Smile Train 10 year Anniversary Celebration
On Tuesday night I had the opportunity to go to the 10 year Anniversary celebration for a great charity called Smile Train. I was honored to represent our church as our church gave a significant amount to this charity last year. I came across Smile Train in 2007 while looking for a charity to give a personal donation to at Christmas time. Little did I know this would spark our doing Advent Conspiracy in 2008. This 10 year anniversary celebrated 500,000 children getting surgery to repair clefts. Just in case your trying to do the math thats almost 150 a day over the last 10 years. They had the very first patient Smile Train helped, her story was very moving. Actually, In one of the Asian countries they are actually wining the war on clefts as last year in one of their countries their were more surgeries done than those being born with clefts. It was an awesome night with some great entertainment by Ronin Tynan, one of the three Irish tenors, and some movie stars. Colin Powell was a surprise guest at the party which was really cool. All in all it was a fun night. Here’s some of the reasons whay like Smile Train:
- For a SMALL amount of money ($250) they make BIG difference in a child’s life.
- Their business model is great. They get corporate sponsors to pay for advertising and administration costs and 100% of your donation goes to the surgery. Freakonmics talked about their business model.
- They are educating local doctors to do this 45 minute surgery. This in turn allows for them to continue to have more surgeries done every year as they have more doctors being trained to do the procedure. Like I said in one country, for the first time, they will have more surgeries done than children born with clefts.
Good News!
I just heard form my Dad that Joey is having movement in both legs now. This is awesome! The doctors were waiting to see movement both legs. Please continue to pray for complete recovery,
REDEEMER…Love that Name
Mark Driscoll is the man! Love this guy…
Here’s a recent quote from a pastor’s conference he was at. Hilarious. Some guy wrote this:
The conference, called “re:tool and re:load,” previously billed as “jesus 2.0,” featured speakers from around the country with the stated focus of “Making the Gospel and Missiology Relevant to Post Modern Culture.” Speaking at the last session of the conference, Driscoll focused his three-and-a-half-hour talk on the need for pastors to be more alpha. (Now for the quote).
“The problem with our churches today is that the lead pastor is some sissy boy who wears cardigan sweaters, has The Carpenters dialed in on his iPod, gets his hair cut at a salon instead of a barber shop, hasn’t been to an Ultimate Fighting match, works out on an elliptical machine instead of going to isolated regions of Russia like in Rocky IV in order to harvest lumber with his teeth, and generally swishes around like Jack from Three’s Company whenever Mr. Roper was around.”
I laughed out loud for about an hour at this one. Gotta love it.
Great Update!
Joe is getting more and more feeling back. He had some spasms in his legs today which is a really great sign. From what I understand if he continues to improve at the current rate he should be home by next friday. Please continue to pray that he has a FULL RECOVERY. Blessing to all who have been so great during this time.
Continued Prayer for Joe
Joe seems to be getting a little more feeling back. Nothing major yet, but we will thank God for every inch of progress a it happens. This signals the treatments seem to be working. Continue to pray.
Back from Rochester, Again
Today, Me and the pastoral staff went out to rochester to visit and pray for my brother. As I said, they have him on a new treatment and today he actually had some feeling in his feet. This is a good sign. I want to thank everybody for praying. I was especially encouraged to come home and be part of a prayer meeting at the church tonight where so many people came out to pray for my brother. Please keep praying. I will update as I get more news.
At the hospital….
Please continue to pray. I am currently in a waiting room waiting for Joe. He is receiving some sort of treatment to try and get the swelling down in the spine. Will update, as we get more info. Thank you for all your love and support.
Joe…
The doctors are pretty sure what Joe has is something called Transverse Myelitis. He has swelling of the spine and other places. They are currently treating him with steroids to try to get the inflammation down. If that does not work, they will try a more aggressive treatment on Monday. I want to thank everybody for their prayers and support. I apologize if I have not responded to every single one of you but I will do my best to keep you informed through my blog and Facebook. Please continue to pray.
Update on my brother Joe…
I want to thank everybody for their encouraging, kind words on my blog, Facebook, emails, and phone. Your prayers are appreciated very much. Let me say this, I love our church! I have seen the church at its best over the last 48 hours! Also, thank you to all of you in the larger body of Christ – our extended family. We have received communiction from all over the world telling us they are praying. I cant tell you how much that means to everyone. At the moment, Joey is in Rochester at Strong Memorial under the care of some very good neurologists. First, Pray for healing. Please continue to pray they find the cause of the problem so they can treat it. Pray for his wife and kids. His wife, Kelly, especially. I will update as I get more information.
