meaning. Rather than professing lifelong vows, there could be shorter commitments—like two, five or 10 years.
Too often the activities and practices we are called to—like offering hospitality, tending a garden or visiting the imprisoned—are nearly impossible when we must rely on our own resources. In these communities Catholics, working low-paying but critical jobs, could share resources. We could take turns caring for a guest, share the responsibility of maintaining land or share a car, making the burden lighter on each individual. When we share our talents and training (as nurses and doctors, lawyers and teachers, social workers and journalists) with the community, we multiply our resources and increase our ability to serve and work for justice.
Meister Eckhart wrote: “And suddenly you know: It’s time to start something new and trust in the magic of beginnings.” I have been discussing the concept of these communities for years, and have experimented with living out these values in a variety of ways with various levels of support from friends, family and the church. To my great surprise, the idea recently received support from another source. In September, Pope Francis visited a refugee center in Rome and said that empty convents and monasteries should be used to house those in need. These empty spaces, he said, “are not for the church to transform into hotels and make money from them. Empty convents are not ours, they are for the flesh of Christ: refugees.” Once we were overjoyed when the windows of the church were thrown open. Today we are experiencing a new moment in our church: Pope Francis has called for us to open the doors, too.
Karen Gargamelli, a former volunteer with the Dominican Sisters, is co-founder and staff attorney of Common Law, a legal education and services organization in New York City.

Saturday, October 26, 2013

FIFTEEN SURPRISING USES FOR BAKING SODA

15 Surprising Uses for Baking Soda



Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/15-surprising-uses-for-baking-soda.html#ixzz2hvpw3KNE

From green cleaning to personal care, baking soda is a little scrubby dynamo! Check out these 15 surprising uses for baking soda.

Eco-friendly cleaning supplies and green beauty products are expensive, and they tend to come in disposable plastic packaging. Next time you need to wash your hair, scrub pots and pans, or even get crafty with your kids, grab that cardboard box of baking soda instead!
Related Reading: 17 Surprising Uses for Vinegar
When you’re making your own supplies with baking soda, you get to choose exactly what ingredients go into it. You can also choose to use reclaimed packaging to reduce waste. These are some of the containers I like to use when I’m making baking soda cleaning and beauty products:
  • old baby food jars
  • used, cleaned mason jars or other glass food jars that I’ve washed well
  • reclaimed spray bottles
  • used shampoo and conditioner bottles (just rinse out really well)
For me, storing what I make in reclaimed containers is as important as creating a healthy product to go inside it. What upcycled containers do you like to use when you’re whipping up homemade cleaning and beauty supplies? Let’s swap storage tips in the comments!
You know that baking soda is great for cooking, and you probably already use it in some unconventional ways, like to deodorize your carpets or even brush your teeth. Baking soda’s basic pH and natural grit make it perfect for all kinds of cleaning. Check out these personal care and green cleaning uses for baking soda.

Personal Care Uses for Baking Soda

1. Wash your hair. With just baking soda and one other non-toxic ingredient, you can wash your hair without harsh (and expensive!) shampoo. Get the deets here!
2. DIY Deodorant. Combine 1/4 cup baking soda with 10 drops of your favorite essential oil for the easiest homemade deodorant ever. To use, just get some of the powder onto your fingers, and rub it gently into your pits, then brush off any excess baking soda.
3. Make a face scrub. Baking soda makes a great scrub for normal skin. Click here for 3 DIY face scrub recipes, including a baking soda scrub for normal skin. The tiny grains can be harsh on sensitive skin, so if your skin is delicate you’re better off sticking with a sugar or salt scrub instead.
4. DIY acne remedy. Combine baking soda with just enough water to form a paste, and dab it onto your blemish at bedtime, then wash it off in the morning. Since baking soda is a salt, you don’t want to put it onto a blemish that’s popped, because it will sting like crazy.
Related Reading: 10 DIY Winter Skincare Recipes
5. Dry shampoo for your dog. Is your dog a little stinky, but you don’t have time to do a proper bath right now? Sprinkle baking soda onto your pup’s fur, then use a brush to work the baking soda in and out of the fur. You want to brush until there’s no baking soda left, then wipe her down with a dry towel.
6. Treat your feet. Make a paste of baking soda, water and a little lavender or chamomile essential oil to exfoliate your feet.
7. Treat a UTI. If you feel the symptoms of a UTI coming on, check out how to use baking soda as a natural remedy. I’d still recommend following up with a doctor, because an untreated UTI can turn into a kidney infection, and that is bad news. Just as some UTIs don’t respond to certain antibiotics, some will need a little more than baking soda to get rid of them.


