Challenges come so we can grow and be prepared for things we are not equipped to handle now. When we face our challenges with faith, prepared to learn, willing to make changes, and if necessary, to let go, we are demanding our power be turned on.

Iyanla Vanzant

“The winds of change are always blowing and every time I try to stay. The winds of change continue blowing and they just carry me away.”

Willie Nelson

A renewed commitment to the freedom and opportunity of our people is the touchstone of our time. In this new century, where tests are many and challenges change with the shifting of the wind, we must hold fast to the principles that have made our nation the envy of the world.  

Bill Owens

It has been almost a year since the estimated sixty-two tornadoes touched down April 25-28, 2011.  The cleanup is ongoing and the recent spate of even more tornado activity January 23rd, 2012 heightens, for those of us who live in this state, the awareness that we are heading into tornado season. Isaiah 58 was prepared and ready to go when the last warning siren finally ended. Our First Responders team was on the ground with truckloads of supplies as soon as the all clear was given to head into the ravaged neighborhoods. What has become clear is that it is imperative that we educate ourselves about tornadoes and how to respond to them. Our community, locally and globally, needs to be better informed as to how to best protect possessions, property and their person. Questions we have been asked as First Responders is how does a tornado form, what causes a tornado, and how can we best protect ourselves and our families? This research from Kris Kridler is really informative:

Tornadoes occur just about everywhere in the world, from India to Australia, and all over the United States, but the most famous and active breeding ground for tornadoes is Tornado Alley. It extends from Texas up through Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska to the Dakotas. Warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico clashes with cold air from the north and fuels storms that form there. Tornadoes can form any time of year, but many occur in the stormy spring, when these warm and cold air masses collide. Storms often are triggered where two different kinds of air masses meet, such as dry and moist air masses, or cold and warm air masses.

We don't know all the reasons a tornado forms, but scientists have a general idea of the weather ingredients that need to come together.

Tornadoes can form out of many kinds of storms, but the type most likely to produce tornadoes is the super cell. A super cell has an area of rotation within the storm called a mesocyclone that can spawn a tornado. The storm itself can rotate when winds at different levels of the atmosphere come from different directions. If the winds are lined up just right, with just enough strength, the storm turns like a top. Air circulations within the storm combined with a strong updraft contribute to tornado formation. Under the rain-free base of a super cell, look for a wall cloud to form. Out of this lowered area is where you are likely to see a tornado. But if you ever find yourself near a storm like this, watch out. Quick tornadoes can form out of other parts of the storm.

Big hail is another danger posed by super cells and other storms. You may notice what looks like a rain shaft that is very white falling from a storm. You may be looking at hail falling. Because hail is made of ice and is usually white, it reflects more light and can look bright as it falls. Big hail can batter cars, damage homes and injure people and animals. Hail consists of particles that gather layers of water that freeze into ice as the hailstones are cycled multiple times through a storm's updraft. You are likely to see several layers of ice if you cut open a grapefruit-size hailstone. Just don't get bonked in the head by one.

A tornado is only a tornado if it's in contact with the ground. Otherwise, it's a funnel. Some tornadoes don't have a visible funnel, but if debris is visible at the ground, it is considered a tornado. Because big storms can suck up dust or kick up dust even when there's no tornado, sometimes they can be confusing to observers. If there is rotation in the cloud above the dust, then it may very well be a tornado. Most tornadoes last only 5 or 10 minutes, but some have been known to last more than an hour. Close to 1,000 tornadoes are reported every year in the United States. Most, but not all, tornadoes in the northern hemisphere spin counter-clockwise, or cyclonically. In the southern hemisphere - for instance, Australia - the opposite is true.

Another type of tornado is a waterspout - a tornado over water. Waterspouts form out of quickly growing cumulus (puffy) clouds or storms. They are sometimes weaker than their land cousins, but they can still cause damage or flip boats. A dust devil, however, is not a tornado. If it's a warm day, and light winds at the surface cooperate, you may see one of these whirling columns of dust in a farm field, a parking lot or the desert.”

This excerpt from the Alabama News is a reminder of how devastating tornado activity can be:

“Even now, almost nine months later, it is hard to grasp the enormity of the destruction from the killer storm systems that roared through Alabama last April, spawning three waves of twisters over 18 hours.

