Hello LiLJesusFreak,

I think that I might know where you are going with this. I just want to make a couple of comments. I honestly believe that most Christians in this part of the world are not interested in hiding the sin being committed.  It's a matter of shame and prayer, but it's also a matter of speaking out for many Christians.

We know that GOD hates sin, but HE sent HIS Son to die on the Cross for our sins. JESUS loved all of us enough to die in our place, so that obviously means that HE loved us when we were wallowing in darkness. GOD does not want any of us to perish in our sins without JESUS, but many will reject JESUS as Lord and Saviour and do just that.

There are many things in this part of the world that should be national shames, and they are for Christians. Christians are not proud to live in a part of the world where it appears that large numbers of people are turning their backs on GOD. Let's just talk about two isolated examples of many:  abortion and pornography. These make most Christians sick, and many have been fighting against the devil to remove these and many other evils from our society. Christians do live here, but that does not hint that we approve of all the things being done here.

I wanted to mention these things to you because I know they represent an abomination to GOD. We can't completely divorce ourselves from this evil garbage and filth, mainly because there might have been more legal things that we should have done and could have done to stop them. SO, I'm not hinting that Christians are completely innocent. On the other side of the coin, I will tell you that many Christians did stand up for the things of the LORD and they still are, but many Christians remained silent and did nothing. Most of us could make a pretty long list of things that are evil, and those evil things result in mass destruction and misery for millions. I would also say that many Christians were partakers of some of that evil, and that made their testimonies for Christ either worthless or one of hypocrisy. PLEASE - don't think that I'm hinting at any self-righteousness. I've had many things to pray for forgiveness, and I give thanks that the Blood of JESUS on the Cross is more than sufficient for my forgiveness.

So, please take my thoughts as simply ideas. Christians certainly won't defeat the devil during this short life, but JESUS will at HIS appointed time.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Matthew 4:19 NASB  And He *said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men."

I'm not offended or anything, its just that when I started writing this (this is actually going to be a song) at the time I had this feeling as in why we get hit by so many disasters. I just recently got back from New Orleans and my experiance has sprouted a whole bunch of thoughts and comparasins w/ that city to Seattle where I live now. All that I see going on in our nation is making more and more ask the question why are we officially titled a Christian country but yet are so corrupt in so many ways, why do we pretty much have this thinking (now im not lumping christians in this one) that we should dwell in Heaven w/ out accepting to be saved first through Jesus Christ. Its just all of these questions concerning EVERY evil in this country, abortion, gay rights, and all of that stuff. So w/ this one I actually want to title it "America Cries Out" or something like that because in all honesty that is what I'm seeing right now is God's people really crying out to God concerning the evil surrounding us. My experiance in New Orleans has not just change my life but really did change the way I see things in our nation through spiritual eyes. I know that this song is going to be a little too "out there" for most people but its more of what I see and what God is showing me to get down on my knees and really pray for when it comes to this nation. So I have no negative thoughts of what you said because what you said is very much true and its really sad at the same time.

When a nation falls
When a nation fears
Will you hear our cries and our calls
Will you wipe away our tears.

When a nation is hideing
All of it's sin
Your all abiding
You see us from with in.

Im not finished writing this but would love to get some feed back and maybe ideas or something.

