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WITandWISDOM(tm) - July 25, 2005 ISSN 1538-8794 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: My mother gave me a bumblebee pin when I started work. She said: "Aerodynamically, bees shouldn't be able to fly. But they do. Remember that." - Jill E. Barad Source: Quote Lady's Quote of the Day, mailto:quote-a-day-subscribe@yahoogroups.com ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: Pastor John Ortberg tells a delightful story about Toby, who wrote an essay about world hunger and won a mission trip to Ethiopia with World Vision. One day, boarding a bus to his next assignment, Toby was stopped by a boy clamoring for his shirt. He blew off the beggar, but gazing out the back window, he saw half-naked locals chasing the bus. He wouldn't see those kids again, yet he saw them over and over in the video on his brain. And in his Bible he read Jesus' words, "I needed clothes and you clothed Me." Matthew 25:36 Toby returned to Michigan, but he couldn't erase that kid from his mind. So he launched a neighborhood campaign called "Give the Shirt off Your Back." Going door to door, he asked his neighbors, "Got an extra T-shirt?" News of Toby's project spread. TV stations heralded the story, and 7-Eleven stores put out bins to collect T-shirts. Soon, Toby had 10,000 T-shirts ready to be shipped to Africa! The next obstacle was getting them there. Sending two tons via UPS would cost $65,000, so he called every relief organization he could find, but the response was predictable: "Sorry, we can't help." Three months later, the ' warehouse storing the T-shirts said, "We've rented the space. The shirts need to be gone in a week." So Toby prayed: "God, You got all these T-shirts together. How are You going to get them to Africa?" That's when CNN called: "We found a relief agency that can get your T-shirts to Africa, but they don't know which country." A week later CNN phoned back with a report. "We got your T-shirts to an African country where normally they'd never let something like that through customs. But we used an air force jet, and they all made it. We hope it's OK. They ended up in Ethiopia." That's what faith looks like in our world today. By Karl Haffner, College Place, Washington Source: Signs of the Times, Copyright (c) August 2004, Pacific Press, http://www.signstimes.com ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: I've been reading a new book, if any of you would like to borrow it just let me know. It's called the "Useful Golf Book". It contains some really good articles such as: How to Line Up Your Fourth Putt How to hit a Nike from the rough when you hit a Titleist from the tee How to avoid the water when you lie 8 in the bunker How to get more distance off the shank Crying and how to handle it How to rationalize a 9-hour round How to find the ball that everyone else saw go in the water Why your spouse no longer cares that you birdied the 4th How to let a foursome play through your twosome without getting embarrassed How to relax when you're hitting five off the tee Submitted by Bruce ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: After I had purchased movie tickets for my girlfriend and me, she went inside to find seats while I got the popcorn. By the time I was served, the previews were being shown. I stumbled my way through the dark, sat down and gave my girlfriend a kiss. Then I heard a familiar voice say, "John, I'm back here." Contributed to "Life In These United States" by John A. Norman Source: Beliefnet Presents, http://www.beliefnet.com/user/newsletter_choose.asp ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: Belief in a Creator A Harris Poll reveals that 64 percent of American adults believe "human beings were created directly by God," while only 22 percent believe they "evolved from earlier species." Those on the battle field in the nation's schools, where the debate over teaching evolution, creation and intelligent design continues, may be interested that of those surveyed, more than half believe children should be taught about all three. Of the remaining, 23 percent support teaching creationism only, 12 percent evolution only and four percent intelligent design only. Other key findings from the poll include: A majority of U.S. adults (54%) do not think human beings developed from earlier species, up from 46 percent in 1994. Forty-nine percent of adults believe plants and animals have evolved from some other species while 45 percent do not believe that. Adults are evenly divided about whether or not apes and man have a common ancestry (46 percent believe we do and 47 percent believe we do not). Again divided, 46 percent of adults agree that "Darwin's theory of evolution is proven by fossil discoveries," while 48 percent disagree. Submitted by Kiri