Clean stainless steel. Next time your stainless steel cookware has stubborn, stuck-on food, sprinkle some baking soda onto your sponge before scrubbing. It cuts the grease, and the granules help scrub the mess away.
9. Get the smell out of glass jars. Have you been saving old sauce and pickle jars for crafting? Glass is porous, so it tends to really hang onto odors. Here’s how you can use baking soda to get rid of any soaked-in smell in glass jars!
10. Safely clean baby toys. Whenever I clean my son’s toys, I worry about soap residue, since every toy goes straight into his mouth when I hand it to him. It turns out that you can use a mixture of 1/4 cup baking soda in 1 quart of water to clean baby toys much more safey.
11. Deodorize upholstery. Put down the toxic Febreeze! Next time your sofa is a little bit stinky, sprinkle on some baking soda, wait 15 minutes, then vacuum it away. Your room will smell great without spraying harmful chemicals into the air.
Related Reading: 4 DIY Clean Laundry Tips
12. Make non-toxic water colors. Combine 2 tablespoons baking soda, 2 tablespoons flour, 2 teaspoons sugar, and 2 teaspoons water. Mix it up really well to create your paint base. Divide up the paint base, then use food coloring to get whatever colors you want to use.
13. Clean your shower curtain. Do you feel terrible every time you have to replace your plastic shower curtain? A sponge, a little water, and a sprinkle of baking soda can help get the hard water and mildew stains off to prolong its life.
14. DIY laundry detergent. Baking soda is a key ingredient in making your own inexpensive, DIY laundry detergent. Click here for the recipe.
15. Scrub produce clean. Want to get the pesticides and wax off of that apple? Use a little baking soda and water to scrub, then just rinse the baking soda away.
Related
How is Baking Soda Produced?
6 Ways to Not Use Baking Soda
Surprising Uses for Vinegar

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Becky Striepe

Becky Striepe is a freelance writer and vegan crafter living in Atlanta, Georgia. Her life’s mission is to make green crafting and vegan food accessible to everyone! Like this article? You can follow Becky on Twitter or find her on Facebook!


87 comments

+ add your own
4:41PM PDT on Oct 16, 2013
I hear it cleans human hair too but I haven't had the courage to try
4:30PM PDT on Oct 16, 2013
thank you
3:13PM PDT on Oct 16, 2013
thanks
1:36PM PDT on Oct 16, 2013
TY!
Irina Brenner Irina B. 
  •               
  • send a green star
    1:56AM PDT on Oct 16, 2013
    Arm & Hammer; poor man's cancer treatment. Sodium bicarbonate helps to save countless lives every day. A baking soda/molasses combination causes a drastic pH alkaline spike that oxygenate cancer cells to their demise. Since cancer cells thrive by fermenting sugar, the molasses is the bait that allows baking soda's alkaline influence to enter and oxygenate them.
    5:27PM PDT on Oct 15, 2013
    I have two favorite uses for baking soda. For splinters and thorns, make a paste of baking soda and water, put some on the splinter or thorn and some on the pad of a Band-Aid. Apply the Band-Aid and usually the splinter will be out within 12 - 24 hours. The second use is as a non-toxic goo-remover (label adhesives, masking tape, etc.): Two parts baking soda, one part vegetable oil. You can either scrub it off or do it the easy way, let it sit for a day or so and the gluey mess will just wipe away (or come off in the dishwasher).
    2:22PM PDT on Oct 15, 2013
    good to kno

    add your comment

    20




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    Thursday, October 24, 2013

    CARL

         Carl was a quiet man.  He didn't talk much.  He would always greet you with a big smile and a firm handshake.  Even after living in our neighborhood for over fifty (50) years, no one could really say they knew him very well.
         Before his retirement, he took the bus to work each morning.  The lone sight of him walking down the street often worried us.  He had a slight limp from a bullet wound received in WWII. 
         Watching him, we worried that although he had survived WWII, he may not make it through our changing uptown neighborhood with its ever-increasing random violence, gangs and drug activity. 
         When he saw the flyer at our local church asking for volunteers for caring for the gardens behind the minister's residence, he responded in his characteristically unassuming manner.  Without fanfare, he just signed up. 
        He was well into his 87th year when the very thing we had always feared finally happened. 
        He was just finishing his watering for the day when 3 gang members approached him.  Ignoring their attempt to intimidate him, he simply asked, "Would you like a drink from the hose?"
        The tallest and toughest-looking of the 3 said, "Yeah, sure," with a malevolent little smile. 
       As Carl offered the hose to him, the other 2) grabbed Carl's arm, throwing him down.  As the hose snaked crazily over the ground, dousing everything in its way, Carl's assailants stole his retirement watch and his wallet, then fled. 

    Carl tried to get himself up, but he had been thrown down on his bad leg.  He lay there trying to gather himself as the minister came running to help him.
     
    Although the minister had witnessed the attack from his window, he couldn't get there fast enough to stop it.
     
    "Carl, are you okay? Are you hurt?" the minister kept asking as he helped Carl to his feet.
     