[3/19/06DAY: 2 Today they gave us a chance to pretty much to what ever. Most of the groups decided to tear down more homes and the rest of us decided to take the day to tour the city of New Orleans. So me and 3 other girls went to the French Quarter's Bourbon St......Guys?? Pioneer Square (Seattle, WA) is NOTHING compared to Bourbon St. These dudes party like non-stop hurricane's themselves, I mean at night time Bourbon St. is like the bar and music corner of the French Quarter. You could hear the music from miles away. The French Quarter is very beautiful as a place, it's the oldest "downtown" in New Orleans, it's full off everything, all kinds of shops, bars, resteraunts, and other "illegal in God's eyes" type of buisnesses. When we took the cab to the French Quarter one of us asked the cab driver how he and his family survived the storm and what kind of hit the French Quarter took from Katrina. He said, "The name Katrina means *pure* or *purefication* to think about it that's what it did to us, that's what we got and that's what we needed." He said, "You guys are going to a very dirty part of this city. There's a lot of imorality and spiritualism in that part of this city and I believe that we deserved what we got because of it." (The many survivors I talked to told me the same thing. They all put the blame on themselves and really do believe that God punished them because of their wrong-doing.) Walking down Bourbon St. I saw what he meant, everything that we prayed against is what came back into the city. Pretty much every single shop in the French Quarter has some kind of porno display from obscene statue's of women flashing themselves, these are considered as Mardi Gras gifts. There are T-Shirt shops that have the most sexualy obscene quotes or phrases on them. Then there's the clubs, bars, and A LOT of prostitution as well. Oh and the drugs and crime? that's mostly in the downtown area which is right next door to the French Quarter. (Believe me there's nothing to do in the downtown area of New Orleans anyway.) What else is very upsetting is that voodoo has been led back into New Orleans, not only that but the practice of occultism is very heavy in this city. There are mediums all over Jackson Square in the French Quarter from tarrot, psychic, voodoo, and palm-reading. They sit w/ their stuff on the corners performing live witch-craft. This is a heavy prayer need. Although the funny thing that happened is I went to take pictures of Chartres Cathederal while the girls were getting their "stuff" done w/ the palm-reader guy (believe me I had no clue that I was w/ a group of nonbelievers until that moment.) So I'm walking around, taking pictures and out of no where I hear the song "Down By the Riverside" I was like, "Man thats my favorite Gospel Hymn! I wonder where its comming from." I looked right across the street from Jackson Square where I was and there was a group of believers out w/ their instruments. They were facing the corner of Jackson Square where all those mediums were doing all the witch-craft and were singing "I'm gonna bring down my heavy burden, Down by the riverside, down by the riverside." NOT ONLY THAT! but they also sent out some of their "hell, fire, and brimestone" type of preachers out there to kick the devil out of there. That made me feel a bit uncomfortable because here I am talking to my non-believing friends about God, thinking that they are Christians (ya'll know me) and all of a sudden they go to get their palms read and then after that some guy comes up and starts preaching to them.]

3/19/06
DAY: 2
 
Today they gave us a chance to pretty much to what ever. Most of the groups decided to tear down more homes and the rest of us decided to take the day to tour the city of New Orleans. So me and 3 other girls went to the French Quarter's Bourbon St......Guys?? Pioneer Square (Seattle, WA) is NOTHING compared to Bourbon St. These dudes party like non-stop hurricane's themselves, I mean at night time Bourbon St. is like the bar and music corner of the French Quarter. You could hear the music from miles away.
 
The French Quarter is very beautiful as a place, it's the oldest "downtown" in New Orleans, it's full off everything, all kinds of shops, bars, resteraunts, and other "illegal in God's eyes" type of buisnesses. When we took the cab to the French Quarter one of us asked the cab driver how he and his family survived the storm and what kind of hit the French Quarter took from Katrina. He said, "The name Katrina means *pure* or *purefication* to think about it that's what it did to us, that's what we got and that's what we needed." He said, "You guys are going to a very dirty part of this city. There's a lot of imorality and spiritualism in that part of this city and I believe that we deserved what we got because of it." (The many survivors I talked to told me the same thing. They all put the blame on themselves and really do believe that God punished them because of their wrong-doing.)
 
Walking down  Bourbon St. I saw what he meant, everything that we prayed against is what came back into the city. Pretty much every single shop in the French Quarter has some kind of porno display from obscene statue's of women flashing themselves, these are considered as Mardi Gras gifts. There are T-Shirt shops that have the most sexualy obscene quotes or phrases on them. Then there's the clubs, bars, and A LOT of prostitution as well. Oh and the drugs and crime? that's mostly in the downtown area which is right next door to the French Quarter. (Believe me there's nothing to do in the downtown area of New Orleans anyway.)
 
What else is very upsetting is that voodoo has been led back into New Orleans, not only that but the practice of occultism is very heavy in this city. There are mediums all over Jackson Square in the French Quarter from tarrot, psychic, voodoo, and palm-reading. They sit w/ their stuff on the corners performing live witch-craft. This is a heavy prayer need.
 
