i just received this email  on my facebook from a young lady in Jamaica…shelly vernon…..so sweet…thot i would share it with you…

have to bring you back in time and see if I can spark a memory… I was a little girl maybe 6 or 7 years old… I was in both your Kids praise… I had a solo part for In His Time and for I Love you Lord… I was called Shelly Vernon and I had an older brother by the name of Richard (he refused to sing a solo part  :-) ) 

I feel so blessed to be able to finally tell you just how much of an impact God used you to make on my life… I have never forgotten you, your kindness and the love of Jesus you showed to all of us… After you and your family left for the Philippines my parents moved from Mandeville and we stopped going to church… My life changed drastically for the worse because my teenage and college years I avoided church.. I never forget the little lessons you taught in kids church.. I am now 30 years old and I could tell you a few lessons I remember… The Good news is the seeds God used you to plant might have went dormant for a while but they never died… 6 years ago I came back home (like the prodigal son) I am happy to tell you that I am back in church… This is the funny part… I am the Church Secretary, Missions Coordinator and I also volunteer in the Youth Ministry… I have had the deepest desire lately to actually do a Kids Praise with a hope to somehow touch a life like how God used you to touch mine. I Love you! and Thank you for your Obedience to Our Father… Can we keep in touch?

About Suicide
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that each year approximately one million people die from suicide, which represents a global mortality rate of 16 people per 100,000 or one death every 40 seconds. It is predicted that by 2020 the rate of death will increase to one every 20 seconds.

The WHO further reports that:

In the last 45 years suicide rates have increased by 60% worldwide. Suicide is now among the three leading causes of death among those aged 15-44 (male and female). Suicide attempts are up to 20 times more frequent than completed suicides.

Although suicide rates have traditionally been highest amongst elderly males, rates among young people have been increasing to such an extent that they are now the group at highest risk in a third of all countries.

We are now en route from Cape Town to Atlanta (in London, Heathrow at the moment). We have spent the past week teaching Internet media and personal spiritual formation at Media Village, my alma mater. This is an amazing school with a fresh approach. Just 12 weeks of training and students are making their own videos at an amazingly advanced level. Some even go into the industry and outpace some who have graduated from four year degree pograms in communication. It is an intense, immersion style of learning, one I truly believe in.

Cape Town may well be the most beautiful spot on the planet, an awe inspiring mix of mountains, plain and sea. Sweet people too. Much diversity. Anyone searching for a place to receive media training need look no further than MediaVillage.info. Graham and Diane Vermooten are true professionals with a pastoral heart. It has been a joy to work with them.

  I want to talk a bit about a concept I got from Dr. Donald Joy while working on my doctorate at Asbury. He says that we are all a trampoline and we need lots of relationships as springs to hold us up. When we move to a new place we lose all our springs and if we take our family with us, the family unit feels a real strain because the relationship work of support done formerly by dozens of people is now borne only by the family members who went with you.

In general the first order of business when you move to a new place is to rebuild the trampoline of relationships. You will need four kinds of relationships: (1) Casual relationships (nothing too deep, just people you know and say hi to on a daily basis) (2) Nuclear Family: the closest bonds in your life (3) Extended family (even if they are not blood kin you need old people like grandmas and mothers and also aunts and uncle types). You need a brother or a sister, a really satisfying same-sex friendship (4) Work relationships: people you gear up with to accomplish important things. We have moved four times as a family to an entirely new country/place.

This one insight has helped us get established in each location so we had a healthy relational web to support us in our ministry there. HOpe this is helpful to you.

My family and I moved to Northern Thailand just after New Years.  I
left behind a sizeable personal staff of very competent people.  At one
time I had three people on staff totally dedicated to helping with my work
plus others to help as driver, etc.  In Thailand I have a few friends but
no staff at all.  Sherry and I have spent the last three weeks moving
things from  a container, buying a vehicle, ordering LPG, water and ice
deliveries and dealing with different licensing issues, all without
knowing Thai.

Then this week the sink began to fall off the wall and the shower tap got
snapped off and began pouring water.  I really don’t know anything about
plumbing, but everyone I tried to call wasn’t able to come so there I was
up to my ankles in water having to do something I knew nothing about.

Which raises an interesting point about personal growth. The first
essential ingredient in growth is incompetence.  We face a challenge we
are unprepared to handle and have nowhere to turn for help but to  dive in
and try to deal with it ourselves.

Nathan found the turnoff valve on the street outside our house and shut
down the water.  I went to the hardware to get replacement parts and once
I saw that they were threaded I realized that behind the exterior putty
aound that broken faucet were threads.  I could confidently take a wrench
to the outer works without fear of simply snapping the PVC pipe off.  The
lady at the counter helpfully handed me teflon tape for drip free
connection.  In the end, I fixed the broken tap in the shower perfectly,
and totally dismantled the fallen sink as well.  In the end, I was proud
of the quality of the work and developed a new (and necessary) competence
now that I am our family’s handyman.  In short, I grew because I overcame
my incompetence and fear and closed the gap with new learning.

Don’t be afraid of doing things you don’t know how to do.  That’s where
the growth lies.  Perhaps more importantly, don’t hesitate to assign your
leaders to handle responsibilities they are not “competent” to do by
training.  Experience is the best teacher.  Send them to school by
challenging them in new areas.