I follow politics, I can discuss politics, but I try to avoid taking a position – especially publicly – on politics. As a child of the evangelical right – including the fundamentalist response to sixties counterculture – [...]]]>

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Running from Politics

I follow politics, I can discuss politics, but I try to avoid taking a position – especially publicly – on politics. As a child of the evangelical right – including the fundamentalist response to sixties counterculture – I have seen first-hand the diminishing of the gospel, of love, of faith when politics is mixed with faith.^[1]

Taking a Stand (on a Political(?) Issue)

In spite of this experience, I feel obliged to take a controversial position in at least one area – the question of foreign intervention, or isolationism. It is not uncommon in the circles I frequent to hear comments such as, “America needs to stop being the world’s policeman.” Now, I certainly am not advocating that America needs to be the puritanical big-brother for the rest of the world nor that America should be involved in policing every conflict. Further, I would suggest that while I am an American and this statement applies to an American context I see no reason for it not to apply to any other context: “Germany needs to stop being the world’s policeman.” “Nigeria needs to stop being the world’s policeman.” “China needs to stop being the world’s policeman.” The point is not that a nation or a people group, defined by geography or ethnicity, should oppose a strict policy of isolation and non-intervention – but rather that those who are able should reject apathy.

I remember a comic strip I once saw (and that is frequently mentioned, usually tracking back to Shane Claiborne) in which two individuals are talking. One says to the other, “I wish I knew why God allowed all this evil and violence in the world.” The other replies, “Why don’t you ask him?” To which the first replies, “Because I am afraid He would ask me the same question.”^[2] Point being, so much of the evil we see in the world on a day-by-day basis is something we could choose to stop.^[3]

Tonight I finished watching Uwe Boll‘s^[4] 2009 film Attack on Darfur (R).^[5] The film is slow. It spends a lot of time in a village in Darfur building empathy for the inhabitants. This sort of drags on and on as one watches scene after scene of conversations and interactions that might appear on National Geographic. Then the movie picks up pace as the village comes under attack, but unlike movies where the combat is an adrenaline rush this is simply a massacre – and Boll is in no hurry to bring it to a speedy conclusion.

In horror films the length of the gore is played for gross-out effect – in this film it is played for moral power. Yes, yes, we all know what happens over there (wherever that may be, somewhere else, not here) – so why do we need to see it? But there is another baby being smashed or impaled. Another woman raped.^[6] And another. There are old men being plastered with bullets, children lying in bloody heaps, and don’t forget the agonized screams of those who are forced inside of huts and then burned alive.

The film concludes with a less lengthy, but (still) drawn-out visiting of the aftermath by American survivors…haunting us with our inaction and impotency. While the film makes us feel helpless in the onslaught, it also offers up “hope” in the form of intervention by a few brave souls^[7]. Yes, its a Hollywood-esque hope in which The Magnificent Seven hold off armed hordes with a slightly better tinge of realism – but the point is apt. It would not require that much to intervene.

The film is spattered with profanities – including religious profanities – but I think God is probably more ticked off at our apathy than the fact that we’ve heard a few more bad words. It reminds me of another well-known anecdote in which Tony Campolo said to a large audience, “I have three things I’d like to say today. First, while you were sleeping last night, 30,000 kids died of starvation or diseases related to malnutrition. Second, most of you don’t give a —-. What’s worse is that you’re more upset with the fact that I said —- than the fact that 30,000 kids died last night.”^[8]

Call to Action

As I write this I am reminded of a song from John Reuben‘s album The Boy and The Cynic entitled Cooperate. The song tells the story of a dude:

“This dude took pride in his cause everyday / Put on his costume which defined who he was / He said he didn’t care he liked being unique / Accused the rest of the world of being a bunch of sheep / Lived his life going against the grain / Spent all of his time with those who felt the same / Hit his mid-twenties and still nothing’s changed / Except his boys who chose to grow with age / Now he’s looking for friends with the same behavior”

Reuben replies to the dude:

“Ignore the truth and neglect your responsibility / Because you can’t decipher the real world from your hobbies / This whole starving artist shtick you’ve been running with is wearing thin / … / Time for you to start cooperating cuz rent ain’t free / … / What you want and should expect are two different things / You think the rest of the world likes their suits and ties working nine to five just to get by? / … / But that don’t sit well with you’re anti-authority / Me against the world sub-genre category that you’ve placed yourself in / Do you honestly think the average man celebrates the system / But they cooperate”

I can empathize with Reuben’s frustrations in this song. Too often some of the loudest screechers for reform are those who couldn’t make a living any other way.^[9] I don’t want to be a screecher.