Although the funny thing that happened is I went to take pictures of Chartres Cathederal while the girls were getting their "stuff" done w/ the palm-reader guy (believe me I had no clue that I was w/ a group of nonbelievers until that moment.) So I'm walking around, taking pictures and out of no where I hear the song "Down By the Riverside" I was like, "Man thats my favorite Gospel Hymn! I wonder where its comming from." I looked right across the street from Jackson Square where I was and there was a group of believers out w/ their instruments.
 
They were facing the corner of Jackson Square where all those mediums were doing all the witch-craft and were singing "I'm gonna bring down my heavy burden, Down by the riverside, down by the riverside." NOT ONLY THAT! but they also sent out some of their "hell, fire, and brimestone" type of preachers out there to kick the devil out of there.
 
That made me feel a bit uncomfortable because here I am talking to my non-believing friends about God, thinking that they are Christians (ya'll know me) and all of a sudden they go to get their palms read and then after that some guy comes up and starts preaching to them.

[3/18/06DAY: 1, Well! We finally arrived here safe and sound. I didn't get much sleep on my first flight because it was so horrible, it was like 20 minutes of sleeping and 20 minutes of waking up. And it was like this for all 5 hours too. The 2nd flight from Atlanta was way better untill the pilot went crazy on the landing. I got a chance to see New Orleans from the air and I have to say that when flying into it, I felt like I was going to a funeral or something. Once coming into the city you can litterely feel the heavy depression down here. The people of New Orleans are copeing w/ what they have in those FEMA trailers and stuff, but there is STILL a heavy need, there's still so much that can be done and MUST be done as far as relief efforts go. But it's all in the matter of timeing. I'm currently staying w/ UW at Light City w/ in the lower 9th Ward District. St. Bernard Parish (sp) and the Good News Camp didnt seem to work I guess. All of us girls are camping out in what used to be a Subway before Katrina hit. The guys are in the warehouse which is connected to the Subway (they call that "The Palace" since it wasn't too badly damaged compared to where all us girls stayed in.) Today we also decided to gutt a house. Along the way I noticed that we were being followed by two Arabic men, one of them had a video camera. That turned out to be Al-Jazeera (sp) Iraqi news midea. They interviewed me and started asking me questions of who I was, what group I'm w/ and what our mission is. They also asked me how it felt to be down here seeing all the distruction and what feelings I had towards everything I seen. I told them that we're part of Campus Crusade for Christ, that we're doing this not just for free but to glorify God by choosing to serve Him through being servants to these people who lost everything. They asked me about what it looks like inside those homes, it's a really sad situation I told them about the mold that cutt deep through all the dry walls, we even had to take out all the instalation because it was so bad, all the pipes had to be taken out and everything else that we found. (If you want to see the pictures I have a slide show prepared for Wednesday night. Other than that I can email the pictures as attachments since they are not working in the "picture" section of this site.) New Orleans has very much become like a ghost town. The Lower 9th Ward, where we're staying at has become like a "drive-by" district instead of a warm community. Every single neighborhood in this district is trashed and abandoned. There is a Church w/ in every few homes (most of them you can't tell that they're churches cause they look like homes.) but they are all empty because the member's of those churches aren't returning, most will never come back because they lost everything. This is only but a "taste" of the emotional damage Katrina caused. On the way to our "gutting destination" Kirsten and I saw a mother w/ her son who, from what I was getting, they might have returned, for the first time to see their house since Katrina. Kirsten and I started talking to the woman and asked her if we can be of any assistance. She told us, "You know what? I really appreciate all that ya'll are doing here but it looks like my house is too dangerous to even walk inside. It's probably gonna get demolished." She said, "But that's okay I'm continuing seeking counseling and am taking my depression pills so my process of grieving over the loss of everything will just speed by." She also said, "Look at that! I been living here 27 years and I'm never going to see my neighbors again." Of course when we got to the house that we were gutting and cleaning out, it's like a wildfire rammed it or something. I never thought that mold can do such damage to a single home. I'm 5'9 and in most areas here the flood waters went up to 20 feet. Thats WAY higher than me.]

