They, along with Isaiah 58, helped to
provide school supplies and support for several homeless children in the
Calhoun County school system. Currently there are over 200+ students who are
considered homeless. This may include, but is not limited to, students whose
parents are deceased or incarcerated, who have been displaced because of
natural disasters, or students who have no family.
Through this connection, Isaiah
58 recognized that there were several displaced teen-aged girls who were trying
to finish high school and wanted to attend the prom. Isaiah 58 and Bebe's
collected prom dresses and provided those dresses and all the accessories to
compliment the dresses including shoes, jewelry, and flowers. On that Saturday the
girls were invited to the Isaiah 58 salon for makeovers. The girls received the royal treatment which
included full makeup, manicures and hair. Carmen Helms, who is a Mary Kay
consultant, donated free make-up to each girl. These beautiful girls left
excited and transformed.
We are still connecting,
loving and serving. The powerful
outpouring that is our Second Saturday Food distribution never ceases to amaze
all who participate. Over 1,200 hundred families continue to pour out their
stories of recent downsizing, transition and change. More and more families
from our community are participating in Celebrate Recovery and generational
histories are being rewritten. Testimonies keep coming but just like every
opportunity we have to serve the volunteers are always the first to give voice
to how blessed they are to be a part of what God is doing in so many lives.
This has already been said but it is worth
repeating, “Each life story is as unique as the individual living it out but
there is very common thread that ties all of us together regardless of where we
come from and where we find ourselves economically. Connecting to God, loving and serving is what
brings us all together and creates an atmosphere for His Presence to dwell.”
Revisiting our national
history is something we all need to do periodically so I have included the
history of our Independence Day and the Declaration of Independence in this
month’s blog offering. Be blessed as you
read and know that it is for freedom that Christ Jesus died to set us free.
We must be free not because we claim freedom,
but because we practice it.
William Faulkner
William Faulkner
I
wish that every human life might be pure transparent freedom. Simone de Beauvoir
Watch silently, without complaint,
to see what I will do to establish you in My kingdom and to bless you in ways
that you have not even imagined. Let your faith in Me soar like an eagle
without restriction or restraint. The breath of My Spirit will bring new life
and hope to your soul. All you have to do is release yourself completely into
My care, says the Lord.
With our financial infrastructure in
decline, the war in Iraq coming to an end and battle weary soldiers coming home
to an almost non-existent job market it may be time to revisit who we are as a
nation and what our goals started out as.
As the month of July approaches we are already planning our Fourth of
July vacations, picnics and boating excursions. However, there is a rich
history of who we are that far too many Americans will not even give a wink or
a nod to acknowledge the price that has been paid and will continue to be paid
for freedom and liberty. This bit of history and the Declaration of
Independence is eye opening and should be in the hearts of every person who
lives and breathes in a democratic society that we can choose the lives we want
to live because someone took and stand and proclaimed these words: We
hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they
are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these
are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
The
History of the Fourth of July:
On July 4, 1776, the thirteen colonies
claimed their independence from England, an event which eventually led to the
formation of the United States. Each year on July 4th, also known as
Independence Day, Americans celebrate this historic event. Conflict between the
colonies and England was already a year old when the colonies convened a
Continental Congress in Philadelphia in the summer of 1776. In a June 7 session
in the Pennsylvania State House (later Independence Hall), Richard Henry Lee of
Virginia presented a resolution with the famous words: "Resolved: That
these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent
States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and
that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is,
and ought to be, totally dissolved."
Lee's words were the impetus for the
drafting of a formal Declaration of Independence, although the resolution was
not followed up on immediately. On June 11, consideration of the resolution was
postponed by a vote of seven colonies to five, with New York abstaining.
However, a Committee of Five was appointed to draft a statement presenting to
the world the colonies' case for independence. Members of the Committee
included John Adams of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Benjamin
Franklin of Pennsylvania, Robert R. Livingston of New York and Thomas Jefferson
of Virginia.
The task of drafting the actual document
fell on Jefferson. On July 1, 1776, the Continental Congress reconvened, and on
the following day, the Lee Resolution for independence was adopted by 12 of the
13 colonies, New York not voting. Discussions of Jefferson's Declaration of
Independence resulted in some minor changes, but the spirit of the document was
unchanged. The process of revision continued through all of July 3 and into the
late afternoon of July 4, when the Declaration was officially adopted. Of the
13 colonies, nine voted in favor of the Declaration, two -- Pennsylvania and
South Carolina -- voted No, Delaware was undecided and New York abstained. John
Hancock, President of the Continental Congress, signed the Declaration of
Independence. It is said that John Hancock's signed his name "with a great
flourish" so England's "King George can read that without spectacles!
Declaration
of Independence:
Drafted by Thomas Jefferson
between June 11 and June 28, 1776, the Declaration of Independence is at once
the nation's most cherished symbol of liberty and Jefferson's most enduring
monument. Here, in exalted and unforgettable phrases, Jefferson expressed the
convictions in the minds and hearts of the American people. The political
philosophy of the Declaration was not new; its ideals of individual liberty had
already been expressed by John Locke and the Continental philosophers. What
Jefferson did was to summarize this philosophy in "self-evident
truths" and set forth a list of grievances against the King in order to
justify before the world the breaking of ties between the colonies and the mother
country. We invite you to read a transcription of the complete text of the
Declaration.
CONGRESS
July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen
united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes
necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected
them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate
and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them,
a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare
the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit
of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among
Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed that whenever
any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of
the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying
its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to
them shall seem most likely to affect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that
Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient
causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more
disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by
abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But when a long train of abuses and
usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce
them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw
off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such
has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the
necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.
The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated
injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an
absolute Tyranny over these States.
To prove this, let Facts be submitted to
a candid world. He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and
necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of
immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his
Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to
attend to them. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of
large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of
Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable
to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual,
uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the
sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has
dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his
invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after
such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative
powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for
their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers
of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavored to prevent
the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for
Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their
migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws
for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will
alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their
salaries. He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of
Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance. He has kept among
us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the civil
power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to
our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their
Acts of pretended Legislation: For Quartering large bodies of armed troops
among us: For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders
which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: For cutting off
our Trade with all parts of the world: For imposing Taxes on us without our
Consent: For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury: For
transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences. For abolishing
the free System of English Laws in a neighboring Province, establishing therein
an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at
once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into
these Colonies: For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable
Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: For suspending
our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate
for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated Government here, by declaring
us out of his Protection and waging War against us. He has plundered our seas,
ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He
is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete
the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of
Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and
totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow
Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to
become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by
their Hands .He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has
endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian
Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all
ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these oppressions we
have petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions
have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus
marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a
free people. Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We
have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend
an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the
circumstances of our emigration and settlement here.
We have appealed to their native justice and
magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to
disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections
and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of
consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces
our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War,
in Peace Friends. We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of
America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the
world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of
the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare,
That these United Colonies are, and of
Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all
Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them
and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that
as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude
Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and
Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this
Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we
mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
CARE FAIR
JULY 28th
9:00-1:00 pm
5337 Hwy 78 W
Oxford, Al
FREE HAIRCUTS and School Supplies for K-12th Grades
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