North Korea: People starving because of Govt. Run Food Supplies

Click to read original article from Fox News

North Korea should let farms produce freely and allow food to be sold in local markets because the communist government cannot provide enough food for its people, a U.N. human rights investigator urged Monday.

Vitit Muntarbhorn said North Korea's regime stopped small-scale farming and closed local markets last year as part of a long-term clampdown on the agricultural sector. Thieving from the military is also hurting the income of farmers and contributing to hunger, he said.

The government took these drastic measures "because it wanted people to revert back to the public distribution system — to be dependent upon the state," Muntarbhorn told reporters.

The U.N. estimates that 8.7 million people need food aid in North Korea. The country has relied on foreign assistance to feed much of its population since the mid-1990s when its economy was hit by natural disasters and the loss of the regime's Soviet benefactor.

North Korea, ruled by Kim Jong Il, is routinely described in U.N. and other reports as one of the world's most repressive regimes.

Despite the tight controls, Muntarbhorn, a Thai professor, said some North Korean farmers are continuing to eke out a meager living by selling their goods directly to citizens. He even noted rare protests among women in the country.

Muntarbhorn has never been allowed to visit North Korea, which views his mandate as a violation of its sovereignty.

Basing his information on U.N. and non-governmental agencies active in North Korea, he said soldiers routinely steal or extort agricultural produce from farmers in the country. He said interviews with refugees also provided valuable information about the plight of rural North Koreans.

"People should be able to generate that food and keep it rather than being extorted as they are today," Muntarbhorn said. "They should be able to trade — to generate income the state is not able to provide."

Muntarbhorn presented his report Monday at the U.N. Human Rights Council, prompting an angry North Korean rebuttal.

North Korean diplomat Myong Nam Choe accused the investigator of being part of a Western effort to discredit the Pyongyang government.

Muntarbhorn also criticized North Korea's currency revaluation last year for drastically cutting people's assets.

North Koreans must trade 100 "won" for 1 unit of new currency of the same name, as part of a government effort to remove money from the economy and root out elements of capitalism, he alleged.

"This was a push to curb the market system," Muntarbhorn said, "and control the circulation of money in the process."

California tells Home Bible Group to get permit or stop meeting in homes

Click to read original article from Fox News

For the second time in six months, a Southern California city has ordered a group of Christian worshippers who meet inside homes to get a permit or shut down.

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. -- For the second time in six months, the city has ordered a group of Christian worshippers who meet inside homes to get a permit or shut down.

It's the latest incident in which religious groups in Southern California have been targeted by cities for home gatherings, though many of those groups were eventually allowed to meet without obtaining permits.

Rancho Cucamonga is trying to halt Friday night meetings at a home after receiving a complaint in February from a neighbor that 40 to 60 people were gathering weekly in the San Bernardino County location.

Officials said the homeowner needs a conditional use permit by Good Friday, April 2, to operate a church in a residential area.

Pacific Justice Institute, a nonprofit legal defense group that specializes in conservative Christian issues, said the meetings were actually a Bible study group that usually draws about 15 people.

The permit requires public hearings, traffic studies and other costly procedures. Requiring one would be "manifestly absurd and unjust," according to a statement Tuesday from Brad Dacus, president of the Sacramento-based institute.

The city doesn't require permits for similar-sized gatherings, "everything from birthday parties to the weekend beer bash," added Matt McReynolds, an institute attorney.

His organization intends to file an appeal with the city and hopes to avoid going to court, McReynolds said.

Kurt J. Keating, the city's code enforcement supervisor, said the city is trying to restrict church services held in private homes, not home Bible studies.

"There's also some supporting facts that they are advertising themselves as a church over the public domain, such as the Internet," Keating said.

The group is affiliated with Shiloh Tabernacle Church, a local nonprofit run by Puredi Hillary Ministries Inc. According to its Web site, the church stresses "miracles of healing, deliverance from demonic oppression and possession, re-dedications and most importantly, salvations."

Last September, complaints by neighbors about traffic problems prompted the city to order Joe and Diana Johnson to get a church permit or shut down Christian gatherings at their home. The city eventually allowed the meetings to continue without a permit.

