When my kids pediatrician asked if I had the flu shot. My reply "no I haven't had the flu in about 8 years." 

October is national breast cancer awareness month. Go ahead and consider me your breast friend because ladies I'm here to remind you to check your girls.
I may be lighthearted in terms but I am definitely not kidding when it comes to self examinations. Time to take a minute or two and practice prevention in a very simple way. Here is my post from last year included are links concerning self exams and breast cancer, as well as, statistics. So please find time to save some boobs and in return lives.

Regardless of your devote love or hate for our current president there is something you should know...he has provided more aid for Africa than ANY other past president. Now I know at this point you could argue the current state of our economy, foreign policy, and war, but that's not the point of this blog. My point is this:

MALARIA + CHILDREN = DEATH

I don't care who it is but someone needs to do something. We have a country, a nation, an allegiance...sure. We also have something larger than our country, nation, allegiance... LOVE and MANKIND. If you don't want President Bush doing it then why don't YOU do it?

There are a lot of needs in our own country I am not denying this or overlooking it, but hell over a million people (roughly 1.1 million) die yearly from malaria alone. And the majority of those deaths are children. That's right.
Now go down the hall and peak in at your children, look at those faces, and breath a sigh of relief that your here and not there.
Now slap yourself and skip your venti latte non-fat tomorrow morning and send that $10 to help save children. 3000 deaths occur DAILY and the most frustrating part is that all these deaths are completely preventable.

I know I sound like a bleeding heart but these words ring through my soul "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." (James)

Here's a statistic for you; by 2010, there will be 53.1 million children under 18 bereft of their parents in Africa alone. The loss due to various causes but primarily AIDS which is another epidemic I will get blog'n on one of these days, but for now can we do something?

Malaria is a tangible disease, in that we (you & me) can do something about it now. There is nettings that can aid whole households and pills that are available for nothing in cost.

Let's become tangible people. Religious or not, liberal or conservative, rich or poor we can all do something.

Here are some links to help:

RED
Intercare
Doctors for Life
Aid for Africa

So today I'm hang'n out at Quest Diagnostics waiting for someone to remove some of my precious blood from my body when in walks Dee (Doris). She's guided in by her very supportive husband. Dee's head is bent to the left and seems heavy for her frail body. At first glance I'm aware that Dee is not well (yes I know I'm in a lab, duh). Despite her mundane demeanor she seems heavy hearted. I think to myself "should I be overly outgoing and strike up a random conversation to get the scoop?" "no play it cool". My next thought hits me like a wave? "I think Dee knows what it is to suffer." Perhaps I thought that since the whole time I was spying on her she never stood straight, never smiled, and looked like she hadn't slept in days. I continue to pretend to play solitaire on my nifty blackjack II phone as I watch Dee. She turns to her husband and says "I'm so tired of this" and with that begins to cry. He gently gets up and begins looking for a tissue. Now hubby seems like the gatekeeper and from what I gather has plenty of history 'protecting' Dee. Hubby decides to go to the car for tissue and I seize the moment to make eye contact. Dee looks at me again and apologetically exclaims her exhaustion. I ask her whats aligning her and she proceeds to roll out the list. To summarize Dee needs surgery again on her esophagus where they will need to collapse it for a 2nd time, she has no stomach, only one kidney left from surviving cancer, a permanent IV in her left arm which caused her to trip and brake her neck this last week, and finally she's back getting tested for cancer again. OKAY what do you say after that that doesn't sound lame and half hearted??? As she cries and continues to apologize for her displays of emotion I simply reply that it's refreshing to see emotion and sometimes we just need to let it out. She informs me that she has had serious health issues for the last 14 years. Umm, yeah I'd be tired too. As Dee leaves I wonder about healing, suffering, sickness, Christ, and people. I'm not sharing this so you feel bad for Dee or to give you insight into my own inabilities to communicate, but because the truth is: There's a lot of people out there hurting for a lot of different reasons. Most of you who read this today will connect with Dee on some level; whether it's feelings of hopelessness, exhaustion, illness, weakness, frustration, pain, desperation, or so on. Dee's pain just happens to manifest in physical ways. So maybe this week we can take some time to ask each other how things are going, or confide in someone about the pain we're experiencing, or perhaps even take some time and pray for Dee.