Grace Educational Trust is providing new learning opportunities to children in the small village of Betim Ramnagar in Goa, India. The mission of Grace Educational Trust is to help support children and families who are living in poverty, by creating opportunities for education, skill development, and community leadership. Grace Early Learning Centre is a non-profit centre, co-founded by two women, Neelima Pratap and Francis Dass, who came together in 2006 with a common vision.

Below is a link to a CBC National story about Grace Educational Trust.

http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/special_feature/a_world_of_difference/giving_hope.html

1. If you have to pick three of these dreams, which ones would you pick?

• to flourish in the community outside of church building
• to bring true life to others…a life that is contagiously attractive to our communities outside of Mosaic
• to strive to root in God’s word and prayer and develop the passion towards the community/people that God brought in their lives

2. how would you contribute to these dreams?

• be more intentional in reaching out…make more friends…take up opportunities to share life with others
• practice REAL and to invite others to join in…
• stay close to God…to celebrate Sabbath…learn to confess our sins to each other…devote in prayer and scripture

This is my commitment to God…to Mosaic…to the Mosaic movement…to His Kingdom…

Sincerely,

Cindy

P.S. Please keep me accountable and pray for me.

it brought me great joy to be given an opportunity to bring glory to our God with the creativity He’s given us…christian/non-christian…it’s a gift to all from God…and it’s crazy beautiful…

and i have an idea for this thing…but i think i will need to hold auditions for this…hahah…i need a guy (some fabulous candidates: phil, lon, ian’s friend - douglas) to wear a speedo and let me paint him into a meteor and then he can either choose to crash live in front of the audience that night or we’ll make a video of it…now don’t worry….u won’t be doing that for free…this post will host a petition for this act and all proceeds will go towards the water system…i will provide the speedo and the body paint (could tempera work?…i’ll find out)….

i will start by sponsoring $70 to petition for lon to do it live

p.s. all u fashion designers out there…let’s do a fashion show for solar crash!…that’d be soo cool!…and in reaction to conservation we will use second hand clothes to make these pieces…so if you have some clothes that you don’t need anymore…gimme gimme =)

freaky chipmunk in the bathroom

this song encompasses what im trying to do right now...

Yet I Will Praise

by vineyard

I will praise You Lord my God
Even in my brokenness
I will praise You Lord
I will praise You Lord my God
Even in my desperation
I will praise You Lord 

And I can't understand
All that You allow
I just can't see the reason
But my life is in Your hands
And though I cannot see You
I choose to trust You 

Even when my heart is torn I will praise (trust) You Lord
Even when I feel deserted I will praise (trust) You Lord
Even in my darkest valley I will praise (trust) You Lord
And when my world is shattered and it seems all hope is gone
Yet I will praise You Lord 

I will trust You Lord my God
Even in my loneliness
I will trust You Lord
I will trust You Lord my God
Even when I cannot hear You
I will trust You Lord 

And I will not forget
That You hung on a cross
Lord You bled and died for me
And if I have to suffer
I know that You've been there
And I know that You're here now

http://youtube.com/watch?v=gGH2YXcWJ4Q

God had been knocking at my heart about this for a while now. He has been teaching me how to love

someone. And sometimes, i wanna do things my way, but it's clear that it has to be about God (cus

God is love)...i had to speak up and lay out God's view (as how He has graciously revealed to me)

of our relationship and on your relationship with Him, God is calling you back to Him and although

i wished that you would go back to God for the sake of us, it's really not about that...it's up to

you and Him...thus, 3 options arised: you go and mend your relationship with God on your own, you

go and mend your relationship with God and i will support you, or you can shrug off your relationship

with God and relieve me of my pain...although the first two options seems much harder, i would be

more than glad to go through them with you...in the end, you chose option one...it's really hard

to just let it go, but i am learning to trust God...it sucks that we're not together anymore, but

to truly love God and you...i must resist turning back because i must trust that God's plans are

perfect!

all you people out there!…especially those who claim to be christians!…God is bigger than christianity and church!…fear that!

 

would it be appropriate to start another category of blogs for this environmentally friendly challenge??

anyway…why did i skip round 3 you ask?…around 2 was suggested by PhiltheMAN…STOP OVER EATING!!…believe it or not, i think the best healthy diet is to eat until you’re not hungry, NOT eat until you’re full!…there really is a difference to that!…

so here is round 3: try to buy cartons of milk instead of bags of milk…that could be more costly, but it will reduce plastic bags!!

o, round 4: (yay for crazy burst of ideas!…praise God!)…when you go shopping for things (i.e. clothing) and/or groceries…try your best to reduce the use of plastic bags, you can do so in the following ways:

- bring your own reusable shopping bag!

- put as many items as you can in one bag

 

i challenge all of you who are reading this to start an environmentally friendly movement to reduce the use of styrofoam and plastic…

try keeping some glass or ceramic tupperware in your trunk and bringing it along with you when you go out to eat so that you can use it for the extra food you want doggy-bagged or even for take out (this may cause some problems, so if it is too difficult for the restaurant, then let them be)…

it could potentially be embarassing…but if u feel the calling to reduce the use of styrofoam and plastic in this way…try this out!..if you have other ideas, share it!

it may also be helpful to sign yourself up for this so that we can keep each other accountable 

i’m in on this =) 

please also share other ways of recycling, reducing, reusing!

my heart is filled with discontentment, tension, frustration, and slightly burning craziness…the earthquake in china and the cyclone in Myanmar is killing me inside…i’m struggling to trust that prayer is enough…should i even be satisfied with just praying?…i keep reminding myself that prayer is our strongest weapon, but i also know that the human and financial resources for the relief work in these places are scarce…if everyone were to say i’ve leave that work for other people…then no one would go…yesterday, i found out about how relief workers are setting up schools in the relief camps…in the mist of this craziness the children of china still wants to learn!…and because of these relief camp schools, some children who would not be receiving education now has a chance to go to school…i as an educator just want to put down everything i am doing right now to go teach these children…so i went home today and checked out teacher’s without borders (http://founder.twbtools.com/) and care for children china (http://www.careforchildren.com.cn/home.htm) and red cross…i used their self assessment quiz to see if i qualify…then i realized that i wasn’t…i could not just leave the things that i am doing right now (i.e. finishing my undergrad and leaving for 3 months to 1 year)…plus my plan this year was to stay in toronto and do something here…so now what?…all i can do with this tension and frustration is to pray about it…by saying this i feel like i’m degrading prayer…or something as a last resort…but i truly recognize how much i need prayer right now…