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My kids are still young. For several years I have been re-acquainted with Curious George and the man in the yellow hat. The only recurring character in the original adventures, other than George himself, is the Man with the Yellow Hat. It was he who brought George from Africa, and it is in his house that George lives. The Man often facilitates George’s adventures by taking him somewhere, and even more often resolves the tension by appearing just in time to get George out of a tight spot. He is always seen wearing a bright yellow suit and a wide-brimmed yellow hat. The Man is never mentioned by name in the original adventures, or in any subsequent content over more than six decades. He is always called either “the Man” or fully “the Man with the Yellow Hat”. When people speak to George about the Man, they often refer to him as “your friend.” I have enjoyed watching George discover new things and the Man in the yellow hat come behind and pick up the pieces. George destroys the bathroom and he cleans it up. George gets lost and the Man goes and finds him. in one episode, George misunderstood something and decided he would store up food all over the house. The mess was disastrous. The Man in the yellow hat came in and helped George fix everything.
Let me introduce you to another Yellow Hat that is “your friend”. The men and women that serve in Disaster Relief are friends to your community, the state of Oklahoma, our country, and even our world. Disaster Relief acts according to their name. Wherever there is a disaster they go and provide relief. According to their website, this is a portion of what they do.
Feeding
Preparing and serving hot meals is the backbone of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief ministry. With this in mind, every Oklahoma volunteer is trained to work on the feeding team. Specific training is provided in maintenance, warehouse, sanitation, cooking and line serving.
After completing feeding team training, volunteers may train in other areas of Disaster Relief service. Assessment team members must have previous training in our Disaster Relief chain saw and mud-out recovery work.
Damage Assessment
Team members go ahead of chain saw and mud-out teams to evaluate damage and inform follow-up teams on scope of each job, including equipment that will be needed.
Chain-Saw
The chain saw team removes damaged trees and other debris blocking doorways and/or driveways, trees leaning against homes, and limbs broken through roofs or causing a hazard in yards. Experience in operating a chain saw is desirable, but not mandatory.
Mud-Out Removal
Members must be in good physical condition and willing to work in unpleasant, dirty situations. Volunteers need to be conscious of health and safety hazards, taking necessary measures in order to keep themselves and others out of harm’s way.
Showers and Laundry
This team gives aid to relief workers and others who are in need by providing showers and laundry support in the disaster area. The trailers have private shower stalls as well as washing machines, dryers, storage and folding areas. Volunteers receive and assist those requesting their services, do laundry, sanitize showers, empty trash, replace needed supplies, and keep the trailer area neat.
Child Care
Child care volunteers provide a calm atmosphere and competent, loving care for children. Care is provided to give parents the opportunity to salvage remains of belongings, meet with helping agencies and insurance representatives, and take care of other business.
Team members will travel to the disaster site and establish a child care center in temporary space, using books, toys and other resources that they will take to the disaster site. The center is set up in the best available space adjacent to the areas to be serviced. It may be located in a school, church or business that is unaffected by the disaster. Volunteers will care for the children during the day. The center is usually open from 8:30 am to 5:40 pm.
Child care volunteers should love children and have previous experience working with preschoolers and elementary-age children. Team members must consent to a background check before serving.
Water Purification
This group provides clean water after a disaster has occurred. Portable water purification units are used to sanitize available water on location, making it safe for drinking, cooking, bathing and other uses.
I don’t know about you, but sometimes I’ll hear about horrific natural disasters and think ‘wow that’s terrible,’ but I’ll have no idea how to help outside of prayer. Or you see a group of people lending a hand in a neighborhood and think ‘I could do that.’
Here in Oklahoma, we have one of the most amazing response teams known across the globe. Disaster Relief teams were on the ground preparing before yesterday’s tornados even had touched down.
Currently, there is a feeding team set up in Norman, Okla., for anyone impacted by the storms. Groups of men are out working their magic with chainsaws, helping people to get trees and materials off of yards, vehicles, and houses. A laundry trailer has been set up at Carney, First. Chaplains are out ministering to people and learning how Oklahoma Baptists can step up and help them in their time of need.
Oklahoma has one of the highest numbers of chaplains and trained volunteers for when a disaster strikes. It’s a lot of fun seeing these guys in action, and when a disaster strikes in your neighborhood and you see a bunch of people running around in yellow shirts, that’s our Disaster Relief teams seeing how they can help.