Also last year, San Diego County apologized to a pastor and his wife who were cited and told to get a permit for a weekly Bible study session that drew five to 27 people to their Bonita home.

Officials said the citation should never have been issued and a permit was not required.

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JMC Ministries Response

The U.S Constitution 1st Amendment throws out what  laws that California, Arizona, and other States recently have been trying to force upon Americans to keep them from worshipping God in their own homes.

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the Congress from making laws "respecting an establishment of religion", impeding the free exercise of religion, infringing on the freedom of speech and infringing on the freedom of the press. In the 20th century, the Supreme Court held that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment applies the First Amendment to each state, including any local government.

It says right there that this amendment applies to each State So Why are Christians continually being treated this way? What these states are doing is against the law and we need to stand up for our rights before they take them from us!

 

Junior High Teen "Suspended" for PRAYER during LUNCH

Link to original article below

Junior High Teen "Suspended" for PRAYER during LUNCH

 

 

JMC Ministries Response:

As Christians there comes a time to stand up.

I do believe that this teen shouldn’t have stood up in a chair due to the fact of causing a bad influence to others. But the root of her reasoning makes sense to me. As for the principal giving such a harsh 2 day suspension I believe that is going to far.

 

This only goes to show that Christians around the world are being persecuted. Even teenage girls in junior high.

 

School has become a battleground for a spiritual battle of light versus dark. From not being allowed to pray to some schools even saying that you can’t wear Christian clothes.

Yes we do still have Fellowship of Christian Athletes and some other groups as well. It is not enough. The 1st amendment says we have freedom of religion and the press. Teenage rights have  been revoked due to the lower standards of society as a whole.

 

The time has come for Christians to unite and let their voice be heard. Teens across the country should take time to pray before school and during lunch. Bring your Bibles to school. Read the Word after your work is done, on the bus and at breakfast and lunch. I challenge you today to be the hands and feet God has called you to be.

 

ROMANS 1:16

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth…..

 

MATTHEW 10:22

And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

 

ROMANS 12:14

Bless them which persecute you: bless and curse not.

IRS Shows up to Collect 4 cents from one U.S Car Wash Owner

It was every businessperson's nightmare.
Arriving at Harv's Metro Car Wash in midtown Wednesday afternoon were two dark-suited IRS agents demanding payment of delinquent taxes. "They were deadly serious, very aggressive, very condescending," says Harv's owner, Aaron Zeff.
The really odd part of this: The letter that was hand-delivered to Zeff's on-site manager showed the amount of money owed to the feds was ... 4 cents.
Inexplicably, penalties and taxes accruing on the debt – stemming from the 2006 tax year – were listed as $202.31, leaving Harv's with an obligation of $202.35.
Zeff, who also owns local parking lots and is the president of the Midtown Business Association, finds the situation a bit comical.
"It's hilarious," he says, "that two people hopped in a car and came down here for just 4 cents. I think (the IRS) may have a problem with priorities."
Now he's trying to figure out how penalties and interest could climb so high on such a small debt. He says he's never been told he owes any taxes or that he's ever incurred any late-payment penalties in the four years he's owned Harv's.
In fact, he provided us with an Oct. 22, 2009, letter from the IRS that states Harv's "has filed all required returns and addressed any balances due."
IRS spokesman Jesse Weller isn't commenting "due to privacy and disclosure laws."
Zeff says he's as offended as much as anything else by what he considers rude behavior by the IRS guys. While at Harv's, he sniffs, "they didn't even get a car wash."

Read more: from sacbee.com

U.S Attorney Compares Marxists Doctrine to Obama

Click to read full article from Canada Free Press

By Kelly O'Connell  Sunday, March 14, 2010 
Having watched Barack Obama’s sole economic recovery strategy of spending hand-over-fist to “heal” our economic malaise and rampant deficits, we must ask if his theory is a cipher for the mythic phoenix? Is Barack a classical Marxist seeking to fix a broken society via torching our economy to ashes, confident it will arise again, healed by socialism and communism? During a turbulently reckless period he seeks a massive government-directed health care bill. Obama now demands wild expenditures on top of record deficits, in the midst of a prolonged recession, against record unemployment. So, what other motivation does such illogical decision making suggest?

