Alex and I are getting a tax return…mostly because we have an AWESOME accountant. No more TurboTax for this family. It got me thinking quite a bit, though. Under any other circumstance, if people were given a generous gift – our sense of graciousness for the gift just drives people to try to do something (anything) to show the giver of the gift that we appreciate it. Clearly, this doesn’t happen with the Internal Revenue Service. After you get your tax return, you don’t think to yourself, “Wow, maybe I’ll bake a cake or brownies for the staff at my local IRS office to thank them for this money.” We don’t do that because, ultimately, we feel that we deserved this money – the government owed it to us. So we don’t feel the desire to give back.
Making an effort to give back to the person who gave you something underserved, I think, is ultimately the external sign of whether a person feels that they got something that they did not deserve. You gave me something I didn’t deserve; I recognize that you didn’t have to do that – so I want to show you that I recognize what you did for me.
This is exactly how I think Christians should be. The Bible says that God hates ‘lukewarm’ Christians. I think it is because those Christians feel that they somehow ‘deserve’ salvation. Since they think they deserve it – they don’t have the intense and natural response to give back to God for His gift to us. When a person comes to the realization that, “I am a sinner, I don’t deserve salvation – but God, through Christ, is giving it to me anyway.” Then, that experience drives the need to do something, anything, to show your Savior that you recognize that you didn’t deserve this ultimate gift.
So when the Bible says that God hates lukewarm Christians…I think about it this way. If I gave you $200 because I knew you had lost $200 and needed to pay some bills. I didn’t have to, but let’s say I just happened to get $200 in my tax return and decide to give it to you. If I give it to you – no strings attached – and you say, “it’s about time, thanks”, and then go and buy a TV with it. I’d be pretty pissed, too. I gave it to you because you were going to get your lights shut off without it. Instead you were unappreciative, and you STILL had your lights cut off b/c you wasted the money.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Friday, April 18, 2008
The Children's Trust - prologue
Read below for an awesome article in the Miami Herald on my company. I posted it in two parts. When you read the section entitled Life Saving Act - they talk about school health teams. That is HealthConnect in Our Schools the program that I helped design and manage today. We have health teams in 100 schools today and 164 next year. Before The Trust - only 21 schools in the entire district had any level of health care provided. Now 33% have standard, coordinated care.
If you go the Herald, you can read the scariest thing ever: the comments from ignorant people who think that no one should help care for children. If someone needs help caring for their family then "they should be having children". My only hope is that these are not people who will actually turn out to vote on August 26.
If you go the Herald, you can read the scariest thing ever: the comments from ignorant people who think that no one should help care for children. If someone needs help caring for their family then "they should be having children". My only hope is that these are not people who will actually turn out to vote on August 26.
The Children's Trust - Part 1
The Children's Trust has collected about $400 million in property taxes since 2003, but the group's influence is best seen through the small details, like the six African drums, small wardrobe of karate uniforms and hula hoops it funded for a program in Goulds.
''We get to do stuff that most of the other after-school cares can't do,'' wrote Alejandra Pinkney, a fourth-grader who is one of 50 children enrolled in the free program run by Urgent Inc.
The Trust was approved in 2002 as a five-year experiment. Unless voters make it permanent this summer, it will disappear. Many of the programs that depend on its funding -- child-care like Urgent, health teams in public schools, the 211 hot line for parent counseling -- likely would disappear with it.
A diverse group of luminaries are signing onto the campaign, but their timing could hardly be worse. The economy is sinking, anti-tax sentiment is soaring and voters have proven their willingness to take back money from local governments regularly pinned with scandal.
''There's a temptation to say, throw out all the rascals,'' said David Lawrence, chairman of the 33-member board that oversees the Trust. ``I believe people can separate this out in their minds as something that's valuable in this community.''
The Trust has avoided even the hint of impropriety, and its steering committee has such diverse members as Republican U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and civil-rights activist Bishop Victor Curry, and Miami Heat star Alonzo Mourning plans to tape television ads.
''I can tell you now -- and without hesitation -- that the Children's Trust has my vote,'' said Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez, highlighting the vote during February's State of the County speech. ``I hope it has yours.''
