[ampaterry]

BlackEagle, my church works hard at this also. We vote on every outreach. Although very small, we have two regular monthly outreaches.
1. Salvation Army.
2. International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.

We have had others over the years, but they had to be ended for one reason or another. For instance, we voted to have a Native American outreach. We investigated and found a Catholic Priest that was doing a GREAT work on the Pine Ridge Reservation, so we started sending him monthly support. Every month, he would write to us and tell us what he had done with the money we had sent that month. Everything went fine until we sent him an extra amount at Christmas, which allowed him to do some things for his people that raised the curiosity of his governing body in the church. They contacted us and told us we could not send money directly to one of their priests, but had to send it to them and they would decide where it should be used. With deep sorrow, we stopped that outreach.


For today:

Today is Children's Day. This is not a holiday here in the US, and to be honest I am not in favor of making it one. I am fully aware of the importance of children, to be sure. I know that the future of our country rests in the hands of the children. I know that each generation, folks of my age have handed off the reins of the nation to the next generation, and retire – depending on those children to keep things running well.
But I see a problem in our nation. I see news reports that are centered around children. Every time anything unusual happens in a school, a platoon of counselors descends upon the school to help the students deal with the adversity.

No matter what the news issue is, some reporter somewhere is going to get a pre-teen kid on the air and ask them what they think about it. I remember a time when Kids listened to what adults thought instead of telling adults what they thought.

Every time I go to the store, I am treated to kids running and screaming, slamming into me. Sometimes, they even poke through my cart, handling the things I have chosen to buy. And all of this is within PLAIN SIGHT of their parents, who merely smile at their antics. At the check-out, they will pull candy and toys off the shelves by the check-out lane, and pitch a fit until one of their parents buys it for them to shut them up.

When I drive at the right time of day, it takes forever to get anywhere because the school buses stop at each driveway to pick kids up in the morning and again to let them off in the afternoon. They will do this right up to a block from the school, assuring that the little darlings don't have to walk more than 25 feet a day. Then, our tax money goes into school lunch programs to ensure that they get a healthy diet, and the experts complain about how overweight and out of shape our kids are!

What I am saying is this:
We do not need a special day to cater to our children in the United States in the 21st century. If someone will propose that we have one day to let the kids WALK to school while carrying a sack lunch from home, compel them to be polite, deny them a piece of candy or a toy by fussing about it, then I will get behind that movement.

What does the bible say about disciplining children?

Proverbs 13:24 (MSG);
A refusal to correct is a refusal to love; love your children by disciplining them.

May God bless all our children.
And may God bless their parents with the wisdom to raise them correctly.