Vee's Notecard Party and Wednesday Hodgepodge

Amish Barn Raising in Wisconsin

(One of my notecards)
I realized later that Eric sent me this one

I am joining both Vee's Notecard Party and Joyce's Hodgepodge, but first I want to address something which I think is hugely important.  I heard the following story today, which I doubt anyone has heard from the major news media in this country. (If I'm wrong on that, you can let me know. I'd be happy to hear it.)

So here's what's happening:

A Christian Sudanese woman, whose husband is a U.S. Citizen, has been sentenced to be executed for refusing to convert to Islam. She is 8 months pregnant and is currently chained to a prison wall, awaiting her execution. The Sudanese government has decided to wait until she has delivered the baby and then execute her.

Please read the previous paragraph again. It is hard to get it to sink into our Western, carefree American brains.

As far as I know, the U.S. State Department has said that it is 'deeply disturbed' by these actions and has called on the Sudanese government to respect freedom of religion. I haven't heard that anything else has been done. And I'm not suggesting that we go to war, but I do think there must be some things that could be done if our Senators, Representatives, and the U.S. State Department are inundated by phone calls and letters from the American people.

This story makes me furious. I know the United National has a Council on Human Rights. We tiptoe around the whole human rights issue, never wanting to offend almost anyone other than Christians.  Please read the story as it was published online at The New York Daily News.

I wrote to everyone in government that I thought might be able to have any influence in this matter, or who might be able to put pressure on the Administration and the U.S. State Department, and I'm hoping you will do the same. Then pray. Please pray for this woman. Pray for her husband. Pray for her baby.

Here's a link you can use to contact The U.S. State Department.

If you already know the email addresses of your U.S. Senator and U.S. Representative, great.

If not, you can contact your U.S. Senator and U.S. Representative, by clicking on these links. You'll have to plug in the state you're from, but then there will be email addresses where you can reach each.

I know you are all quite capable of writing your own letters. If you don't have time and would like instead to copy mine, please feel free to do so. I hope I addressed all the important points.

"Please put pressure on the Sudanese government to free Meriam Ibrahim, Christian wife of a U.S. Citizen who has been sentenced to 100 lashes and execution for refusing to convert to Islam from her life-long Christian faith. BTW, she is 8 months pregnant and is currently chained to the walls of a prison cell. Do something, please. We are hearing nothing about it on the major news media in this country, instead they are turning a blind eye. Help free this woman. Thank you!"

Thank you, my blogging friends, for writing and for praying. As we know, God uses the prayers of His people.

This is a human rights issue, not just an American citizen issue, so even my blogging friends who are not in the U.S., please contact those in your government who might also have some influence in this matter.

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And now to Vee's May Notecard Party:

 Vee's Notecard Party

Striving for uniformity

This Amish horse has graced the pages of my blog before.

Not enlarged, to protect the Amish anonymity

And for the top of the notecard box...


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And now, on to the Hodgepodge


Joyce, From This Side of the Pond

1. Under what circumstances do you do your best thinking?

When it's quiet, and often at night when I should be sleeping.

2. Are you a risk taker? What's one big risk you've taken?

No, I'm not really a risk taker. I do assess the risk in things, but I'm a firm believer in not doing something that scares me every day and I don't believe that there's some virtue in stepping out of our comfort zone, contrary to popular opinion. I think we were given a comfort zone for a reason.

3. Some of the most common phobias according to the National Institute for Mental Health are-fear of spiders (arachnaphobia), snakes (ophidiophobia), heights (acrophobia), fear of spaces from which escape is difficult (agoraphobia), fear of thunder and lightening (astrophobia), fear of dogs (cynophobia), injections (trypanophobia), social situations, flying (pteromerhanophobia) and fear of germs and dirt (mysophobia). True phobias affect only about 10% of adults, but of those listed which would you rate as your greatest fear?

I definitely missed the fear of dogs or thunder or lightning or germs or dirt or heights or snakes or spiders. But I don't like being trapped in a crowd. It's not small spaces that bother me, for I don't have any problem with elevators, but big crowds where the doors are locked? I would definitely stay away from there. But to answer the question, I guess I'd have to go with social situations, because none of the others apply. And even thinking about social situations makes me uncomfortable.


4. Are you settled or do you feel the need to move somewhere new?

I feel the need to move to England 3 months of each year. I feel a need to find cash to do that. I feel a need to stop thinking about it because it's not going to happen.

5. What is something you find annoying when dining in a restaurant?

Loud, obnoxious, unruly children or adults. Poison in the food, disguised as additives and preservatives. These are two reasons we almost never eat out.

6. Daffodil yellow, sunset orange, spring green, or sky blue...your favorite color this time of year?

Green, green, green! I love the green of the alfalfa field.

 Two of the grandsons in the GREEN alfalfa field last June.

7. If you were going to take a holiday all by yourself, where would you go?

London. I can't think of any place else that would be at all appealing to visit alone. And neither would London, actually, because it wouldn't seem like much of a holiday if I couldn't share it with someone. But desperate times call for desperate measures. If I had to go alone, I can't think of anywhere else I'd rather be.

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

I hope that Christian bloggers will pray with me for the situation in Sudan (mentioned above) and also for the nearly 300 Nigerian schoolgirls who were kidnapped by Boko Haram terrorists and forced to convert to Islam. See more on that story, with video,  HERE, on CBS.