Service Dogs Helping Veterans

Woman gets H.S. Diploma at 98!

 

 

Raw Video: 98-year-old Woman Get H.S. Diploma

Ida Ruth Hayes Greene finally has something she's always wanted -- her high school diploma. Ida will be 99 in April. Monday, she was presented with her diploma, earning it by fulfilling requirements related to her life experiences. (March 23) [www.clipsyndicate.com | Associated Press]

 

Atheist Tells CNN Why We Should Ditch Religion

JMC Ministries Response

This man says that Christians and religious people do not care about the sufferings of others and that we are distracted by our religion from real problems happening in the world.

When in reality, most Christians today are out trying to make a difference in their communities and helping others.

We have missionaries in the U.S and around the world out there helping feed clothe, house and educate people. How is this being distracted by our “religion” and not helping those in need?

I don’t know how this man can put Christians in the same category as those who follow the Islam religion? When those who follow the teachings of the bible do not do as this man says some in the middle east do by oppressing and even torturing others.

Fellow Brothers and sisters in Christ this is just one person of many who want to stop our freedoms here in America and also around the world. From reaching out and sharing the love of Christ and helping other in the name of Jesus. Please pray for this man and all the others who do not know or understand the love of Christ.

UK: Teachers Leave Boy 5 stranded in tree Due to School Policy

A boy of five was left stranded in a tree at school because of a bizarre health and safety policy - which banned teachers from helping him down.

The mischievous pupil climbed the 20ft tree at the end of morning break and refused to come down.

But instead of helping him, staff followed guidelines and retreated inside the school building to ‘observe from a distance’ so the child would not get ‘distracted and fall’.

The boy was only rescued after 45 minutes in the tree when passer-by Kim Barrett, 38, noticed the child and helped him down herself.

But instead of being thanked for her actions by the head teacher of the Manor School in Melksham, Wiltshire, she was reported to the police for trespassing.

Miss Barrett, who lives in Melksham with her six-year-old daughter who attends a different school, said she is ‘surprised’ and ‘shocked’ by the school's policy.

She said: 'I was completely shocked when I first saw him because he was sitting on a branch hanging out over the pavement.

'He was so young. He didn't look frightened but he was completely on his own - there were no teachers or friends in the playground and the field was empty.

'I walked past at 11.15am and he told me he had been hiding since the end of playtime because he didn't want to go back into class.

'Break ends at 10.30am so that means he had been in the tree for at least 45 minutes.

‘I stopped to ask him if he was OK, and it became clear that he'd been there since the end of playtime, which had been around half an hour earlier.

‘I was immediately concerned. I walked over to the school with the boy and was met by the associate head.

‘He didn't appear at all concerned, and was actually very patronising, patting me on the arm and asking me “what do you expect me to do, exactly, dear?” 

‘When I said I thought it was a serious incident, he then said his only concern was me trespassing.

‘I was initially surprised that no one appeared to have missed this boy, no one could have known where he was because they could not have seen him from the school, and I was shocked at the way I was dealt with.’ 

The incident occurred on the morning of March 1 as Miss Barrett was walking home past the side entrance of 213-pupil The Manor Church of England Primary School.

She claims that she walked around to the front of the school, onto the playing field and then helped the schoolboy down before taking him back to his class.

But the school alleges that she ‘approached the school in an inappropriate way’ and asked her to leave the premises after she got into a row with staff over the boy's welfare.

Later that evening a letter from head teacher Beverley Martin was posted through Miss Barrett’s door, explaining that the school had contacted police about the incident.

The next morning she was visited by a PCSO who told her she had committed a trespassing offence by helping the young schoolboy down from the tree.

Miss Barrett, a part-time cleaner, said: ‘I felt really angry because I felt I had saved the school and this boy from something that could have been far worse, and that instead of thanking me I was under investigation.

‘It was ridiculous. He was all on his own, there was no one near him and you couldn't see the school buildings from where he was.