I also know there is plenty of angst in this world – and most of the time I don’t need any more guilt thrown on my shoulders – so I don’t want to be someone who throws that on others either. I also know that shouting loudest doesn’t (always) make you the winner.^[10] Getting everyone in a panic doesn’t help much – we temporarily mobilize and then the next big thing occurs and we lose our focus. I find it much more useful to look for small, real, practical ways in which we can make a difference rather than screaming a lot and getting frustrated over our inability to change everything.

So what can we do? The situation in the Sudan has alleviated to a great extent, not that there isn’t need for ongoing vigilance…but now and in the future there will be many other crises which will present themselves to us…how do we respond?

During the peak of the Darfur crisis I bought the t-shirts, wore the t-shirts, talked to people about the crisis, and did some minor advocacy in other manners. Did I do enough? Nope. How will I change that? I’m not sure. I suppose admitting that I failed, that we failed, and evaluating the current crises might be a good first step. Where are the current humanitarian crises in the world? What is being done about them? How can we find a balance between intervention and isolation?

Current Response

My current endeavor to respond to my own “call to action” – which is ongoing – is the slow and painful process of bringing life into order…in ways that can be and may seem entirely unrelated to acting on behalf of others. By this I mean things like: (a) wisely managing my expenditures^[11], (b) managing my health^[12], (c) creating community^[13], and (d) reducing expenditures.^[14], and (e) developing my relationship with God^[15]

If we are to be effective, we must manage ourselves. For some of us that is breaking our workaholic patterns, for others it is perhaps putting up our angst costumes and getting a job and being a productive part of society rather than driving others insane.

1. ^[1] Perhaps another time I will discuss this topic more extensively. I recently delivered a series of messages on this topic at Calvary Community Church in Penndel. To briefly sum, I do not necessarily believe Scripture indicates that either political involvement or political absence are wrong but rather that we must begin at a much more basic point (no matter our position) of humility, love, and consideration for those we disagree with. ↩
2. ^[2] This is my rough, from memory paraphrase. If anyone knows the original source of this illustration and perhaps a digital image of the comic – I’d love to know! ↩
3. ^[3] Perhaps another time I’ll share my thoughts on chaos theory and how I think it may answer the traditional further challenge of natural disasters… ↩
4. ^[4] Better known for creating horror movies. ↩
5. ^[5] If you have Netflix, it is currently available to watch instantly. It is also available from Amazon Unbox for $2.99. ↩
6. ^[6] No depiction of rape can be done in an inoffensive way, but Boll shows great restraint in his rape portrayals. There is no hint of sexual excitement, no innuendo – just the harsh and brutal reality. There are no exposure of the private parts – male or female – in the entire film. ↩
7. ^[7] Interestingly enough, some of these brave souls are the souls who ran as cowards earlier in the film, but now those who spoke tough are running and the cowards are the ones left fighting for justice. ↩
8. ^[8] I’m not advocating the use of profanity, I am concerned that we (evangelicals) sometimes get more upset about the presence of profanity or any of a number of hobby-horse issues than the massive suffering which we have a (great amount of) ability to stop or relieve. ↩
9. ^[9] Frankie Schaeffer in Crazy for God reflects great disillusionment with the evangelical movement in part b/c of its doom-and-gloom salesmanship by folks he feels couldn’t do anything but sell angst. ↩
10. ^[10] Unfortunately, too often it does, as those with the loudest voices overcome those with reasoned voices. This is certainly a weakness on the part of the loud, but the reasoned must also accept culpability for the failure to stand up and speak truth even when others are being loud, annoying, and forceful. ↩
11. ^[11] So that I can free up disposable income for use with a purpose. ↩
12. ^[12] My struggles with depression and ocd oftentimes paralyze me. I know my ability to persevere in pursuing a call to action over time is correlated with my health. ↩
13. ^[13] Especially within the church, which can be activated for mission. Going alone our ability is limited, together we are greatly strengthened. ↩
14. ^[14] Finding areas in which I really don’t need this or that. ↩
15. ^[15] So that I have His heart and do things in His strength. When my ego and selfishness get in the way my good deeds are as dust, evaporating into the air in spite of their momentary appearance of solidity. ↩

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Tracie Cone has a great article over on Yahoo! News about Larry Powell, a school superintendent in Fresno California responsible for overseeing 325 schools with a total of 190,000 students. Larry has made the decision to give back the vast majority of his salary to the school district for the upcoming three years – totaling around $800,000.