So the question becomes how can you get involved with this amazing group of people?
Pray. Always needed and appreciated!
Get trained. Disaster Relief offer trainings for a variety of different capacities. Find out about trainings at www.bgco.org/DRtraining
Go. There is a constant need for trained disaster relief workers. If you can help wash laundry, help people dig their houses out after a hurricane, willing to offer a smile and a helping hand…disaster relief is for you!
New U.S. Census data shows that the number of births out of wedlock in Oklahoma is up. Way up. In fact, some 40 percent of births in Oklahoma in 2011 were to unwed mothers, which is higher than the national average. This represents a significant challenge and opportunity for churches in Oklahoma, which remains one of the most churched states in America.
While an increasing number of churches realize we should minister with and to single mothers, there has been a cost to the removal of stigma to out-of-wedlock births. Namely, more children are being born into broken homes.
Expectations matter. The script for those desiring children used to be, “First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby carriage.” Today, shows like Here Comes Honey Boo Boo too closely reflects the reality of women becoming pregnant out of wedlock.
The biggest loser in this equation of out-of-wedlock births is children. A close second, though, is the mothers who raise them. Coming off nearly Scott free are men, who sleep around and take no responsibility for their offspring. We have, in a way, catered to the barbarians in society. We have lost the whole idea of a “shotgun wedding.” This must change.
First, let’s face the fact that this is mostly the fault of men. A woman cannot become pregnant without a man, and the pool of guys out there is getting worse and worse. In his 2004 essay, “Wimps and Barbarians: The Sons of Murphey Brown,” Terrence O. Moore predicted we would see what we are seeing ten years later. Moore examined societal attitudes about single mothers, when Vice President Dan Quayle criticized fictional TV anchor “Murphey Brown” for purposefully becoming a single mother. Moore argues that Brown’s son would grow up to be one of two extremes, either a wimp or a barbarian.
Boys without fathers, as it turns out, often trend toward one of these extremes. By God’s grace, a single mother can raise godly children, but it is an uphill battle. Therefore, the church must respond in love by supporting mothers who are single, by telling men who abandon women and children they are living in sin and encouraging them to take responsibility for their actions, and by a recommitment to God’s best for a family, having a mother and a father.
Jesus, while compassionate to the woman at the well (John 4), did chide her for living with a man “who is not your husband.” Our Lord forgave her and restored her, as well as set her on a new path for life. Part of her old, sinful way was cohabitation. The church should not be afraid to tell women and men that God does not want them to have sex outside of marriage, nor does he smile upon cohabitation. God is not trying to spoil any fun. He is trying to protect us from ourselves.
Until a fundament shift in expectations occurs in society, we likely will continue to see the unwed birth rates climb. God’s people, though, can be accountable for our own and our actions. Let’s pray that we will take this Census news as a wake-up call and compassionately help young adult Christians stay on the best path.
Perhaps you have heard the buzz going around about Plan B®. On Tuesday, April 30th 2013, the FDA approved the marketing and sale of Plan B®, a potent emergency contraceptive, to girls as young as the age of 15 with no prescription required. This move of Plan B® to over-the-counter (OTC) status bothers me greatly as a Christian, as a pharmacist, and more importantly as a parent. I hope in this post to provide you with sound information to navigate this tragic downfall of medical wisdom and blatant intrusion into the parent/teen relationship brought about by the FDA’s ruling.
First off, I want to speak to you from the unique perspective of a pharmacist and bi-vocational minister. I want to put my cards on the table early, and tell you I have never sold any form emergency contraceptive to any patient under any circumstance. My conviction that life begins at conception frequently puts me at odds with many in the medical community concerning issues of life and contraception. My aim is to hold fast to my beliefs and to educate others in the truth about emergency contraception.
As I did research on the proposed mechanism of action for emergency contraceptives, such as Plan B®, I found several proposed mechanisms for preventing pregnancy. Plan B®’s website list the following possibilities:
Plan B works mainly by stopping the release of an egg from the ovary. It is possible that Plan B One-Step® may also work by preventing fertilization of an egg (the uniting of the sperm with the egg) or by preventing attachment (implantation) to the uterus (womb).