‘Not only was he at least 6ft off the ground, but someone taller than me could easily have reached in from the pavement and plucked him off the branch.

"The school say he was being watched but that's impossible because there is no line of sight from the school building to the tree.

'I am a mother myself and I find it a bit ridiculous that the school's policy is to leave a child up a tree. I would be very angry if this happened to my child.

Click to read more from the Daily Mail

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JMC Ministries Response

Written By: Miranda Caverley

As a child I loved the outdoors and especially climbing trees. One day I climbed the pear tree in our front yard and go my foot stuck. I began yelling for my parents to help. My dad looked out the front door and immediately came running to help me and got me out of the tree. I know that if I had been this 5 year old boy stuck in this tree and left there with no help for nearly an hour. I would have been scared.

If my dad would have been this woman to come to my rescue when no one else did I would be so grateful.

The fact that a school puts it in their policies to not help a child in need, but “to watch from a distance to observe” if they get stuck in a tree is ludicrous. And now to charge this woman with trespassing goes beyond idiocy.

It seems to me that if your child is enrolled in this school your parental rights are revoked and you have no say in what happens to your child. And sadly it seems this is starting to happen gradually in the U.S as well.

Judge Rules U.S Father Cannot Take Daughter to Easter Mass

Click to read original article from

My Fox Chicago

A local father involved in a messy divorce has been barred from taking his 3-year-old daughter to church on Easter.

Wednesday, Joseph Reyes asked a judge if he could take his daughter to Catholic Mass on Easter Sunday. The judge refused his request.

Reyes and the child's mother had agreed to raise their daughter in the Jewish faith.

Reyes had her baptized in the Catholic Church, and a temporary restraining order was then issued to stop him from exposing her to other religions.

Reyes is facing a contempt charge for ignoring that order and taking her to mass anyway.
"I'm very suspicious about the family court system in this country. I think it's incredibly biased against the men," Reyes said.
"He's trying to capitalize on this to get sympathy from strangers and get sound bites like somehow we're anti-Christianity. We're not, nor is the client. She's totally open to exposing her daughter to other religions. What she doesn't like is that he violates court orders," said Steven Lake, the mother's attorney.
Reyes does have visitation with his daughter.

The judges' final ruling in his divorce will be handed down in a couple of weeks.

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JMC Ministries Response
Written By Miranda Caverley

As a little girl I can remember my parents buying my Easter dress every year to wear to church on Easter Sunday.

Going to church on Easter Sunday having the fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ. These are some of my fondest memories.

When I read this article it truly breaks ones heart. That these parents are putting this little child in the middle of their problems.

I don’t know how a judge and over rule the 1st amendment of our constitution ruling that this father cannot take his child to church? When we have freedom of Religion in this country?

It seems we are always asking this question to receive no answer from the world anyway. But we as Christians know that it is the power of darkness that seeks to kill and destroy all those who follow Christ.

We must pray for the parents of this little girl. That they stop putting their daughter in the middle of their divorce and problems. They need to think about what harm this is going to have on this little girl in the long run and make peace some how.

Christian Arrested and Jailed for Praying In Park

Click to read original article from

World Net Daily

By Bob Unruh
© 2010 WorldNetDaily

A Christian who prayed in a public park with six other people is serving a nine-day jail sentence for disorderly conduct even though his case is under appeal and charges against the others were dismissed or overturned.

Wisner Park in Elmira, N.Y.

Julian Raven of Elmira, N.Y., said he was "surprised by police at his office," handcuffed and taken into custody this week, according to the Alliance Defense Fund, which is defending Raven.

"According to his wife, police escorted him out of a court hearing … in handcuffs in front of his crying children to begin serving his nine-day jail sentence," the organization said in a report.

"We are surprised at how eager the city was to arrest Mr. Raven again in light of his appeal. Now he will serve time in jail; however, we will continue to aggressively pursue his appeal in court," said Joel Oster, ADF senior legal counsel.

