Take Time to Dream

You can't dream on the run. You have to slow down, lay down and rest. You have to allow your mind to wander into flights of fancy. Children do it well.

One of my favorite movies is October Sky, based on the book Rocket Boys by Homer Hickham, Jr. The author writes about his dream, which began at age fourteen. One night, Homer looked up at the sky and saw the Russian space ship, Sputnik, race across the October sky of West Virginia. That was the night Homer determined he would build a rocket of his own. He enlisted his friends and sold them on the dream.

The boys had to overcome some “impossible” barriers to realize their dream, including making a workable rocket, facing adamant opposition from Homer's father, and overcoming remarkable competition in the 1960 National Science Fair. At one point early on, it looked pretty grim for the Rocket Boys. One of their rockets flew off so far, they couldn't find it. The same day there was a serious fire in the woods. The rocket was blamed. The authorities told the boys they could no longer launch rockets. In addition, Homer's father suffered an injury, and Homer had to work in the coal mines to support the family. Homer gave up on his dream and settled for life as a coal miner.

But, the dream was resurrected when someone found the missing rocket, far from the fire that had occurred the same day. In addition, a school teacher encouraged the boys to enter the 1960 Science Fair and Homer turned back to pursuing his dream. There would be other obstacles, but one by one, they were overcome. Home Hickham, Jr. became a space engineer for NASA, where he helped design rockets that would propel men beyond what most could imagine.

What is your dream? I encourage you to slow down and allow yourself to dream those lofty dreams of your childhood. As you pray, ask God to refine your dreams so they fulfill God's purpose. Map a plan and take the next step.

What is your dream for this church? We will continue dreaming and pursuing the dream on Sunday mornings, as we recall the life of Joseph (Genesis 37-50).

When the Christians in Seville, Spain, set out to build a cathedral, before construction began in 1491, they wrote a resolution and all of those in the church signed it. This is how it reads: "Let us build here a church so great that those who come after us will think us mad for ever having dreamed it."

 

 

 

The Dream - make a profit and stamp out podoconiosis in Ethiopia

Blake Mycoskie has a dream. He is not a pastor or missionary, he attends church, but isn't on staff. But, he believes he had a God-given dream. He started a business as a means of fulfilling his dream.

The 32-year-old founded Toms Shoes based on the simple idea that for every pair of his canvas shoes you buy, a pair is given to a child in need. It's called a "one-for-one' model. You may have seen him on the AT&T Wireless commercial.

To date, he's given away 140,000 pairs of shoes in the U.S., Argentina, Ethiopia and South Africa. This year, Mycoskie expects to donate 300,000 pairs of shoes, bring in $13 million in sales and work toward his goal of eradicating podoconiosis in Ethiopia.

But, it took some time for the dream to crystalize. The dream came into sharper focus when he made his "first "shoe drop" in Argentina to distribute 10,000 pairs of shoes.

"The first shoe I put on a kid's foot, it was like, this is it. For every kid I saw, there was another I wanted to help."

Then he found out about podoconiosis, a deforming foot disease caused by walking barefoot in silica-rich soil. "There are women committing suicide because no one wanted to marry them because they had this disease," he says, adding that it affects 300,000 people in southern Ethiopia, including one out of every 13 kids. "And it's literally shoes, not medicine, that cure it.

He's also hoping his one-to-one business model will expand. "People need water and schoolbooks and housing. I want to come up with partnerships and products that allow our customers to buy what they need so other people can get what they need."

http://www.latimes.com/features/lifestyle/la-ig-greentoms19-2009apr19,0,1059085.story

The founder of TOMS Shoes attends Mosaic (an innovative church in LA) The Pastor, Erwin McManus believes that unleashing the God-given gifts, passions, and creativity in people can have powerful results.

He said this in an interview: “Once you begin to create an environment where you encourage people to really discover who God has created them to become and to encourage dreaming and imagination, then people begin to do good creatively,” he says. “Something amazing begins to happen.”

http://www.collidemagazine.com/article/104/the-futurist

 

 

 

Got a dream?

Do you have a dream - that inspires you to achieve a great destiny?

“an inspiring picture of the future that energizes your mind, will and emotions, empowering you to do everything you can to achieve it?”

Ask yourself four questions:

·         What would I do if I had no limitations?

·         What would I do if I had only five years to live?

·         What would I do if I had unlimited resources?

·         What would I do if I knew I couldn't fail?

(John Maxwell, in Putting Your Dream to the Test, p. 20)

 

 

Happy Mothers Day!

IF A MOTHER HAS NOT LOVE

If I live in a house of spotless beauty with everything in its place, buthave not love, I am a housekeeper-not a homemaker. If I have time for waxing, polishing, and decorative achievements, but have not love, my children learn cleanliness-not godliness. Love leaves the dust in search of a child's laugh.

Love smiles at the tiny fingerprints on a newly cleaned window.
Love wipes away the tears before it wipes up the spilled milk.

Love picks up the child before it picks up the toys.

Love is present through the trials.

Love reprimands, reproves, and is responsive.

Love crawls with the baby, walks with the toddler, runs with the child,

then stands aside to let the youth walk into adulthood.

Love is the key that opens salvation's message to a child's heart.

Before I became a mother I took glory in my house of perfection.

Now I glory in God's perfection of my child.

As a mother, there is much I must teach my child, but the greatest of all is love.

passed along by Carol

 

Don't Blame the Cute Pigs

An adorable look at the Swine Flu pandemic - by PutnamPig