he wants me to pray, to give, and to go

That song, which we used to sing at my church during missions conferences (I've tried to find it online to no avail), has been running through my head recently. I'm not sure about the "go" part yet, but let me tell you about a couple "pray" and "give" opportunities that have been in my heart recently.

One Girl
One Girl is a prayer initiative of Tiny Hands International, a humanitarian organization. Their mission statement reads: Tiny Hands is a Christian non-profit organization dedicated to empowering the church in the developing world to help the poor overcome poverty and become lights of the world.  We are committed to finding the greatest injustices in the world, and working towards relieving them however possible.  We are particularly called to orphans, street children, and the victims of the sex-trafficking industry. We want to find those who are already doing the work, who are called and faithful, and help them do it in greater ways and with more efficiency. We do it all in obedience to, and for the glory of Jesus Christ. 

One Girl focuses on the 10,000 girls who are trafficked from Nepal to brothels in India each year. One Girl asks people like you and me to "spiritually adopt" one of these girls. For $10, they'll send you a bracelet that was made by one of the girls that has been rescued from sexual trafficking, and the bracelet serves as a reminder to pray. Of course, you can commit to pray without buying a bracelet, but I've found that my bracelet continually brings these girls back to my mind. The bracelet also gives me an opening to talk to people about trafficking; whenever someone comments on my bracelet, I tell him or her why I wear it.

A coworker first told me about One Girl last fall, and a local Christian radio station spotlighted the ministry during April. More than 1100 people signed up to pray!
 
Pray for Kate
Kate McRae is a little girl who is battling brain cancer. I first heard of her through Stuff Christians Like. I read SCL every day, but normally I get it through Google Reader and don't actually go to the website. One day, though, I went to the site, and I saw the "Pray for Kate" banner at the top. Curious, I clicked on the link ... and I "met" an amazing little girl and her family.

Kate is currently undergoing proton radiation treatments in Houston. Though I read the Caring Bridge journal that Kate's mom Holly updates, I can't even begin to fathom what this family is going through. All I can do is pray ... and ask you to also pray.     

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a little recognition

Without my friend Jen, I would never remember Administrative Professional's Day (or Week, if you prefer). So, it snuck up on me again last week, and I only realized that Wednesday was the day because Jen posted something about it on Facebook. Nothing was done for me or the other secretaries that day ... but the next day ...

I arrived to find a coffee on my desk. Then, when I returned from my afternoon class, I found all of this:

The cookies are from the business manager and his wife, and the flowers, card, and saying are from the principal and his wife. I definitely felt appreciated :-)

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narnia revisited

One of the classes I teach is an intermediate-level reading class. We finished reading C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe a couple weeks ago, and then we watched the recent Hollywood version. (I vastly prefer the BBC production from the '80s, but I knew my kids would be turned off by the special effects--or lack thereof!) While waiting for our next book to arrive, I had a few days to kill. We played Blurt!one day, which was a smashing success, but I worried we were too noisy. So the next day, I decided to show Prince Caspian via Netflix's instant streaming. My students are loving it. Me, not so much.

When I first saw Prince Caspian, I was less than impressed. I blogged about it, saying,

I saw Prince Caspian with friends last night. Entertainment-wise, I'd give it an A. But in terms of staying true to the story, a C- would be generous. (If you haven't seen the movie yet and plan to, it'd be best to skip to the next paragraph now!) I fell in love with The Chronicles of Narnia at a very young age. I've read the books (or had them read to me) three or four times, and I've seen the BBC version of Prince Caspian many times. I'd heard rumors that this movie changed many story details, but I had no idea how many! From a completely invented "storming the castle" battle to Caspian and Peter almost "freeing" the White Witch to Aslan not appearing until the very end of the movie, I couldn't believe all the changes. The last straw, however, was something I'd generally be all for: romance. But a romance between Caspian and Susan? Give me a break! When they kissed at the end, one of the guys I was with said (a bit too loudly) exactly what I was thinking: "Now they've ruined the movie!"

Having seen 3/4 of it again (we'll finish it on Tuesday), I can say my opinion hasn't changed at all. And I'm regretting showing it to my class, as they're getting the "reimagined" version without knowing the true story.

I do have some hope for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, though, thanks to this report. I'm glad the filmmakers have recognized they made mistakes with Prince Caspian. After Caspian, I wasn't sure I'd shell out my hard-earned money to see Dawn Treader in the theater, but now I probably will!

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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statement about reviews & recommendations (part 2)

Last October, due to the FTC's new blogger guidelines, I blogged about my connection to the products I review and/or recommend. Since then, a few things have changed, so I wanted to update you.

I still review books for Thomas Nelson, though I don't do as many as I used to. You may have noticed the name change from Book Review Blogger to BookSneeze.

I am now also a member of WaterBrook Multnomah's Blogging for Books program. (If you're a regular reader of this blog, I'm sure you've figured that out by now!) This is a great program that I'd encourage you to join if you have a blog and enjoy reading. I've had the opportunity to read and review some wonderful books (as well as one book I didn't like so much ... but that review is still in the making!), and I love the fact that they often provide me with an extra copy to give away!