WND previously reported on the decision to appeal Raven's conviction.

Raven was arrested while praying in an Elmira public park during a 2007 "gay pride" event. His attorneys are waiting for a response from the New York Court of Appeals

Originally seven people were arrested June 23, 2007, in Elmira's Wisner Park at a homosexual festival promoted by city officials as open to all. Four were convicted, but three of the convictions already have been overturned.

The Christians "made their way to an area in front of the stage and began to pray silently while lying prostrate in the grass. A police sergeant had earlier informed Julian Raven that he could not enter the public park, walk through the park, or talk to anyone in the park about his religion. After the group began to pray silently on their faces, all were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct," ADF reported.

Court records show Sgt. Sharon Moyer told Raven he could not disrupt the event.

So, ADF reported, he and the others "entered the event to pray silently for event participants and to share the Gospel with them."

"There was plenty of room in the park. No one was being turned away. They walked in silence. Neither the defendant nor anyone from the group bumped into anyone as they entered and they did not force others out of the way," ADF said.

They walked to a grassy area near the front, kneeled or laid down, and prayed.

"They chose this posture in order to be as non-threatening as possible," ADF said.

Moyer then arrested the seven and reported it was because of concern that the homosexual festival participants might react with hostility to the Christians.

Three defendants were removed from the case almost immediately, leaving four to be convicted by Elmira city Judge Thomas Ramich of "disorderly conduct."

But the convictions for three – Gloria Raven, Maurice Kienenberger and Walter Quick – later were overturned in the Chemung County Court.

ADF is arguing, under the First and 14th amendments to the U.S. Constitution, "peaceful speakers may not be arrested simply because others in the forum may react to their message in a hostile manner."

"The lower courts in this case ruled that the arrests were proper because the defendant must have known that other event participants would respond with hostility. This, however, is precisely what the … cases prohibit,"  ADF asserts.

When the Christians were arrested, officials with Elmira justified their actions to WND.

Assistant Police Chief Mike Robertson told WND at the time that the members were accused of a "combination" of allegations, including the "intent" to cause a public inconvenience, a "disturbance" of a meeting of persons and obstructing vehicular or pedestrian traffic.

He also said at the time that the accusations would include taking part in "any act that serves no legitimate purpose."

The prosecutor, Robert Siglin, said the city was concerned for public safety, and that's why the Christians were arrested while exercising their First Amendment rights.

ADF said it is ironic that Elmira recently settled a lawsuit in a separate federal civil action involving Raven and two others. In that 2008 case, Elmira police threatened the men with arrest as they tried to share their faith during another "gay pride" event.

The men were wearing shirts with the message "Liberated by the blood of Jesus," handing out literature and holding up signs on a public sidewalk at the event.

Court documents show the city paid each defendant in that case $5,000 plus the attorneys' fees and costs for the action.

Oster told WND that the city appeared to go out of its way to create controversy in the case. Raven has been represented by legal counsel throughout, yet the city mailed to his home address – not his legal counsel – a notification of an arrest warrant.

The city then arrested Raven before the notification reached him, Oster confirmed.

"They wouldn't have to do that," he said. "It was intentionally to create embarrassment."

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JMC Ministries Response

As in our previous post about the University who is allowing students to put on a play that portrays Jesus as a homosexual. We stated that when those who want to defame or blaspheme the holy scriptures and our Lord and Savior their 1st amendment rights are upheld and they are allowed to do as they please and are protected.

But Christians who just want to do a silent pray on public property in a park are arrested and put in jail for 9 days. As Americans our 1st amendment rights should be upheld just as those who seek to defame and blaspheme. But they are not my fellow brothers and sisters and it is crystal clear of that.

