I like Michael Jackson's Music, A Lot. But, I'm Not A Fan! I Am a Fan of Carly!!

I don't think I have ever been a fan of an individual person.

Oh, I've been a fan of the Angel's baseball team since I was a kid. And, as a teen I had a few crushes on some famous actresses. But to be a sold out fan of a single person, like all the millions of Michael Jackson fans out there who have felt such deep loss at his death, including some who have committed suicide over it. Well, I just don't get that and I have even met Michael Jackson. But, all of sudden that has changed. Meet Carly.

She is 13 years old and has been diagnosed with Autism. I didn't know Carly till just a few days ago when I noticed she was following me on Twitter. Now, I have over a hundred Aid Organizations and people interested in mission work in Africa following me, but this was the first 13 year old girl. I thought she had confused me with one of the Jonas Brothers or thought I was a long lost family member. Curious, I went to her Twitter page and then to her Blog, watched a video and then read some of her writings and finally started to cry.

Take a moment and watch this short video and read this article, courtesy of ABC News:

Autism Breakthrough: Girl's Writings Explain Her Behavior and Feelings

Doctors Amazed by Carly Fleischmann's Ability to Describe the Disorder From the Inside

By JOHN MCKENZIE – ABC NEWS

Feb. 19, 2008

Carly Fleischmann has severe autism and is unable to speak a word. But thanks to years of expensive and intensive therapy, this 13-year-old has made a remarkable breakthrough.Two years ago, working with pictures and symbols on a computer keyboard, she started typing and spelling out words. The computer became her voice.

"All of a sudden these words started to pour out of her, and it was an exciting moment because we didn't realize she had all these words," said speech pathologist Barbara Nash. "It was one of those moments in my career that I'll never forget."

Then Carly began opening up, describing what it was like to have autism and why she makes odd noises or why she hits herself.

"It feels like my legs are on fire and a million ants are crawling up my arms," Carly said through the computer. Carly writes about her frustrations with her siblings, how she understands their jokes and asks when can she go on a date.

"We were stunned," Carly's father Arthur Fleischmann said. "We realized inside was an articulate, intelligent, emotive person that we had never met. This was unbelievable because it opened up a whole new way of looking at her." This is what Carly wants people to know about autism.

"It is hard to be autistic because no one understands me. People look at me and assume I am dumb because I can't talk or I act differently than them. I think people get scared with things that look or seem different than them." "Laypeople would have assumed she was mentally retarded or cognitively impaired. Even professionals labelled her as moderately to severely cognitively impaired. In the old days you would say mentally retarded, which means low IQ and low promise and low potential," Arthur Fleischman said. Therapists say the key lesson from Carly's story is for families to never give up and to be ever creative in helping children with autism find their voice.

"If we had done what so many people told us to do years ago, we wouldn't have the child we have today. We would have written her off. We would have assumed the worst. We would have never seen how she could write these things, how articulate she is, how intelligent she is," the grateful father added.

"I asked Carly to come to my work to talk to speech pathologists and other therapists about autism," said Nash. "What would you like to tell them? She wrote, 'I would tell them never to give up on the children that they work with.' That kind of summed it up."

Carly had another message for people who don't understand autism.

"Autism is hard because you want to act one way, but you can't always do that. It's sad that sometimes people don't know that sometimes I can't stop myself and they get mad at me. If I could tell people one thing about autism it would be that I don't want to be this way. But I am, so don't be mad. Be understanding."

Carly, I know you're off at camp, so you won't see this right away. But, I just wanted you to know I'm a fan. For the first time in my life I'm a real fan. Why? I suppose I should mention I have a daughter who is mildly on the spectrum of autism, and you have given me a window into a difficult and painful time in her life, but that is not the reason. It is because you have spoken so honestly and eloquently, that you have broken down another barrier of judgement in my life. Hearing in your words, amidst all the noise of the external and behavioral aspects of Autism, the heart that lies within. Thank you, Carly. Keep being a voice!

Eaar

P.S. If you live in southern California and have a child with Autism or have a desire to help children and families with Autism, the church where I attend is beginning a ministry called "Connecting the Pieces" Click on the link and check it out.

