It was an amazing night.  Legacy Church along with the Museum of Biblical and Sacred Writings unveiled the twenty four foot long Isaiah Scroll.  It was an amazing night.

SEE OC REG article and ORIGINAL VIDEO

LeaderFOCUS – Dead Sea Scrolls come to Orange County

The Dead Sea Scrolls (facsimiles) are here!  Check out the photos… Click on link or photo for slide show.

The Moffatt’s Shop – the craftsmen put together the base for a twenty-four foot long display.

The Scrolls are presented at the Board of Directors’ meeting in Laguna

Proposed site for the Museum of Biblical and Sacred Writings

The following is a note I wrote to Carolyn, explained an embarrassing moment in the Library at BU.

Hey Carolyn – here’s a laugh.

I managed to get a guest pass, and settle in to the one Carousel I found open long the perimeter of the large library hall… I plugged in, logged in as a guest to the WIFI, put on my headset, tuned by browser in to my Pandora account… My Mozart station.

Soon the music started playing, and I got my programs fired up and got to work. A few minutes later, a pleasant looking co-ed approached, smiled, and pointed to my MacBook. I was perplexed.

Then she reached over, and pushed my headphone jack the rest of the way in… And that’s when I figured it out. Unwittingly, I provided a sound track for the entire library. Thankfully, it was Mozart. I thought I had heard the music through my headphones. But no. The speakers filled the entire room with rich sound. Not everyone appreciated the intrusion.

Turning a little red, I looked up, high fived the young woman. She smiled in return. Then, I looked around the room. Just about everyone was looking my way. I waved apologetically. Most everyone smiled in gratitude, not for me, but the student who returned the room to a quiet study mode. She went back to her seat and her books.

We all got back to work.

K

PS I’m guessing she explained to her study mate, “Apparently the old guy is technically challenged and probably hard of hearing.”

I logged in to Starbuck’s WIFI as I waited for a friend.  The log-in web site popped up, offering me a video under the title “Nurturing Creativity.”  I couldn’t help myself.  I clicked the play button.  You may know more about Elizabeth Gilbert than I do.  But I was drawn in to her talk… and could not stop.  Her insights are well worth the listen.

Check it out.

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Steve Hartman, CBS NEWS, unpacks the unforgettable story of cabbie Tom Chappell who had a regular pick-up he did not look forward to at first. Neither did his passenger.

Hang in there through the obligatory ad. Click on the box control for full screen. Four minutes of heart-grabbing story telling.

Watch Video |LeaderFOCUS

The Orange County Register tells the story in text and video.  Stephanie Mechem and their daughter, Sarah, recount a frightening moment when three young grandchildren found their grandmother on the couch – victim of a stroke.  Watch the video… then read the article, included below.

Heroic kids save grandma who had stroke

Elaine Bagger’s young grandchildren said a quick prayer and dialed 911.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

By ADAM TOWNSEND

THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

If it weren’t for two 8-year-olds and a 5-year-old’s call to 911, Elaine Bagger, 82, could be dead or paralyzed now. Instead, she’s walking and talking, slated to be released from the hospital today after two weeks of treatment and physical therapy.

Bagger had a stroke in her home in La Mirada July 17 while she was babysitting three of her grandchildren. At around 5 p.m., she found herself frozen. Her grandson Blake Ellis, 8, of La Habra was on the couch with her.

She recounted her ordeal Tuesday morning, surrounded by some of her family members – two of her nine children and four of her 17 grandchildren. They all sat packed in her St. Jude hospital room – Bagger sitting on a chair, dressed in street clothes and alert.

“I was sitting on my sofa with my little grandson,” she said. “I remember talking, and then I couldn’t. I was sitting there trying to compose my thoughts to say something. I was looking at Blake, I could hear him, I could see him, but I couldn’t say a sound. I was desperately trying to communicate. Blake asked me something and I couldn’t answer. He looked at me in horror.”

Blake said he had been outside on the patio with his sister, Ireland Ellis, 5, of La Habra; and cousin, Sara Mechem, 8, of Placentia, discussing whether to play hide and seek or some other game. Blake sat down with his grandmother briefly after he went in to get a glass of water.

He said that when he realized something was wrong, he rushed out on the third-floor balcony to alert Sara and Ireland.

“Grandma is dying on the couch,” he yelled.

“I thought, ‘Well, it’s probably nothing major, but then I saw her,’” Sara said.

“Blakey was the only one not crying,” Ireland added.

Ireland thought to go say a prayer for their grandmother – they all went into their grandmother’s bedroom and joined hands.

“I prayed to God and I prayed to Grandpa, too, that Grandma would be OK,” Ireland said.

It was Blake who thought to call 911 – he dialed the number on his grandmother’s cell phone, but was too shocked to answer the questions posed by the dispatcher. He handed the phone to Sara.

“They asked, ‘What is your grandma doing, is she talking, is she moving?’” Sara said. “Then I said, ‘She’s not moving and she’s not talking.’”

The dispatcher couldn’t easily trace the call because it was a cell phone, and the children didn’t know where to tell the ambulances to go – so the dispatcher asked Sara to find some mail so they could read the address.

“They said, ‘Well, try to find a piece of mail,’ and I told Blake to find a piece of mail,” Sara said.

Blake grabbed a set of keys and bounded down the hallway to the residential complex’s mail boxes. He tried all the keys and couldn’t open the box. Luckily, a next-door neighbor heard the commotion and came to help.

Neighbors took over and sent the kids out on the balcony to calm down, where they watched the ambulance.