The first two proposed mechanisms are similar to the way monthly oral contraceptives work, but it is the last possibility that prevents me from selling the product. The manufacturer says that this drug may prevent the implantation of an already fertilized and viable embryo into the uterus wall thereby causing the body to abort this viable life. Now I am not saying that in every case of emergency contraception use prevention of implantation is the only mechanism possible, but I am saying that in every case of use, it is possible. In most of the literature on emergency contraceptive, this mechanism is downplayed or ignored all together. To allow young girls access to such a drug without this vital information clearly violates the patient’s right to informed consent.
Another problem I have with the approval of the over-the-counter sale of Plan B® is the FDA appears to be setting a double standard. Levonorgestrel, the active ingredient found in Plan B®, is allowed this privileged OTC status only in emergency contraceptive product formulations such as Plan B® or Next Choice®. Levonorgestrel, found in 19 other formulations for routine monthly oral contraception, is still available only by prescription under the supervision of physicians and pharmacists. This prescription-only status stresses that the FDA believes monthly use of Levonorgestrel is best managed by doctors who can perform annual health screenings, such as pap smears, to rule out sexually-transmitted diseases and cervical cancer. With Plan B now available to teens with no screening or medical care, we are not promoting women’s health but in reality suppressing much needed care to some of our youngest patients. Two separate studies performed in both the U.K. and the U.S. have found that STD rates increase as much as 12% with OTC access to emergency contraceptives such as Plan B®. Without screenings and education, we are putting women at risk.
Finally, emergency contraceptives are not intended as primary means of contraception as Plan B®’s own website declares. Allowing unlimited, unsupervised use of emergency contraceptives will lead to overuse. I have seen this in my own practice as women come in time and time again for an emergency contraceptive that states on the packaging is not intended to be used as a primary means of contraception. Allowing Plan B® OTC to girls as young as 15 will further send the message that emergency contraception is a primary option for continual use. This exposes young girls to repeated high doses of Levonorgestrel leading to common side effects like: nausea, vomiting, fatigue, dizziness, lower abdominal pain, and menstrual irregularities. In fact each dose of Plan B One-Step® contains as much Levonorgestrel as 15 days of monthly oral contraceptives that require a prescription from a doctor. These high doses of hormones are not safe as primary means for contraception, and access to such drugs should be overseen by appropriate healthcare providers.
As a Doctor of Pharmacy looking at the debate over OTC availability to emergency contraceptives for teenage girls, I am baffled at the decision of the FDA last week. This decision will lead to overuse of high potency emergency contraceptives and reduce doctor/patient encounters for proper health screenings. This decision is a step backwards for women’s health.
Looking at this debate as the father of a little girl, I am outraged that the FDA would undermine parent’s involvement in the lives of their children. As parents, we have every right to be involved in all decisions concerning our children’s health. Now teenage girls are faced with enormous health decisions apart from parental involvement and without physician guidance. This is unacceptable!! Our children deserve better than this!!
The FDA granting OTC status of emergency contraceptives to girls age 15 and older should be a wake-up call to us all. Where we have opportunity, we need to speak out against foolish policies that are infringing upon our rights as parents, endangering the lives of our children, and most of all, taking the lives of the innocent. We must be vigilant in teaching our children to navigate such issues with godly wisdom. We should pray for God to change the hearts and minds of those in office making laws and judgments. The FDA ruling is stimulating conversations, and the truth will always triumph. I leave you with this from Galatians 6:9, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
The Food and Drug Administration has created a new policy that will almost certainly further the culture of death in America. To be specific, the FDA approved the so-called morning-after pill (“Plan B”), making it available over-the-counter without a prescription to women as young as 15 years old.
The FDA, with former President George W. Bush’s approval, first made it over-the-counter in 2006 (but not for minors). At the time, courageous leaders like U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma medical doctor, warned that this was a tragic move.
Why, Dr. Coburn wondered, would the FDA make the super-dose of birth control, which can likely terminate a pregnancy, available over-the-counter, when the ordinary birth control pill requires a prescription? It does not make sense.
Further, we have done a disservice to pharmacists, who have now been degraded to mere vending machines for abortifascient pills through this policy. What’s more, there are serious side effects to these drugs for women, let alone their offspring who may be killed.
Regarding the abortion debate, much has changed since the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, and certainly many technological advancements have helped the pro-life cause, such as ultrasound.
These abortion-in-a-bottle pills, however, represented a significant shift in which the average abortion may not occur at a clinic, but result from a trip to the local pharmacy. In other words, while the culture is moving more and more against abortionists like Kermit Gosnell, it grows increasingly comfortable with abortion tactics like the FDA is offering here.