One Man Saves 188 Lives - How You Could Too!

188 Lives saved by one man? How could that be? Predicted an earthquake? Warned a school about an approaching tornado? Defused a bomb with seconds to spare? Was he faster than a speeding bullet saving a train a la Superman?

Nah, he's just a 65 year old retired guy who makes people tea and talks to them. Or maybe I should say he cares about them. Sticking with my theme of "What Can One Person Do?" I present to you Yukio Shigei of Japan, courtesy of Time Magazine.

Postcard: Tojinbo Cliffs

By Coco Masters in Time Magazine, June 22, 2009

They come on sunny days, when the sky is bright and clear above the Tojinbo cliffs along the coast of the Sea of Japan. Yukio Shige says they don't look at the view. "They don't carry a camera or souvenir gifts," he says. "They don't have anything. They hang their heads and stare at the ground."

For five years, Shige, 65, has approached such people at the cliffs' edge with a simple "Hello" and a smile. He might ask how they came there and at what inn they were staying. Sometimes after a light touch to the shoulder, Shige says, they burst into tears, and he begins to console them. "You've had a hard time up until now," he says, "haven't you?"

The basalt cliffs in Fukui prefecture, north of Kyoto on the western coast of Japan, are a well-known site for suicide in a country with one of the highest suicide rates in the world; at 23.8 per 100,000, Japan's rate is significantly higher than that of the U.S., for example, where the rate is 11 per 100,000. One in 5 Japanese men and women has seriously considered taking his or her life, according to a recent government survey; each year over the past decade, more than 30,000 people have killed themselves. And as the economic downturn has pushed rates of unemployment and bankruptcy higher, the number of suicides has risen. From January through April, 11,236 people killed themselves, up 4.5% from the same period in 2008. "I think there will be many more suicides this year," says Shige.

The retired detective from nearby Fukui City has patrolled the cliffs two or three times a day since 2004, wearing white gloves and a floppy sun hat, carrying binoculars to focus on three spots on the cliffs where suicides are most common. He has set up a nonprofit foundation to aid the work and says he has helped prevent 188 potential suicides. After he's talked them off the cliffs, Shige--a trained counselor--takes them to his small office, where two gas heaters keep a kettle boiling, ready to make the tea that accompanies his counseling sessions. For men, Shige says, the biggest problems are debt and unemployment; most of the women are there because of depression or health issues. "If it's a case of sexual harassment, I'll go with her to the office and confront her boss," says Shige. "If a child has issues with his father, I tell the parent that he is driving his child to suicide and get them to write a promise to change. They hang it on the wall."

There's no rush in Shige's office. He offers those who go there oroshi-mochi, a dish of pounded sticky rice served with grated radish. Traditionally the food is prepared to celebrate the New Year, with each family taking its own rice to be mixed with that of its neighbors. "When people come here and eat mochi, they remember their childhood--father, mother, siblings, hometown. They remember they're not alone," Shige says.

So far, Shige has funded his operation, including office rent of $800 a month and occasional support for those trying to get back on their feet, with his retirement savings and donations. But in April, the Japanese government committed to supporting Shige's and similar efforts with about 10 billion yen ($100 million) over the next three years. "It's taken five years to get the support," says Shige. "But we also need the kind of policies that keep people from becoming depressed in the first place"--particularly by bolstering the safety net for people with mental disorders and those who have hit hard times.

In April, on the fifth anniversary of starting his operation, Shige sat reading a three-page, handwritten letter he had received that day from a Shizuoka man, one of many he gets from those he has helped. The letter concluded by thanking Shige for providing the man with an awareness of the love that surrounded him. As Shige finished reading, the melody of "Amazing Grace" rose from his cell phone. "I want Tojinbo to be the most challenging place," he says. "Not where life ends, but where it begins."

Wow, what a great story! What a great statement of life and a great statement of purpose from a pretty simple man. So, the challenge lies before you friends. You could be 10 years old or 90 years old, perfectly healthy or strapped in a wheelchair and still be a caring voice, a gentle hand, a cup of tea, a walk with compassion and actually save a life. You may never know that you did, and it may not be as dramatic as keeping someone from the cliffs. But, you might just encourage someone to live a life to its fullest, that they had already given up on.

