If You're Out There

Must Read

2012-01-16T20:42:00.000-08:00

My first semester at college has been a bit of a shock. Unlike the stereotype, I adjusted to living alone and studying with ease. What I was most surprised about were the people. I falsely hoped that this would be a place to connect with my peers. Discussion of ideas, dreams, and a refinement of myself were what I longed for when I began schooling. Actually, these are the things that I have longed for most of my life but have found to be lacking in every social circle, including college. When a student is enrolled in upper education they should be made better in every way. Our education system is failing us on multiple fronts, but perhaps what disturbs me most is where we are failing each other. The common view is hardly a worldview, it merely consists of me, myself, and my. It is true, they can see THEIR future and THEIR dreams; unfortunately, this usually consists of temporary fame, trivial success, or a “good time.” I am not saying that these pursuits are bad; it is merely that they have become the ultimate goal. I believe that this is largely due to the fact that people don’t see the world as it truly is. No one pays mind to our country, God, or people around them. I hope that this is due to ignorance; I shudder at the idea that it is how callused we have come to starvation, hopelessness, crime, sin, and faith. There is no excuses for this kind of disregard. But whatever the reason, God will hold us accountable. The only difference between you, me, an abusive parent, a hopeless future, cancer, religious persecution, and even genocide is where you were born. I am thankful that God gave me the parents I have and the future I am walking into, but I cannot fathom that it is all mine. My eyes have been opened to the truth; my path is set. So many today, do not see. The future lies in the hands of people whose only reality is what pleases them. Why do so few fail to acknowledge a starving world, a hopeless mass, a generous God, a faithless nation, and a trivial existence that we are all pursuing. Fortunately, this is not everyone. It is your friends, your children, brothers and sisters; it is the future of our world. Do you care?

Quote!!!

2009-03-22T16:01:00.000-07:00

“Between the great things we cannot do and the small things we will not do, the danger is that we shall do nothing.”
~Adolph Monod quotes (Reformed pastor and theologian,1802-1856)

WORST/BEST day EVER!!!

2009-03-19T16:08:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! Sorry it has been sooo long. It's spring break and we are just getting back from Oklahoma City. My family did some shopping and had fun. Except, yesterday! Mom and I thought it would be fun to take the babies to the zoo. We were WRONG! First off, we get up but instead of leaving we get stuck watching a movie, for an hour! (Which is weird because we didn't even get to watch the first part of it!) Finally the movie was over, so we start getting ready. We put the babies in the strollers to leave when we realize WE OWN THE WORST STROLLERS EVER! They were squeaky and hard to push. What a mess. So... OK we will go get some from babies are us. Not a big deal except we get lost like 8 times! Not so much lost as much as we can't figure out how to get over to the thing... one ways, turn lane only, and exits that seem to jump out at us! Finally, twenty minutes later we make it to the parking lot. Well right beside Babies R' Us there is a walmart. Mom has been DYING to get this really awesome camera. It's a perfect day we are going to the zoo! We pile out and all go in and.... NO CAMERA! So... we go over to radio shack...NO CAMERA! UGH! OK, it's fine we will look after we get the strollers. We find this TOTALLY awesome double stroller. Its great... but we will have to put it together before going to the zoo. It says "some assembly" we figure it is a snap together. WRONG! We get it out to the car we need screwdrivers and scissors and whatnot. So... we go back to walmart and get these tools to put together this stroller! Twenty minutes later, the stroller is together, tires are flat! (It's a jogging stroller, jogging strollers need air.) So, we drive around looking for a gas station. Fifteen minutes later we find one, after driving past the zoo! Guess what, we find air, but the nozzle is broken! So we keep driving. Finally, we are in the "rough" part of okc we find a place! It felt GREAT to finally get those strollers put together! In all the driving around however, CHI GETS CAR SICK!!!! So he starts throwing up all over. We give him my hoodie... I guess it was the closest thing. But we are close to the zoo it will be over soon! We get there, THERE ARE PEOPLE EVERYWHERE! I didn't know people actually just went to the zoo! We cant even park in the zoo parking lot! We have to park across the street in the Remington Park (big horse racing thing) and walk. Ugh! We change Chi's clothes get out and get in the zoo, there are people EVEYWHERE! We had to wait in lines like at six flags just to see the little animals. Chloe FREAKED when we got in the snake house, but we couldn't leave, Chloe and Chi HATED the monkeys, one gorilla like ran at the glass, Chloe was NOT having that! She has quite a SCREAM, however, she tried to climb in with the lions to PET them! And it was HOT! Last I knew it was going to be in the seventies. Nope... it was hot hot hot. We left two hours later!!! Ate, and crashed for a nap!!! WHEW!!
... I THINK IT WAS A PRETTY SUCCESSFUL DAY!... :)

