DAUGHTER-MOTHER EXCHANGE ON FACEBOOK

Click for the larger view.

Lovely, don't you think? The message caught me quite by surprise.

AM I LUCKY, OR WHAT?

FEDEX COURIER SERVICE,
EDO STATE,NIGERIA
WEST AFRICA.
12-06-2011

Dear Customer!
SHIPMENT CODE: CPEL/OWN/9856
PARCEL #: EG2272

You have a parcel contaning an ATM CARD worth Eight Hundred Thousand Dollars [$800,000.00USD] with us at the FedEx delivery company. Your delivery charges has been paid for. All you have to do is to re-confirm your information with the correct mailing address and make a payment of $210USD only [Two Hundred and Twenty Dollars Only] for the security keeping fee of the said parcel.

For your information, the delivery Charges, Insurance premium and Clearance Certificate Fee of the ATM CARD showing that it is not a Drug Money or meant to sponsor Terrorist attack in your Country have all been paid for. You have to contact the Dispatch Office now for the delivery of your Draft with this information below:

Contact Person: ----- -----
Email Address: Email: -------------@----.--
Telephone:+--- --- ---- ---

Please reconfirm your details:

FULL NAMES:
TELEPHONE:
POSTAL ADDRESS:
STATE:
COUNTRY:

Again, don't be deceived by anybody to pay any other money except $210US Dollars as stipulated by the company. They would have paid that but we said no because we don't know when you will contact us and in case of any demurrage.

Finally, make sure that you re-confirm your Postal address(s) and Direct telephone number to them again to avoid any mistake on the Delivery.

Yours Faithfully,

Ms. ---- --------,
Secretary.

What a bargain! $800,000.00 in exchange for only $210USD. Nevertheless, Grandpère said I should choose demurrage. What is he thinking?! Help! What should I do?

STORY OF THE DAY - SORROW

This is a box filled with the sorrow of all
the people who have been forgotten &
some day it will wash the world clean.

We can hope.

From StoryPeople.

UPDATE ON GÖRAN

Posted on Facebook:

A few minutes ago, me and our dear mum Rosemary Kestner Kauffman, we have talked with dad Göran Koch-Swahne, over the phone,he told us the surgery was successful, but he don't know the day he will get back home, until doctors confirm the right time, so for the time being he is having a rest, therefore later he will be under kind of rehab for the recovery process, and he said thanks for the kind wishes and prayers from all his facebook friends. Thanks too from me and may God bless us all. cheers!

Thanks be to God, the medical staff, and all who care for our friend. Please continue your prayers for Göran's full recovery.

Update on Göran posted on Facebook:

@all,thanks, a few minutes ago, i have talked with Goran, and i was glad for the positive improvement news, he told me doctors have re-asured him he will go home coming wednesday, so lets hope this time around he will get back to his house, thanks for your best wishes to him.

Ah yes! It's lovely to get more good news on our friend.

SECOND DIOCESE IN ANGLICAN CHURCH OF AOTEAROA, NEW ZEALAND AND POLYNESIA SAYS NO TO THE ANGLICAN COVENANT

From Bosco Peters at Liturgy blog:

Breaking news (thanks to Rev. Ngira Simmonds) on the Eve of Pentecost the second Episcopal Unit (cf. diocese) in the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia has rejected the Anglican Covenant:

Read the entire statement at Bosco's blog. I especially like the following words:

■In terms of our shared Mihingare and Anglican heritage, our call to communion, and our call to ministry and mission, the Covenant offers us nothing new or more compelling than the Spiritual Covenant that we already have with each other through faith in Jesus Christ;

Yes! Thank you, my dear fellow Anglicans in Te Hui Amorangi o Te Tairawhiti Episcopal Unit in New Zealand.

WHAT ARE LITTLE BOYS MADE OF?

You may or may not have seen the two episodes of "The "Sissy Boy" Experiment" on "Anderson Cooper 360", the nightly news show on CNN, about the young boy, Kirk Murphy, who was not quite five years old when he was taken to UCLA for early intervention treatment in an experimental program for young boys who showed evidence of excessive femininity. Yes, that is UCLA. The purpose of the treatment was to change the excessively effeminate behavior and prevent the young boys from possibly growing up gay.

The story is heartbreaking. If you'd like to watch the two episodes which have already aired, here are the links:

The "Sissy Boy" Experiment Part One

The "Sissy Boy" Experiment Part Two

Jim Burroway, who blogs at Box Turtle Bulletin, investigated the story, and he will be seen on another episode on CNN sometime next week. Jim published the results of his separate, in-depth investigation, which gives a much fuller and more detailed report on Kirk's story, at Box Turtle Bulletin under the title What Are Little Boys Made Of?. Jim's report is long, in seven parts, but I plead with you to take the time to read it. I read it in two intervals because the report is so very tragic and emotionally wrenching that I had to stop at Part 5 and resume the next day.