University Play Portrays Jesus As Homosexual

JMC Ministries Response

Written by: Miranda Caverley

Though this college is allowing students to put on this play. What some Christians Might not know is that there is a movie Called Corpus Christi that depicts Jesus as a Homosexual that was made in 2009. Now these University students to us have taken the movie Corpus Christi and turned it into a play. A play and movie that totally blasphemes The holy bible and Christian Morals.

The University says that they “have” to let the play go on because if they don’t it will violate the 1st amendment rights of the students.

But we must ask ourselves. What if Christian Students wanted to do a play that depicted what the bible says Jesus went through and stick completely to what the Holy bible says. Would the Christian Students then be able to do the play? When anything that is remotely Christian is told there must be a separation of Church and state.

Most Christians todaay can’t even share their faith in school without being suspended or having their microphones shut off during speeches when they start talking about God/Jesus. And just 2 days ago a high school graduate was told she could not play Ave Maria during her high school graduation because it was “religious” WHAT ABOUT OUR RIGHTS! THESE PEOPLE ARE AMERICAN CITIZENS TOO BUT THEIR 1ST AMENDMENT RIGHTS WERE VIOLATED! BUT WHEN PEOPLE WANT TO BLASPHEME AND DEGRADE OUR LORD AND SAVIOR THEIR 1ST AMENDMENT RIGHTS ARE UP HELD!

OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS THIS IS WRONG!

To us this just shows that America is becoming more and more NOT a free country and that if you stand for moral values and Christian Values you will be silenced. But if you are for defaming and blaspheming the holy scriptures and our Lord and savior you are free to do as you please. All we can tell you is that we are heading for the great tribulation if we don’t stand up and cry out for our rights that our forefathers fought for to give us. That our rights shouldn’t just be applied to certain people.

We must pray for our country for only God can stop what Satan seeks to kill and destroy. 

Kenya: Abortion Law Spotlights Horrors

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JMC Ministries Response

After watching this video for the horrors of what women are doing just to abort their babies is almost sickening. Babies being thrown into the dirty back alleys and sewers and eaten by animals. Is so disturbing you almost can't even grasp that this is real and is happening nearly everyday.

While there are many that think Abortion is ok and that there is nothing wrong with it. We must ask you how you think killing a baby like this and throwing its body into a street to be eaten by animals is fine and not murder? 

To our Christian Brothers and Sisters we must continue to pray and raise awareness of the horrors that are taking place in our world and try to stop abortion and make it illegal again. What comes to our minds are how many poor children didn't even have the chance to even breathe their first breath of life. Who may they have become? A scientist, musician, teacher, preacher, leader of a country? We will never know.

Mother and Daughter Reunite with each other through Facebook after 32 years

Click to read original article from New4Jax.com

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- An emotional reunion 32 years in the making came about thanks to Facebook.
Sonya Brown had to give up her baby for adoption and had not seen her since."I just want to put my arms around her because I never ever got to hold her. They took her from me," Brown said. "And I just tried to block it out all these years."Brown said the state of Kansas made her give up her child because she was 15 years old when her daughter was born.

Video: Reunion 32 After Adoption

Decades later, the two women found each other on the Internet."When I was on Facebook, her picture came up. And I looked into her eyes, I knew that was my child. I knew it was her," she said. "I sent the message first. And she sent a message back saying, 'Oh my god, are you serious?'"Emily Singleton said she knew she was adopted at a young age and always wondered about her birth mom. She said she was overwhelmed when she received the message on Facebook."I was hoping it wasn't a joke," Singleton said.Singleton flew from Kansas City to Jacksonville to meet her mom for the first time. The two women hugged and will spend time getting to know each other."I don't think I have any words right now," Singleton said. "I'm just really happy right now. It's been a long journey."Singleton has a few kids of her own and Brown says she looks forward to meeting her grandchildren sometime this summer.