Related articles

• Larry Powell, School Superintendent, Takes $800K Pay Cut (huffingtonpost.com)
• School superintendent gives up $800k in pay (sfgate.com)
• Fresno schools superintendent forgoes $800,000 in salary to help his cash-strapped district (educblog.wordpress.com)
• School Superintendent Gives Up $800G in Pay (foxnews.com)
• School superintendent gives up $800k in pay (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Recently I’ve been looking into what options are available for folks who need to run criminal background checks. This field has been changing rapidly over the past several years with technological advances and if you have been using a provider for a long period [...]]]> Update: See the end of this article for some important updates.

Recently I’ve been looking into what options are available for folks who need to run criminal background checks. This field has been changing rapidly over the past several years with technological advances and if you have been using a provider for a long period of time it may be worth your time to consider whether that provider is still the best and most cost effective for your needs.

In this article I’m going to focus specifically on criminal background checks with a focus on the needs of non-profit organizations such as churches. I’ll be discarding without note the various providers who while providing background checks (including criminal) are not meant to be used officially to perform such checks and which may not include all the information that a provider giving official checks might provide.

Please let me know if you have any suggestions, comments, corrections, etc. in the comments section to this article.

• IntegraScan – Offers background checks starting at $18.95 for a state-based check (only checks for criminal background in one state) and then progresses to $28.95 for a nationwide check (for criminal background in all states) with the final option with even more information clocking in at $49.95. They do offer bulk pricing, but you have to contact them for further information.
• SentryLink – Offers criminal background checks for $19.95. Has a bulk pricing program one can contact them about. Also offers other reports – such as SSN traces and motor vehicle records.
• BackgroundChecks – Clocks in at a stunning $49.95 for a nationwide criminal background check!
• USSearch – Starts at $14.95 for their basic search, which includes state criminal background check and peaks out at $59.95 for their most comprehensive. They do offer bulk pricing, but again, must contact for quote.
• Intelius – A nationwide background check clocks in at $29.95.
• IntelliCorp InTouch – Pricing starts at $16.15 for a state criminal background check, then $17.95 for a nationwide check, and their most comprehensive is $58.45. But this is a consumer oriented product.
• IntelliCorp – The corporate arm of IntelliCorp InTouch. No pricing is available, one must request an account and await a call to find out about pricing.
• CrimCheck – No public pricing available, must contact.
• BackGroundPI – $15.95 for Criminal Background search. The site lacks enough detail and references, but the pricing is good. Would require further research to see if legitimate/worthwhile.
• eFindOutTheTruth – Site design is confusing and overwhelming, but pricing is very good and one can build custom background checks with only the desired features.

Based on my brief review of the sites, pricing, and etc. I would probably lean towards Intelius or IntelliCorp. They both offer a professional image and reasonable prices. But in the end, the best deal (for churches/non-profits) appears to be Group Publishing’s Church Volunteer Central (CVC). CVC costs $100/year and includes a wide variety of resources for running a church/non-profit and training/leading volunteers. It also includes a partnership with Lexus Nexus to perform criminal background checks.

Their basic background check is $9 and includes a national criminal search. For $23 one can add criminal records at a local county court. They also have a number of other packages available.

Update (9/24/11):

As I mentioned above, the CVC package seemed to be the best deal…but the process is quite painful, so I’ve gone with another alternative. Group (which owns CVC) partners with Lexus Nexus to provide the inexpensive background checks mentioned above, unfortunately Lexus Nexus has a frustratingly manual process before one can begin utilizing the background check service. This includes filling out detailed paperwork and faxing or emailing it to them (around fourteen pages worth) along with providing several forms of business identification (not all of which are always readily available) and several vendor verification forms (businesses which will verify that they do business with you and that you are who you say you are).