Will you do that with me this day? If I promise not just to blog about it, will you promise not just to read about it? Lets save a life!

Eaar

Missed Air France Flight, Only To Die In Car Crash

Each Day We Have Is A Gift,

A Gift That Is Renewed Each Day

Photo credit: Associated Press

"A woman who escaped death when she and her husband missed Air France Flight 447 before it crashed into the Atlantic Ocean was killed in a car accident recently. Johanna Gonthaler,a retiree from Italy, was on vacation in Brazil with her husband Kurt when the pair luckily missed the doomed flight to Paris. Fate caught up with them on an Austrian road earlier this week when their car swerved into the path of an oncoming truck outside the town of Kufstein, the Times UK reported. Kurt Ganthaler was badly hurt in the accident. Flight 447 disappeared from radar shortly after leaving Rio de Janeiro and is believed to have broken apart shortly after it left the airport in Brazil on May 31 with 228 people on board.The Ganthalers flew out of the country on a flight the day after the jet went missing."

I hate to post just a few days after my most recent post. We all have much to read and reflect on. But, with the recent news of this poor lady escaping certain death, only to a live a little over a week longer. It seems fitting to me, as the Interstate Batteries CEO did in my last post, to reflect on what time we have left in life and how we are going to use it. For me, I think that occurred when I hit 50. Kids were growing up and leaving home and I began to realize the time I had left was much, much shorter than the time I had already lived, and then shortly thereafter came my trip to Kenya, which added to my perspective.

Certainly, the most important part of our legacy we leave behind is our children, so that must be number one. I confess this is an area I still struggle to balance. It would be easy to stand on that statement and put ALL my time and energy into my kids. It would be less complicated and most of the time, a lot more fun! But then, what would I be teaching them, to always look inward? To always serve my needs over the needs of others? How can I, by the life I now live, teach them of the life I hope they live. A life of living, loving, giving, forgiving. A life of grace, of peace, of joy.

I've got a long way to go to get to where I want to be. I fail at those qualities daily. But it is the journey, the effort, the learning I hope my children see. I don't want to have to preach it to them from a soapbox. I want it to be self-evident in my life.

I would rather have weeks left to live and live it full of passion, full of the essence of life itself, then 20 years of sitting on a couch living life through the television, waiting for life to end.



Eaar

One Man Touches The Globe

Warning! Warning!

This post is just for my Christian friends!

Hang on, hang on. I was just piquing your interest. Because what ever faith you hold, there is a lesson in the story I am sharing on the power of one person. In fact, I'll be sharing several one person stories over the next month. Some will be very small and very personal, man on the street, neighbor to neighbor, friend to friend while others like Ryan from Ryans Well and Blake MyCoskie from Tom's Shoes, whom I earlier drew attention to, will be big stories.

Stories of a movement sprung from one idea, one inspiration, one passion, one person.

'I Am Second' Evangelistic Campaign Touches Globe


By Adrienne S. Gaines

published in NewMan eMagazine

5/29/09 — A Texas Christian businessman has a simple plan for evangelizing his community: Lift Jesus up and let Him do the rest.

In December 2008, Norm Miller, CEO of Interstate Batteries, launched I Am Second, a three-year Dallas-area ad campaign that features both prominent and lesser-known Christians proclaiming that Christ is first in their lives. Its companion Web site features video testimonies from Christians ranging from actor Stephen Baldwin to former Korn guitarist Brian "Head" Welch to virtually unknown Dallas-area residents telling of how God changed their lives after they battled eating disorders, divorce, addiction or abuse.

In its first two months, the campaign generated 280 million impressions from billboards, print ads and TV commercials reaching the Dallas-Forth Worth community. Since it launched in December, IamSecond.com has logged 750,000 unique visitors from every state and 188 nations.

"The mandate was lift up Christ and He'll draw all men to himself, so all we've got to do is be concerned with the lifting," said Miller, who is investing $1 million a year in the campaign, which he formed in partnership with Dallas-based mission organization e3 Partners.

