Lots on my mind

We've had a pretty busy last few weeks like I mentioned before and in the midst of that I've also had lots of different things on my mind, thought I'd share a few:

Two weeks ago my cousin came into town and over the weekend we went to a ladies conference. It was so good!!! The speakers were amazing, the worship service was awesome, and the special music guests were Mark Schultz and Mandisa..... let me just say I don't watch American Idol, just not into reality TV, so I've only heard her singing on the radio, but I think that she might have been our favorite part of the weekend. And now my girls love listening to her too. :) The other thing that stood out to me the most at the conference was they had an organization there called World Help. This is what their website says:
World Help exists to fulfill the Great Commission and the Great Commandment through partnering, training, helping and serving, especially in the unreached areas of the world.

One of the things they do is raise money to help children that are victims of poverty, hunger, and disease (particularly AIDS). At the conference they had the "Children of the World" choir sing. They came out, singing some happy upbeat praise song and I sat there crying, I don't think I was supposed to be crying, but these precious children.... They are only here for 10 months touring, they will then go back to their home countries. All of them had suffered in some way. One little girl had lost both of her parents, one to AIDS, and was now living with her grandmother. Their goal is not adoption, although I would love to have taken some of those kids home. :) They said if they started that, then they wouldn't even be allowed to have the kids come over in the choir. They are hoping to raise support for these kids to educate them, to help prevent disease, and so they can be used in there country as they grow up. There were children from South Africa, Uganda, Phillipines, maybe others but those are the ones I remember them mentioning. The next morning they had another short little "concert" with them before the actual conference began. And the last song they sang they had us all sing with them and it was "How great is our God, sing with me, How great is our God, and all will see How Great is our God" and it was so moving. There was one boy in particular, he was probably 8-10 years old and as we are singing, he was in the back row of the group and He just lifted his hands up and was looking up in worship to God. And it wasn't like something he was told to do as part of the concert. It was just him praising His God. After that I just couldn't sing.... I told Kenny, here was a little boy at an age where kids here are going through the attitude stage, the "its all about me" stage, etc. and he has suffered and gone through more than we have and yet he really understands how great our God is. I can't even explain to you how convicting and moving this was. They then told us they had a free book for us if we wanted to stop by, so I got that and read it Sunday and Monday. :) Its called Children of Hope and I can't say it is a "good" book, but it definitely opened my eyes to the suffering in the world, to these poor children who have been victims of HIV/AIDS, poverty, war, etc. it was convicting and inspiring. Here's what the book looks like:

If you go to this link, I think they will send you a free copy of this book: http://www.worldhelp.net/defaultArticles.aspx?pageid=37084

Like I said, its not a "good" book, but I think if you read it with an open heart, you can't help but be changed. How convicting to read "only 3% of evangelical Christians said they would help an organization minister to an AIDS orphan...
Can these be the same people who profess to follow God, who according to Psalm 68:5 is a 'father to the fatherless, a defender of widows'? Are these the believers who model their lives after Jesus? .... 'For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.... whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mind, you did for me' (Matthew 25:35-36, 40)"

"We have been slow to respond, Why? Perhaps because we have forgotten that we serve a God whose Son's life was all about compassion. Jesus did not care how a person became ill, or why they were suffering. He didn't ask if they had done something wrong that caused their suffering. He simply reached out, touched them and healed them."

That's all I'm going to quote from their book, you should get it!

(As for the other things on my mind, well I'll talk about it later, I've written enough for today and I don't want to take away from this.)