This in and of itself is a bit of a nuisance, but what really frustrated me was the technological aspect. On the form it asked questions about the IP address that would be used to access their system. Granted, I have a semi-static IP since it is a FiOS connection – but that isn’t truly static and I wasn’t looking forward to what I assume is a manual process to update the external IP records with Lexus Nexus when it changes.

I did some more searching and found that LifeWay, another major Christian company, had partnered with BackgroundChecks to offer affordable checks as well – and that their process was basically digital and simple. I went with them even though the price is perhaps $2-$3 more per check b/c of the ease. I setup my account and launched a background check on myself (as a test) without any problems. So far I’m pretty impressed.

Now, I think Lexis Nexus requires all the extra hoop jumping b/c they are providing information related to one’s financial state – and I can understand the need to maintain the confidentiality of this information, but in the case of churches and other non-profits, we don’t want to perform financial background checks – just make sure that criminal background checks are clear (e.g. no convictions for pedophilia).

For those who are interested, here is a link to the LifeWay co-brand page for background checks.

Related articles

• Background Check App – BeenVerified.com (itunes.apple.com)
• Gizmodo’s Mat Honan submits to a “social media background check” (boingboing.net)
• Hiring Home Service Providers Just Got Safer as AsktheSeal.com Announces SEAL-MAIL to Verify Employee Background Checks for Licensed and Insured Companies (prweb.com)
• This Is a Social Media Background Check (smarterware.org)
• Reputation | Pretty Fragile Stuff (clnprint.com)
• Background-check gun bill won’t pass, DeWine says (dispatch.com)

I’m not a fancy person in most areas. I try to save my money and spend it on things I think are worthwhile and valuable. For example, sponsoring a Compassion child. So, what am I doing spending $200 on a glorified alarm clock – the Zeo? I’m glad you [...]]]>

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Thinking of the Poor:

I’m not a fancy person in most areas. I try to save my money and spend it on things I think are worthwhile and valuable. For example, sponsoring a Compassion child. So, what am I doing spending $200 on a glorified alarm clock – the Zeo? I’m glad you asked. Individuals whose hearts for the poor and neglected like John Sherk and Rob Timlin may be especially interested…and, I’ll let them decide whether my thinking is valid or if I need to be lovingly taken to the woodshed.

What About My Sleep?

Let me provide a three word summary of my history with sleep: it wasn’t nice. But, most of my history of sleep is non-relevant to today’s discussion, so let’s focus in on a few relevant points:

1. I can’t go to sleep before midnight or I wake up 2-4 hours later and then can’t sleep for the rest of the night (which is a real drag when you have to work the next day).
2. I get inexplicably and overwhelmingly exhausted throughout the day – and without structure – will fall asleep…and usually remain asleep for 1-3 hours.
3. No matter how hard I try, I repeatedly fail at getting up early in the morning so that I can have the time I want to have to get ready for my day…I end up pushing the snooze button and sleeping in, then  hopping out the door in  mad rush.

Now, sleep is apparently important to our health. We don’t understand all the underlying magic – just that bad things like insanity and death happen if we don’t get it. It does all sorts of great things for restoring our health, cementing our memories, and so on. Perhaps God created sleep b/c He knew we’d be so bad at take Sabbath’s otherwise?

I Want a Zeo!

So…I’ve wanted a Zeo forever (okay, okay, maybe its been like two years?) and have held off and held off…but Charity (wonderful wife that she is) in an attempt to get me to actually bill my freelance network clients (I don’t mind the work…hate the billing) suggested that I use part of the revenues from my next few checks to purchase a Zeo (incentives…they work with kids, and apparently me…)…well, guess who only waited another month before billing? Yup, that’d be me!

The Zeo Arrives

I bought my Zeo and waited painstakingly for its arrival. Finally, it arrived. I opened the shipping box and inside, low and behold, was another box! But this was one fancy – you know, like Apple aesthetically pleasing fancy. Everything inside was all nicely wrapped and fancy. Its amazing how the packaging makes the product feel premier.

Using the Zeo: For Information

The first aspect of the zeo is its’ information aggregation and analysis. You wear a comfortable headband on your head while sleeping (yes, as awkward as that sounds…I had no trouble adjusting) and this wirelessly communicates information to your bedside zeo about your sleep patterns. In the morning you can see your overall ZQ (a “score” of how you slept), how often you awake, when you were in deep sleep / rem sleep / light sleep, and view all sorts of fancy charts and graphs. Zeo also offers guided coaching that helps you modify your habits to get better sleep.