Is Barack a mad Ahab chasing the giant, evil specter of Capitalism across the globe, hoping to harpoon and sink it to the bottom of the deep? Even Obama is intelligent enough to know his strange belief that Keynesian “deficit-spending always equals growth” may not work. In fact, it hasn’t so far, a year later. So what is his “Plan B”? Well ,perhaps there is no secondary plan because he only means to ruin the economy. It’s a distinct possibility that Barack actually intends to bankrupt the US into accepting the socialism he touted to Joe “The Plumber” Wurzelbacher. In fact, to engage in such an attack against the world’s greatest capitalist nation would merely make him a superstar acolyte to his Marxist progenitors.
It is essential non leftists understand that just because Marxism has been logically, scientifically and historically disproved, it does not mean it is a spent force. Instead, because of it’s evangelical spirit, it becomes even more dangerous once discarded and ignored, remaining like a zombie faith. Marxism does espouse a “Doctrine of Destruction” that must be implemented by its true followers at every level. It teaches capitalism is theft, and that the rich steal what they have amassed from the poor. So the only just response is to confiscate the stolen wealth and return it to the impoverished workers. There isn’t much more to Marxism than this, but this judgmental and self-righteous conceit is as sacred to a communist as Mecca is to a proper Muslim.

$1 Million Dollars Spent each day for TV ads Promoting Obama's Health Care Reform

Click to read original article from CNN
Washington (CNN) - Upwards of $1 million a day is expected to be spent on health care television ads this week, as interest groups work overtime to try to influence Congress before the House votes on President Obama's top domestic priority.
Health care commercials all but vanished from the airwaves in late January after Republicans scored an upset victory in the Massachusetts special election to replace the late Sen. Edward Kennedy. Republican Scott Brown's win gave the GOP the crucial 41st vote needed to sustain a filibuster to block passage of the Democratic health care reform bill.
Now, as Democrats try to pass the legislation later this week without Republican support, outside groups are weighing in.
Last year, special interest groups spent a combined $200 million just on TV ads as Congress struggled to agree on how to overhaul the nation's health care system, said Evan Tracey, a CNN consultant and president of Campaign Media Analysis Group.
Ad spending hit a high in 2009 following last August's raucous town hall meetings. "At its peak, advertising levels were exceeding $1 million a day," Tracey said.
Tracey noted that during last week alone, interest groups spent a combined $600,000 on health care ads. The spending increased to about $600,000 by Saturday and very likely will grow to $1 million at the beginning of this week.
Among the many organizations taking to the airwaves: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, American Future Fund, Americans United for Change and MoveOn.org.
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JMC Ministries Response

Ok Why are these organizations going to spend up to a million dollars a day when they could give that money to families who don't have insurance and it would pay for them to get health insurance for themselves and their families. Or better yet take that money make jobs so those who are out of work and don't have health insurance can get jobs and then will be able to afford insurance for themselves and their families!

When people have jobs that give them health care benefits more than likely they will sign up for them. Why hasn't Mr. Obama figured this out yet?  Yes there are issues with Health Care Insurance Agencies hiking up premiums, and etc. Making it harder for businesses to keep insurance for their employees So why not go after the Insurance companies and punish them! Not the American Public and say that if this Health Care Reform comes through that if you don't get the Govt. Health Insurance you could be fined up to possibly 5,000 dollars!

