Perspective

Perspective is key. For instance, if you were told that you would receive $1,000,000 for jumping out of a plane without a parachute, would you do it?

If you say "No," immediately, you would lose the opportunity for a million dollars. Why? Safety? No! Because you did not know the plane was on the ground with its emergency slide open, so you jumped -- but to the wrong conclusion.

How Many NOs Before a YES?

When I was growing up, my father (God rest his soul in peace) made it so clear to us that his NO meant NO and not MAYBE or LATER. Later when I started my first business peddling goodies at age 11, I brought this attitude to business. The first customer I approached made it so clear to me that he was not interested. I could almost hear my father screaming in my ears, “I said NO and I mean NO.” One day I decided to give myself a benefit of a doubt by returning to the same customer who had said NO to me. We were both surprised. After buying almost everything I had on me, my former rejection told me, “I have been looking for you everywhere. The moment you left, my wife convinced me that we needed your products. I tried to run after you but you had already gone too far. I am glad you came back.”

Since that time, it takes about four NOs for me to really believe someone is not interested.

Eliminating Options

Wouldn’t it be beautiful if we all could see the end from the beginning? Oh may be just have a glimpse of a few miles ahead of us? The good news is that we can. Though God has hidden the future from us, He has provided a way for us to form a framework within which we can eliminate options. Some call it vision. Others call it purpose. I call it eliminating nonsense. The mind is full of imaginations, dreams, wishes, and aspirations. The temptation to conquer the world can sometimes blind us from reality. Wishes take over reason and we find ourselves riding on the wings of the unattainable.

But what exactly does it mean to have a vision? Does it mean confinement to the finite or the elimination of chances? Certainly not. I call vision the trimming off of the unnecessary- the elimination of time wasters. The most difficult part of having a vision is eliminating options. Options have a way of enslaving us to indecision. Indecision breeds inactivity as we wait for the best alternative to jump out of the sea of options. We wait. And wait. Until it’s too late to choose.

If you forget everything, at least remember this: “ Eliminating options is half the task of crafting your vision for the future.”

Happy dreaming!

Increasing Your Business Profit

In difficult economic times such as the ones we are living in today, every business owner is scrambling for a nickel of profit here and there. The honest truth on the other side is that some businesses are not really as concerned about profit as they are about staying afloat. Every day as I drive around my neighborhood I am surprised to find out that some of my favorite stores are closing. The truth is, we are in challenging business times. On the other side of the truth is the fact that some businesses have managed to stay alive and they are picking up clients from the their defunct neighbors. How have these surviving businesses managed to stay afloat?

There are three ways to increase your business profit and each one of these comes with consequences. Before you decide which one you intend to utilize, you need to weigh the options and make sure you can sustain your profitability plans.

One of the ways to increase your bottom line is to reduce the weight at the bottom. And you do this by cutting business costs. Business costs come in different forms but we will talk about the three big boys: the cost of labor, the cost of inventory, and the cost marketing.

1. The cost of Labor: I am realizing that when it comes to cutting costs most businesses rush to the cost of labor. They start by either reducing the number of employees or reducing the number of hours for each employee. This is the most understood traditional way of cutting costs. In today's highly technological and outsourced world, this could look convenient. What most businesses do not realize is that the human touch is all there is to a business. Businesses without human beings are static and stale organizations without life. As convenient as cutting labor costs may be, it is not the first place a business should run to.

2. The cost of Inventory: Every business has inventory. Some argue that service industries do not have inventory. Much as this is true in theory, it is not true logically. Every business has some inventory of some kind. Cutting the cost of inventory means cutting profits from under your suppliers. What is going to happen here is that as more suppliers are forced to consider less and less prices for their products, they will either compromise their quality both of delivery and production, or they will go out of business altogether. To force your supplier to reduce costs is to step at the source of your stream.

3. The cost of Marketing: One of my clients came to me the other day and told me, "Amon, I do not have any more money to continue running my marketing program". What I actually heard him say was, "Amon, I am ready to die". Marketing is the life and blood of any business. No customers, no profit. In difficulties times such as the ones we are in right now, most businesses start to cut their marketing budget. The truth is, there are so many businesses closing their doors right now and customers are scrambling for their next favorite. Customers are left as orphans and they are looking around for someone to adopt them. This could be the best time to double your business-marketing budget.

