“…the kind of fasting I have chosen…”: To Save Darfur
I’m watching the Save Darfur Coalition Rally on C-SPAN. The Executive Director of the World Evangelical Alliance just spoke. He quoted these words from Scripture:
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?”
[That verse is the first part of the passage that my blog is named for. ]
The rally’s list of speakers is amazing, diverse, and filled with people of faith.
“Instead of mourning a genocide, what if we could stop one?”
Save Darfur now.
Update: Dr. Richard Land, President, Southern Baptist Convention Ethics & Religious Liberties Commission just spoke. He ended with:
“If not this, what? If not now, when? If not us, who?”
Greensboro’s own Joey Cheek is the final speaker. Joey says:
“We’re not here to save Darfur. Darfur is a piece of dirt. Darfur is lines drawn on a map by men. We’re here to save people.”
Amen, y’all.
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From Justin’s testimony: “God is working NOW”
– Notes taken at Night Watch Benefit Concert, 04/08/06; passages cited by Justin in his testimony:
* * * * *
“We accept man’s testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son. Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son.” 1 John 5:9-10
“Jesus said to them, ‘My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.’” John 5:17
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Andrea, formerly homeless
Notes taken at Night Watch benefit concert, 04/08/06, during talk by Andrea, formerly homeless:
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“I know what saved me and it wasn’t rehab.”
On the street, using crack, prostituting herself, raped, experienced the death of her daughter. Came to homeless shelter. About this time began to understand…
“I [once] lived on the other side of town [and] this kind of stuff didn’t happen… I didn’t know [before] that people lived like that.”
With the help of God, began to get clean.
“God is no respecter of persons. If He did it for me, He’ll do it for you. But He’s a Holy God and He calls us to obedience and to do His will, not ours.”
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One Less Option for Ex-Offenders; One More Homeless Teen Leaves Jail
This morning, I read in the N&R that Amends Ministry is finally closing its doors. The transitional housing program for ex-offenders has had its problems for some time, and I had been expecting this announcement long before it came. The loss of Amends leaves just one ex-offender ministry in Greensboro (that I’m aware of), Jericho House. And unfortunately, the need for this type of ministry far outweighs the available resources. When I read the article, my mind went immediately to a young man we met last night on Night Watch.
At our first stop downtown, we met a 19-year old with no money and no place to sleep. He’d just been discharged from jail and was trying to find a way to get back up north, where his family lives. He looked so young and so alone, and when I hugged him I felt him unmistakably steel himself against it — so self-protective, so wary. He broke my heart.
We found him a place to stay for the weekend. Somehow, it seemed scarier to me to think of him on the street than to think of him in the jail he’d just come out of, although honestly, I don’t know which one is more dangerous. I’ll follow up and try to find someone who will provide the $57.00 he needs for the bus ticket back home. I pray that someone in his family will welcome him back and love him and help him start over. And I pray that Greensboro will soon have more life-changing options for folks leaving jail and prison and settling in our community.
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SocialServe.com
Someone arrived at my blog today after searching for a list of Section 8 rental properties. Just in case they come back, and for future reference for others, I wanted to post about a web site that lists affordable housing for rent and for sale in Arizona, Georgia, Mississippi, New Jersey, South Carolina, Colorado, Indiana, Missouri, NORTH CAROLINA, and South Dakota. It’s called SocialServe.com.
I was on the local advisory board when SocialServe.com came to Greensboro a couple of years ago, and I was hugely impressed by its ease of use and extensive search options. I have used this site many times to assist folks seeking affordable housing in Greensboro.
For rental properties, the site allows you to filter your search by number of bedrooms, zip code, public transit, Section 8 voucher, income, school district, property type, and MUCH more. The site also includes a list of community services and tools to help you figure out the amount of rent you can afford, calculate your moving costs and prepare a budget. YES, it’s an amazing web site! And it’s completely free to use!! Pass it along… 
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Tags & Other Hacks for My Blogger Blog
My blog is undergoing renovations. I’ve added several new features, and I’m still working out the bugs in some of the scripts, so you may see some whackiness in the meantime. 
Here’s what’s up with all my Blogger hacks:
1.) Frequent Searches
Using Site Meter, I check regularly for the most frequent search terms used to search my blog. I used this blog category script to turn that into a “frequent search” feature.
2.) Recent Comments
For now, I’m using the Farrago Recent Comments Hack. You can find the script here.
3.) Archives Menu
I use this reverse-sort dropdown menu archive script.
4.) Archives Calendar
I found this cool archive calendar add-in, a good addition to the dropdown above. (Visible on Archive pages only.)
5.) Tags
I finally tagged my blog. It takes a long time to retrofit Blogger (if you have a lot of posts) and no matter which method you choose, tagging with Blogger take at least a few steps. After looking around a bit, I chose this script that works with Del.icio.us.
I’m still new to tagging and probably wouldn’t be doing it now at all if not for Sean Coon’s impassioned speeches about tags every time I’m around him. LOL. So if my tags don’t make sense to you, or if I’m using them wrong, that’s because I’m a tag nube.
Hints for Chosen Fast tags: SA is substance abuse; MI is mental illness; PITC is Point in Time Count of the homeless; HPCGC is Homeless Prevention Coalition of Guilford County; and my blog is mostly focused on homelessness, so tags like attacks, history, meals, policy, etc. all relate to homeless, although lyrics usually relates to Jesus somehow. I still have to learn how to organize my tags. For example, what the heck is a “bundle”?
Oh and P.S., the way this tag hack works is through Blogger’s post title link field, so if you click on the title of a post now, you’ll get a “not found” page, because the post title is linked to the tag, not to the post. The permanent link to the post is the date link at the bottom of the post. Clear? Hope so…
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2:15 a.m.
“I want to be a professional wolf hunter… Werewolves…. Do you know how sweet it would be to hunt werewolves?”
– My son. 2:15 a.m. Senior project deadline. Tired. Silly. Cool.
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