Its political action committee has already raised $760,000, according to recent financial reports, which is more than it collected for the entire 2002 campaign. Before the Aug. 26 ballot, Lawrence said, he will have enough for a four- to six-week media blitz.
NO OPPOSITION YET
There has been no sign of organized opposition, and Lawrence said recent polls showed ``we'd win this.''
''This will be the most bipartisan, nonpartisan campaign you can imagine,'' said Lawrence, a former Miami Herald publisher who has become one of Florida's leading advocates for early-childhood education.
Notably absent from the list of supporters: House Speaker Marco Rubio, the West Miami Republican who has led the push for cutting property taxes and may challenge Alvarez in a mayoral race on the same ballot.
''I'm conflicted,'' said Rubio, who has not decided how he will vote on the Trust but said he will not campaign against it.
``I'm supportive of their mission, but I'm concerned about the enormous burden people are facing economically.''
He acknowledged the Trust is a tiny portion of tax bills -- about $61 a year on a median house that receives a homestead exemption.
''If the voters vote against it, it's because even though the Children's Trust is a worthy endeavor, they can't afford it right now,'' Rubio said.
``If they vote for it, they're funding a pretty innovative approach to helping the lives of children.''
Programs such as Urgent are among the Trust's most visible, serving 40,000 children. Many of its 6- to 10-year-olds come from single-parent homes that cannot afford other after-school care. Without Urgent, many would be home alone or parked in front of a baby-sitter's television.
''We get to do stuff that most of the other after-school cares can't do,'' wrote Alejandra Pinkney, a fourth-grader who is one of 50 children enrolled in the free program run by Urgent Inc.
The Trust was approved in 2002 as a five-year experiment. Unless voters make it permanent this summer, it will disappear. Many of the programs that depend on its funding -- child-care like Urgent, health teams in public schools, the 211 hot line for parent counseling -- likely would disappear with it.
A diverse group of luminaries are signing onto the campaign, but their timing could hardly be worse. The economy is sinking, anti-tax sentiment is soaring and voters have proven their willingness to take back money from local governments regularly pinned with scandal.
''There's a temptation to say, throw out all the rascals,'' said David Lawrence, chairman of the 33-member board that oversees the Trust. ``I believe people can separate this out in their minds as something that's valuable in this community.''
The Trust has avoided even the hint of impropriety, and its steering committee has such diverse members as Republican U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and civil-rights activist Bishop Victor Curry, and Miami Heat star Alonzo Mourning plans to tape television ads.
''I can tell you now -- and without hesitation -- that the Children's Trust has my vote,'' said Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez, highlighting the vote during February's State of the County speech. ``I hope it has yours.''
Its political action committee has already raised $760,000, according to recent financial reports, which is more than it collected for the entire 2002 campaign. Before the Aug. 26 ballot, Lawrence said, he will have enough for a four- to six-week media blitz.
NO OPPOSITION YET
There has been no sign of organized opposition, and Lawrence said recent polls showed ``we'd win this.''
''This will be the most bipartisan, nonpartisan campaign you can imagine,'' said Lawrence, a former Miami Herald publisher who has become one of Florida's leading advocates for early-childhood education.
Notably absent from the list of supporters: House Speaker Marco Rubio, the West Miami Republican who has led the push for cutting property taxes and may challenge Alvarez in a mayoral race on the same ballot.
''I'm conflicted,'' said Rubio, who has not decided how he will vote on the Trust but said he will not campaign against it.
``I'm supportive of their mission, but I'm concerned about the enormous burden people are facing economically.''
He acknowledged the Trust is a tiny portion of tax bills -- about $61 a year on a median house that receives a homestead exemption.
''If the voters vote against it, it's because even though the Children's Trust is a worthy endeavor, they can't afford it right now,'' Rubio said.
``If they vote for it, they're funding a pretty innovative approach to helping the lives of children.''
Programs such as Urgent are among the Trust's most visible, serving 40,000 children. Many of its 6- to 10-year-olds come from single-parent homes that cannot afford other after-school care. Without Urgent, many would be home alone or parked in front of a baby-sitter's television.
The Children's Trust - Part 2
TOUGH STANDARDS
The evaluation process is notoriously stringent, demanding strict accounting and forcing marginal programs to improve or lose their funding.