Some in the pro-choice camp are praising the FDA’s decision. Some, however, want to go even farther. According to the New York Times, “Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which filed the lawsuit that Judge Korman ruled on, said the decision on Tuesday was unsatisfactory. ‘We will continue our battle in court to remove these arbitrary restrictions on emergency contraception for all women,’ she said.”
In her mind, limiting so-called emergency contraceptives at all is too restrictive. It is a sad day in America when a trip to the local pharmacy could mean the end of a life. With Jesus Christ, however, there is always hope. Let us pray for those in leadership (1 Timothy 2:1-4) and that Christ Himself, who came to give us “life and life abundantly” (John 10:10) would save us from our own devices.
Before last year, I had never heard of Chris Broussard. He was featured on ESPN’s studio panel during the network’s coverage of the NBA last season.
The sports reporter has been in the business since 1990 and has worked for ESPN since 2004. Before, April 29, 2013, I would think Broussard would be considered a “no-name” in many social circles. But after his appearance on ESPN’s show “Outside the Lines,” that day, he caught the attention of many.
For most in the national media and throughout the NBA, this was the day to recognize Jason Collins, who admitted in a Sports Illustrated article that he is a homosexual. Collins is an NBA journeyman who played for six teams, most recently with the Washington Wizards.
Both the league and national media praised Collins for his admittance. He was admired for the bold move he made and is considered to be heroic.
Though he won’t be given the same fanfare, Broussard also made some bold statements during a panel discussion involving L.Z. Granderson, a sports writer who admitted to being homosexual. Here is the transcript of Broussard’s comments from “Outside the Lines”:
“I’m a Christian. I don’t agree with homosexuality. I think it’s a sin, as I think all sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman is. [ESPN’s] L.Z. [Granderson] knows that. He and I have played on basketball teams together for several years. We’ve gone out, had lunch together, we’ve had good conversations, good laughs together. He knows where I stand and I know where he stands. I don’t criticize him, he doesn’t criticize me, and call me a bigot, call me ignorant, call me intolerant.
“In talking to some people around the league, there’s a lot Christians in the NBA and just because they disagree with that lifestyle, they don’t want to be called bigoted and intolerant and things like that. That’s what LZ was getting at. Just like I may tolerate someone whose lifestyle I disagree with, he can tolerate my beliefs. He disagrees with my beliefs and my lifestyle but true tolerance and acceptance is being able to handle that as mature adults and not criticize each other and call each other names.
“… Personally, I don’t believe that you can live an openly homosexual lifestyle or an openly premarital sex between heterosexuals, if you’re openly living that type of lifestyle, then the Bible says you know them by their fruits, it says that’s a sin. If you’re openly living in unrepentant sin, whatever it may be, not just homosexuality, adultery, fornication, premarital sex between heterosexuals, whatever it may be, I believe that’s walking in open rebellion to God and to Jesus Christ. I would not characterize that person as a Christian because I do not think the Bible would characterize them as a Christian.”
Guaranteed, Broussard will be chastised for these comments. Though his remarks are just as bold as Collins’ remarks, Broussard won’t be acknowledged in the same light. Following the telecast, ESPN released a statement of apology regarding Broussard’s comments, saying, “We regret that a respectful discussion of personal viewpoints became a distraction from today’s news. ESPN is fully committed to diversity and welcomes Jason Collins’ announcement.”
As I said, Collins’ remarks are accepted, but not Broussard’s.
Bob Costas would consider Broussard to be a Neanderthal, as the NBC sports personality classified such a perspective on homosexuality during an interview on Dan Patrick’s sports talk show. Others will come out harshly against Broussard.
The fascinating thing about this whole experience, though, is this is done under a banner called “Tolerance.” However, it appears such tolerance only goes one way. Very few will actually address what Broussard said.
Critics will pull out portions and label him “anti-gay” and will not acknowledge he is willing to discuss the topic as mature adults without name calling. Even more, they will disregard the truth he spoke about living in unrepentant sin, not just homosexuality.
Just like the prophets of old, Broussard spoke the hard truth, and just like the prophets of old, he will face persecution, maybe not life-threatening, but society will not treat him favorably.
Let me introduce you to another Yellow Hat that is “your friend”. The men and women that serve in Disaster Relief are friends to your community, the state of Oklahoma, our country, and even our world. Disaster Relief acts according to their name. Wherever there is a disaster they go and provide relief. According to their website, this is a portion of what they do.