Sixty-two tornadoes touched down that day -- 25 more than struck Alabama during all of 2010. They killed 248 people and hurt more than 2,200 others, and damaged or destroyed almost 24,000 homes. The wreckage extended across 35 of the state's 67 counties, with damage estimates in the billions of dollars.

Understand the awesome fury of those storms and the degree of devastation -- and that more killer tornadoes will attack a state ranked No. 1 in tornado deaths over the past three decades -- and you will understand the importance of the council's recommendations and the need to put them in place as soon as possible. That is particularly true after tornadoes raked the state Monday, January 23, 2012, killing two people and damaging or destroying hundreds of homes and dozens of businesses.

Last August, when the governor appointed 19 civic, community and business leaders from across the state to the tornado council, he said: "By deepening our understanding of this tragedy and its effects, we can improve our ability to prepare for and respond to a broad range of potential disasters."

Bentley's charge to the council, co-chaired by Pam Siddall, president and publisher of Birmingham News Multimedia, and Johnny Johns, president and CEO of Protective Life: Find ways to save lives, increase cooperation among agencies, improve the delivery of services and reduce the economic harm from future storms. The council's 20 well-reasoned, common-sense recommendations meet that charge. (Read the report at the "Cultivating a State of Readiness" link above.) They are a call to action for state and local governments, emergency responders, utilities, nonprofits and businesses and, most important, Alabama residents.

While much went right in the aftermath of April 27 -- heroic first-responders, fast-acting state and local officials, utilities quickly restoring services, massive volunteer efforts -- there are lessons to learn that will allow Alabama to do better in the next major disaster. Everything starts with being well-prepared.

"In hoping for the best but getting ready for the worst, better preparation might be the strongest defense against future tornadoes," the report said. "Better preparation can lead to fewer deaths, less property loss, a smoother transition back to normal and hopefully fewer 'what ifs' to consider after the next serious storms."

Toward that end, the council recommended: increasing the number of storm shelters in Alabama, including requiring them in new mobile home parks and apartment complexes; tax incentives for safe rooms in new home construction; a new, tough, statewide building code for new, rebuilt and extensively remodeled homes; tax incentives to encourage businesses to buy generators; a campaign to raise public awareness; and an annual sales tax holiday on severe-weather emergency supplies.

The report also called for integrated and more geographically precise storm alerts than the current county wide warnings, which can promote complacency among residents who hear repeated warnings but are never threatened because they are not in the storms' direct path. The council also said state and county governments and non profits should promote the use of weather radios, which need better technology to send area-specific warnings. Too, tornado research at Alabama's universities should be expanded to help better understand the storms' patterns and help people better prepare, the report said.

To improve disaster response, the tornado council suggested minimum training standards for local emergency management directors; updated communication plans and testing to ensure they work; unannounced mass casualty drills for emergency responders and hospitals; and better coordination of volunteers through the governor's office and the state Emergency Management Agency.

The report also includes recommendations on post disaster recovery. Among them: low-interest loans, grants and other help for rebuilding homes and businesses; and for local governments to approve pre-event contracts for debris removal and disposal.

Some recommendations may be viewed as controversial, such as putting into place a statewide building code with inspection and compliance requirements and enforcement teeth in a state where 60 of its 67 counties have no code. Plus, there will be concerns about cost. Yet, some storm fortifications add just several hundred dollars to the cost of new-home construction.

Tougher standards for building more storm-resistant homes would lower homeowners' insurance costs, but more important is that they would save lives.

It mustn't go unnoticed that Bentley received the report Tuesday as he toured tornado damage in Center Point from predawn storms that swept across Alabama Monday. We don't have the luxury of waiting years to put into place the tornado council's recommendations, nor should we use the excuse of saying some of them will cost money that state and local governments can't spare.

The governor's Tornado Recovery Action Council has come up with 20 strong recommendations that will ensure a better outcome the next time a major disaster strikes. The council said Bentley should create an ad hoc committee that would design a framework for putting its recommendations into place, "including projections of costs, funding sources, personnel and time lines."

With tornado season starting in earnest in March, time is of the essence. We mustn't waste it, or this opportunity.”