How do you increase your profits without cutting your labor, inventory and marketing costs?

Email me at amonikas@yahoo.fr for some answers.

Coupon Junkie

Yes I am a coupon junkie. I love saving money. Pay less for more sounds so attractive. So I save every coupon I can lay my hands on. At this one store, I found out that I had saved close to 40% of my cost just by using coupons. One may think that merchants make coupons to give free money to customers. That's not true. Coupons are actually made to increase profits for merchants. Yes. But they are made in such a way that both sides win.

But first, what do coupons do for the merchant?

First, coupons will motivate buyers. You may not have plans to spend that $1,000 in your pocket. But the moment you see that your dream laptop computer is now 40% off, the temptation is planted and before you know, you are walking that buyer lane again to take advantage of the discount. And there goes your $1,000. The thing is, you will never know how much that 40% is worth to the merchant.

Secondly, a store that issues coupons tends to get more exposure. Coupon junkies are always looking online and going through the store's catalog looking for coupons. This constant placement of the store's brand in the eyes of its customers increases brand equity.

In the end, coupons are a win on both sides. But the customer spends less time calculating the benefits than the merchant does. And yes, the merchant sometimes is more equal than the customer.

Cutting it short

It’s been long since I last blogged. I have been busy undergoing a long and laborious training for my new business. I finally managed to get away from everything and concentrate on what I love doing. Since I started getting interested in payment systems back in 2001, I have never stopped to wonder what it would look like if a company existed with a mission to help merchants; to be on the merchants' side.

It has been a good ride working with various merchants the last few days. I have been helping merchants to interpret their credit card statements, calculate their actual processing fees, and I could see their eyes opening wide as they discovered that they were actually being lied to. This one client I worked with had his credit card processing rate stated as 1.65%. A closer look at the statement revealed unbelievable hidden fees. The total? 3.8% for every transaction. It was a sad discovery. As soon as I left, the merchant was on the phone grilling his credit card processing company. I am yet to hear what happened.

This job has been very rewarding. Naturally I like helping people but I had never done it as a career. It sure feels so good to help and at the same time earn a living from doing so.

To all my clients I say, “thank you for giving me a chance to serve you”

New Beginnings

Hey y'all my friends. Just wanted to let you know that I will be blogging a lot these days about business, the economy, and cutting business costs. If this is not your piece of bread, then I suggest you reconsider your RSS. Otherwise, have fun.

The Prodigal Change

A sad but gripping reality of all time is that more people than are expected spend their lives accepting apparent reality. They repel that which is new, different and uncommon. They spend their life looking for a certain kind of scripted living. In pursuit of a scripted life, they lose track of life itself because life is always hiding in the shadows, in the dark and ugly fumes of daily clouds; clouds that form and sometimes never seem to break. - Clouds of the new, the different, and the unknown. The unscripted.

In pursuit of scripted living we are writing life’s script itself. For the script of life is written in past tense. What we have gone through becomes the fountain pen that scribbles the marks of history for others to read. Therefore we read and understand. That life as it has been lived cannot be lived again but improved; that no two lives can be lived in exactly the same way. So even in the knowledge of history, from which all wisdom flows, we still have to add to the script. And we should.

Similarity is the mother of competition. Yet we always want to live life the way it has always been. Therefore we loose creativity. For creativity comes from the spontaneous, the uncommon trails of the daredevils. And yes we have been taught not to dare the devil. Not to try the impossible because impossibility is beyond reach. We should be doctors, lawyers, accountants, and more recently, computer scientists. But what do we do with the other half of life? How do we deal with the evolution of the mind, which consistently repels routine and seeks out new ways to do the same old job?

We embrace change! We welcome home the long-lost prodigal son. Change.

Sacred Selfishness

The calling of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost began to produce what 1 Peter calls a “race, priesthood, nation, and people” (1 Peter 2:9-10), a worldwide multicultural fellowship of witnesses. The people of God, in all their cultural diversity, may be understood as a universal community of communities. The particular church community is, in an essential sense, an expression of the universal church. Thus specialization and segmentation advocated for by denominationalism compromises this universal personality of the church.