It really is how you look at it, I mean we laughed A LOT! It was the worst day ever... or the most memorable. It's how you look it I guess! :) Hope you got a chuckle out of our ordeal!
(sorry no pics, never found a camera!)

Good Relief Organization-Check It Out!

2009-03-11T06:53:00.000-07:00

Ok, I have checked out Compassion International very good and they are an excellent relief organization for world hunger. Click on the link and see for yourself. Do you know that every seven seconds a child dies of hunger? There are as many starving people in the world as the entire population of the US? Well I can't stand by and let this go unnoticed. For 13 dollars you can feed a child for a month! I am going to donate to this cause and help save as many children as I can. I hope you'll join me! Please help!

Positive & Encouraging K-LOVE
K-LOVE and Compassion are partnering TODAY to raise funds for the Global Food Initiative...

“I have been fighting poverty for more than 30 years,” said Wess Stafford, president and CEO of Compassion International. “Throughout that time I have never seen the potential for devastation that I see in the current Global Food Crisis”. This is the most urgent time in recent history for world hunger. The cost of many food items like, rice, wheat and beans have risen to staggering levels due to fluctuating fuel costs, rising food demands, natural disasters and a turbulent global enconomy. Learn More
Compassion is uniquely positioned to provide immediate relief by transferring funds through their existing infrastructure and ensuring that those that need help most are helped first.
You can make a world of difference!

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I have the BEST friends EVER!!!

2009-03-03T18:55:00.001-08:00

This is KELS!!! She is the greatest friend and person you will EVER meet!
Kate is TOTALLY adorable! She is totally sweet and has the BEST heart!

We have fun. ALWAYS!

I am so blessed to have these girls in my life! I don't know where I would be without their love and support! :)

POEM!

2009-03-03T18:41:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago we had to write a poem about something, anything. We later submitted them for publishing. Mine is getting published!! YEA!! I thought I would share it with you. (Not that it is great or fantastic or anything.)

When?

There is a life the requires no action.

The world and it's problems are but distractions.

There is no thought about children dying,

The lost and forgotten somewhere crying.

Is the pain of reality too great?

Wake up "Indifference" before it's too late!

No hope, no passion, no love,

Tears are falling from above.

When will it happen and what will it take

For us to arise and a "difference" to make?

By: Kelissa Sanders

I think they do great work

2009-02-23T09:05:00.001-08:00

This is an organization I feel is doing a lot for the people of Guatemala. I want to go on the mission trip and this could be the one I would like to go through. I will do more research and see. It has other videos you and also watch.

SORRY!

2009-02-22T13:15:00.000-08:00

My week has been CRAZY! I have been getting ready for the Miss Altus pageant. Dancing, tanning, working out, fixing hair, doing nails, and all that crazy prettying-up a girl has to do, and the sad thing is I wasn't even competing! I did perform and wear my dress on stage though. I got presented as Miss Altus Outstanding Teen which was pretty cool! It was a really fun, really really busy week! (I didn't get home last night till 2! [yesterday was the pageant])The sad part.... no blogging. I kind of dropped off the face of the planet there for a little while, but I am back now!! :) Here is a pretty good website with lots of info. CHECK IT OUT!
http://endpoverty2015.org/

(More to come, I have been researching!!! WHOO)

Holocaust?

2009-02-15T12:43:00.001-08:00

There are 12-14 million children orphaned in sub-Saharan Africa because of AIDS.
At the end of 2007, there were approximately 5.7 million people living with HIV in South Africa alone.
Sub-Saharan Africa is more heavily affected by HIV and AIDS than any other region of the world. An estimated 22 million people were living with HIV at the end of 2007 and approximately 1.9 million additional people were infected with HIV during that year.
Each year over 8 million people die because they are simply too poor to stay alive.
Thirty-thousand children die every day due to hunger and treatable illnesses.
6 million children die every year before their fifth birthday, as a result of malnutrition.