The site has drawn visitors from as far as China, and Welch's testimony has been posted on YouTube and subtitled in Russian and Italian. In recent months, ministry and Christian business leaders in Atlanta; New York City; Orlando, Fla.; Kansas City, Mo.; Nashville, Tenn.; and Tucson, Ariz., have expressed interest in taking the campaign to their cities. Similar requests have come from as far as Ireland, New Zealand and India.

"My heart was my Jerusalem, and I thought that this was possible, these other cities," Miller said. "But my thought was, There's plenty of people like me in these cities, and if God wants to do it, He'll raise them up. There's not a lack of money. There may be a lack of giving the money, but there's not a lack of people having the money."

Miller said the idea for I Am Second came to him in early 2008 when he was approaching his 70th birthday and began contemplating his legacy. "I started thinking about Dallas-Fort Worth and their need for a real encounter with the truth of Christ," Miller said. "I thought, Does that really need to be done? And I agreed that it did."

Campaign organizers said I Am Second can help Christians share their faith with unsaved co-workers or neighbors.
"It says in Ephesians that the purpose of the church, of the evangelists, and the teachers, and the preachers is for the equipping of the body to do the work of the ministry," said e3 Partners Vice President Nathan Sheets, who helped developed the I Am Second campaign. "And so we view this as a way to be able to strategically come in and help the church executive what's the mandate of the church, to be the church. It's been done so well, it emboldens Christians to want to be proud of it and to share it."

Sheets said the campaign was meant to make Jesus famous and embolden people to live for Christ. But he believes it also can help change negative perceptions about Christianity.

"I want to get away form the religious conversation," Sheets said. "We don't live authentic, transparent Christian lives, and people feel like we've got it all figured out and we don't ever do anything wrong, then we end up with people in media who are popular in Christendom that are no different than anybody else. We wind up with Christian marriages with a higher divorce rate than secular society. That perceptionally makes people go, ‘This is all fake.' Versus just saying: ‘I still struggle in my life ... but luckily Christ died for my sins and I'm forgiven and He can help change my heart and my life, so let's just do this thing together.'"

The I Am Second Web site includes links to small groups that meet in Dallas-area churches, businesses and homes. Miller said churches tell him the campaign's impact has been "tremendous."

"This is the part that takes faith," Miller said. "Normally ... I would want to know how many people you're going to have on the street, how many people you're going to talk to, how many people have come to Christ. I want to know the impact of the money, to be a good steward. But in this case Christ said, ‘Look, lift Me up, and I'll draw all men to Myself.' And I got a freedom out of that."

"I'm totally shocked at what's happened outside of Dallas-Fort Worth," Miller added. "But I'm content with what's happened inside Dallas-Forth Worth because we're only six months into a 36-month plan. I really believe God's going to do a lot more as time goes on because most efforts aren't that long. It's almost a dripping faucet. I gotta see what that site is, after a year and a half of seeing [the ads]. What is that? You might forget it after 90 days, but if you see something and you don't know what it is and you wonder then a year later you see it again, eventually you're going to say, ‘I'm going to find out what that is.' And that's what we're hoping. That's our prayer.

Ok, thats it. I have one simple question. What are you going to do before your next birthday??

My suggestion? Give yourself a present and Give!

Susan Boyle: Final Performance... Better Than the First!

What can I say but that Susan Boyle inspires me to dream! Not small dreams but big ones.

Many of you have commented to me via email and asked me to keep you up to date on Susan's progress and so I will keep that promise, but this is my last post on her. I do not want our focus to be on watching Susan live out her dreams and utilize her God given talents, but for her story to inspire you to live out yours.

I will keep this post short and let you enjoy her performance and I will follow up soon with some suggestions on how you can graft into daily life in a deep meaningful way. Maybe not as glamorous a way as Susan's, but using the right filter to view your passions, talents, position, responsibility and opportunity, you will be able make a difference in someone else's life and perhaps realize a purpose you have not yet discovered or fulfilled.