In his high priestly prayer, Jesus set out the purpose of the church as the community of communities:

“I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in me through their word; that they may all be one; even as you, father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. The glory which you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as we are one; I in them and you in me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that you sent me, and loved them, even as you have loved me.” (John 17:20-23)

This prayer is a central New Testament passage defining the purpose and relatedness of the church. It teaches us that the dimensional connectedness of the church is not merely a matter of institutional unity, good public relations, or effective growth strategies. The oneness spoken of here is a matter of obedience to the Lord of the church, obedience that centers on his mission, “so that the world may know that you have sent me.”

The church is not only a community of communities, but it does share in the Trinitarian relationship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.One of the ways the communal and commissioned church of the tri-une God repositions itself as a divinely communal entity is through the Lord’s Supper. This communal nature of the church removes the emphasis from the organization and places it on the collective relationality of its members. The church as an organization must serve the purposes of the tri-une God within the body.

Thus the mission of the church goes beyond self-preservation to becoming an instrument for building community. The church’s goal is not serving the organization’s own ethics and purposes, but leading the organization to fulfill a more universal purpose as a representative servant of God on earth. The church works for the ultimate order of manifesting the glory of God, of becoming a people of God, of serving the purposes of God, and of fulfilling the plan of God.

A community-centered people of God must orient their desires not towards their personal good feelings but towards the broader category of the will of God on earth.

Building the Ark: Baruch Spinoza Vs. Noah No-last-name

Naturalistic pantheist Baruch Spinoza would be upset with Noah. Oh God himself. Spinoza, a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese Jewish origin is considered one of the great rationalists of all time. Spinoza believed (and many of his followers still do) that the Universe, although unconscious and irresponsible as a whole, behaves as a single, interrelated, and solely natural substance. Accordingly, Nature is seen as being what religions call "God" only in a non-traditional, impersonal sense, where the terms Nature and God are synonymous.

Spinoza’s ideology has no room left for a God that splits from creation and acts on his own “be”-half. How can the other half claim to be the whole? Does God need marriage counseling? The two shall become one flesh, you know? I support Spinoza in every form and shape. I believe that what destroys nature cannot be one with it. Either God is an independent contractor who does not care about the total organization, or he is just foreign matter that does not subscribe to the laws of nature. Either way, looking through Spinoza’s glasses, God cannot be one with nature.

If God is not one with nature, the so-called Acts of God cannot be one with nature either- unless such destruction has the ability to give life. The destruction of nature by nature is a difficult subject. I am talking about trees falling in thunderstorms and small species dying from man-made global warming.

God gets even more divisive when he hands Noah the Flood Survival Handbook. First Noah is saving just a handful of living things, but even more divisive than that, Noah is not commanded to take plants with him in the ark (Read Genesis 7 and 8).
God, Noah, the surviving animals, the dying animals, the dying plants. Where is Spinoza’s oneness in the flood story? And who is picking his nose after the floods? Not God. Even after hundreds of days, the dove is able to find life in the plants. And when surviving animals and humanity exit the ark, life comes back to normal.

So who is this God who can give and destroy life? And how can he be one with nature if he holds nature’s existence in his hands.

Sorry Spinoza but I am not following.

Come With Me Along the Sweet Path of Doubt.

They kept coming. For forty days; a constant flow like the oozing of an old wound. Their weight lifted it off the ground and gave it free float. Everything in it was safe. And the more they came the better it floated.

But something beyond it was not happy. Thousands were perishing in them. The floods that saved the boat and the people in it were now destroying everyone outside it. The savior had become the killer. Like a double-edged sword was the flood that Noah had been warned about and was smart enough to complete the project without fear or doubt.

A righteous man he was. But the trials of the flood demanded more than righteousness. They demanded obedience and faith. Obedience was needed to do everything according to God’s design. Faith was necessary to believe that this gigantic boat would one day be put to use. The latter was probably harder. No one in the history of floods had seen anything of that magnitude. How would water cover the surface of the earth? How could water submerge the hill, subdue mountains, and completely gulp every living thing on the face of the earth? It was an impossible imagination. People dismissed it as the illogical madness of an old man’s wish. But Noah never thought of himself as a six hundred year old grey haired man whose sense of reality had been impaired by the passing of years. He believed. And he was saved.

The danger in our time is not found in the lack of evidence that something will not happen but in the doubt that it will.

If the Population Goes Bad, Kill It!