Kirk's main counselor seems to have been George Rekers, a young graduate student at the time. Yes, the anti-gay activist George Rekers, the co-founder of the Family Research Council, who was caught recently at the Miami Airport traveling with a young male escort.

Rekers, who is also a professor emeritus of neuropsychiatry at the University of South Carolina and a Baptist minister, recently testifed against gay adoption in Florida, where he resides.

No doubt Rekers testified as an expert against gay adoption. If you made up the story, no one would believe you, but, tragically, the story is all too true. Kirk's picture at the head of the post shows him at about the age that the therapy began.

As Jim Burroway says:

In this original BTB investigation, we speak with his family and friend who knew the real “Kraig” to uncover the truth behind Reker’s greatest success story. Their stories reveals the tragedy of a terrible experiment on a very young boy which would haunt him for the rest of his life. It is not only an indictment of a man who built his anti-gay career on Kirk’s suffering, but a rebuke to others — those in the mental health profession then and in the contemporary ex-gay movement today — who would place their careers and agendas ahead of the well-being of this young boy and countless others like him.

Kirk Murphy committed suicide in 2003 at the age of 38.

Thanks to Jim Burroway for his hard work in investigating and telling Kirk's story.

Photo from Box Turtle Bulletin.

PLEASE CONTINUE TO PRAY...

...for Ann's friend who is awaiting surgery/treatment for tumors:

seeing a specialist.

Thanks for your prayer connections all over the world. I do feel a certain united energy pulling for my return to health. Actually, in my mind, I feel quite healthy but the body begs to differ from time to time.

Almighty God our heavenly Father, graciously comfort your servants in their suffering, and bless the means made use of for their cures. Fill their hearts with confidence that, though at times they may be afraid, they yet may put their trust in you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Update from Ann:

Had a call from my friend. She saw the specialist in her type of tumors. He thinks he can treat it with a medication which is specific for these. Will shrink them and keep her in remission.

Keep praying. She says thanks and feels the power bearing her up and strengthening her.

Update 2 from Kirstin at Facebook:

Kirstin Paisley

Just home from first infusion of Yervoy. I go back in three weeks, if I tolerate it. Chemo nurse was wonderful. Also got some decent pain and nausea control, which I'm glad for, because my leg threw a fit (no I don't mean a seizure) on the way home. My hope isn't on fire, but it's curious.

FEAST OF STS COLUMBA AND EPHREM

The Abbey at Iona

In 563 Columba and 12 companions left Ireland, arriving first at what is today Southend, on the southern tip of Kintyre. This, though, was still within sight of Ireland, so they travelled further north, landing on Iona on 12 May 563. The island was granted to Columba for the establishment of a monastery by King Conall of a distant relative. (Undiscovered Scotland)

The feast day is past and gone, but no matter. Time in the Kingdom of God is not our time. MadPriest's service of Evening Prayer for the feast day at St Laika's is lovely. If only for the gorgeous version of “Kells Opening Theme” performed by Iona, it's worth a listen. But there's more, much more.

Ephrem...was a teacher, poet, orator, and defender of the Faith.... Edessa (now Urfa), a city in modern Turkey about 100 kilometers from Antioch (now Antakya), was a an early center for the spread of Christian teaching in the East. It is said that in 325 he accompanied his bishop, James of Nisibis, to the Council of Nicea. Certainly his writings are an eloquent defense of the Nicene faith in the Deity of Jesus Christ. He countered the Gnostics' practice of spreading their message through popular songs by composing Christian songs and hymns of his own, with great effect. He is known to the Syrian church as "the harp of the Holy Spirit." (James Kiefer at The Lectionary)

PRAYER OF ST EPHREM

O Lord and Master of my life, give me not the spirit of sloth, meddling, lust for power and idle talk. But grant to me, your servant, a spirit of integrity, humility, patience and love. Yes, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own faults and not to judge my brothers and sisters. For blessed are you unto the ages of ages. Amen.

CELTIC BLESSING

In work and worship,
God is with us.

Gathered and scattered,
God is with us.

Now and always,
God is with us.

Check out St Laika's. You won't be sorry.

SEXUAL ASSAULT PREVENTION TIPS

Click on the image for the larger view.

Thanks to Paul the BB on Facebook.

PLAY LIKE LES PAUL

Are you playing Les Paul's guitar on Google today? I am, and I'm having great fun with it.

Les Paul is 96 years old today. Happy Birthday, Les!

UPDATE: Right, Les passed on in 2009. Up there in heaven, Les, can you hear me?