The first week of April blew through our life like a strong March wind. There was all the drama of our return flight to Pittsburgh from our trip to Orlando and the eventual recovery of our "lost luggage." And THEN there is the completely different opportunity to serve a brother and sister in the Lord with some HUGE needs just right now!
Back in November 2007 I received an email from my sister Helen. A friend of hers from high school was possibly facing major cancer surgery at a University of Pittsburgh hospital in the near future. Long story short, we invited him and his wife to bunk at our house during their stay in Pittsburgh - or at least for Sharon to stay here.
I didn't know Keith and Sharon's "story" until now. This same sister unexpectedly walked up to Keith at high school 30 or so years ago and "out of the blue" invited him to a Bible study. He said he would but he didn't come. The next week she asked him again. He said he would but he didn't come. A third week she invited him again. For the third time (reminiscent of Peter on the day Jesus was crucified) Helen invited Keith, he promised to come and she informed him that she "didn't believe him because he had already broken his word to her twice." A third time he didn't show!
A day or so later Helen walked right up to Keith as he was hanging out with some of his buds, stuck her finger in his face and said, "You lied to me!" Then she turned and walked away.
What got Keith to the Bible study eventually wasn't Helen's invitation (tho' the invitation was important as it started the chain of events), it was her exposing "the lie." Keith thought about that. He thought about the fact that his dad always taught him that integrity is precious, that integrity is a quality of character to protect at all cost, that integrity is very difficult to "get back" once it is lost.
That's what finally moved his feet down the path to a house on York Street in Chester, South Carolina, on a certain evening. Keith was so green at Bible study stuff that he didn't even bring a Bible. That evening Helen's (and my) mother taught the Bible study and then challenged Keith with the Gospel privately after. Keith listened with his heart! After all, God is really the reason Keith finally came!
God was chasing Keith! God wanted Keith's heart in His kingdom and for His kingdom! Keith met Jesus, and his life changed forever. Today Keith and Sharon are serving the Lord in middle Pennsylvania at Grace Fellowship Church. You can read about them at http://www.gracefellowshippgm.org/. Click on "News" in the menu on the home page and read Keith's "Jelly Belly Journal." It's the story of his latest adventure with God!
Keith had surgery for his "jelly belly" cancer April 1, 2008. My "wild week" meets up with Keith and Sharon the evening of April 1 and continues. Sharon is staying with us while Keith is in the hospital. We take her across Pittsburgh each morning and go get her each evening (except for the two nights she ended up staying with Keith after he got out of ICU).
What's so amazing about God's astonishing grace is that we have been blessed by Keith and Sharon FAR more than we have been able to serve them! They are incredible servants of Jesus Christ - new friends, new family!
Keith and Sharon know what restoration is all about up front and personal. Keith and Sharon have walked over some really rough ground in their faith journey. They even lost two daughters to a mysterious brain disease. Keith and Sharon have found God faithful and more than adequate to meet every need anytime and all the time!
Did extra time to chauffeur and love and serve this precious brother and sister make this week a bit wilder than usual? Absolutely, but I wouldn't take anything for both the privilege and the opportunity to be so hugely blessed by just hanging around with Sharon especially. Sharon has a restoration heart!
Last night she sat sharing about their deaf ministry at Grace Fellowship while her food grew cold. Her passion for those who cannot hear is compelling! Put that together with all the restoration work God has done in Keith's and Sharon's hearts and these two are a dynamic duo for God's kingdom! "Wild" might be better described as awesomely and amazingly blessed!
God builds His kingdom where and as He wills. He uses a high school girl with the boldness to step outside her comfort zone to dare to issue an invitation to a Bible study to an unlikely candidate. God gives that same girl the faith and guts to persist even in the face of ridicule and rejection. God uses a mother to gently explain the Gospel to a boy until he "gets it" and comes to know Jesus. God used that boy to then invite his own crowd to come with him to the Bible study. Today many of those who came know Jesus. That chain reaction started with the faith of one gutsy girl!
God uses deafness. God uses death. God uses cancer. God builds His kingdom with some very unlikely "bricks" but He is always working to build His kingdom through His restorning Gospel one heart at a time! And that's the real reason there is a Restoration Church beginning in the South Hills of Pittsburgh - God is building His kingdom using unlikely "bricks" but God is doing His work of restoration and it's a beautiful and awesome thing to watch and participate in! You can be part of that restoration story, too!
Showing posts with label University of Pittsburgh. Show all posts
Showing posts with label University of Pittsburgh. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Monday, February 18, 2008
The Pink Killer - Breast Cancer
The women on the University of Pittsburgh's basketball team lost their game to the University of Conneticut yesterday. They scored less points through the basket than Conneticut did.
BUT the women players, the coaches and the fans of the University of Pittsburgh's women's basketball team scored big at that game. It was "Pink the Peterson" Day to raise awareness for breast cancer and its victims. At almost any PIttsburgh event, there is a sea of black and gold. Not at this game! Everyone including the Pitt team wore pink - even the Pitt panther mascot.
It was especially neat because one of the players on Pitt's team lost her mother last fall due to breast cancer. What an outpouring of support for Phro!
My own grandmother died from cancer that probably started as breast or ovarian cancer, but - by the time she was diagnosed - was so far advanced that she had metastasis everywhere. It's an ugly disease. It's a killer.
Kudos to Coach B and her coaches and players for a great campaign against the Pink Killer yesterday! You won even if the score didn't reflect the victory!
Shame on us in the church of Jesus Christ when we don't show the same concern for social ills than others who have much less reason!