Is Genesis 6 outrageous? I don’t think so. Truthful? Certainly. God is fed up with people. Too much contamination. The sons of God are mixing with the daughters of men. There is no differentiation. People are living the way they want- no regard for God and what he wants. God is losing it. He is running out of patience. His heart starts pounding. His skin turns red. The veins on his throat start tightening. He is chocking on anger and regret.

Finally he breaks down. “Noah, let me tell you something. I am sick and tired of being sick and tired of sick people”. Human kind has become too evil for me . I am done with man. I am going to wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth- men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air- for I am grieved that I have made them”. Now those are some tough words from God. I don’t want to be around when God gets that mad.

But this was not the last time God had lost it and wanted to destroy the very people he had created. He did it again with Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19. And this time he wasn’t planning to tell anybody about it. But being God as He is, he could not keep a secret from his beloved Abraham. So he told him: “Abraham, I don’t want to hide from you what I am about to do to Sodom and Gomorrah. The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous. I will go down and see what they are up to. If what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me, I will see what I can do”. Abraham was different from Noah though. He pleaded with God and God listened. But Abraham’s bargaining power was less than the mess Sodom and Gomorrah had put themselves into. So God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

God did it again, or He wanted to, in Exodus 32. The people make a golden calf and they start worshiping it in the place of God. God burns with anger and makes plans to destroy each one of them. This time it was Moses pleading. It worked. God changed his mind.


How can we explain this kind of behavior where each time the population goes bad God talks of destruction?

If the Population Goes Bad, Kill It!

Is Genesis 6 outrageous? I don’t think so. Truthful? Certainly. God is fed up with people. Too much contamination. The sons of God are mixing with the daughters of men. There is no differentiation. People are living the way they want- no regard for God and what he wants. God is losing it. He is running out of patience. His heart starts pounding. His skin turns red. The veins on his throat start tightening. He is chocking on anger and regret.

Finally he breaks down. “Adam, let me tell you something. I am sick and tired of being sick and tired of sick people”. Human kind has become too evil for me . I am done with man. I am going to wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth- men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air- for I am grieved that I have made them”. Now those are some tough words from God. I don’t want to be around when God gets that mad.

But this was not the last time God had lost it and wanted to destroy the very people he had created. He did it again with Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19. And this time he wasn’t planning to tell anybody about it. But being God as He is, he could not keep a secret from his beloved Abraham. So he told him: “Abraham, I don’t want to hide from you what I am about to do to Sodom and Gomorrah. The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous. I will go down and see what they are up to. If what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me, I will see what I can do”. Abraham was different from Adam though. He pleaded with God and God listened. But Abraham’s bargaining power was less than the mess Sodom and Gomorrah had put themselves into. So God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

God did it again, or He wanted to, in Exodus 32. The people make a golden calf and they start worshiping it in the place of God. God burns with anger and makes plans to destroy each one of them. This time it was Moses pleading. It worked. God changed his mind.


How can we explain this kind of behavior where each time the population goes bad God talks of destruction?

When it comes to the Bible, Don’t Trust Number

One of my Math teachers used to say, “Numbers don’t lie.” I agree but with an exception. As much as numbers don’t lie, I believe liars use numbers. Numbers are so powerful that they can intimidate the most powerful of warriors. One of the best old-time war strategies was finding out “how many they are”. Numbering the enemy gives the other side greater advantage. In old days, warriors used to tie torches on their horses at night to trick the enemy into believing that there is more to the numbers.

As much as I may be interested in numbers, I am actually more interested in the truth and meaning behind numbers. For example if you tell me “one million people died in the Rwandan genocide” I may go, “huh! What a terrible loss and brutality!” But if you tell me the entire population of Portland was wiped out in the Rwandan genocide, the numbers start to make sense.

This brings me to one of those chapters in Genesis that most people find boring. And I don’t blame them. Genesis 5 is all about numbers: And Adam lived 13o years and he had children and Adam lived 800 years and he had Seth and Adam lived 930 years and Adam died and Seth lived 105 years and Seth had children and Seth lived another 807 years and Seth had more children and Seth lived another blab blab and blah blab… Can this get any more boring than that?

You wonder why someone would waste an entire four pages of the Holy Book to tell us how long all these people lived. I mean, who cares. And was the writer’s intention to really enumerate facts on how long each of these people lived or did he have a greater meaning in mind? What do you think?

Favoritism: How Does God Play That Game?

