Teen Challenge founder killed in traffic accident

One of the greatest evangelists of our time has gone to be with the Lord.

Published Wednesday, April 27, 2011 8:30 PM

David Wilkerson

David Wilkerson — founder ofTeen Challenge which has its South Carolina headquarters in Georgetown County — has passed away.

Charisma Online reports Wilkerson died Wednesday in an automobile accident in Texas.

Wilkerson founded Times Square Church in New York City and was the focus of the book and movie The Cross and the Switchblade.

Wilkerson founded Teen Challenge in 1960. The goal of Teen Challenge is to help troubled youth and adults, particularly those with life-controlling problems due to drugs or alcohol.

Over five decades, the Christ-centered Teen Challenge program has consistently shown one of the world's highest success rates, according to the organization’s website.

The organization’s only facility in South Carolina is on a 45 acre tract in the Yauhannah area of Georgetown County.

It has a dorm that houses up to 20 men which opened last year.

The first building, used as an office and counseling facility was dedicated in 2005. There is also a classroom building.

S.C. Teen Challenge Director Wayne Powell said he has “so many memories” of Wilkerson and “so many lives” have been changed through his ministry. “

We will move on from here because there is a cause that is bigger than us and that is the way he would have it,” Powell said.

Teen Challenge founder killed in traffic accident

Kinda makes you go, 'Hmmmm...'

Sadly, computers do what you program them to do, not what you want them to!

Pak 'n Scram tests morality

DAVE BURGESS

About 24 people cruised the aisles at Hamilton's Mill Street 'Pak 'n Save' store on Good Friday morning after a computer glitch incorrectly opened the doors at 8am without a checkout person in sight. 

About half paid for their groceries using the self-scan service, but that stopped working when someone scanned alcohol, which requires a staff member to check a customer's age before the system is unlocked.

Police were alerted at 9.20am by a report of people leaving with "truckloads of groceries".

Victoria University's professor of religious studies, Paul Morris, said the Easter-time ethical test placed customers in a tricky situation. "It is like real life candid camera where people are clearly faced with this series of moral dilemmas."

There had been a debate about whether you needed to be religious to be moral, he said.

"The Christian Right have tended to think [that] without the Ten Commandments and God's divining hand we would never have been able to develop a plausible and sustainable morality.

"This [Pak 'n Save incident] is like some mad experiment, because you've sent off to church the religious and it's the secular who have gone shopping on Good Friday ... and you've put them to the test.

"Most acted morally and responded in very appropriate ways by trying to pay by using the self-service area. But clearly others saw that fortune had smiled on them in some perverse way."

Supermarket owner Glenn Miller was initially furious over the incident, fearing that thousands of dollars of groceries might have walked out the door. But after reviewing the shop's security footage during the weekend his mood had mellowed.

"I can certainly see the funny side of it ... but I'd rather not have the publicity, to be honest. It makes me look a bit of a dickhead."

The security footage showed shoppers were not aware that there were no staff in the supermarket, Mr Miller said.

"They weren't in for a free-for-all. They were doing their normal shopping and then got to the checkout. Half of them paid and the other half thought, `this is a good deal' and walked out."

The first customer arrived with a young child, spent 20 minutes selecting groceries, scanned them, paid, and walked out, Mr Miller said. "I still think she probably doesn't know we weren't there. It is the funniest thing. You just have to laugh your head off when you watch."

Mr Miller did not intend to take legal action to pursue those who had not paid. "The story has been in the papers ... and on TV, so hopefully that will make some people feel guilty and they will cough up."Professor Morris said the footage revealed nearly all would have paid had alcohol purchases not blocked the self-scanners.

All cash handed over would go to the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal, Mr Miller said, though by yesterday no repentant customers had come forward.

- The Dominion Post

Classic Carson with Jack Webb

I got this in an email and thought I'd share it with you.


YouTube - Johnny Carson and Jack Webb by alexjonesnowondailymotion

Who has the power?

I'm the type of person who finds logic very comforting. I need to know all the 'why's before I can truly understand the whole picture. For example, back in the dark ages when I went to college, my biology teacher couldn't tell me 'why' a cell decides to divide--I was just suppose to accept that it does. Well, that wasn't happening and I didn't do well in the class. [Of course, later on, when they invented microscopes that could look inside a cell, they found that there was, indeed, rhyme and reason for what a cell does. *insert 'I was right' dance here*]

Of course, sometimes, the logic thing can take my brain on tangents that are better left untaken. One example is our juvenile next-door-neighbor. I wondered how my calling the noise control people on him affects his wife. Does he take it out on her by yelling at her? Does he make the house walk on eggshells because nobody knows what to say? But then, I realized that I shouldn't have that much power over his life and he's a fool if he gave it to me!


