The Trials of Ted Haggard

For thethe evalution of halloween in america first couple of months since we've been back, we were given free HBO as part of our dish package. Now it's costing us, so it's time to cut those channels! However, I'm glad I hadn't done that yet, because I was able to DVR a documentary called "The Trials of Ted Haggard." As HBO's website describes it:

"Once upon a time, Ted Haggard had it all: prosperity, a doting wife, five kids and a ministry that reached 30 million followers. The larger-than-life founder and pastor of Colorado's New Life Church and president of the National Association of Evangelicals, Haggard was one of the most formidable forces in America's Christian evangelical movement. But in 2006, it all fell apart. Pastor Ted admitted to "sexual immorality" and buying methamphetamines from a male prostitute, which abruptly ended his career, sending him and his family into free-fall. The bombshell not only rocked the ministry, but everyone who knew him - especially his wife and five children.

A film by Alexandannual north halsted halloween parade in chicagora Pelosi (HBO's Emmy®-winning "Journeys with George"), THE TRIALS OF TED HAGGARD takes an intimate look at the life and hard times of the ex-minister. "

If the name Pelosi seems familiar, it is: her mother is Nancy Pelosi - speaker of the House.

Anyway, watching this documentary was hard. I grew up in Colorado, just 30 minutes north of where Ted Haggard's former church is in Colorado Springs. I had obviously heard about all the things that happened with Haggard's ministry and had tried to keep up with the story as much as possible, but since moving back to Ohio I hadn't heard much. There were many things about The Trials Of Ted Haggard that made me sad.

First, I feel sad that a man of God has done what he has done. I'm not here to debate homosexuality or drug use or any of that - yet a Christian leader (rightfully so) is held to a higher standard and the phrase "the bigger they are, the harder they fall" is definitely true in church circles.

Second, I feel sad that Christian leaders are isolated and alone in so many ways, and when they do struggle with something, they feel like they can't share it or reveal it out in the open because they will get crucified for doing so. It's like we have such high expectations of our leaders, forgetting that they're human, and because we put them on a pedestal, there is absolutely no room for failure. Several times Haggard in the documentary talked about how he felt so trapped because he knew he had a problem, but because he was a pastor of a church of 14,000 people and because he represented 30 million Christians as the leader of the National Association of Evangelicals, he couldn't get out from under the pressure.

Third, I feel sad at how he and his family were treated. They had to leave their church - understandable I guess - but also had to leave the state of Colorado. I don't understand that part. He tried to get another job but couldn't find one. Here's a man who led thousands of people and I'm sure led a huge staff, but couldn't get any kind of regular job. I think the documentary said at the end that he was selling life insurance now. Thankfully, he was allowed to move back to Colorado. But still - I grieve that this man who has influenced so many lives is now friendless.

Please understand that I am in no way condoning anything that made Ted Haggard fall. However, I just think that no matter what we have done, whether we are a church leader or we are a church janitor or we are a church attender - we should be treated with dignity, respect, forgivenestravel around mexico on halloween and join the parades and love. You could see the pain on his face when he talked about the way people treated him after the scandal, and how low he and his family felt. I hope that true restoration can take place in his life, and in the rest of his family's lives - and that people can forgive and move on.

Helping others help themselves

My Uncle Chuck has spent most of his life so far working for the steel companies in Detroit. Whthe tradition of wearing costumes on halloweenen they started to fall on hard times 5 or so years ago, hechose to retire and begin working for PIME Missionary in Detroit. He has gone to India a couple of times, visiting the poor and the sick through mission activities.He has also helped to set up the Mission Store. Following is an article he wrote to help share the story of the Mission Store and the people behind it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Mission Store continues to explore opportunities for our sponsors to help the people help themselves. Fr. Franco Cagnasso tells us of an ambitious group of young ladies from one of our missions in Bangladesh who have handcrafted some of the beautiful jewelry that has been marketed and sold through the Mission Store.


And the leader of this enterprise? Martha...a young woman of about 30 with two beautiful children - an 8 year old girl and 5 year old boy. And a cruel drunkard husband who is in jail.

Fr. Franco shares this story about Martha...

Some time bacgetting married on halloween and to be another corpse couplek, Martha appeared at one of the PIME houses in Dhaka. Weak and pale with a high fever, and bleeding from a kidney operation that she had the previous day. The Sisters of Mother Teresa were contacted to address her needs. Having received the care that she needed, she left the Sisters only to return a few weeks later to say "thank you" and to offer some of her handicrafts in gratitude.

Born in the south of Bangladesh to a poor landless family, she came to Dhaka as a child with her parents and three sisters looking for a better life. Her father used to pull a rickshaw, work that killed him in a few years. Her mother collected wastepaper from door to door in an effort to make some kind of living, and the children helped by rummaging here and there along the streets. Martha and her sisters were fortunate to have learned a little bit of reading and writing that would help them along the way.

When her mother died, Martha took the lead, struggling like a tiger for her life and for her sisters, by doing any kind of work. One such job included housekeeping for a British family, where she picked up sufficient English to make herself understood. She read old fashion magazines, providing her with design ideas for handicrafts.

Martha lives with her two children, her younger sister Purnima (meaning 'full moon') and a colorful little group of girls whom she accepts in her small house when they get into trouble for any reason. She teaches them how to use a sewing machine, how to create Christmas decorations, to clean a modern house, to make rosaries and necklaces, and to print cloth for saris.