    Carl just passed a hand over his brow and sighed, shaking his head.  "Just some punk kids.  I hope they'll wise-up someday."
     
    His wet clothes clung to his slight frame as he bent to pick up the hose.  He adjusted the nozzle again and started to water.
     
    Confused and a little concerned, the minister asked; "Carl, what are you doing?"
     
    "I've got to finish my watering.  It's been very dry lately," came the calm reply. 

    Satisfying himself that Carl really was all right, the minister could only marvel.  Carl was a man from a different time and place.
     
    A few weeks later the three (3) returned.  Just as before their threat was unchallenged.  Carl again offered them a drink from his hose.
     
    This time they didn't rob him.  They wrenched the hose from his hand and drenched him head to foot in the icy water.
     
    When they had finished their humiliation of him, they sauntered off down the street, throwing catcalls and curses, falling over each other laughing at the hilarity of what they had just done.
     
    Carl just watched them.  Then he turned toward the warmth giving sun, picked up his hose and went on with his watering.
     
    The summer was quickly fading into fall.  Carl was doing some tilling when he was startled by the sudden approach of someone behind him.  He stumbled and fell into some evergreen branches.
     
    As he struggled to regain his footing, he turned to see the tall leader of his summer tormentors reaching down for him.  He braced himself for the expected attack.
     
    "Don't worry old man, I'm not gonna hurt you this time."  The young man spoke softly, still offering the tattooed and scarred hand to Carl.  As he helped Carl get up, the man pulled a crumpled bag from his pocket and handed it to Carl.
     
    "What's this?" Carl asked.
     
    "It's your stuff," the man explained.  "It's your stuff back.  Even the money in your wallet."
     
    "I don't understand," Carl said.  "Why would you help me now?"
     
    The man shifted his feet, seeming embarrassed and ill at ease.  "I learned something from you," he said.  "I ran with that gang and hurt people like you.  We picked you because you were old and we knew we could do it.  But every time we came and did something to you, instead of yelling and fighting back, you tried to give us a drink.  You didn't hate us for hating you.  You kept showing love against our hate."
     
    He stopped for a moment.  "I couldn't sleep after we stole your stuff, so here it is back."
     
    He paused for another awkward moment, not knowing what more there was to say.  "That bag's my way of saying thanks for straightening me out, I guess."  And with that, he walked off down the street.
     
    Carl looked down at the sack in his hands and gingerly opened it.  He took out his retirement watch and put it back on his wrist.  Opening his wallet, he checked for his wedding photo.  He gazed for a moment at the young bride that still smiled back at him from all those years ago.
     
    Carl died one (1) cold day after Christmas that winter.  Many people attended his funeral in spite of the weather.  In particular the minister noticed a tall young man that he didn't know sitting quietly in a distant corner of the church.
     
    The minister spoke of Carl's garden as a lesson in life.  In a voice made thick with unshed tears, he said; "Do your best and make your garden as beautiful as you can.  We will never forget Carl and his garden."
     
    The following spring another flyer went up.  It read: "Person needed to care for Carl's garden."
     
    The flyer went unnoticed by the busy parishioners until one (1) day when a knock was heard at the minister's office door.  Opening the door, the minister saw a pair of scarred and tattooed hands holding the flyer.  "I believe this is my job, if you'll have me," the young man said. 

    The minister recognized him as the same young man who had returned the stolen watch and wallet to Carl.  He knew that Carl's kindness had turned this man's life around.  As the minister handed him the keys to the garden shed, he said; "Yes, go take care of Carl's garden and honor him."
     
    The man went to work and over the next several years, he tended the flowers and vegetables just as Carl had done.  During that time, he went to college, got married and became a prominent member of the community.  But he never forgot his promise to Carl's memory and kept the garden as beautiful as he thought Carl would have kept it.
     
    One (1) day he approached the new minister and told him that he couldn't care for the garden any longer.  He explained with a shy and happy smile; "My wife just had a baby boy last night, and she's bringing him home on Saturday."
     
    "Well, congratulations!" said the minister, as he was handed the garden shed keys.  "That's wonderful!  What's the baby's name?"
     
    "Carl," he replied.
     
    That's the whole gospel message simply stated.  Take sixty (60) seconds give this a shot!  Let's just see if Satan stops this one. 

    All you do is:
    1. Simply say a small prayer for the person who sent you this.  "God bless this person in whatever it is that You know he or she may be needing this day!
    2. Send it on to five (5) other people.  Within hours five (5) people have prayed for you and you caused a multitude of people to pray to God for other people.
    3. Sit back and watch the power of God work in your life for doing the thing that you know He loves. 

    GOOD FRIENDS ARE LIKE ANGELS, YOU DON'T HAVE TO SEE THEM TO KNOW THEY ARE THERE!

    Okay, I know I sent this to more than five (5) people, but I knew God wanted to bless all of you