Operation Christmas Child is partnering with the upcoming film, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, set for release on Dec. 10. Through this partnership, Narnia fans will be encouraged to participate in the world’s largest Christmas project by packing shoe box gifts that will make a difference in the lives of needy children.

In Narnia, it was always winter and never Christmas until Aslan arrived with hope. In the same way, simple shoe box gifts filled with toys, school supplies and hygiene items can bring hope to children around the world by reminding them they are loved and not forgotten.

“We’re very excited to participate in the upcoming release of the movie, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” said Franklin Graham, President of Samaritan’s Purse. “We want children around the world to know the true meaning of Christmas—the birth of Jesus Christ—and the joy ­­­­­­­­­­­­­and hope that this brings.”

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A good friend of mine did his Ph.D on the question of the Church's relationship to homelessness, and now runs a homeless ministry down in Atlanta. In his latest blog post, he addresses the question he is asked most: Should I give money to a homeless person? His response is thoughtful, engaging and addresses primarily how we need to think about these questions in the first place. Go check out his post here, and let me know your thoughts.

In June of this year I highlighted NY Times jounalist Nicholas D. Kristof’s article Death by Gadget in this post.  Kristof did a great job of speaking the truth about the war in Eastern Congo and the driving force behind it. Yes that force is the demand for Congo’s minerals which are used to manufacture most electronics, Apple products included.

Since that post I’ve also posted a bit about an organization I am hearing more and more from called Falling Whistles.

Falling Whistles began because an American young man visiting Eastern Congo, ran into a few boys who had just ran away from the army they had been forced to join and who were now in hiding. This young American man listened to their stories of their kidnapping and the brutality they were forced to endure themselves and inflict on others. And then he heard something he could hardly believe was true.

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While I sleep at night, a war rages on in Congo. When I rise from my desk at work to grab a drink of water, men, women and children are thirsty in Congo. While I sit in traffic on my daily commute, Congolese children sit and wait in hiding, hoping the merciless rebels pass them by. 

Congo is special to me. I was in the country in 2003. I met the locals. I ate the food. I poorly attemped to speak the language. I met beautiful children. Congo is in great need. The Congolese have suffered for generations. It's time for the country called "the heart of darkness" to experience the light of Christ. 

An organization called Fallen Whistles is working hard to help those of not in Congo not forget the world's most deadliest and violent war going on right now in Eastern Congo. Stories are a powerful tool in bridging the gap between the not so personal and the personal. Congo and the Congolese people are worth becoming personal. Their lives are too valuable for the world to continue to turn away to such devastation. 

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It has been one of those weeks.  Everything around me seems to need fixing.  First the shower backed up and then my car broke down.  My bike had a flat and the gaping hole in my front yard reminded me of the patio that still needed to be put together.  I spent Saturday morning figuring out the car situation and checking in on the plumber's ETA.  Then some friends came over to help lay pavers for the new patio.  Over coffee and egg sandwiches we fixed the big hole one brick at a time.  With so much still broken around me it felt good to get one thing taken care of, to have one thing fixed.

As we look around the situation in our country it is easy to see that many things are broken.  When it comes to immigration one quickly notices that a lot is severely broken.  Wouldn't it feel good to even get one thiing fixed? This coming week we as a nation have the opportunity to fix at least one thing for thousands of young people.  The Dream Act is being considered as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Bill.  Senators will be voting this week.  The Dream Act is a bill that provides a conditional path to citizenship for young people who were educated and raised in the United States and yet have no way of legally working.  Currently there are around 65,000 "Dreamers" living in the US.  These students go to college or serve in our military and desperately want to fully participate as Americans. 

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I wanted to upload an excerpt of the book and I finally found one.  This is the intro and chapter one.  If you read it, you will have a pretty good idea where the book is heading.  

Earlier this year, Fast Company reported a surprising outcome of the economic downturn: more people were volunteering.  Perhaps this is understandable because as more people were out of work, they had greater opportunities to lend their now abundantly free time to causes that they deemed worthy. Interestingly, the category that had the highest percentage of volunteers was those who were engaged in some type of religious charitable work. More than any other option, when people chose to spend their time on helping, they choose to do so with an organization who's mission was not limited to this temporal life.

Perhaps the economic downturn was to blame for this as well. Perhaps, as times our tough, people want to invest their time in something that is of seemingly higher value. When I worked for a church curriculum publisher, we found that sales of Sunday School material went up when the economy went sour. Persummably the less people could count on money, the more willing they were to turn to God. 

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We're about halfway through  the month. We are stuck around 34th for last few days, so we need a little boost! I made this video to remind you of your power to make a difference in this world.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyEXp7WxboA

We are getting some more media attention. We were in the Post on Saturday.(http://bit.ly/bAJEjr

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In the middle of all the hype and angst about Anne "Interview With a Vampire" Rice leaving Christianity, a new story has emerged, albeit with a little less fanfare. It seems as though Katy "I Kissed a Girl" Perry has decided to tell the world, "I'm still a Christian." Or at least that part of the world that read her recent interview, "Sex, God and Katy Perry," in Rolling Stone magazine.

Talk about a spiritual cage match made in, er, heaven. Wouldn't you just love to get the 68 year-old Rice--raised Catholic, turned atheist, Catholic again, and now somewhere in between--in a room with 25 year-old Perry--raised Pentecostal by tongue-speaking parents, not rejecting her faith, but not exactly serving as a wholesome role model for all of her music fans? Wonder what these two spiritual titans would say to each other? 

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