I went to New Orleans w/ Campus Crusade for Christ to help out in the relief efforts. I kept a 6 day diary thing and so I thought I'd put it up here so I can share it w/ all ya'll. I do have pictures but apperently dont know how to get them into this thingy called the monitor lol. So here's how my trip went: I will be posting these stories by days instead. I'll try to do that every week. So here's the first one:

3/18/06
DAY: 1,
Well! We finally arrived here safe and sound. I didn't get much sleep on my first flight because it was so horrible, it was like 20 minutes of sleeping and 20 minutes of waking up. And it was like this for all 5 hours too. The 2nd flight from Atlanta was way better untill the pilot went crazy on the landing.
 
I got a chance to see New Orleans from the air and I have to say that when flying into it, I felt like I was going to a funeral or something. Once coming into the city you can litterely feel the heavy depression down here. The people of New Orleans are copeing w/ what they have in those FEMA trailers and stuff, but there is STILL a heavy need, there's still so much that can be done and MUST be done as far as relief efforts go. But it's all in the matter of timeing.
 
I'm currently staying w/ UW at Light City w/ in the lower 9th Ward District. St. Bernard Parish (sp) and the Good News Camp didnt seem to work I guess. All of us girls are camping out in what used to be a Subway before Katrina hit. The guys are in the warehouse which is connected to the Subway (they call that "The Palace" since it wasn't too badly damaged compared to where all us girls stayed in.)
 
Today we also decided to gutt a house. Along the way I noticed that we were being followed by two Arabic men, one of them had a video camera. That turned out to be Al-Jazeera (sp) Iraqi news midea. They interviewed me and started asking me questions of who I was, what group I'm w/ and what our mission is. They also asked me how it felt to be down here seeing all the distruction and what feelings I had towards everything I seen. I told them that we're part of Campus Crusade for Christ, that we're doing this not just for free but to glorify God by choosing to serve Him through being servants to these people who lost everything. They asked me about what it looks like inside those homes, it's a really sad situation I told them about the mold that cutt deep through all the dry walls, we even had to take out all the instalation because it was so bad, all the pipes had to be taken out and everything else that we found. (If you want to see the pictures I have a slide show prepared for Wednesday night. Other than that I can email the pictures as attachments since they are not working in the "picture" section of this site.)
 
New Orleans has very much become like a ghost town. The Lower 9th Ward, where we're staying at has become like a "drive-by" district instead of a warm community. Every single neighborhood in this district is trashed and abandoned. There is a Church w/ in every few homes (most of them you can't tell that they're churches cause they look like homes.) but they are all empty because the member's of those churches aren't returning, most will never come back because they lost everything. This is only but a "taste" of the emotional damage Katrina caused. On the way to our "gutting destination" Kirsten and I saw a mother w/ her son who, from what I was getting, they might have returned, for the first time to see their house since Katrina.
 
Kirsten and I started talking to the woman and asked her if we can be of any assistance. She told us, "You know what? I really appreciate all that ya'll  are doing here but it looks like my house is too dangerous to even walk inside. It's probably gonna get demolished." She said, "But that's okay I'm  continuing seeking counseling and am taking my depression pills so my process of grieving over the loss of everything will just speed by." She also said, "Look at that! I been living here 27 years and I'm never going to see my neighbors again." Of course when we got to the house that we were gutting and cleaning out, it's like a wildfire rammed it or something. I never thought that mold can do such damage to a single home. I'm 5'9 and in most areas here the flood waters went up to 20 feet. Thats WAY higher than me.

I had the same thing happen to a good friend of mine, untill they both realized that he is Bipolar. Now things got WAY worse for her because he constantly abanded her and their baby. I think there's a side of him that feels extremely uncomfortable because now everyone knows of their situation. But the thing is no one looks down on him people just want to help thats all.

I have a copy of the Koran, and occasionally I'll look into it, of coarse w/ the bible by my side. I have to say that all those people who think that the word of God is contradicting, wail untill they read sections of the Koran and read the history about that book. According to Islam "God" has the right to change a revelation for a "much better one". That littereally means that they dont believe in God, heck they dont even believe in "Allah" they LITTERELY see Muhammed as their "god". and its really sad too.

[Have you ever wondered what was going on in God's mind when He fashioned woman thousands of years ago in the limitless beauty of Paradise?]

LilJesusFreak, here is are 2 paragraphs from a book I am reading tittled 'When God Persues A Woman's Heart':

Have you ever wondered what was going on in God's mind when He fashioned woman thousands of years ago in the limitless beauty of Paradise?

