Reply to Alan's comment and lots more

It sounds like the perfect plan to stifle economic success/grown/sustainability/anything other than economic exodus. The whole idea of lets tax the "rich" is a most demented idea. And give a tax rebate (entitlement/welfare handout) to those whom are not making money. It is soooo ridiculous! In the last several months I have known MANY people who would not take a job, or weren't looking for jobs even though they were laid off or fired because they had unemployment for like the next 39 years!
"Hey want a job, we are looking for someone that would be a good employee and we think you would fit the bill."
"Well, you know I wouldn't mind a job but really I don't think I will take it now, maybe in a few months when my unemployment runs out, right now I need to make the best use of my time and watch some tv or something while I bleed out the profits of everyone who does work. Call me in a few months."



I have an idea, why don't they stop taxing us so much (I don't consider myself rich, however, with a global perspective I suppose I am fairly wealthy just in that I can't remember the last meal I even thought about not being able to afford to eat) so we can afford to hire the guy who is unemployed, and have money left over to better fund things that CRWRC, or the Foods Recource Bank, or Compassion Evangelical Hospital, or other organizations that meet physical needs are working on, or just plain fund the Great Commission. Then we wouldn't be spending so much money beating terrorists into submission, and would be spending more money funding the advancement of the Gospel into the deep darkness where those terrorists are born and bred and loving people in the name of Jesus by telling them about who He really is. The death toll might rise, but maybe it wouldn't, and if it did, it would be a great non-risk for a GREAT God.
Sure a whole bunch of people that work for the government would have to get real jobs that add to society instead of drain on it, but I suppose that wouldn't be all bad. Then there would be more money for people to fund things like the Bread Basket project in our community that provides food locally for people in economic distress. And then we know who they are and can interact with them instead of some cold gov't program with no connection, no accountability, no anything other than some gov't handout.
We have a poster in our house that reads "JESUS SAVES from the American Dream". It isn't through taxation, but through Christ being a FAR GREATER treasure than money, success, love of the world, a big fancy house, new vehicles, status, 12 tvs (personally I think of saying 2 tvs but that would include a lot of people), good family, safety, access to all of the best amenities, a good neighborhood, financial security,........ none of those things are necessarily evil in themselves but do we treasure them more than Jesus...really? What in our lives would reflect that?
So, anyway, the one thing I do like for sure about McCain is his consistent (over the last many many years) work against pork barrel spending, like "The bridge to Nowhere" or lots of farm subsidy programs that allow lots of farmers like us to be careless and irresponsible with our resources, I could go on for a long time.
I can see how God could free us to give in our poverty like the 1st century Macedonian churches if Obama gets in as president. But the immoral chaos that could accompany it would not be good. However, I don't want to vote for McCain just because Obama is basically Doctor Death, I mean (and I don't really think he means it, it was a miscalculated statement I am sure) from his comment at Saddleback he wouldn't ever know when to entitle a child to human rights. Maybe they could get them when they are Adults?!? I mean really just quit feeding us a line of ______ and tell us what you really think and plan to do other than be the next president regardless of what you need to say to get there. With that said I reiterate I am sick of voting for what I perceive to be the somewhat lesser of two evils. At this point I can see why some Mennonites don't participate in government. It is just plain messy!
I could go on for pages in many different directions from this.
Ok, sorry for the rant, sort of, well not really. Ok, maybe...?

What farmers do when they milk until 23:00

Well, this wasn't supposed to be the next post but I am feeling a little distracted from being sequential so this is what farmers do when they milk cows and don't get done until 23:00. At first they think maybe they aught to go to bed right away, but that thought quickly fades in the light of posting. Well first they realize they aren't ever going to get home and that everyone else is long gone so they listen to some Piper on their iPod, then when they are done with that they see that they still aren't going to be done for an hour or so, so they find some Saweet Awesome Sovereign Grace Music to listen to. I recommendWorship God Live , my personal favorite.
Anyway when this farmer gets home he realizes not only is he still listening to the end of Worship God Live on his iPod, but behold! perhaps his son was a little fussy because his favorite (works WAY better than anything else) music (Worship God Live) is also playing on the computer even though his wife and child are long asleep.
Well, then he gets thinking about something his wife was harassing him about at lunch (see post on hats). So he takes some pictures to ask the opinion of the wonderful people that read his family's blog.

Hmmm I wonder what is for supper?......Most interesting rice with mushrooms, something yellow in it and carrots.... doesn't taste bad...but I am beginning to feel a bit like someone from Thailand where they raise something like 7,000 different kinds of rice (at this time of night that number could be way off, but it is the number that sticks in my head from the young guy from there that I heard speak this past summer at the Foods Resource Bank national meeting). Ok, now for my survey question....