This prophetic word from SMALL STRAWS IN A SOFT WIND by Marsha Burns--01/30/12 is very encouraging to those of us who are watching the changing winds in everything from our weather patterns to politics: Pay attention to what is happening in your immediate environment, and look beyond the natural to see the spiritual significance. In this way you will begin to understand the opportunities you have to make decisions that will elevate you in the Spirit. Watch and be amazed at the spiritual perspective that I will bring through natural means. However, your life is not bound to the things of the earth, but is heaven-bound, says the Lord.
1 Corinthians 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

God is introducing a new administration and the earth really is groaning for the sons of man to be made manifest according to Romans 8:17-22, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.   

For we know that the whole creation groans and labors, with birth pangs together until now.” We must be prepared for change and shifting patterns as we embark upon the rest of the year. Pay attention to what is happening in the natural realm and the spiritual realm and be ready in season and out of season to proclaim the good news of the gospel.

Connect Love Serve

When your life is filled with the desire to see the holiness in everyday life, something magical happens: ordinary life becomes extraordinary, and the very process of life begins to nourish your soul! 

Rabbi Harold Kushner

...Spiritual opening is not a withdrawal to some imagined realm or safe cave.  It is not a pulling away, but a touching of all the experience of life with wisdom and with a heart of kindness, without any separation. 

Jack Kornfield

Connect. Love. Serve.  Those three words were demonstrated at our Second Saturday Food distribution in an incredibly beautiful way. The testimonies keep pouring in but one of our favorites comes from the couple who until recently have always been ones who others have been counted on to give. Due to a change in their circumstances they came Saturday morning to pick up groceries. 

Before they ever got to the end of the line to actually receive their supplies they were so enveloped by the Presence of God they were just downloaded with appreciation and thankfulness. 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.

I love this prophetic word by Bill and Marsha burns, “Beloved, I have made a way for you to come higher by way of spiritual progression. In order to take advantage of this opportunity, you must let go of everything that has become an anchor and a hindrance. You must release all things that have become a source of agitation, irritation, or conflict in your soul. Hear My voice as I call to you. Allow My nature to be developed in you that will bear the fruit of My Spirit. Let your light shine in the darkness of difficult and disturbing circumstances, for I am with you, says the Lord.

Live Galatians 5:22-23 to the fullest, ‘But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.’ ” These are difficult times that we are living in but if we stay connected to the Source of life and live as Rabbi Harold Kushner suggests, “When your life is filled with the desire to see the holiness in everyday life, something magical happens: ordinary life becomes extraordinary, and the very process of life begins to nourish your soul,” we will love and serve the way He designed us to.

One hundred plus volunteers demonstrated this revelation to over twelve hundred families on Saturday, January 14, 2012.  It was our first monthly distribution in several years and the energy was high. For those of us who have been at Word Alive International Outreach since the first distribution on December 10^th, 2000 it was like coming home. 

We have come full circle after outgrowing every venue that we have undertaken in the past four years.  Our property is now large and functional enough that we can accommodate the twelve hundred cars that came through. We distributed twelve hundred bags of dried goods and bagged groceries, two pallets of meat, three pallets of dairy products, four pallets of hygiene items, fifty-five buckets of candy, seven pallets of drinks and eight bins of fresh produce in a little over five hours. All of that is amazing and we are so blessed to be a part but the really exciting part of this outreach is how many families are having their lives radically impacted and changed. 

Each week there are more and more families from our community who are coming to know our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  They are connecting to God and experiencing His love through our service to others. Our desire is to touch as many lives as possible to share the Good News of the gospel by connecting, loving and serving. 

Spiritual opening is not a withdrawal to some imagined realm or safe cave.  It is not a pulling away, but a touching of all the experience of life with wisdom and with a heart of kindness, without any separation.  Jack Kornfield

January 2012

The Kingdom of God is advancing and Matthew 11:12 tells us, “…the kingdom of heaven suffers violence (strength or life), and the violent (human spirit and soul) take it by force.”  

It is already January 2012.  The way that time is passing by gives credence to the revelation that in God there really is no such thing as time. Around September of last year (it will take me a minute to get used to referring to 2011 as last year) I realized that I arrived at my office on sunlit Monday mornings and seemingly walked out Thursday afternoon around dark thirty. Living in Northern Alabama one can find one’s self leaving work in what appears to be the dead of night.  When Daylight Savings Time ends we are on the receiving end of very short days. It can be a bit disconcerting until your system adjusts.