I found this information very helpful b/c it provided me with an objective gauge of whether I got enough sleep the last night. I could see patterns forming where I wasn’t getting enough sleep for a few days, and then when I made the endeavor to get enough. I could also see and record the difference in my feelings / energy / etc…though I’ve barely taken advantage of most of these capabilities at this juncture.

Using the Zeo: Smart Awake

Honestly, the feature that has been killer for me thus far is the Smart Alarm. I tell the Zeo when I want to wake up and it wakes me up to 30 minutes before that time. Crazily enough, I usually feel better – even if I get 30 mins. less sleep, than if I’d slept right to the end. See, the Zeo tracks what stage of sleep I’m in and wakes me when I’m in light sleep rather than deep sleep – reducing my feelings of grogginess.

This has made a huge difference in my sleep habits. I’m now much better at getting out of bed on time. I’d estimate that I’m “gaining” 30 minutes to 1.5 hours each day due to the Smart Alarm feature. Granted, some of this may be placebo effects – time will tell.

Doing the Math

Now the question is – can we justify such an expense in light of the needs of the world? This is always a hard-pressing question upon my heart. For the past year or two I’ve taken a more dynamic approach to this question than I had previously (where the answer was almost always to sacrifice everything, whenever possible). I’ve begun to do little auto-magical (e.g. made up) calculations within my head to try and estimate the value of my time and how much money I am “saving” by “spending.”

For example, the Zeo cost me $200. Let us say my time is worth $10/hr.^[1] Lets take the conservative figure of time gained each day (30 minutes) and multiple that times a year (30 mins. x 365 days / 60 mins.) – 182.5 hours. Now, lets multiple this time gained by the amount my time is worth per hour (182.5 hrs. * $10/hr.) – $1,825.

Over a years time, I’m “gaining” $1,625 for an expense of $200. Granted, my time gained does not automatically translate into productivity…but to break even I’d only have to spend 20 of those 182.5 hours being “productive.”

The equations make sense to me, but do they to you? I use similar equations when deciding if I should purchase a video game, continue or cancel a subscription to Netflix or Grooveshark, and so on. My goal is optimal stewardship at minimal expenditure…but I think I’m trying to move beyond thinking of stewardship primarily in dollars to whole being…

Thus, while x might cost x amount, if it enables me to function x% better on an average day, I need to consider whether “indulging” will in the end “return” a value greater than the expenditure? e.g. How do we quantify the value of a honeymoon or romantic getaway for a husband and wife? Can we, should we, factor in the cost of a divorce down the road if the marriage is not indulgently cared for along the way?

This said, I think as Americans (including myself) we are grossly overspending. If we do adopt such a paradigm for measuring return vs. expenditure we must actually take the time to calculate the return, rather than using it as an excuse for gluttonous fulfillment of our pleasures.

Some Interesting Stats…I Don’t Know What They Mean…

I received a baseline report from Zeo on my sleep habits…I thought the findings where fascinating, though I’m not sure what they mean…here are the highlights:

• I currently sleep an average of 6:01 hrs. each night, this is 1:19 hrs. less than the average for my peer age group.
• Despite the significantly lower time spent asleep I show a significant front-runner status in both my REM and deep sleep.
  • In REM, I spend 1:49 hrs. while my peers spend 13 mins. less.
  • In deep sleep, I spend 1:50 hrs. while my peers spend 27 mins. less.
• How is this possible that I get less sleep but more of the “quality” sleep? Its because most of my peers spend nearly twice the amount of time in light sleep (4:22 hrs.) as compared to me (2:23 hrs.).

In Case You Are Interested…

This is mainly if some sleep doctor happens to stumble across this post and is interested, here are a few other idiosyncrasies of my sleep habits:

• I get very tired while driving or while in a car at all. Despite my hardest endeavors, if not driving, I almost always fall asleep on drives – oftentimes even relatively short ones (e.g. 30 mins.).
• Exercise does not seem to significantly reduce my tiredness or help me push through it.
• I get sleepy when I have been thinking a lot, this means I have a tendency to nap more on the weekends – b/c I tend to do a lot of reading/thinking.
• While napping during the days I oftentimes prefer to sleep with as many lights on as possible…but when sleeping at night I am bothered by even the smallest of lights.