We are studying the Holocaust in my history class. The main question everyone asks is, "How? 6million people. How?" It baffled me at first! How could a man get away with killing SIX MILLION PEOPLE! Then I started looking, the same things are going on today and it goes over looked! The difference is the Holocaust had a face. Hitler, the evil leader slaughtering millions! An Atrocity! We let it continue today. The "bad guy" though is us. We allow it! Our indifference is why these terrible things continue to happen. No one cares. It really scares me. When our grandchildren look back will we be asked the questions, "Why did no one care? Why did you choose to over look it? Why was it allowed in your world of plenty?" Its the questions our greats are asked day by day. In class everyone wants to know how so many people died with no care, I say JUST LOOK AT THE WORLD TODAY!

Wordless Wed.

2009-02-11T08:38:00.001-08:00

INTERVIEW!

2009-02-08T18:35:00.000-08:00

Today I had a mock interview to practice for Miss Oklahoma's Outstanding Teen. It was really fun. They questioned me about my platform (world poverty), my goals, and my beliefs. Interview has always been my favorite part of the competition. I like to express my dreams and goals to others, but it also makes me state my beliefs and explain why I believe the way I do. This is some of my questions and answers today:
Why do I have a passion for poverty?
I have seen the poverty. I have traveled overseas. I have a brother and sister that are a product of parents unable to feed their children. This is a tragedy. Too many Americana's overlook the plight of others. They are indifferent. I am not. Those are people, not numbers. Very few people realize this.
People in America live in poverty, shouldn't we address those people before the world?
Yes, those people should be taken care of but in a very different way. In America people can get a good meal. There are programs providing clothing and jackets in the winter. Homeless shelters provide a home for anyone that has hit hard times; however, many people either do not know about the programs or are "ashamed" of asking for assistance. The solution is through education. There is a solution to help them get back on their feet. In America anyone can live with all needs met. In other countries people don't even have necessities. That is the issue I wish to address.
I see on your resume you wish to major in law and minor in political science, what do you wish to do with your degree?
I am still undecided. I am going to a Patriots Academy, a christian based political summer camp, which I am hoping will help chart my path. A Supreme Court Justice really interest me, because they hold up the constitution and the values the founding fathers set before us. I am waiting for God to direct my path though.
Do celebrities help or hurt the war on world poverty?
It depends on the person. Angelina Jolie does a good job about spreading the message about the miracle of adoption. Many celebrities though go out and spoil themselves with million dollar shoes (I know it sounds crazy), and $20,000 purses. It teaches selfishness in Americans. No one should have a million dollar pair of shoes when millions of people are living on less than $1 a day.
Explain what a rainbow looks like to a blind person?
It looks and posses all the beauty of your favorite melody.
They say every person has their 15 minutes in the spotlight, where will your 15 minutes come from?
I am unsure at this point how my fame will come. It may be law, politics, or pageants. I do know what I will do with those minutes though. I will spread the knowledge of poverty. Educate Americans on the reality of the plight of others. If one American will reach out to another than it was 15 minutes spent worthwhile.
Why did you choose your platform?
Not only have I seen poverty firsthand and had my life directly affected by poverty, but also 3 billion people suffer from what has been called "the greatest disease known to man". Many people over look this. It isn't cancer, physical fitness, or peer-pressure (not that those aren't important). Those affect some. Poverty affects HALF of the worlds population.

This is a little part of the interview I had today. This is where I stand on my platform. This is the questions I get asked and have to answer on the spot. The judges know, and now so do you! :)

Good Website

2009-02-07T17:10:00.000-08:00

http://www.adaguatemala.org/English/news/

There is a lot of information about Guatemala and the laws governing adoption, and the reason for the country being shut down. I think it is important for people to know what's going on and why, as well as what is happening to the forgotten children of Guatemala left behind when the country closed. There is just no voice out there for these children.

Kelissa's Fav Foto Friday

2009-02-06T11:12:00.000-08:00

Besides being passionate about my world and also an average American teen, did I mention I'm also a little crazy!

