This could prove to be one long post!!!  Grab your cup of coffee or tea and pull up a couch and settle in for a spell.  You see today is the day I tally up the Comments for A Cause for the month and let my readers know just how awesome they are!   During the month of February you guys all commented like the great folks that you are and I am so thrilled to be able to announce that we will be donating  $202.50 to Tom  Hedin’s medical fund through GiveForward.com.  As you might remember Tom was seriously  hurt in a snowmobiling accident.  The good news is that Tom is home and is able to use transport services to get to his rehab sessions and doctor’s appointments.  It is still slow going —and I am sure it seems extremely slow to him—but the good news is that he is making headway and is home with his family where he can continue to heal in the comfort of home.  What a blessing.  If you want to read more of Tom’s story click here to go to his Caring Bridge site and it will catch you up on all the goings on.

The other great announcement is the winner of the giveaway of the following items:

I used a random number generator to choose the winner and it is none other than Lynda  at Benzeknees.  Congrats!!!!!!  She has always been a great supporter of my blog and she herself has a delightful blog so check it out sometime!  Thank you to everyone who took the time to stop by and comment!

Every month I try to come up with a great charity or cause that can be the recipient of Comments for a Cause.  Just when I start scratching my head about what it should be it comes to me!!! March’s cause is no different!!!   An email sent to my husband just a few days ago started the ball rolling and a couple of emails later I had the new cause!!!  God thing?  Yes!!!  The latest Comments for a Cause will go to help Brittany Ederer who now is associated with an incredible organization called Care of Creation as their Special Projects Coordinator.  Brittany is the daughter of Chris who was instrumental in getting my husband a couple of jobs as he is an executive recruiter and very good at his job!!!  When he sent “my” Chris an email telling us about what Brittany was doing it seemed like the perfect timing and the perfect fit!

Care of Creation has an ambitious and admirable mission statement:

..to pursue a God-centered response to environmental challenges that brings glory to the Creator, advances the cause of Christ, and leads to transformation of the people and the land that sustains them.

Brittany has the enthusiasm and drive to make a difference and she is excited about the opportunities that are on the horizon.  I asked her to tell me a bit about herself and after reading what she wrote I was excited to be a very small part of this project.   Below are some excerpts from an email she sent me and I took the liberty of editing a bit so that you could get the essence of Brittany and what she is doing.

A bit about me:  I’m 23 years old, and just graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with my B.S. in International Agriculture and Natural Resources.  I double majored in Wildlife Ecology and Latin American Studies; I love wildlife and the opportunities afforded to me by attending a great school, such as taking a birdwatching class where I learned to identify 200+ bird species found in southern Wisconsin by sight and sound.  I also did a short study abroad for my senior capstone (like a senior thesis) in Mexico in January 2012, and worked at the Sierra de Manantlán Biosphere Reserve, catching bats, hummingbirds, small mammals, and just doing really awesome things in general.  I love speaking Spanish, so that trip was great-I was one of the few in our group that knew how to speak proficiently, so I became like a translator.

While at a Christian conference at the end of 2009, God spoke very clearly to me that he had put a passion in me to follow his heart for environmental stewardship-living in shalom with all that God made, including people!  So, I got in contact with Care of Creation the following summer to inquire about a summer internship.  I did that part-time, and kept in contact with the director over the next few years.  At the end of summer 2012, I was offered a paid part-time position, and then a full-time staff position for after I graduated.  I accepted both, and am currently the Special Projects Coordinator.  Essentially, I get to work on brand-new projects that come up, as well as help with past projects or initiatives that need attention.  For instance, I am currently working on overhauling our website, as well as learning the ropes of utilizing social media (FB, Twitter, etc.) for publicity.  I also am creating inspirational images to go on our Facebook wall, and we may end up creating posters of some of these to sell.

About Care of Creation: We are a small org based out of Madison, WI with sister organizations in Kenya and Tanzania.  Our mission is to mobilize the global Church to care for God’s creation-that means we want all Christians, regardless of denomination or location or anything else, to embrace the fullness of the Gospel message-Jesus came and accomplished everything by dying on the cross and raising from the dead, including restoring our human relationship with the entirety of God’s creation.  Genesis says that the ground was cursed because of us, because of our sin.  We see a lot of sin consequences today in our world that, as Christians, we rightfully cry out against and work towards justice and restoration (think of any social injustice, and there are Christians bringing redemption to those situations all over the world-so awesome!!).  However, many of us tend to forget about the very air that keeps us alive, the water we depend on, the soil that grows our food, the forests that produce oxygen, etc. etc. etc.  We need to care about that, too.  Scripture says some (not a ton) about our role as stewards, as special created beings, that have the power to do much with the planet God entrusted to us (Genesis 1, many of the Psalms like 8 and 19, Romans 1 and 8, Colossians 1); but ultimately, it doesn’t belong to us.  It is all God’s.  If it’s really God’s world, shouldn’t we be taking care of it?

Care of Creation here in the USA does outreach and education to church congregations and student groups to proclaim these truths and give Christians the biblical basis for caring for God’s world.  As much as possible, we make them aware of the environmental needs in their area, and equip them to move forward in taking care of their slice of the planet.  In Kenya, the Sorley family teaches sustainable agriculture and helps with indigenous tree restoration.  The group in Tanzania just arrived in 2012, so they don’t have any specific programs established yet.

I hope that you will join me this month in commenting frequently on any blog post that I have written.  For each comment 50 cents will be donated to Care of Creation for Brittany’s support.  I know that she is grateful for the chance to get the word out to more people about what this organization is doing and so am I!   Thank you!

And finally—-It is Friday after all and I have to jump in with the blog hop hosted by Hilary at Feeling Beachie.  Show Hilary and her new kitty , Lucy, some love by checking out her blog!!!

www.feelingbeachie.com

This week’s statements:
1. Sometimes I ___ I am ___
2. When I wear ___ I feel ____
3. When in doubt, _____________
4. The easiest way to ______________ is to ___________.

My answers:

1. Sometimes I am sure I am I am a dork.  Ask anyone.  It might be more than sometimes.
2. When I wear contacts I feel like I look better.
3. When in doubt, smile!
4. The easiest way to  make pot roast is to cook it in a slow cooker like I did for supper tonight.  Yummers..