It's worth watching!

Hello Alba!

Hi! A short while ago I met a great girl Alba...I don't know a lot about her yet, but I hopefully I can help her as apart of Compassion International. Alba was waiting for more than 6 months for someone to sponsor her. I hope that my sponsorship will make a difference in her life.

Alba
Birthday: July 2, 2005
Age: 3
Gender: Female
Country: Nicaragua

Personal and Family Information:
Alba lives with her father and her mother. She is responsible for running errands. Her father is employed as a laborer and her mother maintains the home. There are 4 children in the family.

Alba is not attending school because she is too young. Singing, playing house and playing with dolls are her favorite activities. She also attends church activities regularly.

If you would like to help a child like Alba... go here!

I was inspired to sponsor Alba, after reading about the opportunity on Anne Jackson's website. (FlowerDust.net)

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My original thoughts on child sponsorship were a bit cloudy... Distrust for large organizations and a fear of commitment factored in. But here's why I like helping compassion international and Alba

1) It's easy, I signed up online in under 15 minutes - and the payments are automatic
2) It's real, - as in Alba is real, and in real poverty, and my gift really helps
3) It's responsible, I can feel good about supporting my values!

Side note: After writing this post I am feeling a tinge braggy... I am hoping to have only inspired, and not to have pushed. Each of us understand their own finances and way that others cannot. It is not easy to determine which cause we will support... as most of us cannot afford to support them all. This gift is about my own personal convictions and is something I am passionate about... but I realize I'm not everyone.

What are your passions? Do you ever feel drawn to give or serve in a certain arena?

Who Knew?

When I first heard about a bunch of Christian Comics made in the 70's, I had to admit I thought all it would be good for was a pretty good chuckle at the usual buffoonery produced by Christian Pop Culture. I imagined cheesy super heroes with spandex suits and a felt pinned cross on the cape. Or maybe some dancing fruitcakes, who knew... but I feared it wouldn't be good.

Fortunately, I was quite wrong. They are great. They are filled with suspense and blond bombshells and even a bit racy at times. You can check them out here. You'll find that most of them are based on "real life" Christians who did something courageous either for there faith or because of it. People you could respect in real life, and not only because of their "extreme faith", but also the positve action they took. The books have a solid message of doing things that create change not just hype

So in summary I breathed a breath of fresh air... Who knew that a Comic Book from the 70s no less would take me out of my painful disillusionment with Christian culture. Unfortunately these books are pretty retro, so perhaps not a reflection of what's modern. All I need now is a more recent bit of Christian pop culture I can respect.

I guess I won't hold my breath.

Publicly Declared!

Life Review: I'm married, I have a new job, I turned 24, and now that my life is back to a slightly slower pace I feel there is once again time to blog.

I joined a facebook group about 2 years ago (totally guessing on the time frame), called Christian Liberals, it was pretty exciting just to find a group with such a name, and I think I joined purely out of novel interest. Well turns out the person who started this appears to have his stuff together and writes a blog. Why am I telling you all of this, well I am now a publicly declared reader of the this blog. (For those of who don't know you have the choice to be public or not!) The only blog I am a subscriber to at this point as I am sort of slow subscribe. I am sure others blogs will follow, but for now God's Eclectic's author should feel like a winner, as he is the first. Anyway, check it out! and the let world know I am a Christian Liberal. It's Public.

a Day in May Parade

Minneapolis, which has been known to be called the little apple, reason being: the large amount of culture wrapped into a much smaller than new york population, hosted the May Day Parade, an event that showcases collaboration of culture groups in at the very least an unusual fashion. Although May 4th is not May Day (May Day is May 1st) the parade ran today anyway. The parade started in 1975 shortly after the end of the Vietnam war which has influenced it's primary goal of bringing peace and understanding to all. It's clear that the May Day celebration does not wish to live up to the call of "May Day May Day!" and the fact that the parade is named such seems like a delightful irony to the producers at the Heart of the Beast Theatre. The website description is as follows:

Every spring, the MayDay Parade explodes onto Bloomington Avenue! We own the
street for the day, dancing and playing instruments with fiery verve. We tell
our story, section by section, each designed musically and visually by MayDay
staff artists as a walking theatrical performance.

Perhaps it is the use of the words "explodes" and "fiery" or their misunderstandings on legal ownership that caused a rough half of the Minneapolis police department to be out their today. Apparently the crowd maintenance is required for all 50,000+ groups of people, whether you are peace-lovers or not. Note: I did notice an unusual level of kindness as a I bumped into, shuffled by or excused as I hunted for that coveted road side parade viewing spot. However, despite presence of law enforcement, a wad of credit card receipts was found stolen from the May Day T-shirt both. Perhaps they were busy warding off explosions on Bloomington Avenue.

I first became aware of the May Day Parade production when I was somewhere in grade school. At the time, I got as far as thinking that "paper mac he looks fun". However it wasn't until this year that I had a chance to observe the actual event. (okay, so I'm a bit of a procrastinator). Apparently my fiance goes every year?!? Each year has a unique theme, but it all works out the same end: "Renewing the Tree of Life" . It's a combinations of theatrics, music and a your general parade stuff. The theatrics involves eccentric costuming, and a few brief sketches. Music entails full bands, drum lines and the sound of anything being hit (tarps, tin, etc.). Your general parade stuff includes kids (smiling, crying and showing their genuine emotions), a few men in dresses (a parade must), abnormal bikes, floats and everything else I forgot to mention.

The first BLOG of "real" adulthood

Hi Faithful Fans and Interested Fellows, what begins on this page today is the result of a myriad of factors that compiled to result in the currently named "Witty without affection" blog. While it would be impossible to document with complete accuracy every whim and whisper that may have influenced this arrival, I can say with clarity that there are a few that I would like to discuss:

1) I'm engaged... which apparently means you need a wedding website, which apparently means your fiance will link your blog to it, which would imply you have a blog to attach, which means you need to get a blog because for whatever reason you do not wish to attach the one in which you discussed all your rantings from college beaus.

2) For some reason, I think I'm interesting.

3) Rumor is : Blogging is Fun!

Blog Title is "Witty without affection" yes that is snipet of shakespeare and yes I hope I am.

Blogger's age is 23, yes that is young, and I think that sounds too old. Note: I do not look my age.

Blog's theme is transient until I decide it isn't transient anymore.

Ciao for Now