Patriots Academy

2009-02-05T08:42:00.000-08:00

I am planning on attending the Patriots Academy this year. I am so excited as this will help in my dream of changing the world through the avenue of law.

Patriot Academy is a five-day political training program where students age sixteen to twenty-five learn about America's system of government from a Biblical worldview. Each summer, young people from around the nation come to the Texas State Capitol to form a fully functioning mock legislative body, drafting legislation, debating bills and passing laws. Students participate in fast-paced, interactive workshops on media relations, public speaking, campaigning techniques and the founding father’s philosophy of government. Current and former elected officials and experts share their personal experience in government and discuss today’s most relevant issues. Today, Patriot Academy is the premier conservative political training camp in the nation, training young people to effectively engage in every aspect of government, whether as an elected official or an active citizen. As our students are equipped to effect change for the issues that matter most to them, Patriot Academy is fulfilling its vision to raise up a new generation to lead the change in America.

They Chose Me

2009-01-30T19:45:00.000-08:00

My Inspiration

2009-01-29T14:00:00.000-08:00

Chloe and Chi where would I be without their smiling faces? They bring SO much joy to my life! Chloe is my adorable "big gurl". A big two and a half year old! She does cheer dances with me, sings and dances ballet. Every night me and Chloe cuddle up, I read her a story and we say our prayers. She never lets me forget. Chi is my handsome little man, and a typical boy. He loves balls, trucks, and wrestling with his brother. They bring so many smiles into my life!!! I don't know what I would do without them. As my friend Holly would say,"They are the honey nut in my Cheerios."

I can't imagine my life without them. I can't imagine them without a loving family to take them in. I hate to think about the thousands of children just like them who didn't find a forever family. But, to the to "orphans" who make me smile everyday, I LOVE YA'LL!

Quotes and Stats

2009-01-28T09:43:00.000-08:00

You ought to know about poverty. You should know what some people have to face every day of their lives, the fight they have to put up just to stay alive.
~ Bobby Darin

“A world where some live in comfort and plenty, while half of the human race lives on less than $2 a day, is neither just, nor stable.”
~ President Bush

Over 30,000 Children die each day due to poverty.
~ UNICEF

At least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day.
http://www.globalissues.org

Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.
http://www.globalissues.org

Every year six million children die from malnutrition before the age of five.
http://www.unmillenniumproject.org

More than 50 percent of Africans are infected with a water related diseases.
http://www.unmillenniumproject.org

More than 800 million people go to bed hungry everyday...300million are children.
http://www.unmillenniumproject.org

Every five seconds a child dies because he or she was hungry.
http://connect.worldvision.org/

6,000 children die every day because of disease-infested drinking water.
http://connect.worldvision.org/

150 million children in developing countries are malnourished.
http://connect.worldvision.org/

15 million children around the world have been orphaned due to HIV/AIDS.
http://connect.worldvision.org/

Poverty Is Real

2009-01-27T08:37:00.001-08:00

The start of it all!

2009-01-26T18:48:00.000-08:00

This is a great speech. It opened up my eyes to a lot. I hope it does the same for you. It is by Elie Wiesel, a prisoner during the holocost.

