Thursday, August 17, 2006

AIDS CONFERENCE IN TORONTO

The AIDS conference is just wrapping up in Toronto. The Canadian Broadcasting Cooperation (CBC) has carried out some excellent programming on the conference (video streaming can be seen at www.cbc.ca). CBC carried out extensive coverages of:
1)How grand mothers in Africa are shouldering the burden of caring for the oprhans. Interviews with grandmothers from South Africa and east Africa were quite revealing.Canadian grand mother are equally rendering support through fundraising etc.
2)There have been some encouraging suport from the world's richest and the famous including comments or financialsupport from Bill Gates and his wife, Bill Clinton and Mr Lewis (the UN Envoy for AIDS).
3)The fight of AIDS through drama in Gambia by a nongovernmental organization showed that a lot can be achieved withought spending millions of dollars. The Nova Scotia Gambia Association has been carrying out AIDS campaign warnings through drama in Gambia resulting in reduced AIDS prevalence among the vulnerable groups.
4) There have been some stattling statistics on AIDS prevalence in Canada and North America in general.

Unfortunately, it looks as though the political leadership in Canada has had some second thoughts on whether to support the conference or not. The Prime Minister, for example kept away from all deliberations. Major announcemnts on AIDS by the Canadian government have had to be postponed.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

THE DASH

A young boy accompanied his grandpa to the cemetery. They walked about looking at tombstones and the flowers that loved ones had left. What caught the boy’s attention most as they looked at the tombstones was the dash between two numbers. Each tombstone had different numbers but there was always a dash between two numbers. The boys asked grand pa why the dash was on every tombstone. Grand pa seized the moment and explained the meaning of life as symbolized in the dash. He explained that the dash stood for the length of one’s life on earth. The first number stood for when the person was born while the second number stood for when the person died. The dash then was an expression of how long someone lived. ’God will demand an accounting of how the dash was lived,’ he went on. “A dash lived for self is worthless. As well, a dash that did not recognize God as the giver of life and Lord will face judgement. It did not matter how long one lived.” The young man got very scared and wondered how he could avoid the judgement. Grandpa asked the boy to open his heart to Jesus. The boy was born again in the graveyard.
This story is an adaptation of Pastor Grabke's sermon on August13, 2006 at Faith Baptist Church in Regina.

BRIAN

My Pastor shared the following story a few Sundays ago on our responsibility to love others.
A lady was driving home on a cold and grey evening. The sun had already gone down and darkness was setting in. As bad luck would have it, the car got a flat tire. Considering the time of day and the weather conditions, the lady became frantic and waved every car that passed by. Unfortunately, all the cars zoomed past her without stopping. The lady became quite scared and feared for her life. Along came a truck driven by a shabby looking man. The man spotted the lady from a distance and sensed that she could be in trouble. The lady fearing for her life jumped into her car and rolled up the windows. The man stopped and inquired if he could be of any help. The lady was not sure whether she should speak to the stranger.The lady speaking through her rolled down car window said that she had a flat tire and would appreciate some help at any cost. The man got to work immediately and quickly replaced the flat tire. The lady asked the man who he was to which he replied that his name was Brian. The lady asked Brian to name any price for changing the flat tire. Brian refused to take any money but said that he was just happy to see that she was out of danger. He only asked the lady to extend a helping hand to others as means of paying for the generosity he extended to her. The lady thanked Brian and left. Some 5km down the road, the lay spotted a coffee shop and went over to have a cup. As she sat down to order her coffee, an overworked pregnant waitress came to serve her. It was obvious by her expression that she was barely trying to make ends meet. When the lady struck some conversation with the waitress, she learnt that the baby was due any time but money was short. Upon leaving the restaurant, the lady left four $100 dollar bills on top of the change from the $1,000 bill that she had placed on the tray with a note saying, ”Please take the money and use it for the baby.” The lady was overjoyed and before she could thank the lady, she was already driving off. The waitress went home and eagerly wanted to share her experience that evening with her husband. The husband was already fast asleep when she got home but she lightly kissed him on his forehead and said , “I love you Brian.”

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

The Rolling Stones coming to Regina

Regina is a very small city (by western standards), yet it seems to compete very favourably with big cities. Who would think that the Rolling Stones would stage two shows in this Prairie city? Well, they are coming in October. Confirmed date is 13th October which is the same week of the Queen City Marathon in Regina- billed for October 10. According to local radio talk shows, a second RS show will take place during the same week. I don't know the hipe with the Stones (perhaps a baby boomer effect), tickets on Ebay have skyrocketed to over $3,000! I don't plan on going to see the RS but I am just happy that they are coming to Regina and will certainly complement the Queen City Marathon very well.

Followers