17 Dec, 2008
Posted by: Randy Siever
I thought this was worth sharing. From an article in Christianity Today…just the opening paragraph. Thanks to Helen Mildenhall who saw this and sent it to me!
Listening As Spiritual Care
Attentive, careful listening is a wonderful gift that we can give.
by Nancy Gordon, M.Div., C.A.S.P., Director, CLH Center for Spirituality and Aging
When my younger daughter was about four, she was sitting at the eating bar in our kitchen/family room as I worked on meal preparation. We were involved in a conversation that I thought was going fine. But she brought me up short when she said, “Mom, I need you to listen to me with your eyes.” I realized that I’d been only half listening as I did my work, and I certainly was not looking at her and giving her my full attention.
Read the rest of this article here…
15 Dec, 2008
Posted by: Randy Siever
I have been searching for ordinary ways to create awareness of what the “rest of the world” is like and discovered I could use my creativity to sell new/gently used handbags to recycle, give a bargain, and create awareness regarding human trafficking. My profit goes to People of Purpose, a non-profit in our church that focuses on fighting human trafficking.
Anyhow, it has become my “nitch” and ordinary way of giving back and sharing why I do what I do.
-Carrie
(to check out Carrie’s work, click HERE)
15 Dec, 2008
Posted by: April
I get my inspiration from everywhere and last night it happened to be from the program “60 Minutes.” You can view the segment here. It was a story about the USC Trojan’s head coach, Pete Carroll, but it was more than just a story about a coach of a winning team. It was a story about hope and how we can share that hope with others. You see, Coach Carroll spends a lot of his time volunteering for the at-risk youth of Los Angeles, and he sits with young men regularly in an effort to inspire them to have hope. They have a lot of reasons not to have hope when all they see on a daily basis is death and violence, but when someone comes in and offers them hope, often they will reach for it. Coach Carroll started an organization called “A Better LA” that brings together anti-gang organizations and unites them to work together. Interestingly, I looked the word “coach” up in the dictionary, and found that it was derived as a slang term by students who viewed their tutors as a “coach carrying them through their examinations.” That visual of a teacher carrying his students in a horse-drawn coach, gives me a whole new understanding of the word.
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