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Memorial Day, May 26, 2008

U.S. News & World Report on "Returning Meaning to Memorial Day", here.

Free Self Defense Seminar at Stonecreek on Thursday

Please pass this opportunity along to your neighbors, small group members and friends.

In our continued effort to connect with the local community, Stonecreek is hosting one of several free Self-Defense Seminars being held around the metro-Atlanta area.

The recent tragedy of Meredith Emerson's death in North Georgia has many people unsettled, wondering, "If it could happen to her, could it happen to me?" Shawn Forristall of Atlanta Budokan in conjunction with Atlanta radio station, "All The Hits Q100," has organized FREE Self-Defense Classes around the metro area. The classes are designed for women (and men) to learn strategies that could save lives.

You are welcome to invite co-workers, neighbors, friends and others to participate.

INFORMATION:
Date: Thursday, January 17
Time: 7:30 p.m. until 9 p.m.
Location: Stonecreek Church Main Auditorium (directions)
Cost: FREE

Read more about these events in today's New York Times:

City of Milton Proclaims November "Family Month"

I just read in the Milton Hearld today that on November 1, the Milton City Council proclaimed the month of November "Family Month." The designation mirrors one given by Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue that encourages families to share conversations and mealtimes together, give thanks at Thanksgiving and give to charities over the holidays.

Pretty cool that Stonecreek Church's November message series is Whole Family: Everyday Values! 

Remembering 9/11: Why I Am An Airman

Kim received this letter from her third cousin's husband, who serves as a Captain in the United States Air Force. As we remember 9/11, I thought I would share his letter as he actively serves to protect our Homeland and the pursuit of freedom for humanity.

"Why I Am An Airman" by Captain Matt LeBlanc, USAF

Last week, as I laced up the boots on my uniform to once again symbolically stand alongside my comrades-in-arms, I pondered one question that ironically I had never considered.  The question and its answer were so basic that I suppose I had never actually thought to quantify them in words.  They just simply were.  The question: Why do I serve my country as an Airman?

So why am I an Airman?  The answer is simple.  Because I believe it is the will of the Almighty that all men everywhere should live free, and that for the time being at least, He has chosen the United States as His earthly minister to bring that about.  It is honorable, it is just, and it is right.

Today the United States and yes even the world, stands at a crossroads.  On the one hand stands annihilation and on the other, freedom.  Precious few are cognizant enough to recognize the full gravity of this crossroads.  Fewer still have chosen to stand in the gap, to willingly place themselves between everything they hold dear and those who would destroy civilization as we know it.  As Martin Luther King, Jr. stated, “I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something he will die for, he isn't fit to live.”  The cost of desertion is too great, and the price of failure is incalculable.  I will not leave my fight for my children or my children’s children to finish.  And if I, who am both willing and able, do not stand alongside my countrymen, then who will?  As Isaiah said, “Here am I.  Send me!” (Isa 6:8).

The point must be made clear that this country can only be successful and will only be allowed to stand if our cause is just, and our eyes on the Creator.  Greater and more storied cultures have collapsed when they abandoned the God of the Bible.  Rest assured that it is God that has established and blessed this nation, and it is He alone who will preserve it.  Not Allah, not Mother Nature, not Buddha, and not Vishnu.  I cannot say it better than Francis Scott Key already has in the well-forgotten fourth verse of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

“Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation,
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our Trust"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

Therefore, I believe that the two greatest gifts I can give my children are a love for God and desire to serve Him all the days of their lives, and pursuant to that end, to sustain the freedom of a nation where they are free to do just that.  These are no different than the aspirations of the countless generations that came before.  So long as it is my watch, no child of mine will ever face annihilation at the hands of a barbarian culture.  “Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?  Forbid it, Almighty God!  I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death! (Patrick Henry, 1775)”

So why do I continue to serve?  Because I must.  Too few people either see the threat or find this country worth sacrificing for.  However, I am proud beyond words of what my brothers and sisters-in-arms are accomplishing at this very hour, and I am honored to count myself among them.  I close with one more quote:

“All I am and all I have is at the service of my country.” – General Stonewall Jackson

If you don’t understand that, then you don’t understand what God has truly blessed you with by living in the United States of America, the greatest nation in the world.