And I think about the silly person with the 30-year grudge I posted about earlier. Why is she letting me affect her after all this time? I k now I'm good, but didn't know I was THAT good!!


I think about someone I know that wants me to tip-toe around and never get loud because, in their far, far away past, somebody yelled at them and made them feel bad. Sorry, kiddo, being loud sometimes is who I am. Our family gets loud. That's who we are. You need to deal with it. Why are you letting someone who is probably dead (or, at the very least, not even aware of their impact) have power over you a half a world away and several decades later? I don't want to be able to make you feel bad by reminding you of someone in your past. Nobody should have that much power.

So for all those people whose lives are governed by the words and deed of others, I say, Life is about choices. 

Choose to believe that God loves you exactly the way He made you.
Accept that you are worthy of respect and love simply because you're breathing.
Choose to overlook other folk's imperfections if you want them to overlook yours.
Quit letting other people decide if you are going to be happy. No one should be able to make that decision but you.
Decide to be happy every morning!

Law of the Garbage Truck

One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport. We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us.

My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches! The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us, but my taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was really friendly.

So I asked, 'Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!'

This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call,  'The Law of the Garbage Truck.'

He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around  full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment.

As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it. Sometimes they'll dump it on you, but don't take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on.  Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets. 


Excellent advice from a unique point of view.

It's birthday time!

My birthday is in a few days, but with Hubby's schedule and Otterboy only being with us every other week, we usually schedule such celebrations on the last day when we all are at the house. I got a cake baked by the wonderful Otterboy on Tuesday--chocolate cake with cream cheese icing. It was fabulous!

Otteboy got me these lovely wooden kiwis. Aren't they just cute with their dangly feet?!?!

And, this is my gift from Hubby. It's an old John Deere tractor seat made into a custom-build stool! He had ordered it when we were in Nelson on holiday in January. So far, his being 'sneaky' has proved beneficial for me, so I guess I won't worry about it.

Now, before you start rolling your eyes, let me explain the John Deere 'thing'.  When Hubby and I were getting to know each other before I moved to NZ, we would IM a lot. At one point, we were sharing musical tastes and I was into country music at the time. 

I sent him a link to Joe Diffie's song 'John Deere Green' and, in the bizarre and mysterious way that men's minds work, John Deere instantly became a household word and took on a life of its own.

Hubby photo-shopped our names onto a water tower in green and emailed it to me. He ordered a John Deere flower holder from South Carolina, sent it to the local florist in Holton, KS, called the florist and asked for yellow and green flowers to be put in it and delivered and then he kept me on IM until they arrived that morning, the sneaky bugger!

I sent him some Joe Diffie CD's and he and the kids listened to it a lot--enough to memorize the words to 'John Deere Green', 'Third Rock from the Sun' and a couple more songs--which we still sing at the tops of our lungs on long trips.

Since this is dairy and farming country, we try to be the first to spot John Deere tractors. Sometimes they are on the road, sometimes they are in fields. But we always smile triumphantly when we are the first to call out 'John Deere!' correctly.  On the occasion that a tractor is not a John Deere, then it's called a 'Joe Moose'. (Get it?! John- Joe, deer-moose).

OK, we may be strange, but we're happy. And being 39 again is pretty darn nice!

This is true love

It was a busy morning, about 8:30, when an elderly

gentleman in his 80's arrived to have stitches removed from his thumb. He said he was in a hurry as he had an appointment at 9:00 am.

I took his vital signs and had him take a seat,

knowing it would be over an hour before someone 

would to able to see him. I saw him looking at his watch and decided, since I was not busy with another patient, I would evaluate his wound.

On exam, it was well healed, so I talked to one of the

doctors, got the needed supplies to remove his sutures and redress his wound. While taking care of
his wound, I asked him if he had another doctor's appointment this morning, as he was in such a hurry.

The gentleman told me no, that he needed to go to 

the nursing home to eat breakfast with his wife. I inquired as to her health. 

He told me that she had been there for a while and that she was a victim of Alzheimer's Disease. As we 

talked, I asked if she would be upset if he was a bit late. 

He replied that she no longer knew who he was, that she had not recognized him in  five years now.

I was surprised, and asked him, 'And you still go every morning, even though she doesn't know who you are?' 

He smiled as he patted my hand and said, 'She doesn't know me, but I still know who she is.'