 

Landlord Give Kidney to Tenant

Click to read original article from Kare11.com

MINNEAPOLIS -- A Minneapolis woman feels her landlord gave her a "second chance at life" by donating his kidney to her.
Sherry Hanson, a mother of six suffering from kidney disease, spent three days a week at dialysis during the past few years.  But all of that changed in late February after she got a new kidney from landlord Dan Hunt.
"I can't even say what I could call Dan," Hanson said.  "He just gave me a life again."
For the past four years, Hanson has lived in a south Minneapolis home that is owned by Urban Homeworks, a faith-based housing organization.  Hunt is the housing director there.
After one of Hanson's potential donors had to take her name off the list last summer, Hunt offered to get tested. 
"If I'm a match, you can have my kidney," he said at the time.
After learning he was a match, Hunt didn't hesitate to keep his promise.  The transplant took place last month at Hennepin County Medical Center.
Hanson spent a couple weeks in the hospital and finally left last Monday.
"I'll be out jogging pretty soon," she said with a laugh.
Hunt spend a couple days in the hospital and missed five days of work. 
"It was so easy, honestly, for me that it makes me wonder why more people don't do this," he said.
After such an incredible gift, Hanson said she cannot do enough to thank Hunt. 
"Thank God," she said.  "Thanks, Dan."

Teacher Writes Loser On Students Homework Papers

 

JMC Ministries Response

Written By Miranda Caverley

It is a travesty that this is happening to children in our Schools. When I was in school I experienced the same thing. I had a teacher who asked me to come up to her desk one day. I did and then she told me loud enough for the rest of the class to hear, “Look at your grades,you will amount to NOTHING in life.” The other students snickered and laughed at me. I was humiliated and after she was done saying these horrible things to me I went back to my seat put my head down and cried.

My mom did the same thing as the mother in the video did She went to the school and complained. But the school I attended did nothing to the teacher.  I never received an apology or anything. And when I see that teachers are still treating children this way it just breaks my heart because I know first hand the long term affects this kind of treatment can have on a child.  Though it took that teacher less than a minute to say those words, they stuck with me for many years.

Please Parents listen to your children and when they say something is going on in school and they are upset or showing signs that something is wrong. Help them and protect them from people like this.

U.S. City Forbids Bible Studies In Homes

Click to read original article from

World Net Daily

By Bob Unruh
© 2010 WorldNetDaily

The city of Gilbert, Ariz., has ordered a group of seven adults to stop gathering for Bible studies in a private home because such meetings are forbidden by the city's zoning codes.

The issue was brought to a head when city officials wrote a letter to a pastor and his wife informing them they had 10 days to quit having the meetings in their private home.

The ban, however, prompted a response from the Alliance Defense Fund, which filed an appeal with the city as the first step in its campaign to overturn a provision it describes as illegal.

__"The interpretation and enforcement of the town's code is clearly unconstitutional, " said Daniel Blomberg, a member of the litigation team for ADF. "It bans 200,000 Gilbert residents from meeting in their private homes for organized religious purposes – an activity encouraged in the Bible, practiced for thousands of years, and protected by the FirstAmendment."

The appeal was filed on behalf of the members, all seven, of the Oasis of Truth Church.

Pastor Joe Sutherland had been told in a letter from code compliance officer Steve Wallace that the people were not allowed to meet in a home for church activities under the city's Land Development Code.

There had been no complaints about the meetings, which had been rotating among members' homes before the officer wrote the letter and ordered the group to "terminate all religious meetings … regardless of their size, nature or frequency," because he noticed signs about the meetings.

The town interprets its law so that "churches within its borders cannot have any home meetings of any size, including Bible studies, three-person church leadership meetings and potluck dinners," ADF said.

A city letter confirmed, "Given that the church is considered to be religious assembly, and given the LDC provisions prohibiting that use on Local streets without Use Permits and prohibiting it in single family residential structures, it follows that the church meetings cannot be held in the home."

"The assembly activities associated with the church, including Bible studies, church leadership meetings and church fellowship activities are not permitted," wrote Mike Milillo, the city's senior planner.

"This ban is defended based upon traffic, parking, and building safety concerns. However, nothing in its zoning code prevents weekly Cub Scouts meetings, Monday Night Football parties with numerous attendees or large business parties from being held on a regular basis in private homes," the ADF said.

The few adults in the church had met for a few hours weekly in members' homes.

The ADF argues such bans violate the Constitution's free-exercise clause, and even the state's Free Exercise of Religion Act protects such meetings.

