Los Angeles County Edition Vol. 22, No. 12
December 2011
www.christianexaminer.com
Cal Thomas
Community
Spending Christmas in occupied territory
Penn State’s shame reflects immoral national norms
Southern California has strong showing for Christian Film Festival
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FREE
Phil Cooke
Better to Give Christmas gift alternatives provide blessings for the recipient — and the giver By Lori Arnold As the commercialization of Christmas continues to dwarf the spiritual aspects of the holiday, many evangelical families are seeking ways to bring the giving spirit back to the holiday. As a result, more and more families are opting to forgo the traditional “I want” lists for charitable giving opportunities, which have now become as diverse as the people seeking them. Below is just a sampling of some of the Christian-based programs available online. Military BibleStick Outreach, a project of Faith Comes by Hearing, the BibleStick is a digital audio New Testament provided to the military. The slim audio player, pre-loaded with a dramatized version of the New Testament, is the size of a pack of gum. Because of the ongoing campaign to America’s military, chaplains from every branch routinely seek the Bibles, with more than 143,000 of the devices in the field. In all, more than 800 chaplains use Military BibleSticks in pre-deployment briefings, counseling sessions, Bible studies, weekly chapels and other spiritual services.
At 3 inches long and less than 1 inch wide, the Military BibleStick is about the size of a pack of gum. More than 143,000 of the devices are now on the field.
For $25, a Military BibleStick, which includes an MP3 disc of the entire New Testament along with a response card for service members to have New Testaments and KIDZ Bibles sent to their families, civilians can purchase a BibleStick for the military. For information, log on to www. faithcomesbyhearing.com. Project Prayer Flag is an Irvinebased ministry founded by Shawn See GIVING, page 2
Burden Busters Adonai cares for cancer families during Christmas and all year By Patti Townley-Covert RANCHO CUCAMONGA — With a heart full of the holiday spirit and arms laden with groceries, Dave rang the doorbell at the Hemet home of a 3-year-old cancer patient. When the door opened, the dad stood there, his small son by his side—crying, crying and crying. Finally, the exhausted father spoke. “It’s not a good time. I can’t get him to stop.” Dave stooped to put the bags down, then reached out to the sick little boy. Responding to the tender gesture, the child’s tears ceased. The overwhelmed father sighed. “Can you just stay?” According to Pam Brown, Ado-
nai’s founder and executive director, stories like these are why this nonprofit reaches out to the families of children stricken with cancer. When a child is sick, the parents can feel so alone. One focuses on the sick child, while the other works—and tries to take care of the siblings. To combat this sense of isolation, Adonai, the Hebrew word for Lord, cares for these families as an entire unit, Brown said. Though Christmas brings help and hope, events like an Easter party, a promstyle dinner dance, a back-to-school bash and a Halloween party all ease the load on families caught in the grip of a cancer crisis. Brown said she, her husband, Mark—Adonai’s cofounder and
chairman of the board)—and their two children have a long history of helping needy families. But it took getting injured in a car accident to convince her to launch the nonprofit in 1998. That’s when, two weeks before Christmas, Brown had major surgery on her neck. Still recuperating, she didn’t think there was any way they could adopt another family. Still, calls for help kept coming. So, while lying on the couch in a neck brace, she began recruiting friends. Her son and daughter got their friends involved, too. That year, Brown said, they provided food and gifts for 15 cancer families. A father spends time with his cancer-stricken little girl during Adonai’s “Let’s Sail Away” prom and dinner dance.
See ADONAI, page 9
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