Blake and Ireland’s mom, Pamela Ellis, 40, of La Habra arrived soon after the ambulance. She was taking their other sister, Emma Ellis, 10, to perform in the “Pajama Game” for the Fullerton Children’s Repertoire Theater.

“At first, we thought it was going to be traumatic for the kids,” said Sara’s mom, Stephanie Mechem, 40, of Placentia. “But if they hadn’t been there, she would have been lying on the couch for hours.”

According to registered nurse Sara Williams, the manager of the stroke program at St. Jude, that could have been disastrous. Because the children acted so quickly, doctors were able to administer lifesaving medicine well within the first three hours after her stroke.

This allowed the clot-busting drugs to dissolve the blockage in her brain, allowing oxygen-rich blood to travel freely and prevent vital tissue from dying.

“As far as the kids calling 911, they really are heroes,” Williams said. “When I first saw (Bagger) in the emergency room, I really didn’t think she had much of a chance to recover.”

Direct Link:

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/sara-blake-ireland-2510852-couldn-bagger#

Last week, two pals joined me for the Encore of this American Life’s broadcast via a network of theaters across the country.  It was aptly titled, “Return to the Scene of the Crime,” which we did apparently.  Ira Glass was enormously entertaining, as were each of the off-beat acts.  It’s theater of the mind; familiar territory for Lake Wobegonians.

Return to the Scene of the Crime

This week’s installment is equally funky – but exceptionally touching.  The theme is “Reunited (and it feels so good).”  Fire up your iPod or PC or MAC and tune in… An Iranian couple, after twenty-five years call it quits.  Their remarkable story is told by their daughter, Nazanin Rafsanjani, and well, trust me, you’ll be glad you listened to the whole thing.  Here’s a link.

News of the untimely death of the well-known and well-respected American got me, mainly because all my life, I’ve been asked if we are related.  Back when I was College Pastor at Ev. Free Fullerton, his son Jeff, who played backup quarterback for the Rams back then, would show up on Sunday mornings.  We talked enough for me to learn that while we both have roots in Canada, if we are related, it would take a talented genealogist to fins the connection.

Jack Kemp

But I always felt a kinship with Jack Kemp’s politics.  I heard him speak in person when he ran for Vice President as Bob Dole’s running mate in 1996.  Today, he would be condemned by the extreme right as a “moderate,” but I’d be standing with him.

I found Chuck Colson’s tribute to Congressman Kemp a fitting tribute – and echos my thoughts more profoundly that I could have written – here it is:

My Friend Jack Kemp: A Man of Virtue, by Chuck Colson

May 6, 2009

My friend Jack Kemp died this past weekend at 73.

His obituaries list many accomplishments: seven-time all-star quarterback for the Buffalo Bills and the American Football League’s most valuable player in 1965. Eight-term congressman from Buffalo, New York, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and the 1996 Republican vice-presidential candidate.

As our mutual friend Fred Barnes wrote in the Weekly Standard, it’s hard to think of any congressman in recent memory who accomplished more, setting the stage for the Reagan Revolution and economic opportunity for all Americans.

But as remarkable as Jack’s accomplishments were, Jack the man was even more so. He personified all of the classic virtues—temperance, prudence, courage, and justice. But today I want to focus on one especially—courage.

Jack was indomitable. “Too small” to play college football, never mind professional ball. He was cut five times before sticking with the Chargers. He became a star despite often playing hurt. He suffered a dozen concussions over his career, two broken ankles, and a crushed hand.

Courage also marked his life after football. While he didn’t hesitate to describe himself as a conservative Republican, many conservative Republicans were hesitant to call him one of their own. That’s because his sense of justice sometimes put him at odds with his own party.

While much of the party was winning over white Democrats in the South, Jack was embracing civil rights. Whereas many Republicans saw labor unions as the “enemy,” Jack, a co-founder and five-time president of the AFL Players’ Association, fought hard for the interests of working Americans.

Then, in 1994, when the GOP in his native California appealed to fears about illegal immigration, Jack opposed them. That cost him dearly with the national party. Many split ways with him at that point.

Jack might well have been President—and would have been a great one—were it not for two things: He would never compromise his convictions, nor would he attack his opponents. Sadly, it’s hard to resist those things and still get to the White House.

His courage was on display to the very end. During the times I visited him over the last months of his life, I was taken by how he kept his spirit up even as the cancer devastated his body.

Jack was a giant in our midst. He had a heart for the same kind of people Prison Fellowship serves—the poor, the oppressed, and the downtrodden. His wife, Joanne, has been a board member at Prison Fellowship for many years.

He also shared our Christian commitment to human life, telling the New York Times how a personal tragedy made him “more aware of the sanctity of human life, [and] how precious every child is.”

This and more is why Jack’s death is such a great loss to me personally. Joanne and his four beautiful children—all Christians—are in my prayers. How proud of them Jack was. This family’s Christian witness has touched countless lives.

I’ve been humbled by being asked to give the eulogy at the National Cathedral this Friday. What a privilege to celebrate a life so richly lived in service to his Lord and nation. I thank God for my friend, whom I and a grieving nation will sorely miss.

——-

THANKS, Chuck

From BREAKPOINT.

Our daughter, Candy and her husband Jamie are Taylor University alums.  When the tragic story of a crash on Interstate 69 resulted in the deaths of several TU students hit, I wrote a LeaderFOCUS essay and posted videos of the incredibly moving story of mistaken identity.  This morning, Matt L interviewed Whitney, her father and Laura’s surviving sister.

I’ve posted that video… it’s worth the time to reflect; to witness the warm testimony of living faith and watch especiually, Matt’s response to the family.

Enjoy.  MSNBC VIDEO