It must have been an adventure for Him, a special undertaking, a precious moment in which He performed His last, crowning act of creation.

As I read these first two paragraphs, I couldn't help but realize, just how true this is and how we tend to overlook it. Woman was the last thing God created on earth. And He created woman as a crowning glory for man. Just try to imagine how excited God must have been to present man with this speacial, beautiful creature made just for him. It sort of reminds me of when I buy a gift for my husband or one of my children, I can barely contain the excitement of giving the gift. I want to see the joy in my beloved's face when they get what I give them. That is how God must have felt when He mad woman and presented her to man.
Alas, but when sin entered into the world and man fell short of God's glory, he began to enjoy his life less and less, he now had to work hard to feed his wife and family, he had to make shelter for them and protect them from wild animals. The woman was not very happy either, but God had said that her desire would be for her husband. The man was perhaps bitter and resentful. The once beautiful woman God had given him was now ageing, her body was not as beautiful anymore. Man was now full of sin, perhaps he no longer aprreciated the wonderful gift God had given him. Woman too was full of sin, but man probably deep down in his heart blamed her for all his troubles. We don't know for certain, but those are just a few thoughts I ponder on.
When a person is full of pride, and has a poor self image and low self esteem, and worst of all is separated from God, that person tries to make him/herself look better, by putting others down. Somehow to sinful man/woman, makeing another person feel inferior might make him/her feel more in control.
Now I am not saying that this is a fact in all of human kind, but it is perhaps one reason why women were treated that way.
Once a man comes to know God again and is made righteous, by the attoneing Blood of the Lamb, he begins to see his wife in a whole different aspect, and begins to treat his wife as the Bible says he should.
These are just my thoughts not anyone else's.

What really got me to ask this is the book that Im currently reading right now. Its called "Islam and the Bible" its one of those books that is supposed to help out know and understand better the Muslim culture and all that. A really good one though. So in this book David Goldmann gets down to the topic of women, he uses both the Bible, Koran, and the Hadith (which is Muhammed's personal words and witness accounts) to show the difference's of how Bible based Christian men treat their wives and women in general and how Muslim men treat women. Muhammed actually said that hell is filled w/ more women than men and that a testimony of a woman is worth that of 2 men combined therefore Muslim men need to look at women as dangers to society and all that. The brought up everything about the history of women and made me think why we are seen as something that is low and all that stuff.

BRILLIENTLY PUT! that is what you'll get from my perspective of this book.

Im currently reading it right now, its been a while since I picked up a book that really draws your attention.

Looking at the whole history of women and how we were treated and seen by men in the past to how it all is today. Now this might be a really tough question to answer and I hope I dont sound like a feneminst or anything but I always wanted to know why so many times through out history we were seen as these dangerously, weak (anything you can ever think of thats negative) type of beings. I mean its easy to say "oh thats because we are all short of the glory of God and men aren't perfect" and all that but for what reasons though? Is it because God having created us as emotional beings that a lot of men think its easy to get control of us? the women in most Muslim countries is a great example of this. Just a while back I was pondering about why God created me a woman, and that also made me ponder on the thought of how we are more emotional then men are. If you kinda think about it, being an emotional being is not a weakness (depending how you take it out, how you use your emotions and all that.) being an emotional being has a certain kinda hope and strength to it.

[The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.]

Since hurricane Katrina hit and the disasters all over the world after that, I been praying to God use me in mighty way. Well this spring break I'm going to New Orleans w/ Campuse Crusade for Chirst to help out w/ the relief effort. This is something that is just over exciting for me because I've been asking and begging God to use me because I couldn't bare the fact that here I am and I have everything but those people down there lost everything they owned w/ in just one day.

This morning I was just thinking about how our bodies function. When you break your arm or your leg, that part of your body is not the only area where you feel the pain. When you break your arm or your leg, your WHOLE BODY is in pain, simply because of everything that connects your muscles to your bones passes on the "message" that there's a certain part of your body that is broken. In the scientific thinking this process is usually something that your brain does, when a certain part of your body is damaged and hurting your brain does the "crying out" pretty much to your nerves system and that goes to the rest of your body.

1Corinthians 12:12 says: The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.

