“One of Our Students Was Shot Last Night”

Yesterday evening, Justin informed me that we successfully concluded our summer camp.  “Today we are surrounded by happiness,” he writes.  “During the camp, the children play with each other, eat together, tell jokes, learn about their culture, and history, and learn things that can be useful to make a little money in the future, like …

Promises to Keep

As July’s horrific violence in Citè Soleil subsided, we delayed our summer camp until the second week in August, and we completed the first of three weeks without incident last week. As many as 276 children came to the camp each day.  Sadly, we could only accommodate 150; we had to turn 126 children away.  …

Crossing Paths with Angels

The medication to relieve my BPH (benign prostatic hyperplasia [enlarged prostate]) has not been effective.  Passing urine and bowel movements have been erratic and hardly successful.  I made a good decision late last week when I followed the advice of my friend and Mrs. tVM and scheduled an appointment with my VA medical team for …

Let Me Give You a Definition of Ethics

“Let me give you a definition of ethics:  it is good to maintain life and further life; it is bad to destroy and damage life.” So writes Dr. Albert Schweitzer in his 1933 autobiography “Out of My Life and Thought.”  The recipient of the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. Schweitzer offers other thoughts that came …

A Sad Day in Citè Soleil

In a country torn by violence, earthquakes, hurricanes, political unrest, and poverty, last week may be one of the worst in Haiti’s 200+ years as a free and independent country.  The United Nations reports that nearly 250 residents in Citè Soleil were killed or injured in gang warfare between July 8th and July 12th.  The …

Summer Camp in Haiti

We keep the faith.  We know there is a way and with God’s grace, we will find it. Within 24 hours of yesterday’s post searching for support for our summer camp in Haiti next month, another Samaritan – husband and wife – contacted us and volunteered to financially sponsor the complete camp.  Their generosity enables …

Sportsmanship

Sportsmanship – fair and generous behavior and treatment of others – has been as important an aspect of my participation in athletic competition as an athlete and as a spectator as any other aspect of the game.  In fact, good sportsmanship supersedes every other feature of the game in any sport and at any level.  …

Let’s Talk Prostate

I am willing to share this personal story because I know there are people who can benefit from it, people just like me who tend to ignore warning signs and pull the covers over their heads hoping ‘it will go away.’  Sometimes it won’t! Health is maintained by practicing three essential and interdependent disciplines: Prayer …

Who’s Gonna Do It?

In the ‘Gethsemane’ scene in the 2003 rock opera !Hero that considers “What if Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania?” Hero – played by Michael Tait – sings a powerful anthem that asks the question, “Who’s gonna do it, if I don’t step to it?”  It is a formidable and intensely personal question. In my …