Eaar

Susan Boyle Strikes Again with "Memory"

It seems Susan Boyle was not a one hit wonder.

I have just finished watching her most recent performance on Britain’s Got Talent and she stole my heart once again. For those of you who read my previous post on Susan, I need not say more but simply offer you her most recent use of what is obviously God given talent. For those of you who did not read my post, I encourage you to go back and read it. It is in my April postings.

My point in drawing attention to Susan again, is not out of celebrity following, of which the world at large seems addicted to, but with the hope that one of you out there realizes there is a gift or talent or passion that God has uniquely given to you, that you are not yet using or using to it's fullest. No matter what stage of life you are in, there is a whole world out there you can touch. Oh, it may not be the whole world like Susan has. But it could mean the whole world, to someone you reach out to. A next door neighbor, a community far away in another part of the world, an estranged relative or friend, a child who needs a mentor.

And here's the deal, let it be something that stretches you, that scares you, makes you uncomfortable. Susan had this talent her whole life, yet she still felt she had to prove that she was "not the worthless person that people think I am, that I do have something to offer" and finally went for it all. I too had become too comfortable in life, a talent couch potato, letting my gifts and talents rust away and go unused. Have you become too comfortable, fallen into a routine? To quote Pastor Rick Warren, "God has a purpose for your life". My suggestion to you is, it is time to discover it. Let me know if you're not sure how to go about that. I am in the midst of that myself, and just like Susan Boyle, there are horizons beyond my vision, but I find it is a wonderful and exciting journey

I have begun!

What Can One Person Do?

I was sitting on the plane to Nairobi as I began writing this post, having left London in the morning and California the night before that. Lying wide awake in bed at the hotel that night thinking, still stuck on Pacific time I realized that one of the issues that I regularly confront as I speak to people about using their talents for good, is the feeling that one person can’t do much of anything. Or as a Pastor told my friend Bud Potter before we left on this trip. Aid to Africa is "like shooting darts at the moon".

Now, my seatmate for the flight to Nairobi is Tim who works for a NGO (non governmental organization) that is working globally on getting prescription medicines that we here in the west have access to such as AIDS and Malaria medicines, to the people who don’t have that access. Certainly a huge project. So perhaps many people think, we should leave helping others to govenment's or big NGO's like WorldVision or the Red Cross.

After all, realistically what can one person do to help the billions of people mired in poverty? What can one person do to help the global environment? What can one person do about the millions with AIDS in Africa or the millions of orphans that have been left behind? What can one person do to bring clean and safe water to the over 1 billion people who don't have it?

Think about it for a minute. Whats your answer to those questions? In fact personalize it. What could I do?

Do you feel defeated or feel energized? Apathetic or passionate?

Well, let me tell you how 2 people answered those questions and the results of their answers.

The first is a boy from Canada named Ryan Hreljac. In 1998, when Ryan was in first grade he learned from his teacher that people were dying because they didn't have clean water to drink. In his innocence as to the size of the problem around the world, he decided that raising money for people who didn't have clean water would be a good thing. He worked for four months in order to earn his first $70. Ryan’s first well was built in 1999 when Ryan was seven years-old at a school in a Ugandan village. The well continues to serve thousands of people.

Ryan’s determination grew from the $70 collected by doing simple household chores to a Foundation that today has contributed a total of 502 water and sanitation projects in 16 countries bringing clean water and sanitation services to over 621,712 people. The Foundation has raised millions of dollars and Ryan is still only 16 years old. Here is their website: www.ryanswell.ca




My second person is Blake Mycoskie, a fellow blogger and founder of TOMS Shoes. In 2006 while traveling in South America, Blake befriended children in Argentina and found they had no shoes to protect their feet. Most children in developing countries grow up barefoot. Whether at play, doing chores or just getting around, these children are at risk.

Wearing shoes prevents feet from getting cuts and sores from contaminated soil. Not only are these injuries painful, they also are dangerous when wounds become infected. The leading cause of disease in developing countries is soil-transmitted parasites which penetrate the skin through open sores. Wearing shoes can prevent this and the risk of amputation.