When I read that verse I started to think about how a whole nation IS like a body. Take for example 9/11, New York was not the only state that felt the pain, the whole COUNTRY was brought down to its knees, and this tragic event in our lives has also brought half the world to its knees too. Then came hurricane Katrina. Same thing happened. I was just pondering how one area of our country got battered up and just the out cry that rose from the WHOLE country.

Its the same w/ the body of Christ. When we hurt, when we are in pain, it hurts Jesus. You know, according to the Bible in manny places of the N.T. we see that Jesus (in his time on earth) had an emotional side. He was quit an emotional type of a guy but only in a much different perspective. Christ litteraly saw the kind of death that, if He never came to this earth and die on the cross, we would not see it ourselves what we're truely dieing from.

Therefore when it comes to our own physical bodies, when one part is in pain, the immediate reaction that is born in the midst of complete agony that your brain sets out, is how to cure that pain, that wound. When it comes to our own bodies you have the wound you first get the pain from it that shoots from just one part to ALL parts of your body, then you have the choice you can use medecine to cure it or you can infect it and get yourself killed. The medecine in this situation is whats the "physical grace" for your body. Thats how it is w/ Christ and when you come to get to know Him on a personal level.

Last week I got a wonderful privilage to travel down to New Orleans next month w/ Campus Crusade for Christ. I need all the prayer I can get even though Im only going to be there for a week. So please keep me in your prayers, Im having to deal w/ some tough decisions concerning my work and all that stuff before I  head on down there. I dont think that money is gonna be that much of an issue for me but either way please keep me in prayer over that as well. CCC has lowered the price to an all time low $30.00. I have been praying for God to use me in any way possible in the aftermath of the hurricane and Im starting to see that God has made this happen for me and Im not going to miss out on this oppertunity. $30.00 pays for registration, airline tickets and the place of stay which is something they havent determained yet. Campus Crusade has currently teamed up w/ Habitat Humanity, Tulane University, Desire Street Ministries, and Good News Center in bringing relief to the gulf coast. Most teams (as I seen on the website) will also help out in Beluxi, Mississippi and other areas that were destroyed by that hurricane. Im going down w/ the University of Washington's Campus Crusade for Christ so please keep all of us in your prayers.

lol and whats that? Figure Skating?
I dont like that sport as much as I used to when I was much younger but its not a bad sport, very creative and all that and  very beautiful too.

I just watched the Openning Ceremonies last night it was really spectacular. I think its probably the best olympic openning ceremonies I've ever seen so far. Geez! the size of that stadium, my goodness you can make a small city out of that thing.

[U.S.A. ALL THE WAY!!!]

I know I am. Im canceling ALL my events just to watch the Openning Ceremonies w/ a good friend of mine at his house. We both been waiting for this 4 long years and nothings gonna stop me now lol. Here are some of my favorite Olympic (summer and winter) sports:

WINTER:
Skeleton
Bobsledding
Snowboarding
-------->Half-Pipe
-------->Downhill
Speed Skating
Hockey
Lugge (is that how you spell it?)
Skiing
-------->Freestyle
-------->Jumping
-------->Slulam (Sp??)
-------->Downhill
and Figure Skating

SUMMER:
Swimming
Soccer
Basketball
Gymnastics
Volleyball


U.S.A. ALL THE WAY!!! 

Whats also amazing w/ the Seahawks is that when they arrived at Quest Field here in Seattle, all their fains greeted them w/ a warm welcome back. I was planning to go but couldnt make because I had to run by the bank and having to find and wait for the buss in the U-District was not worth it for me because I had an hour left and I knew I wouldnt make it anyway. But yeah no body was PO'd I was watching what was happening on the news at Quest Field the Hawks (w/ dissapointing faces) were greeted warmly. And just like the Seattle Times said in their paper yesterday "Something tells us that Quest Field will not be any quiter next season."

Well to all you Steelers fans, congrats on your Lumbardi (sp??) trophy, ya'll deserve it after a hard but good game. All I can say concerning the Seahawks, it was a dissapointing loss but we did try our hardest, at least we made this far this year, we've been w/ the Hawks through everything tough and good times for about 30 years so we can shed more tears but we do have high hopes for a chance at the Super bowl again next year if God wills it. Other than that, to me the ultimate trophy is Jesus Christ, no Super bowl can compare to that.