You would think of God as someone who treats everyone equally, right? Wrong. Matter of fact you shouldn’t be thinking about how God plays his favoritism game. He is God and it is His game. With this in mind, I have never stopped wondering why God plays unfair. At least in my human mind. And there is no better place to find God playing unfair than in Genesis 4. Two good guys Cain and Abel choose different jobs. Call them a lawyer and a doctor or something like that. Cain brings something from his profession and so does Abel. God looks at Cain’s gift and decides, “Well, I don’t think I care for that”. I am curious to know what you think about God’s game of favoritism.

Just Don’t Listen to Your Wife, Okay?

I don’t know what to do with this kind of advice especially when it is coming from God himself. Adam actually got punished for it. God looks at Adam in Genesis 3:17 and says “Dude, you are in big trouble. You listened to your wife and now things are going wacky for her and for you”. “So Mr., because you listened to your wife, I am cursing the ground because of you.” “You are going to sweat it out every time you need to earn any food.” Now, that is really some hash punishment in my opinion. Adam was simply being a good husband; one who, like many of us, does not want to start fights in his home. A good husband. A fine husband who gives his wife a voice in the home. Not a female chauvinist by any means. A man of today who understands the meaning of equality between the sexes. But all he gets as an appreciation for being a decent man is a strict and hash punishment from God who created man and woman. What a reward!

How would you answer God if you were Adam?

Why a Snake of all Things?

The movie “Snakes on a Plane” is one of those movies with a big title and not much content. The movie, starring the famous Samuel L. Jackson, gained a considerable amount of attention before its release, forming large fan bases online and becoming an Internet obsession, due to the film's title and presupposition. Despite the immense Internet buzz, the film's gross revenue did not live up to expectation.

This film reminds me of the so-called serpent in Genesis 3. If you are like me then you must really hate snakes. I don’t mean pet snakes. I mean stuff like Anacondas, Cobras, Western Browns, Death Adders, Taipans, and Black Tigers. Those are some deadly venom we are talking about right there. Don’t mess around with them. Whether the snake in Genesis 3 was as poisonous as the precarious tigers mentioned above, no body knows. One thing we know from the reading is that this thing in Genesis 3 was canny, smart, and outright dangerous. But this snake had something strange about it; something most snakes I know do not have. The thing in Genesis 3 actually speaks. Surprise!! Who can explain that?

Even God Gets Tired, Doesn't He?

So here is the real deal. In Genesis 2, God is tired. Hilarious, isn’t it? No. Not in a hurry my friend.

I am 5.8” and for a man, that is really short. And considering the fact that my father (God bless his cotton socks) was 6.2”, it makes me look like a disappointment standing beside him. And no man wants to be this short except me. I travel a lot so it helps to be portable. Sometimes I can just fold my legs on an airport chair, close my eyes, and go to the other side of slumber land. It pays great dividends to be short. Especially in a bad economy like this, short people can really save money on a lot of things. But this is irrelevant to our story. May be not. Yes, now I remember. I was talking about God getting tired. If you think I am lying, read Genesis 2:2. God rested from his six days of work. I know some people want to nickel and dime on this one saying that the fact that God rested does not mean he was tired. Okay if God was not tired, then the writer of Genesis, whom we don’t know yet, has a great deficit for vocabulary. I know that some people rest when they are not tired. But all rest has at least some form of tiredness built into it. If not the present tiredness, then it’s the anticipation of it.

If you are a Bible-reading atheist, you know that the last thing God created before he took a long nap was Adam and Eve. Yes Adam and Eve. And you wonder why it is so tiresome working with people? Ask God. He’s been-there-done-that-got-the-t-shirt. It must have been exhausting working on creating man. Or may be emotional I should say. Some times emotions make us more tired than work itself. So here is a guy who has spent the whole day recreating himself. You doubt that? Read Genesis 1:27. God created man in his own image. Other translations say that God created man in his own likeness. Ever wonder what part of us is actually God’s image? I do and I have never been able to answer that one. May be you can help.