"With me," she says, "they often starve, but we starve together. I do not exploit them. They learn how to make a living...and therunning through corn mazes lost and scared on halloweeny feel accepted."

Martha has a strong. simple faith. "I am a sinner," she says. "I tell lies... But only to survive."

She says that Pope John Paul II smiled at her in a dream. She keeps a photo of him in her house and feels protected by his prayer.

Martha and the girls continue their struggle. They put on the only sari they have or their best "punjabi" and go to sell their products in the rich areas of town, knocking at the doors of clubs, schools, fairs and exhibitions, convents and parishes. They keep cleaning houses, washing clothes, and occasionally being babysitters and cooks. From time to time, Martha is called to teach school children how to decorate their classroom or to prepare gifts for their parents. They starve when there is no money; they feast when they earn some.

PIME World magazine has supported the efforts of these ladies by offering some of their handicrafts in the October 2006 issue and again in this issue. Life is still difficult, but Martha and the girls are more confident and they boast: "We sell our jewels even in America!"

Help us help these hard working ladies help themselves through your support.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You can help Martha and other women like her by purchasing handcrafted, fair-trade gifts through the PIME Mission Store Online. They have a nice selection of handmade jewelry, as well as handpainted Christmas cards. All of the proceeds benefit the crafters and PIME Missionaries.

Kacy’s 11th Birthday… one month ago!

Yes, yes. I am a horrible blogger. Honestly, I think about blogging often… but then life keeps going and I get sidetracked… and then it turns into weeks between blog posts. I just went out and looked at the blog itself and realized that, as bad as the basketball season has turned for the Hogs, I might want to think about a new banner! So sad… But that is another post on its own.

So what have we been doing? Well, I have managed to become addicted to Facebook! I even got Marcus on there and he has found friends that he hasn't heard from in a long time. So if you are out on Facebook, look us up!

So Kacy turned eleven last month! It is hard to imagine that my baby girl is that old. We informed her that since she is older, her parties would start getting smaller and her presents might get a little larger. Thankfully she was receptive to that idea so I didn't have to plan a big shin-dig. But even with a "smaller party," we still ended up celebrating her birthday the entire week! Ha!

It started on Monday when we celebrated with her class. Her class was scheduled to go to the symphony onindiana jones back again her actual birthday, so we celebrated the day before. I brought up brownies and cookies to share with the class. Here's a pic of Kacy trying to ignore her mom in the back of the room with a camera…

Tuesday was her true birthday… but poor thing ended up with just a normal ole' day… well, except for the fact that she was given an iPod Nano while she worked on her homework! That doesn't happen just any ole' day! We had a deal with her that she had to pay $100 towards the Nano and we would pay the rest as herchoose halloween mask to make the perfect halloween costume birthday present. As she received gift cards over the next few days she just handed them over to me until we hit $100. Then she got to keep the rest. Not a bad deal for her, really. Here's a pic of the purple Nano - just the color she wanted…

Wednesday we went out to eat to celebrate her birthday. She chose Carino's. Such a good little girl – and her tastes have truly expanded over the last few months. Thankfully she isn't all about mac'n'cheese or hot dogs (although Abby is). She has added several pasta dishes to her selection, so she was happy to be at Carino's. Of course, I took a pic of her meal – mostly because I was so excited that she didn't order chicken nuggets (although Abby did). Of course, the downside of this is that we have to PAY for her to not eat off of the kiddy menu!

I think Thursday was the only day th10 halloween costumes in 2008at we didn't do something specific to celebrating the birthday – outside of preparing the house for the party. Abby had basketball practice, so that had us on the go for the evening.

Friday was the big day of the party. She had asked for a slumber party, and I had asked that we keep it small. We invited just four girls to spend the night, so I had five 11-12 year old girls for the evening. They were a BREEZE! Of course, I was wondering what was going on when we had two neighborhood boys sneak in the house for the pizza and cake. Haha – they are good boys that Kacy plays with all of the time, so it was fine. Once they had their cake, I pushed them on out of the door and back to their houses. The girls went upstairs, made up dances, and did all of those things that girls do at slumber parties… we had nail polish, singing, hairstyles… you know. Kacy had a lot of fun… although she didn't agree to me taking pictures… UGH. Here is one photo I managed to snap when they weren't paying too much attention to me…

Now – do you see that purple thing there on the front of the table? "What could that be," you are wondering… well, it was the CAKE! My dear friend, Erica, made this iPod cake for Kacy! It was AWESOME! I had asked her to make it and she SOOOO exceeded my expectations! Here are some close-ups (which I did get pictures of because the cake can't roll its eyes and hold its hand up in front of my lens!)…

Seriously – look at the detail! See the charge bar on the bottom? And HEAVENS – LOOK at those ear buds! I couldn't BELIEVE it when I saw this! She even made it purple – just like Kacy's new iPod!

So THANK YOU, Erica! You are fabulous and you totally made Kacy's party! The girls absolutely LOVED the cake! And I can attest to you that this cake was DELICIOUS!

That was Kacy's birthday-week. She had fun and she is so happy to be 11. We have been busy doing all kinds of things with her to prepare for the transition to middle school next year. We are so happy with our school and everything they are doing to help us prepare. We have had THREE different events at either the elementary school or the middle school to prepare for the move next year. I feel so good with this move.

Alright – I'm going to update my calendar so that I get REMINDERS to update the blog! Maybe that will keep me focused a bit better…

Until next time! Hugs!!