Adventures and Thoughts of Team Cross

The 2007 federal budget proposed today(Jan 30) by Congress commits $4.5 billion dollars to fight HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis in Africa and the world’s poorest countries and $248 million for the President’s Malaria Initiative. With the highest levels of funding ever committed by America to fight these three diseases, the continuing resolution includes $724 million for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and $2.9 billion for the 15 focus countries part of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. (from the One Campaign)

From World Vision:
The total approved for fiscal year 2007 — $4.5 billion, a 40 percent increase over the 2006 funding levels — is the largest amount of funding ever committed by the U.S. to fight these devastating diseases.
“We are especially pleased that the resolution increases global AIDS funding by $1.3 billion and malaria funding by $149 million,” said Robert Zachritz, World Vision’s senior policy advisor for global development. “It just goes to show that even in tight budget times, the Congress and the President can work together in a bipartisan manner to fight global poverty and disease.”
Funding Supporters Heard

More than 200,000 people joined the World Vision and the ONE Campaign to push for higher funding levels to combat global AIDS, TB, and malaria.
Congress responded to the urgent call.

About Darfur:
Humanitarian response in Darfur will soon be paralyzed unless African and global leaders take urgent action to end rising violence against civilians and aid workers. From World Vision.

Here are some delusions of the Sudanese President al-Bashir (from the BBC):

He dismissed reports of ethnic cleansing, saying: “Talk of Arabs killing blacks is a lie.”

And he accused the West of exaggerating the number of casualties.

“A lot of organisations and the American media refer to imaginary numbers, up to 400,000 dead,” he said. “All these are false.”

He later said the number was closer to 9,000, Reuters news agency reported.

I actually had the chance yesterday to attend a town hall meeting for my congressional representative, Mike Pence. I was wearing my Save Darfur t-shirt and while I didn’t get a chance to ask a public question, I did talk with him afterwards. It was encouraging b/c he said that it was a holocaust and was on his heart. He thanked me for my stand and appreciated my attendance. So if nothing else the issue was in his thought process again. Yay for Democracy!

Here is a list of the various Podcasts that I listen to regularly. Some are new!! The Bridge Podcast is the newest and is slowly being updated (mi amigo is trying hard!).

So here’s the list:

Anderson University Chapel
Mayor Kevin Smith (Anderson, Indiana)
ONEcast (from the One Campaign)
Taylor University Chapel Messages
The Bridge (Anderson, Indiana)
Word Made Flesh

Nothing too exciting but can be very challenging. Its a great way to stay focused on Christ and learning about Him and His work.

I had my first interview today!

It was at Horizon International, they seem to be a really great organization.

It could have been the most fun interview I’ve ever been a part of! Their leadership seems to be truly seeking God’s will for it and for their staffing needs.

Awesome!

Pray for us!

With our (Red) purchase we provided Anti-Retroviral (ARV) Treatment for one month to a person living with AIDS.

Part of (Red)’s Manifesto:

(Red) is not a charity. It is simply a business model. You buy (red) stuff. We get the money. Buy the pills and distribute them. They take the pills. Stay Alive. And continue to take care of their families and contribute socially and economically in their communities.

www.myspace.com/joinred

Here are some pictures of our snowway (where we park our cars, some may call it a driveway, but really its just the side of a street.

I received an e-mail today that pointed out that the US ranks 18th on the UNICEF’s Annual Report Card related to Child Poverty. 18th out of 192 UN countries places us in the top 10% which isn’t tooooo bad I suppose. But here is a list of the countries above us and their average rank out of 6 indicators:

Netherlands 4.2
Sweden 5.0
Denmark 7.2
Finland 7.5
Spain 8.0
Switzerland 8.3
Norway 8.7
Italy 10.0
Ireland 10.2
Belgium 10.7
Germany 11.2
Canada 11.8
Greece 11.8
Poland 12.3
Czech Republic 12.5
France 13.0
Portugal 13.7
Austria 13.8
Hungary 14.5
United States 18.0
United Kingdom 18.2

Not everyone can be #1, but look at some of the countries ahead of US, like the Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria…

You can access the full report here.

The e-mail also included information about Cost Effective Investments in Children, from the Brookings Institute.

Quoted from the website:

America’s future economic well-being will benefit from targeted investments to ensure that children have the skills to become tomorrow’s adult workers, caregivers, taxpayers, and citizens. Target areas for a package of proposals totaling about $25 billion annually and $133 billion over a five-year period are the following:

• High-quality early childhood education programs for three- and four-year-old children ($94 billion over five years);
• Nurse home-visiting programs to promote sound prenatal care and the healthy development of infants and toddlers ($14 billion over five years);
• School reform with an emphasis on programs in high-poverty elementary schools that improve the acquisition of basic skills for all students ($17 billion over five years); and
• Programs that reduce the incidence of teenage pregnancy ($8 billion over five years).

If you look back at my post about the Costs of Childhood Poverty post on Feb 4, you’ll see the cost of doing nothing is approximately $500 billion annually.

Think about that for a second… invest $25 billion or lose $500 billion… I’m not a financial guru, but that seems pretty easy math to me!

From Christian Jobs:

JOB SEEKER Encouragement

Knowledge based in truth makes all the difference.

Matthew 6:25
Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

Colossians 3:15
And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

2 Peter 1:2
Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

Hebrews 4:16
Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

2 Corinthians 9:8
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

2 Thessalonians 1:12
We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

James 2:17
In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

There is always so much I want to say and then other stuff comes up.

The Genocide Intervention Network has setup a Stop Genocide Hotline 800-GENOCIDE to call and talk with your representatives, Senators, and others about the Genocide in Darfur. It is pretty simple and easy (I just called mine!) But before you call check out their score on Darfur Scorecard.

Everyone pledged after Rwanda that we would never let Genocide happen again. We did something in Bosnia, so why are we dragging our feet in Africa? Its a sad ridiculousness that we are letting one man stop us in our tracks. We were willing to disregard the United Nations for our attack on Iraq (when it was convenient) but now we aren’t willing to do anything except through UN and Sudanese bureaucracy. That’s stinking absurd.

Congress passed the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act now we just need to fully implement it. We should be commended for negotiating a deal with North Korea, but people are dying each and every day we wade through red tape within the UN and Sudanese governments. Sudan just rejected travel visas for a UN Human Rights Fact-Finding Delegation and will continue to destabilize the region so that UN Peacekeepers are unable to do anything.

Click here to take action on President Bush’s Plan B approach to Darfur. (It does give you more details, but it needs to be implemented!)

Please call today and urge everyone to do something about this situation so no more people have to die because they are black.

Thanks for reading my tirade!

Also don’t forget to check out Save Darfur

Our Chinese buddies continue to do nothing substantive to help end this atrocity.