Reading on from Genesis 2 we find something really interesting. Something that helps me put evolution to test and creationism to work. “God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living thing”. Now if that doesn’t blow your mind I don’t know what does. And here is the issue I have with evolution: I want to believe that the fresh breathe of God is still alive and well in me. Oh I love that! The complexity of my brain, the intricacy of my emotions, the obscurity of my thoughts, are not only the work of art but also the power of higher being. Someone higher than life has given me a portion of himself. I am not only mortal with dusted skin (you don’t doubt my skin is dusted, do you?) but also a marvelous being with part of the divine coming in and out of me constantly. If you hold your nose and mouth and try to stop yourself from breathing you will understand what I mean. LIFE. God breathed his life into me and from that day on I became, not only alive, but also divinely alive. Now give me a creationist who can explain that and I will show you a man who does not value his own breath.

So did God really get tired after creating man? I don’t know. One thing I know is that the man deserved a rest especially after creating something as marvelous as me. Pinch my skin for me please!!!!!!!!

Did God Really Write the Bible?

Did God really write the Bible? Oh wait a second. I think several people did. Inspired by God himself. Can we call them ghostwriters then? Only difference is that they do give us their names. Except Genesis of course. No one really knows who wrote this book. Moses? Ah I hear he actually wrote the first five books of the Bible. Surprised? You should be. He actually wrote about his death in Deuteronomy 34, one of the books he supposedly wrote. Imagine the man writing about himself saying “So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD (Deut. 34:5)” When was the last time someone died and wrote about the process? Strange, isn’t it? I am not planning to write about myself after I am dead. Are you?

I am not a Bible skeptic. Neither am I a Bible stomping Christian. I am a believer. Full stop. And I love the Book. And by the book I mean the Bible with a capital B. And unlike new believers, which I am always, I love to start with Genesis, not John. In Genesis things are held together. In Genesis we are able to see how God creates the world, how sin comes into the world, and how God loves mankind in spite of his sin. The God of Genesis is a cloth of many colors. He loves, he rewards, he punishes, and he hates. What a split personality kind of God! Sounds like this God actually has emotions. Is he human? Hope not, because I really don’t want to passionately devote myself to a human being. Divine is my thing for worship.

Okay I really believe God is divine. Emotional but divine. What makes him divine can be debated but Genesis tells me why. Unless you believe in evolution, in which case you shouldn’t be reading this, you know that this emotional, split personality, and sissy-kind of guy actually has some action. And that’s why you and me should tiptoe as we speak about him. I mean think about this: This guy speaks a word and things come into existence. Can you imagine? Ever wonder why God created us in his image but never gave us this kind of power? Well you know why. How many people would be dead by now if you had this kind of power? I don’t even want to count. But this God actually has power over, not only words, but also everything that has ever lived and will ever live. Listen to this verse: “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep… and God said, “Let there be Light” and there was light.” Wow! God said to the darkness, “Darkness, I have four words for you. Let there be light!” Now that’s the kind of God I want to follow. Powerful yet kind. Strong yet loving. The entire first chapter of Genesis is about this powerful, divine and Supreme Being speaking everything into existence. Have you ever stopped to imagine what that means? You mean there is a supreme being out there who actually speaks things into existence? You bet. You might be surprised to know that he still does speak things into existence. And some he speaks out of existence. I know you are wondering, “If God can speak things into and out of existence why doesn’t he speak to HIV/AIDS to disappear from the face of the earth?” Well, I don’t know but I for sure want some freedoms of my own too, and I am glad God has left me with some decisions to make and consequences to bear. I guess that’s what makes me a human being created in God’s image. Don’t you think so?

Rwanda 15

Commemorating 15 Years Since the Rwandan Genocide


April 6, 2009 marked the beginning of 100 days of mourning for the people of Rwanda. Beginning on this date, 15 years ago, nearly 1 million lives were taken in the Rwandan Genocide. On each one of these 100 days, from April through July, approximately 10,000 people were brutally murdered and many more were injured, maimed, raped or traumatized by the events that occurred.

This anniversary is a time of mourning and sorrow for past pain and suffering, but it is also a celebration of how far Rwanda has come in the last 15 years. It is an important time to acknowledge this milestone, and to recognize the importance of healing and reconciliation for this country. We must look at our own lives and ask ourselves; how are we contributing to the healing of Rwanda and her people?