I'm still an Amazon Associate, though to date I've made a whopping ten cents! And, since Amazon only pays when an associate reaches $10, I have yet to see my dime.

I recently joined a similar program at bookschristian.com. Most of my links for Christian books, music, and movies will probably point to them from now on. Their pricing is very similar to Amazon's.

When I signed up with bookschristian.com, they provided me with a link to Michael Hyatt's blog post on the FTC guidelines. Hyatt is the CEO of Thomas Nelson, and his blog is the reason I started reviewing books in the first place. (When Thomas Nelson published Lynne Spears' book Through the Storm, Hyatt offered free review copies to the first 200 bloggers to respond to his post. I was one of those bloggers, and shortly after that, the Book Review Blogger program was born.) In an effort to comply with the new guidelines, Hyatt recommends adding a "Disclosure of Material Connection" at the bottom of posts. So, to ensure I'm following the guidelines, I'll be doing that--ridiculous as it may seem.

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going to the chapel ...

My dear friend Melissa got married last weekend, and I had the honor of being one of her bridesmaids. The wedding was held in the bustling city of O'Neill. O'Neill calls itself the Irish capital of Nebraska, and I found it quite amusing that whenever anyone gave directions, they invariably started out with, "You go past the Shamrock ..." Yes, O'Neill has a giant shamrock painted on the main intersection. But that's not the point of this post!

The wedding itself was so nice. It was very sweet, and everyone could see how in love and how happy they were! I also enjoyed how short it was ... the ceremony was no longer than 30 minutes, and the reception didn't last more than an hour!

Melissa and me right before the wedding.

Me and my sisters.

The happy couple!

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my father the hero

I've previously mentioned the snake problem at my grandma's house. It's gotten to the point where I won't go into the basement unless it's absolutely necessary. Our most recent encounter with the snakes occurred last weekend when my family went down to visit Grandma for Easter. When we arrived, my dad went to the basement to turn on the water. Mom followed him shortly, and they remained downstairs for a suspiciously long amount of time. When they finally reemerged, Dad was carrying this:

You can't see what's inside the bucket, but trust me--it's a snake! I could see it slithering around ... ewww! Dad carried it outside--all the while, I was yelling, "Kill it! Kill it!"--put a heavy flowerpot on top, and left it until morning. Then he took care of it--and called me out to take a picture:

The animal rights people wouldn't call him a hero, but I sure do!

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short weekend, short week!

• My school had its annual benefit auction on Saturday night; as a result, I worked for seven hours Saturday afternoon and evening! (Fortunately, my job was fun, fairly stress-free, and with great people, so it didn't actually feel like seven hours.) That left me with a shorter weekend than usual ... however, one of the benefits of working at a Christian school is that we take time off for Easter, so I have a four-day weekend coming up!
• Once again, I seem to be in the business of killing plants. Stacey gave me an aloe vera plant around Christmas. It looked great for a long time, but recently it's been looking a little peaked. It's probably because it hasn't gotten much light ...
• I finally got some data pulled off the hard drive of my fried computer. I bought this external hard drive enclosure from Newegg.com, and it works really well. I was concerned it might not be compatible with Windows 7, but I had no problems at all ... even though the installation instructions were quite obviously not written by a native English speaker and I had to fill in the blanks! (Example: After plug the external box into, the system will remind you there is a new hardware of USB Storage Adapter adds into. After for a while, click "My Computer", USB HDD will appear the relativity on the PC.) I pulled off the things I needed (my 2008 tax return) or wanted (my iTunes download of Dr. Horrible) and left everything else alone--it seems to be working well, so why fill the hard drive of my laptop if I don't need to?
• Blendy and I cleaned my apartment because one of my students will be staying with me over Easter. She then actually updated her blog, so you can read about our weekend here!
• I am totally caught up on my reading! I have two reviews due the week of April 5 and another due the next week--and I've read all the books and written one of the reviews already! So what am I doing with my spare time? Reading! I just got the newest Karen Kingsbury book, Take Three, and I had a really difficult time putting it down last night.
• Speaking of my book review books, I have a whole bunch of giveaways coming up, so keep checking the blog! 
• I got my free copy of Emma today. Perfect timing, as the last movie I reviewed on my other blog was the Gwyneth Paltrow version of Emma. If you click over there, you'll notice the blog has a new look ... one that's much more "me"!
• Spring has finally come to central Nebraska! As I dove home from work today, I noticed the other drivers; nearly every one had the driver's window open. I immediately opened the windows in my apartment once I got home, and I'm thoroughly enjoying the warm breeze.
• The weddings are coming up! I bought my dress for Jen's wedding last Sunday, and Melissa's aunt is altering my dress for Melissa's wedding ... which is now less than two weeks away!
• Right now, I'm watching the new season of Dancing with the Stars. Missed it last week because of a work thing, so I'm seeing the changes--the new opening, new co-host, new dancers--for the first time. So far, I don't have a favorite ... but I do have someone I'm hoping gets kicked off first: Jake Pavelka, the Bachelor himself. Does ABC really think America still loves him? And if Vienna's sitting in the audience looking all googly-eyed, I may just have to hurl.

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