A few years ago, a visitor to Urgent ''would have seen kids running around, playing kickball,'' said Saliha Nelson, the program's vice president. ``Now we have a fitness program that includes team-building, flexibility and endurance.''
Other activities include the karate self-defense lessons, homework help from certified teachers and the African drumming. A circle of 15 children pound out thunderous, intricate rhythms on those drums, singing a mixture of Swahili and English.
''Am I my people's keeper?'' they shout, some of them shorter than the djembé and juju drums they pound. ``Tell the world: Yes, I am!''
At least once, funding a Trust program may have saved a life.
It spends $11.4 million a year to put health teams -- including nurses and social workers -- in 100 Miami-Dade public schools, with another 64 being added this summer. Those positions had largely disappeared a generation earlier.
LIFE-SAVING ACT
When a girl fell on a playground slide at Paul Dunbar Elementary in Overtown, slamming her groin onto the metal steps, she would not let anyone see the injury.
The nurse, realizing it could be serious, coaxed her into an exam -- and discovered a blood clot the size of an egg.
''She could have died from that,'' said the nurse, Ann Nagy, who visited the girl during her weeklong hospital stay after emergency surgery.
The next major Trust-funded program will be a rating system to help parents evaluate hundreds of child-care centers. The first batch of ratings will be released publicly in early 2009.
Emily Gunter, the site coordinator for Urgent, said the Trust's record is the result of meticulous oversight.
Trust specialists helped Urgent win national certifications and make literacy education a deeper part of its programs.
''They set a standard that has become our standard,'' Gunter said. ``They're making sure the money is going right to the kids.''
The evaluation process is notoriously stringent, demanding strict accounting and forcing marginal programs to improve or lose their funding.
A few years ago, a visitor to Urgent ''would have seen kids running around, playing kickball,'' said Saliha Nelson, the program's vice president. ``Now we have a fitness program that includes team-building, flexibility and endurance.''
Other activities include the karate self-defense lessons, homework help from certified teachers and the African drumming. A circle of 15 children pound out thunderous, intricate rhythms on those drums, singing a mixture of Swahili and English.
''Am I my people's keeper?'' they shout, some of them shorter than the djembé and juju drums they pound. ``Tell the world: Yes, I am!''
At least once, funding a Trust program may have saved a life.
It spends $11.4 million a year to put health teams -- including nurses and social workers -- in 100 Miami-Dade public schools, with another 64 being added this summer. Those positions had largely disappeared a generation earlier.
LIFE-SAVING ACT
When a girl fell on a playground slide at Paul Dunbar Elementary in Overtown, slamming her groin onto the metal steps, she would not let anyone see the injury.
The nurse, realizing it could be serious, coaxed her into an exam -- and discovered a blood clot the size of an egg.
''She could have died from that,'' said the nurse, Ann Nagy, who visited the girl during her weeklong hospital stay after emergency surgery.
The next major Trust-funded program will be a rating system to help parents evaluate hundreds of child-care centers. The first batch of ratings will be released publicly in early 2009.
Emily Gunter, the site coordinator for Urgent, said the Trust's record is the result of meticulous oversight.
Trust specialists helped Urgent win national certifications and make literacy education a deeper part of its programs.
''They set a standard that has become our standard,'' Gunter said. ``They're making sure the money is going right to the kids.''
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Chelin
That is my name at all Starbucks. Whenever they call me name to give me my coffee, inevitably, that is how my name is spelled on my cup. It's pretty funny and very consistent - at least 3 different stores that I can think of.
If you don't live in my Miami, that is how my name is spelled phonetically in Spanish.
It's funny.
If you don't live in my Miami, that is how my name is spelled phonetically in Spanish.
It's funny.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
Night of Worship
This past weekend our chuch held a live concert of original music from all of the workship pastors at each of our 5 campuses. It was an amazing night of glorifying God. He has truly blessed our church with talented individuals.
Alex was there for all of the dress rehearsals and the show to document the whole thing. Here is a slideshow of the Night of Worship.
ENJOY!
Alex was there for all of the dress rehearsals and the show to document the whole thing. Here is a slideshow of the Night of Worship.
ENJOY!
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