We have had many adjustments in our Isaiah 58 Ministry Department this year. We continue to expand and the end of the year brought many changes and new faces. The property has had a face-lift as well as we added new staff members and created space for everyone.  We expanded our furniture department in Be Be’s Boutique and added new office space to our Isaiah 58 Salon. Our administrative offices are finally just that.  For the two and a half years that I have worked in this department we have utilized our offices as a reception/distribution area.  We knew that when we reached the one hundred families per day mark that we would have to rethink how we were doing things. 

Our first move was into BeBe’s Bargain Boutique and that was effective very a very short lived season.  The store continued to prosper and our distribution jumped to over two hundred families per day. Our next strategy meeting led to the decision that we would begin to distribute food on Tuesdays and Thursdays in hopes that we would have a day in between to schedule volunteers, load the trucks, bag the food and have it ready for distribution.  Well, that was effective for about a second.  By the end of the day of our quarterly Care Fair we had distributed roughly one thousand and four hundred bags of groceries for the week.  Our Care Fair statistics read like the twelve days of Christmas: we had one blood pressure nurse, three face painters, four sweepers sweeping, five grill masters grilling, nine stylists cutting, seventy volunteers volunteering, eighty haircuts were cut, two hundred and fifty burgers were eaten, three hundred bags of groceries were delivered, three hundred and fifty bags of toys were received and a partridge in a pear tree.

It was an amazing day but at the end of the week we knew we were going to have to make another change.  We have outgrown our facility!  In a way we have come full circle back to our very roots in the Food Ministry.  In December 2000, the first week that Word Alive had services, we distributed our first tractor trailer full of food.  From those small beginnings we have literally distributed millions of pounds of food in the past eleven years.  We moved the distribution from our main campus in Coldwater because we outgrew the space we had.  Five years later we are returning to our roots with the access that we now have to the property on Highway 202. It is the perfect location to do large distributions. Beginning on January 14^th, 2012 at 9:00 AM we will shift to having a monthly distribution that prayerfully will be more effective and reach more families who are in need. Every Second Saturday of the month will be a scheduled distribution day.

We continue to expand and take more territory for the Kingdom of God but we could not do it without the faithful generosity of so many who have joined our Fast Food Force. It is your continued giving and prayer support that makes all of the difference in the World.  The Kingdom of God is advancing and Matthew 11:12 tells us, “…the kingdom of heaven suffers violence (strength or life), and the violent (human spirit and soul) take it by force.”  Biázœ is the Greek word for violence and means strength or life.  Bíos refers to the state or condition of existence, including the duration, means, and manner of life while Zoë on the other hand describes life as the element or principle of the human spirit and soul. We are taking life (the state or condition of existence) and applying it to the human spirit and soul.  You help make that happen every single day.

Including everyone in our ongoing advancement of the Kingdom via our Isaiah 58 Fast Food Force compelled us to open the doors of our campus and demonstrate exactly what takes place on a daily basis.  On Sunday, December 18^th we had our first Isaiah 58 Open House. It was with high hopes and enthusiasm that we prepared the warehouse, Salon, Be Be’s Bargain Boutique and Artist’s Gallery for guests. Our Administrative Team gave informative tours to our over five hundred guests.  As everyone entered the Reception/Administrative offices they saw firsthand   the offices where The Connection Magazine and our books are written, edited and published.  From there they moved into the Warehouse where volunteers demonstrated the sorting, bagging and distribution process. Next on the tour was our newly expanded Furniture Department and Boutique. Shoppers had a great time in between continuing on to the Salon where our quarterly Care Fair takes place.  From there we went to the Artist’s Gallery where High Class Handcrafts were made by our very talented volunteer artists. Jeff Chef out did himself with a delicious Italian Cream Cake and steaming hot coffee.  Life Group teams had beautifully decorated our space and they were in place to greet everyone as they arrived for dessert and fellowship.  At the end of the day new volunteers had signed up for the upcoming year, shoppers had shopped and numerous donations of clothing and furniture had been made.  Our team was greatly rewarded by everyone’s participation  and a good time was had by all. We enjoyed preparing everything so much we have decided to make it an annual event so we can keep our congregation and community informed about all of the exciting things that take place on our Isaiah 58 campus.  We look forward to seeing you there.