Also, many times children can't attend school barefoot because shoes are a required part of their uniform. If they don't have shoes, they don't go to school and if they don't receive an education, they don't have the opportunity to realize their potential.

Wanting to help, Blake created a company that would match every pair of shoes sold with a pair given to a child in need. One for One. A simple, yet bold idea. Well, Blake returned to Argentina with a group of family, friends and staff later that year with 10,000 pairs of shoes to be given away.

Since then, TOMS has given over 140,000 pairs of shoes to children in need through that One for One model. TOMS plans to give over 300,000 pairs of shoes to children in need around the world in 2009. Want to order a pair? Go to the TOMS website. Here is a 2 minute video from one of their Shoe Drops to the needy.




Now biblically speaking its clear one person can and should do a lot. Lets take a moment to look at Jesus Christ’s own ministry. Yes, he did die on the cross to save humanity. That certainly was global and beyond anything we can do. But if you look at his daily ministry you’ll find it was directed at individuals. He did not raise thousands of people from the dead in some mass setting, but a very elect few. When he healed he didn’t make some proclamation over a whole city that every sick person be healed, but dealt with people one at a time, as individuals. In fact each one was even healed in a somewhat different way. The blind man by the mud Jesus made with His spit, the crazy man at the cemetery by casting out demons and the woman who had been hemorrhaging for 12 years, simply through the touch of his garment.

Even when He preached to thousands such as the Sermon on the Mount, he spoke to people about the things they could and should do as individuals. When He said the greatest commandments were to Love the Lord God with all your heart mind and soul and to love your neighbor as yourself. He didn’t say love your neighbor’s, but neighbor.

How does all this relate to my current trip? Well, my friend Bud and I are on our way back to Rionchogu, a village of about 7,000 people in the equatorial highlands of western Kenya. The organization I serve with Go and Do Likewise is a loose assortment of few people. Now you might wonder what can a few people do to help 7,000. One heck of a lot actually. It’s simply a matter of commitment, purpose, and passion. Here is an update from the trip:
www.goanddolikewise.org

Commitment. When you are able, do more than just write a check, though I thank those who can do just that. In these tough economic times its needed. In fact if you can help with the work we are doing in Kenya, go here to GAD Kenya to make a donation. But I hope you'll consider seriously making a commitment to be willing to be changed through the connection with those you help. You see when we only write a check, it is a one-way transaction. The money flows from one person to another and its possible you might not be changed in return. What I am now looking for are the two-way transactions, where the people we give to, change us as much or more than the ways that we change their lives. I am sure if you asked Ryan or Blake they would tell you they have been changed, in ways they never could have imagined.

Purpose. If in self reflection your purpose has been to just feel better about your self, it probably won’t last. I have supported a World Vision child in Malawi for 10 years now. Jumani is his name and he is almost grown up and ready to take on the world. I do feel good about that, and the work World Vision is doing is fantastic, but I also realized last year that in a way my $30 a month was simply a guilt offering, to make me feel better every time I saw a picture of starving children in Africa or Mexico, etc. For me, it was a one way transaction, because it didn’t really change me. Oh it could have, had I allowed it. Had I become more involved in Jumani’s life beyond writing the check. Rionchogu, "a village despised" and the people there has changed me. In fact, this blog itself, was ignited by my experiences of my first trip there.

Passion. Having been young once, married more than once and deeply in love with my wife Suzanne, I have many wonderful memories of pursuing the woman I loved with passion. Do you recall similar memories? Is there anything else in your life where you exhibit that kind of passion? Perhaps a hobby or sport? I sure "love" my Angels baseball team and watch or listen to every game I can. What if you had that kind of passion to help others? What would that look like for you? Where does that passion come from? How do you find it within you? How do you get there if you're not there?

I'd love to hear your answers to those questions? Leave me a comment on the blog or if you're shy send me an email and I'll report back what I hear. And please share my blog with others. We're up to 93 readers from 10 different countries, 10 different states in the US and 33 different cities in California. Who knows, maybe the next Ryans Well or TOMS Shoes will spring from us? Wouldn't that be cool?

Eaar