Efren Penaflorida is CNN Hero 2009!

Pushcart educator named CNN Hero of the Year November 22, 2009 (CNN) -- Efren Peñaflorida, who started a "pushcart classroom" in the Philippines to bring education to poor children as an alternative to gang membership, has been named the 2009 CNN Hero of the Year. CNN's Anderson Cooper revealed Peñaflorida's selection at the conclusion of the third-annual "CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute" at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on Saturday night. The gala event, taped before an audience of 3,000 at the Kodak Theatre, premieres on Thanksgiving, November 26, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on the global networks of CNN. The broadcast, which honors the top 10 CNN Heroes of 2009, features performances by Grammy Award-winning artist Carrie Underwood, R&B crooner Maxwell and British pop sensation Leona Lewis. Peñaflorida, who will receive $100,000 to continue his work with the Dynamic Teen Company, was selected after seven weeks of online voting at CNN.com. More than 2.75 million votes were cast. ...

Living Apocalyptically by Pastor Kim Fabricius

Always, it seems, we are looking for “signs”, signs from God, signs that will give us a sense of certainty and security among the tumult and confusion of our times. That’s a big mistake. Remember who were always looking for signs from Jesus? His enemies, the Pharisees, demanding assurances that he was the real Messianic McCoy – and Jesus would have none of it. Nor does Jesus promise his followers such explicit divine information, interventions, rather he teaches us lessons in discernment, in ways to read the world as it is, but to read it differently, differently from the way the world reads itself, from the way politicians and pundits, journalists and opinion-makers, read the events of our day; namely, to read it, imaginatively, through the lens of the gospel. We look and what do we see? We see wars, earthquakes, famines, of course. “Of course” because wars, famines, and earthquakes are always happening. Since I’ve been in Swansea there have been cataclysmic earthquakes in Indones...

Far-reaching

Love goes beyond mere words
however lofty they sound.
The former is of the heart,
the latter is of the mind.
~carolina

An uncluttered life

(photo courtesy of philippine tourism)

how fully a faithful child may express in one instance
what a foolish man may hope to gather in a thousand years.

~carolina