BUT the women players, the coaches and the fans of the University of Pittsburgh's women's basketball team scored big at that game. It was "Pink the Peterson" Day to raise awareness for breast cancer and its victims. At almost any PIttsburgh event, there is a sea of black and gold. Not at this game! Everyone including the Pitt team wore pink - even the Pitt panther mascot.
It was especially neat because one of the players on Pitt's team lost her mother last fall due to breast cancer. What an outpouring of support for Phro!
My own grandmother died from cancer that probably started as breast or ovarian cancer, but - by the time she was diagnosed - was so far advanced that she had metastasis everywhere. It's an ugly disease. It's a killer.
Kudos to Coach B and her coaches and players for a great campaign against the Pink Killer yesterday! You won even if the score didn't reflect the victory!
Shame on us in the church of Jesus Christ when we don't show the same concern for social ills than others who have much less reason!
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Curved or Linear and Intelligence
It was a news item over the weekend.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,310636,00.html
Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh have actually been spending time interviewing 16,000 or so women and girls in an effort to discover a correlation between curves and intelligence. They have now published a report in a professional journal with their conclusions.
I am the oldest of six children – four girls and two boys. All three of my sisters are beautiful and smart. We are all in different stages of life since we are spread out over seventeen years in our ages.
My youngest sister who has four very smart sons put me onto this news item today. One of her very intelligent sons found it. For some strange reason some scientists at the University of Pittsburgh have been studying the correlation between female body measurements and cognitive tests. . (One has to wonder if science is winding down on what needs to be known if it is reduced to such a project. One has to wonder where the initial concept came from in the first place.)
According to Fox News online, women with more curves (greater difference between hips and waist specifically) scored significantly higher on the intelligence tests. And the children of these women also scored significantly higher on the tests than others whose mothers have fewer curves. (The actual defining statistic used was women whose waists are smaller than their hips.)
Now think about that for just a moment: bigger hips than waists. Except for pregnant women (who are supposed to be shaped that way), who in the world would ever want a bigger waist than hips? That is a serious call to diet when one’s waist measurement exceeds the size of one’s hips.
The report continues that the correlation between large thighs and hips is also linked to higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids. The report states that these omega-3 fatty acids contribute to brain growth during pregnancy. The report didn’t specify whose brain grows. One assumes the baby is whose brain grows but perhaps both mother and baby benefit intellectually from their bonded experience.
The report also states that “thinner or more linear-shaped women lack both omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids around their waists and hips” so that they benefit from being more “linear” by living longer in their linear state but with more diminished intelligence than their curvier counterparts.
The report concludes: “Real women don’t just have curves. They are also smarter, live longer and give birth to smarter children.”
I have one very happy curvaceous baby sister today with four very intelligent sons! But the best news of all is: they all have restored hearts as well as superior intelligence. They know Jesus and walk with Him – every single one – and that’s the most intelligent choice of all!
It doesn’t take scientific research to determine the intelligence of choosing Jesus, it just takes faith and life lived in a relationship with Him. And that’s far more significant than curves or the absence thereof or even superior intelligence or less superior intelligence.
In the first century Paul of Tarsus wrote something like this (my paraphrase): When you know and love Jesus then neither having curves or not having curves – neither being of superior intellect or lacking in intelligence – is of any value. What matters is something far more interior (in the restored heart): faith expressed in love! (Galatians 5:6, paraphrase)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,310636,00.html
Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh have actually been spending time interviewing 16,000 or so women and girls in an effort to discover a correlation between curves and intelligence. They have now published a report in a professional journal with their conclusions.
I am the oldest of six children – four girls and two boys. All three of my sisters are beautiful and smart. We are all in different stages of life since we are spread out over seventeen years in our ages.
My youngest sister who has four very smart sons put me onto this news item today. One of her very intelligent sons found it. For some strange reason some scientists at the University of Pittsburgh have been studying the correlation between female body measurements and cognitive tests. . (One has to wonder if science is winding down on what needs to be known if it is reduced to such a project. One has to wonder where the initial concept came from in the first place.)
According to Fox News online, women with more curves (greater difference between hips and waist specifically) scored significantly higher on the intelligence tests. And the children of these women also scored significantly higher on the tests than others whose mothers have fewer curves. (The actual defining statistic used was women whose waists are smaller than their hips.)
Now think about that for just a moment: bigger hips than waists. Except for pregnant women (who are supposed to be shaped that way), who in the world would ever want a bigger waist than hips? That is a serious call to diet when one’s waist measurement exceeds the size of one’s hips.
The report continues that the correlation between large thighs and hips is also linked to higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids. The report states that these omega-3 fatty acids contribute to brain growth during pregnancy. The report didn’t specify whose brain grows. One assumes the baby is whose brain grows but perhaps both mother and baby benefit intellectually from their bonded experience.
The report also states that “thinner or more linear-shaped women lack both omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids around their waists and hips” so that they benefit from being more “linear” by living longer in their linear state but with more diminished intelligence than their curvier counterparts.
The report concludes: “Real women don’t just have curves. They are also smarter, live longer and give birth to smarter children.”
I have one very happy curvaceous baby sister today with four very intelligent sons! But the best news of all is: they all have restored hearts as well as superior intelligence. They know Jesus and walk with Him – every single one – and that’s the most intelligent choice of all!
It doesn’t take scientific research to determine the intelligence of choosing Jesus, it just takes faith and life lived in a relationship with Him. And that’s far more significant than curves or the absence thereof or even superior intelligence or less superior intelligence.
In the first century Paul of Tarsus wrote something like this (my paraphrase): When you know and love Jesus then neither having curves or not having curves – neither being of superior intellect or lacking in intelligence – is of any value. What matters is something far more interior (in the restored heart): faith expressed in love! (Galatians 5:6, paraphrase)
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