Innocent Man Released From Prison after 16 years Shares How The World as he knew it Has Changed

click to read full article from CNN
By Stephanie Chen, CNN

CNN) -- To see the world through Greg Taylor's eyes, imagine being stuck in a time machine for 16 years and delivered to 2010.
Facebook, flat screens and DVDs are all new to him. Relationships that used to come with natural ease seem awkward.
Since 1993, Taylor, now 47, had been locked away in North Carolina's prison system for the murder of a prostitute. Last month, he was exonerated and freed.
"All that frustration and confusion I had stored up all those years was just let out," Taylor said, recalling the day he was released, February 17. "There was a lot of relief and gratitude. There was a whole lot to get used to."
He agreed to jot down his impressions and share them with CNN.
After a month readjusting to life outside prison, Taylor has concluded that Facebook is "neat but a waste of time." He's in awe that a flat, round disk called a DVD lets him rewind and fast-forward movies by just pushing a button. He finds the automatic soap dispensers in the mall bathrooms startling.
Taylor is the first man to be exonerated by a state innocence commission, which makes his case stand out from those of the more than 500 people across the country who have been exonerated by the work of private attorneys, according to the Life After Exoneration program.
The group that freed Taylor, the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission, was created in 2006 after a succession of wrongful convictions were revealed. It's a one-of-a-kind program with a state-mandated panel that re-examines questionable cases, including those that don't involve DNA evidence like Taylor's.
Other jurisdictions are following North Carolina's lead, looking at creating government agencies to prevent and reverse wrongful convictions. In New York City, the Manhattan District Attorney's office launched a program this month to proactively flag common errors such as witness misidentification and false confessions before the case go to trial.
A petition filed before the Florida Supreme Court by a group of attorneys asks the state to create an agency based on North Carolina's model that will examine why wrongful convictions occur. Attorneys hope gathering useful data on eyewitness misidentifications and snitch testimony will highlight systemic flaws that need repair.
In Taylor's case, the commission considered new tests that revealed that a stain found in Taylor's truck was not blood, as the prosecutor had argued. The commission also reviewed testimony from the jailhouse informant who implicated Taylor at the trial.
By the time the commission decided to free Taylor on February 17, he had already spent a total of 16 years behind bars.
That day, he stumbled out of the courthouse without shackles for the first time. He grinned when his 26-year-old daughter embraced him tearfully. No longer a 9-year-old, Kristen Puryear had a child herself, making Taylor a grandfather.
She drove while her father sat in the passenger seat.
The post-exoneration journey is daunting for many former inmates, most of whom have spent a large portion of their adult lives in institutional settings.
The Life After Exoneration Program found one out of three inmates has lost custody of children. About 25 percent develop post traumatic stress disorder, but access to counseling and medical care is limited without employment.
Unlike parolees, who are convicted of crimes, those exonerated don't have access to corrections services.
When Taylor left prison, the state of North Carolina gave him a $45 check. It was intended to get him a hotel room and back on his feet. The amount makes him laugh.
Taylor spent his first day after his release at the mall, eager to trade his scratched plastic prison glasses for new ones. He passed a bakery where the aroma captivated him. In prison, sights and smells are muted, he explained. Inmates wear identical uniforms and eat the same tasteless cafeteria food.
"I could have stood there all day," he said.
Incarceration can also place strains on relationships with loved ones. For Taylor, it separated him from his wife and some of his closest friends.
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JMC Ministries Response

After reading this story of this man who spent 16 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit and now to be pretty much thrown back into society. And to think how different the world was 16 years ago. It would be quite frightening in a way. Everything you knew about the world is completely different. So much has happened in our country alone. It has to be quite a shock to your system.

I then think of the countless others not just in the U.S but around the world who are imprisoned for crimes they didn't commit. Or imprisoned because of Religious oppression which we hear about now so much more in the news. To think of how these people would react to what the world has become and how it has changed so much in just a few years. Or even a few days for example with the passing of the Health Care Reform bill here in the U.S. Life as we know, or knew is no more.  At times it is like we are just like this man we wake up and look around and everything is different. And we ask our selves "where was I when all this happened?"