PinkHairedGirl.net

My Birthday Wish: Water for 2500 Africans

Crystal Renaud — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:03:39 +0000

On November 19, 2009 I will be turning 25.

In lieu of cards, gifts or a party… I want to see 2500 Africans receive the gift of clean, fresh water through the efforts of *Blood:Water Mission.

But to do so, we need to raise $2500.

I know, $2500 is a lot of money. Especially in this present economy. But did you know that just $1 can provide ONE YEAR of clean water for an African?

If 2500 people decided today that they can spare $1 in order to give the gift of fresh, clean water to an African in need… this goal would easily be met.

WHO IS BLOOD:WATER MISSION?

Blood:Water Mission is a non-profit organization that exists to promote clean blood and clean water efforts in Africa, tangibly reducing the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic while addressing the underlying issues of poverty, injustice and oppression. Blood:Water Mission is building clean water wells, supporting medical facilities, and focusing on community and worldview transformation, both here in America and in Africa.

ALL THAT TO SAY

Your participation will give Africans the gift of clean water to protect them from life-threatening illnesses. Women and children will no longer walk up to 10 miles a day to get water. People with HIV will live stronger, longer lives. Communities will flourish and be changed. We know that you, too, will be changed by connecting with the people in Africa.

Your partnership can help save lives.

So, please donate your $1 (or $10, $20, $100… etc.) today. Give the gift of fresh, clean water to an African in need. And be giving me a wonderful birthday gift at the same time: I can’t think of any birthday gift more rad than seeing this all happen.

DONATE NOW

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*Blood:Water Mission is a registered 501 (c) 3 organization. Gifts are tax-deductible.

El Salvador

Crystal Renaud — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:26:34 +0000

November 9-13, 2009, four bloggers will witness firsthand the ministry of Compassion International to the poor of El Salvador. Pray for their families they’ll leave behind, their spiritual and physical health, their ability to take in a lot of information and experience a lot of emotions and find the words to write about it.

Visit this page daily to travel with them through their stories, pictures and videos.

Shepherds and Sheep

Crystal Renaud — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:18:25 +0000

Ezekiel 34:1-10

¹ The word of the LORD came to me: ² “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? ³ You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. ⁴ You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. ⁵So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. ⁶ My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.

⁷ ” ‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD : ⁸ As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, because my flock lacks a shepherd and so has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals, and because my shepherds did not search for my flock but cared for themselves rather than for my flock, ⁹ therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the LORD : ¹⁰ This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them.

So… We Live Now

Crystal Renaud — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:44:14 +0000

Today’s guest post is from the incomparable, Tam Hodge. She resides over at InProgress. I got to meet her in May—and she’s as beautiful in person as she is in her amazing writing. I’ve been reading her blog for years and inevitably walk away with an “ouch” moment. In a good way of course. Today’s post is of no exception. In fact, her post today has inspired me to end my countdown to 25. While turning 25 still makes me anxious… there’s more to this life than counting days.

Today is a promise and I am going to strive to live it … loud and proud.

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25. twenty-five. a quarter. a quarter century. the blessed age. the best age.

ahhh….i remember it so well. it’s like it was yesterday…only, it wasn’t. i do think i would go back to this age if i could though.

oh, definitely! the days when i seemed to have less butt. more elasticity in my skin. energy. metabolism. less fuzz on my face - what the heck is THAT all about?! the days when i believed i had all the time in the world to conquer my dreams. the time when my first born was only 2 years old. oh how i miss that stage.

the number one song the year i was 25 was Gangsta’s Paradise by Coolio from the movie Dangerous Minds
i had seafoam green in my guest bathroom
i wore my pants above my belly button
i got a car phone for mothers day!
gas was $1.10 per gallon
i didn’t have a church home
i wore jeans overalls

life looks much different today, 14 years later. the things that were common, cutting edge and popular then are almost laughable now. and 14 years from now, i’ll say the same about today.

so…we live now. for today. not in the past. not in the future. if we’ve woken up today, then today is our promise. it is planned and has a purpose. use up every second of it you can. make your mark and leave your mark on it.

let it be known you meant to live today.

Surgery Update

Crystal Renaud — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 04:21:14 +0000

Typing isn’t the easiest thing to do right now, so I am going to try and keep this brief. Hope that’s okay. Pardon typos—I’m not gonna proofread.

First of all, having surgery the day before Halloween is just plain weird. Case in point—this was my anesthesiologist. Surgery went beautifully though. And it went quick! And not just because I was on drugs. From the moment I went into the OR to the time I get into recovery, was less than 30 minutes. The recovery nurses said I came into the recovery room laughing… and I remember this because I found it so amazing that the surgery was already over. Cause to me, it seemed like it hadn’t even started. I had to actually reach for my incision area to believe it was really over. Ha! But I will say that the incision is larger than I was expecting (a good 2 inches long).

They gave me a darvocet before leaving the hospital and a prescription script. I wasn’t tired when I got home so I ate some soup and chatted with my sister-in-law for a while (she came by to take care of me). After a little while I began to get a headache so I decided to take a nap. After about 4 hours, I awoke still with a headache but not in any pain at all (to my surprise). It was time to take another darvocet and eat dinner, so I did. About an hour or so later I got incredibly nauseous and developed a severe headache. So severe I had to lay down and try to sleep.

To understand the severity of my nausea and the intensity of the headache, we were all worried I was going to vomit. Doing so would have been incredibly dangerous, as my incision is put together nothing more than dermabond and steri-strips. A pull like heaving would have opened me up. Sorry for the TMI. So, I laid there with my mom and whoever was awake to see my request on Twitter/Facebook praying over me. Thankfully I was able to take some Excedrin Migraine and it worked. It relieved my headache and calmed my nausea enough to finally fall asleep.

Turns out, I am allergic to darvocet and I will not be taking anymore of it. Good to know if I ever have another need for pain medication in the future.

I woke up this morning without a headache and with no more nausea. Hallelujah. It was one thing to be uncomfortable post-surgery, but it was something else entirely to be so sick from a medication that was supposed to be helping me. So, today was a good day, but not without pain from the surgery. Been doing the whole ice on/ice off regimen with a little ibuprofen and I am doing pretty well. We’ll see how I am tomorrow. I can’t shower or change my dressing until Sunday night. I am hoping to be doing well enough to go to work on Monday, but I am not going to rush it.

Oops, that wasn’t brief after all. And with that, I am going to call it a night.

Thank you for your prayers!