Mr. President, Mrs. Clinton, members of Congress, Ambassador Holbrooke, Excellencies, friends: Fifty-four years ago to the day, a young Jewish boy from a small town in the Carpathian Mountains woke up, not far from Goethe's beloved Weimar, in a place of eternal infamy called Buchenwald. He was finally free, but there was no joy in his heart. He thought there never would be again.
Liberated a day earlier by American soldiers, he remembers their rage at what they saw. And even if he lives to be a very old man, he will always be grateful to them for that rage, and also for their compassion. Though he did not understand their language, their eyes told him what he needed to know -- that they, too, would remember, and bear witness.
And now, I stand before you, Mr. President -- Commander-in-Chief of the army that freed me, and tens of thousands of others -- and I am filled with a profound and abiding gratitude to the American people.
Gratitude is a word that I cherish. Gratitude is what defines the humanity of the human being. And I am grateful to you, Hillary -- or Mrs. Clinton -- for what you said, and for what you are doing for children in the world, for the homeless, for the victims of injustice, the victims of destiny and society. And I thank all of you for being here.
We are on the threshold of a new century, a new millennium. What will the legacy of this vanishing century be? How will it be remembered in the new millennium? Surely it will be judged, and judged severely, in both moral and metaphysical terms. These failures have cast a dark shadow over humanity: two World Wars, countless civil wars, the senseless chain of assassinations -- Gandhi, the Kennedys, Martin Luther King, Sadat, Rabin -- bloodbaths in Cambodia and Nigeria, India and Pakistan, Ireland and Rwanda, Eritrea and Ethiopia, Sarajevo and Kosovo; the inhumanity in the gulag and the tragedy of Hiroshima. And, on a different level, of course, Auschwitz and Treblinka. So much violence, so much indifference.
What is indifference? Etymologically, the word means "no difference." A strange and unnatural state in which the lines blur between light and darkness, dusk and dawn, crime and punishment, cruelty and compassion, good and evil.
What are its courses and inescapable consequences? Is it a philosophy? Is there a philosophy of indifference conceivable? Can one possibly view indifference as a virtue? Is it necessary at times to practice it simply to keep one's sanity, live normally, enjoy a fine meal and a glass of wine, as the world around us experiences harrowing upheavals?
Of course, indifference can be tempting -- more than that, seductive. It is so much easier to look away from victims. It is so much easier to avoid such rude interruptions to our work, our dreams, our hopes. It is, after all, awkward, troublesome, to be involved in another person's pain and despair. Yet, for the person who is indifferent, his or her neighbor are of no consequence. And, therefore, their lives are meaningless. Their hidden or even visible anguish is of no interest. Indifference reduces the other to an abstraction.
Over there, behind the black gates of Auschwitz, the most tragic of all prisoners were the "Muselmanner," as they were called. Wrapped in their torn blankets, they would sit or lie on the ground, staring vacantly into space, unaware of who or where they were, strangers to their surroundings. They no longer felt pain, hunger, thirst. They feared nothing. They felt nothing. They were dead and did not know it.
Rooted in our tradition, some of us felt that to be abandoned by humanity then was not the ultimate. We felt that to be abandoned by God was worse than to be punished by Him. Better an unjust God than an indifferent one. For us to be ignored by God was a harsher punishment than to be a victim of His anger. Man can live far from God -- not outside God. God is wherever we are. Even in suffering? Even in suffering.
In a way, to be indifferent to that suffering is what makes the human being inhuman. Indifference, after all, is more dangerous than anger and hatred. Anger can at times be creative. One writes a great poem, a great symphony, one does something special for the sake of humanity because one is angry at the injustice that one witnesses. But indifference is never creative. Even hatred at times may elicit a response. You fight it. You denounce it. You disarm it. Indifference elicits no response. Indifference is not a response.
Indifference is not a beginning, it is an end. And, therefore, indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor -- never his victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten. The political prisoner in his cell, the hungry children, the homeless refugees -- not to respond to their plight, not to relieve their solitude by offering them a spark of hope is to exile them from human memory. And in denying their humanity we betray our own.
Indifference, then, is not only a sin, it is a punishment. And this is one of the most important lessons of this outgoing century's wide-ranging experiments in good and evil.
In the place that I come from, society was composed of three simple categories: the killers, the victims, and the bystanders. During the darkest of times, inside the ghettoes and death camps -- and I'm glad that Mrs. Clinton mentioned that we are now commemorating that event, that period, that we are now in the Days of Remembrance -- but then, we felt abandoned, forgotten. All of us did.
And our only miserable consolation was that we believed that Auschwitz and Treblinka were closely guarded secrets; that the leaders of the free world did not know what was going on behind those black gates and barbed wire; that they had no knowledge of the war against the Jews that Hitler's armies and their accomplices waged as part of the war against the Allies.