One of Africa Mission Alliance’s staff members in Rwanda, William Ngabo asked himself this same question, and had it all put in perspective as he underwent surgery immediately prior to this anniversary. William says:

“In going through my surgery, I was reminded of 15 years ago in Rwanda, when thousands of individuals were not as fortunate as I was. My relatively painless operation contrasts so sharply to the pain and suffering that was endured during the 1994 genocide, where many had their arms, hands, and legs brutally chopped off by machete wielding militia. As I recovered during this time period, I was challenged to think about what my contribution has been to the healing of Rwanda. I am happy to be associated with Africa Mission Alliance, which continues to reach out to the people who were directly or indirectly affected by the genocide. Many of these people that they are reaching are children born during or after the killings, and widows, some of whom were raped and given HIV/AIDS as a result. Many of them still have psychological as well as physical wounds in their hearts and on their bodies.”

While Rwanda is commemorating this anniversary by raising money to help women and children who were affected by the genocide, Africa Mission Alliance is happy to be continuing the work that they have been doing in Rwanda for years. This includes promoting healing, unity and restoration among the people.

One of the ways that AMA is accomplishing this is through small business programs, such as goat rearing. Women from different tribes are being brought together, running the same type of business, and learning from one another. Although they didn’t want to meet together at first, now they are sharing about business, life, and becoming each others support. For just $50.00 you can contribute to this program by buying a goat to help a woman start her own business today.

Visit www.africamissionalliance.org for more information.

Scared of your own failures?

Too much editing? You are not alone. Every time I start writing a blog I get cold feet and so worried what the readers will think about it. In the process I lose my trend of thought and my motivation for sharing. I realize that this is not good if anyone is ever going to learn anything from anyone. I don't even want to mention the fear to spel wrods rwong. This fear to make mistakes keeps a lot of people away from their own success. We end up being our own slave masters. Biggest lesson? Every time you want to write just go ahead and write. Someone somewhere is waiting. Your words may mean a world to them. And don't worry about spelingis or grammmmmmmar.

Asante Children's Choir

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Originally uploaded by Africa Mission Alliance

A New Bull's Eye

I have this new bull’s eye and I am so happy about it. A friend of mine helped me pick it out. Actually my brother in-law. He is a great photographer. Some times I think he was taking mental pictures in his mother’s womb.

A Nikon D60 is better than anything I have ever used. I call it the bull’s eye. I got a good deal on a 200mm lens which makes objects travel distances to come into your view. I am hoping that this time I can catch an eagle preying on a brown rat in broad daylight. I am very much looking forward to capturing all the details I have missed on my previous trips to Rwanda.

In about 6 hours I will be getting on highway 26E on my way to Portland Airport. I can’t say I dread the trip. But I am not excited about the flying time. Thirty-two hours to be exact.

Getting on the plane to San Francisco is no brainer. It is the San Francisco-London leg that draws the air out of me. Not so much for its draining length as for the faces in the plane. We are talking a spectrum of God’s creation. Black, yellow, red, and white. I love international flights.

London to Nairobi? Not so. The variety reduces to a predominant white with scattered black here and there. And the food changes too. From United’s I-never-know-what-they-will-serve to some sensation of African cuisine on Kenya Airways. And by African cuisine I mean lots and lots of curry. If you are not into curry there is always something for you. As for me I am curry all the way to the last bone.

I am looking forward to updating you with some pictures from my bull’s eye, come Saturday. Yes it is true; I leave Thursday and arrive Saturday.

Amon

Intego

Intego

Guhitamo

Umurava

Umurimo

Rodrigue

A lawyer's Journey with Orphans

My Rwandan Experience

Africa in Perspective

American Idol- Rehearsal for living

A few of my friends love to meet every Tuesday for American idol night. I am starting to realize that the girls enjoy more than the guys. The guys always drift off to some politics of some sort, stock performances, recent technology and stuff like that. But still feels good to meet as friends for something as useless as American idol. Can't say useless though coz I have learned a lesson or two about life. You know when you watch those kids being roasted by the four self-proclaimed gods you really feel sorry for the kids. So sad to put one's future in the hands of so few judges who don't know you from Adam, and for some reason hope for fate to come to your rescue. But you know, sometimes life is kind of like that. Hoping against hope that some miracle will surface; that somehow the stock market will go insane and rake you some millions; or that some prince charming will come and sweep you off your feet. I am learning that life is so much like the idols thing. Difference is, I am learning how to go out there and write my own history without writing for some guy from London (or on his way to London) to come tell me I sound like Alvin and the chip munks.