Related articles

• For The Love Of Sleep, I’ll Be Taking The One Week Zeo Challenge (crunchgear.com)
• Improve Your Sleep with Zeo (inc.com)
• The 404 759: Where we guard you while you sleep (podcast) (cnet.com)
• Complete real-time sleep feedback loop: Zeo device provides raw data (radar.oreilly.com)
• Polyphasic Sleep Experiment at Zeo (kk.org)
• Zeo Brings Sleep Science Out of the Lab, Into Your Home (wired.com)
• Philips, SleepTracker & Zeo: Give The Gift Of A Wake-up Call (informationweek.com)
• Best Buy Capital Co-Invests on Mass-based Zeo (tech.mn)
• Zeo’s Founder On How To Build A Business That Makes Physical Products – with Benjamin Rubin (mixergy.com)

1. ^[1] I’d certainly hope its worth more…but I’m just being conservative. ↩

Here are the latest selections of the most interesting amongst Amazon’s currently available free eBooks. While they are optimized for the Kindle ereader, you can read these ebooks on Windows and Mac PCs as well as the Apple iPhone and

Here are the latest selections of the most interesting amongst Amazon’s currently available free eBooks. While they are optimized for the Kindle ereader, you can read these ebooks on Windows and Mac PCs as well as the Apple iPhone and Google Android.

• Gutteridge, Rene. Listen: Your Private Conversation Just Went Public. Christian Fiction / Thriller.
• Funaro, Greg. The Sculptor. Crime Thriller.
• Baart, Nicole. After the Leaves Fall. Christian Fiction (Female).
• Ferguson, Teresa. The One Year Devotions for Couples. Christian Non-Fiction Devotional.
• Mikalatos, Matt. Imaginary Jesus. Christian Fiction (Theology). – Recommended by Gary Thomas about Sacred Marriage and Sacred Pleasure.
• Peterson’s Ultimate Word Success. Non-Fiction, Test Prep.
• Perkins, John M. Welcoming Justice: God’s Movement Toward Beloved Community (Resources for Reconciliation). – Christian Non-Fiction. Forward by Philip Yancey, published by InterVarsity.
• Torabi, Farnoosh. Psych Yourself Rich: Get the Mindset and Discipline You Need to Build Your Financial. Non-Fiction, Financial.
• Peterson’s Green Careers in Energy. Non-Fiction, Environmental, Jobs.

Tonight at Nomads we continued our annual tradition of participating in Operation Christmas Child (OCC). OCC is organized and run by Samaritan‘s Purse, a non-profit Christian organization under the leadership [...]]]>

Tonight at Nomads we continued our annual tradition of participating in Operation Christmas Child (OCC). OCC is organized and run by Samaritan‘s Purse, a non-profit Christian organization under the leadership of Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham.

Each year hundreds of thousands (millions?) of shoeboxes are filled with simple gifts – toothbrushes, soap, wash clothes, toys, candy, pens and pencils, notes. These boxes are then shipped to locations around the world where they are distributed to impoverished children.

For many of these children this is a significant gift that meets real needs. No longer are they using a shared tree branch to brush their teeth – which can result in bleeding and communication of diseases – they now have their own tooth brush. Even the boxes (sometimes we send plastic) are usable for carrying water or any of a number of other tasks.

It is a very small way, but a tangible way to be part of something good and to demonstrate love to those in need…so I love Operation Christmas Child. I love the opportunity to get together with the teenagers and spend a few hours stuffing boxes full of gifts. It is a great privilege and blessing to us – not just to those whom we have the opportunity to bless.

Related articles

• Air1 Loves Operation Christmas Child! (fromdatestodiapers.com)
• Twentieth Century Fox and Walden Media, in Association with Operation Christmas Child and Regal Cinemas Present THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER / Operation Narnia “Hometown Premiere” Challenge (eon.businesswire.com)
• Halek Energy, LLC Employees Providing Christmas Gift Boxes for Underprivileged Children Who Would Have No Christmas Otherwise (prnewswire.com)
• “Operation Christmas Child ~ More Than Just a Shoebox” and related posts (totallytots.blogspot.com)
• YourNews: Gift donations requested for Operation Christmas Child (knoxnews.com)