I happened to snap this picture of Rudolph and one of his fellow sleigh pullers in our back yard yesterday. 

BEAUTIFUL day for a run.  Ran the old 7.5 miler through the Air Force Academy to the South Entrance overpass.  A train blew by me at the end of the run.

I was reading an article describing the need for Jesus in Africa, written by a self described athiest.  The author talks about a Christian organization that helps supply drinking water to folks living in Africa.  But the point of the article is the practical success of Christian organizations in Africa, where secular ones are lacking.  Just throwing money at problems is not the answer.  A changed heart, through faith in Jesus Christ, is.   Some may complain that Compassion has an “agenda”, but why not?             Excerpts from this article are as follows……

Now a confirmed atheist, I’ve become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people’s hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good.

Whenever we entered a territory worked by missionaries, we had to acknowledge that something changed in the faces of the people we passed and spoke to: something in their eyes, the way they approached you direct, man-to-man, without looking down or away. They had not become more deferential towards strangers - in some ways less so - but more open.

 

We got a Christmas card from Ricardo in El Salvador.  His english is AWESOME!  In his latest letter, he said that his “tutors” were teaching him English.  The tutors he was talking about are church members.  Compassion joins with the local church to provide church members to help “tutor” the kids.

Both sides of the letter will be in Ricardo’s “link” on the  left hand column.

Merry Christmas!!!

We are planning on a quiet Christmas this year.  One thing we are going to do is to write a letter to all of our Compassion sponsored kids.  This might be a good family project on Christmas night for any of you that are currently sponsoring a child.  And if not, gather around the computer as a family and access http://www.compassion.com/steveandconniejohnson  to sponsor a child.    Have a wonderful and blessed Christmas this year!

This video is very convicting.  What we can do with a fraction of the money we spend on Christmas.

Back at it today after battling the worlds worst cold last week.  Looks like treadmill duty for a week with all the COLD weather we have right now.  Last night on the weather, it said the temp here was 5 and minus 16 in Denver.  Ugh.

 

My training has been severely affected this last week by the worst cold I have ever had.  Tried to run once last week, but just too weak.  Anyway, I finally had to get some drugs.  Hmmm, the good stuff!

Got my results from the Turkey Trot…   24th in my age group!  Not sure how many runners there were… I would guess around 1500.

   21   380 M W.T. Grampp            51   41:34
   22  1216 M Ron Warner             52   41:36
   23   293 M Jim Erickson           51   41:51
   24   509 M Stephen Johnson        53   41:51
   25   729 M Randall Neilson        51   42:11
   26    42 M Robert Badgley         54   42:14
   27  1046 M Kevin Tripp            50   43:08 
  

Thank God we live in a country that is taking the lead on AIDs programs in Africa. It seems, however, that more people, by far, are dying of other diseases that are relatively extremely underfunded. One recent news story talks about statistics in Rwanda. An excerpt from this article … By 2006, AIDS funding accounted for 80 percent of all American aid for health and population issues, according to the Global Health Council.
In Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda and elsewhere, donations for HIV projects routinely outstrip the entire national health budgets.
In a 2006 report, Rwandan officials noted a “gross misallocation of resources” in health: $47 million went to HIV, $18 million went to malaria, the country’s biggest killer, and $1 million went to childhood illnesses.

In fact, diarrhea accounts for 5 times the deaths that AIDS does.  And malaria accounts for 3 times the deaths.  But AIDS gets 80% of the funding.  Hmmmmmmmmm. 

Another source

Leading Causes of Death in Children Under Five Years of Age, Estimates for 2000-2003 (Source: World Health Organization, The World Health Report 2005)
Rank	Cause	Numbers (thousands per year)	% of all deaths
1	Neonatal causes	3,910	37
2	Acute respiratory infections	2,027	19
3	Diarrheal diseases	1,762	17
4	Malaria	853	8
5	Measles	395	4
6	HIV/AIDS	321	3
7	Injuries	305	3

 

 

As part of my training, it is always fun to run a race every once a while.  The Scott Co Y Turkey Trot was a perfect run for me right now.  A 5 miler with a good hill thrown in.  Beautiful day for a run.  Pretty chilly starting out, but not much wind and sunny!!!  

I used an old Turkey Trot t-shirt to run in.

Post tags: Races

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