There’s a story of a German pilot in World War II. He was one “kill” short of earning the Iron Cross when he spotted an American B-17 bomber crew in trouble. They’d already taken heavy fire from Nazi guns, and they would have been easy prey.
Sixteen-year-old Jesus is artistic. Twelve-year-old Angelina loves acting out scenes from her favorite TV shows. Ten-year-old Gabriela is a little mother hen. At almost nine years old, Martha Patricia is nurturing, and knows when someone is really hurting. Eight-year-old Emilie is a sassy little diva.
Most of us have done it. When planning a vacation, or buying a car, or even before trying out a new restaurant in town, we first go online and check out consumer reviews. Websites like tripadvisor.com, angieslist.com, and yelp.com can provide valuable, first-hand knowledge from others who already have experience with the places, things, or services we are considering for purchase.
A Seattle Times article recounts the story of 12-year-old Orlando, a boy whose father fled from the law and whose mother was committed to a mental hospital. Not yet a teenager, Orlando was left in charge of seven siblings, including a set of triplets still in diapers.
"I didn't know how I was ever going to get the girls Christmas gifts. All we had was a tree."
It sounds strange, somewhat on the line between irony and absurdity, to think that people would rather label and judge something as significant as each other but completely bypass a peanut. … World peace is only a dream because people won’t allow themselves and others around them to simply be peanuts.
Photo courtesy Angola Prison / Wikipedia Commons
A controversial new plan to prepare inmates for reentry into society is being proposed in Louisiana. The idea is to move a thousand prisoners from a minimum-security prison in the state and transfer them to Angola Prison, a maximum-security prison once infamous for violence and decrepit conditions.
Video footage from Monday’s tragedy shows that, a split-second after the deafening blast near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, confused crowds, including runners already near exhaustion, scrambled for a place of safety. But among them were some who ran back – toward the smoke, toward the roar, toward the danger – to help the wounded.
The appalling murder of Tom Clements, the executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections, appears to be part of a growing trend of violence against criminal justice officials. Since the beginning of the year, brazen attacks have also taken the lives of the Kaufman County, Texas, district attorney, his wife, and a lead prosecutor.
Hunger…it may not and cannot be experienced vicariously. He who never felt hunger can never know its real effects, both tangible and intangible. Hunger defies imagination; it even defies memory. Hunger is felt only in the present.
– Elie Wiesel
“HUNGRY – Will work for food!”
The following post originally appeared on the Justice Fellowship website. To learn more about Justice Fellowship and its efforts to reform the criminal justice system, visit www.justicefellowship.org.
If movie stars and rappers can put together a loud call for just laws and smart sentencing practices, why can’t Christians get more mobilized?
Frontlines is a video series that brings you close to the work of Prison Fellowship through the lens of Prison Fellowship Ministries CEO Jim Liske’s encounters with the inmates and families. In the latest edition, Jim relives his visit to a chaotic neighborhood where he met a brave little girl full of potential.
Over Easter weekend I met a young man in a prison infirmary. He wore a Styrofoam helmet to protect his badly damaged skull. His had been terribly incapacitated by the same drunk-driving accident that killed his boyhood friend. As the driver in the accident, this young man was facing a 40-year sentence.
"God opens doors that man wants to shut.”
A smile that spreads across his freckled face at the mention of his kids speaks more of Tony Dungy’s greatness than the trophy he gripped in his hand after becoming the first African American coach to lead a team to Super Bowl victory.