Further, the restrictions imposed by the city violate the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, which grants significant authority for churches to pursue their ministry goals.

Finally, Blomberg said, "the First Amendment's free-speech clause prevents the town from stopping the church from holding its meetings on the public sidewalk outside the pastor's home, yet the town won't allow him to hold the same meetings just a few feet away in the privacy of his own living room."

The small church has been forced to halt its regular meetings. It meets now in a local school but only can afford the rental once a week.

A spokeswoman for the city of Gilbert told WND city officials were aware of the concern and planned to address it.

Vice Mayor Linda Abbott told WND the code apparently was adopted years earlier, and there was considerable concern on the city council because of the current issues.

"I'm not in favor of that code. That is something we would want revisited," she said.

WND reported a similar situation in San Diego County. In that case, officials eventually withdrew a warning letter and a cease-and-desist order they had issued against a pastor who had been holding a weekly Bible study in his home.

"I want to offer my apology to you, your wife and your congregation for the unfortunate events of the past several weeks," said the letter from Walter F. Ekard, chief officer of the county. "My review of the situation shows that no administrative citation warning should have been issued and that a major use permit is not required for the Bible study you have in your home."

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JMC Ministries Response

When you read this story of Christians being threatened by authorities for having bible studies in their homes we think we are reading about China, North Korea, Russia, and other Communists/Socialist Countries where Freedom of Religion is illegal. 

But when you read this is happening in the United States it is like a slap in the face really.

Our own U.S Constitution says we have freedom of religion, and freedom of speech. But it seems that States are starting to make their own laws to implement that can take away our Freedoms that our forefathers fought and even died to give us.

Slowly and surely those who do not think we should have these freedoms are trying to take them away from us. We must keep fighting to the end to keep these freedoms and stop those who seek to kill and destroy all so many fought and died for so that we May Live FREE.

1 million people expected to attend Christian Concert Out doing Woodstock

By Drew Zahn
© 2010 WorldNetDaily

A local newspaper ran a two-page article on the concert titled "Calling All Christians," and that's exactly what Jim Plack and the organizers of Jubileefest are doing, seeking to gather 1 million people to a farm outside of tiny Houston, Del., this summer for a praise and prayer event for the nation.

"Every Christian should be there," quipped the Jubileefest website, "but we only have room for a million."

Never mind that Jublieefest is in its inaugural year. Never mind that the crowd Plack is hoping to gather is more than three times larger than any Christian concert event in history and twice as big as 1969's "Three Days of Peace and Music." Plack is trusting God to fulfill the vision he says the Almighty has given him, a vision for a concert that will impact the nation even more than the fabled Woodstock.

"If half a million hippies can gather on farm in New York to do drugs and have sex," Plack told WND, "certainly God can bring a million Christians to a farm in Delaware."

Christian music festivals like Minnesota's four-day-long Sonshine draw tens of thousands of fans every summer across America. Pennsylvania's mega-rally CreationFest draws hundreds of thousands

And while Plack doesn't expect record-setting crowds for all four days of the July 29 - Aug. 1 Jubileefest, he is calling for a million Christians to come on one night, July 31, for a prayer and praise event that will boldly proclaim to the nation's "PC (politically correct) police" that America's faithful are a force to be reckoned with.

"The Christian community hasn't really come together and said, 'Here we are, look at us,'" Plack said. "If we put a million people on a farm, that's something that can't be ignored."

What makes Plack think Jubileefest can draw so many people for one night of prayer and praise?

He told WND that the location – not far from Baltimore and Washington, D.C., and within a two-hour drive of Philadelphia, New York City and major population centers in Virginia and Pennsylvania – should help.

Jubileefest's announced lineup on five stages of continuous activity should be a draw, too, with headliner Christian musicians such as Rebecca St. James, Mercy Me, Newsboys, Sonic Flood and "American Idol" finalist Chris Sligh. Speakers scheduled include Josh McDowell, Lee Strobel, David Jeremiah, Kirk Cameron and comedian Tim Hawkins.

But most importantly, Plack believes this is a God-sized goal that Providence is already working to achieve.

Click to read more from World Net Daily