If they knew, we thought, surely those leaders would have moved heaven and earth to intervene. They would have spoken out with great outrage and conviction. They would have bombed the railways leading to Birkenau, just the railways, just once.
And now we knew, we learned, we discovered that the Pentagon knew, the State Department knew. And the illustrious occupant of the White House then, who was a great leader -- and I say it with some anguish and pain, because, today is exactly 54 years marking his death -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt died on April the 12th, 1945, so he is very much present to me and to us.
No doubt, he was a great leader. He mobilized the American people and the world, going into battle, bringing hundreds and thousands of valiant and brave soldiers in America to fight fascism, to fight dictatorship, to fight Hitler. And so many of the young people fell in battle. And, nevertheless, his image in Jewish history -- I must say it -- his image in Jewish history is flawed.
The depressing tale of the St. Louis is a case in point. Sixty years ago, its human cargo -- maybe 1,000 Jews -- was turned back to Nazi Germany. And that happened after the Kristallnacht, after the first state sponsored pogrom, with hundreds of Jewish shops destroyed, synagogues burned, thousands of people put in concentration camps. And that ship, which was already on the shores of the United States, was sent back.
I don't understand. Roosevelt was a good man, with a heart. He understood those who needed help. Why didn't he allow these refugees to disembark? A thousand people -- in America, a great country, the greatest democracy, the most generous of all new nations in modern history. What happened? I don't understand. Why the indifference, on the highest level, to the suffering of the victims?
But then, there were human beings who were sensitive to our tragedy. Those non-Jews, those Christians, that we called the "Righteous Gentiles," whose selfless acts of heroism saved the honor of their faith. Why were they so few? Why was there a greater effort to save SS murderers after the war than to save their victims during the war?
Why did some of America's largest corporations continue to do business with Hitler's Germany until 1942? It has been suggested, and it was documented, that the Wehrmacht could not have conducted its invasion of France without oil obtained from American sources. How is one to explain their indifference?
And yet, my friends, good things have also happened in this traumatic century: the defeat of Nazism, the collapse of communism, the rebirth of Israel on its ancestral soil, the demise of apartheid, Israel's peace treaty with Egypt, the peace accord in Ireland. And let us remember the meeting, filled with drama and emotion, between Rabin and Arafat that you, Mr. President, convened in this very place. I was here and I will never forget it.
And then, of course, the joint decision of the United States and NATO to intervene in Kosovo and save those victims, those refugees, those who were uprooted by a man whom I believe that because of his crimes, should be charged with crimes against humanity. But this time, the world was not silent. This time, we do respond. This time, we intervene.
Does it mean that we have learned from the past? Does it mean that society has changed? Has the human being become less indifferent and more human? Have we really learned from our experiences? Are we less insensitive to the plight of victims of ethnic cleansing and other forms of injustices in places near and far? Is today's justified intervention in Kosovo, led by you, Mr. President, a lasting warning that never again will the deportation, the terrorization of children and their parents be allowed anywhere in the world? Will it discourage other dictators in other lands to do the same?
What about the children? Oh, we see them on television, we read about them in the papers, and we do so with a broken heart. Their fate is always the most tragic, inevitably. When adults wage war, children perish. We see their faces, their eyes. Do we hear their pleas? Do we feel their pain, their agony? Every minute one of them dies of disease, violence, famine. Some of them -- so many of them -- could be saved.
And so, once again, I think of the young Jewish boy from the Carpathian Mountains. He has accompanied the old man I have become throughout these years of quest and struggle. And together we walk towards the new millennium, carried by profound fear and extraordinary hope.
Elie Wiesel - April 12, 1999

REASON!

2009-01-26T18:17:00.000-08:00

This blog is a way for me to express myself. I also want to spread knowledge of world poverty. I want to be a voice for those who have none. Poverty affects 3 billion people in the world. That's half of the population! I believe this is an inexcuseable fault on the part of us as Americans. Indifference is a disease too many Americans have. People today overlook the pain of others. It is painful to see the pain of others and the horrific tragedies of people across the globe, but it is necessary. When we lose sight of others-- their pain, loss, hunger, and sorrow-- we take away all hope from those in need. We in America today forget that the starving are real people. They have lives, children, dreams, and little to no hope. God blesses us so we can give to others. . Addressing this is my call, it's my passion. I want others to know what I have seen. I have this passion because my family adopted two children last year. Seeing this opened my eyes. We changed the life of two children, but that is little compared to the thousands dying of starvation. THINK, PRAY, GIVE, but more than anything be well informed.

Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow. Isaiah 1:17

Don't oppress widows, orphans, foreigners, and poor people. And don't even think of doing evil to each other. Zechariah 7:10