Real Politics and Real Poverty

Here are a few statistics from the first quarter of fund raising for the presidential election next fall. According to the BBC:

2007 FIRST QUARTER FUNDRAISING
Hillary Clinton - $26m
Barack Obama - $25m
Mitt Romney - $23m
Rudy Giuliani - $15m
John Edwards - $14m
John McCain - $12.5m

Hillary Clinton is also adding another 10 million to this from her last senate race.

The Enormous total of all of this is 125.5 million dollars. That's a lot of million!!
So you might be wondering what is the point of this post. Well, could it be to say "Wow! I can't wait to start hearing all of the political adds, and nothing on talk radio except election, election, election!! (note: if this was in reference to Biblical election of the saints than I would say a big YAHOOO!!!!) AN EMPHATIC NO!!! I get pretty interested in politics and will gladly talk it with people, however that is not what hit me when I read those statistics on the BBC Headlines.

I am part of a local chapter of the Foods Resource Bank called locally the Hunger Relief project. As stated on their website (We have a link to this website also on our blog; see lower right column)

Foods Resource Bank (FRB) works on behalf of its members - 16 of the mainline Christian denominations or their agencies - to mobilize and increase the resources needed to support smallholder, agricultural, food security programs in some of the world's poorest villages. In the U.S., community "growing projects" raise a crop or other marketable resource, monetize it, and make the proceeds available to FRB. These financial resources are provided to the implementing members of FRB, who work with their in-country partners worldwide to help local communities to become self-sufficient and food-secure, producing enough to feed themselves and vulnerable individuals (AIDS orphans, the elderly, women and children), with extra to share, barter or sell to purchases basic medicines and staples, and send ALL their children to school.

A couple great things about the FRB is that 100% of the money raised is given to the missions organizations of the 16 members. To compare only about 60% or the money raise by/given to the Red Cross gets past the administration and advertisers. Also for the last several years there has been a dollar for dollar matching grant from US-A.I.D. (United States Agency for International Development). So for every dollar raised FRB received a dollar from the US government. What this has all worked out as in our specific project is that basically for every dollar donated to our project, after the crops have been grown and sold, and the money matched, every dollar given has turned into just over 4 dollars sent to people in need. Instead of 60% on your dollar it is about 400% on your dollar !!!

Soooo, back to politics. I realize that campaigns have to be run, and that there isn't much we can do about curbing the money spent. HOWEVER, I can' help but think of how so many of these people talk about helping the poor and needy and then spend this kind of money on campaigns (mind you this is only the money raised in the "first quarter").
The first thing that came to mind when I read those numbers was the difference that $5.37 can make. $5.37 is the average cost per person that it takes the FRB partners to feed a person for ONE WHOLE YEAR!!!!! So, I took the numbers, did a little crunching and came up with the 125.5 million dollars then divided that by $5.37 (this will not factor in the gov't matching funds). And came up with more than 23 million people!!!! That is a lot of people! I tried getting my head around that and it took a bit:
The total number of people living in Michigan is just over 10 million. Ohio is 11 million. That leaves another 2 million to feed.
Or you could feed the equivalent of 2/3 of all the Black people living in the U.S.
Or the entire population of CO,NE,KS,SD,ND,MT,WY,ID,OK,IA,NM, and MA combined.
This equates to whole countries in Africa (or several countries).
Angela and I visited Zambia (south central Africa pop. 10 million) last winter and visited one of the projects. Most of the projects work to teach people how to feed themselves. This picture is one example of the difference being made. The people of Zambia eat corn (maize) 3 times a day. This is the difference in the normal Zambian corn and the corn grown through practices taught using FRB monies. (note these practices cost VERY little more or no more than normal practices. The FRB corn is on the right and far left.

Needless to say I am deeply troubled when I think of the waste of such large sums of money on our politics, when so many are in need.

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8 ESV

Harvest Celebration

This Sunday we are having a Harvest Celebration at our church, Pigeon River Mennonite Church. We are having speakers come from the Foods Resource Bank to share with us their ministry going on throughout the world. In Huron County for the past couple of years Jonathan has been blessed to be involved in the Hunger Relief Project. Local farmers and members of the community donate time, land, equipment, and supplies so that locally grown crops are harvested with the proceeds being donated. The money is then distributed by the Foods Resource Bank to projects in developing nations to help our neighbors develop sustainable agriculture in order to better feed themselves. Only a small portion of the money is used for relief food. Below are some pictures of Eastern Zambia, where we visited a FRB project this winter.