My Mouse Isn't Working

My dad, a network engineer, passed this along to me. He also does some tech support and sometimes he comes across emails like this. Check this out... especially if you have ever had to explain how to do computer related things to people that...just... didn't get it!

Caller: Hi, our printer is not working. Customer Service: What is wrong with it ? Caller : Mouse is jammed.. Customer Service: Mouse ? Printers don't have a mouse you fool! Caller: Mmmmm ? ? .. Oh really ?... I will send a picture. Scroll down........

YOU KNOW YOU'RE GONNA PASS THIS ALONG. . . . . . . .

Palindrome

PAY ATTENTION! LISTEN AND READ CAREFULLY.

A palindrome reads the same backwards as forward. This video reads the exact opposite backwards as forward. Not only does it read the opposite, the meaning is the exact opposite.

This is only a 1 minute, 44 second video and it is brilliant. Make sure you read as well as listen...forward and backward.

This is a video that was submitted in a contest by a 20-year old. The contest was titled "u @ 50" by AARP. This video won second place. When they showed it, everyone in the room was awe-struck and broke into spontaneous applause. So simple and yet so brilliant.

Take a minute and watch it. This video is best watched by clicking on the link to see it full screen. Or you can watch it below.

Lost Generation

Oil in the USA

My father in law sent me this one! hahahaha!

A clunker that travels 12,000 miles a year at 15 mpg uses 800 gallons of gas a year.

A vehicle that travels 12,000 miles a year at 25 mpg uses 480 gallons a year.

So, the average Cash for Clunkers transaction will reduce an individual’s gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per year.

They claim the program turned 700,000 vehicles so that's 224 million gallons saved per year.

That equates to a bit over 5 million barrels of oil.

5 million barrels is about 5 hours worth of US consumption.

More importantly, 5 million barrels of oil at $70 per barrel costs about $350 million dollars.

So, the government paid $3 billion of our tax dollars to save $350 million.

Which means they spent $8.57 for every dollar saved.

I'm pretty sure they’ll do a great job with health care though...

Peace

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." - John 16:33 - What has the Lord told you in the past so that today you may have peace today?

As things get harder throughout the year and that dreaded thoughts about ministry come to mind, I am reminded of the one thing that brings me peace in the middle of my storm: I am loved.

I think that the phrase that always soothes, always calms, and always fills me with joy and energy is when I hear Jesus tell me "I love you."

I'm not sure why exactly that phrase brings me all those reactions, but I think that it's because that is what we ultimately want... to be loved and accepted as the people that we are at that moment. To be loved in spite of our errors and short-comings. To feel what a fully-dependent baby must feel when they are completely embraced and taken care of by their father.

In Northwest Chicago Young Life, we have been in financial ups and downs this year. And each time those financial downs have felt like this equation:

fire + storm + hurricane + earthquake + quicksand

and the equation always had this other factor as a multiplier

(fire + storm + hurricane + earthquake) * fear

And... this was an equation for disaster; an equation that nullified faith until I constantly remember this:

(fire + storm + hurricane + earthquake) * fear] <>

In remembering that faith is an action word, I remember that my faith is increased when I act on it. However, I always need to go back to why we are here in Chicago, and that's because Christ called us here. So what is the thing that Jesus has told us that brings us peace? It's that there is no safer place than in His will... and we are smack dab in the middle of it.

Hilarious Military Story!

Lost Jewish tribe 'found in Zimbabwe'

This is a SUPER interesting story about the Ark of the Covenant and a people group that now are being claimed to be direct descendants of the Jews that were alive during the Patriarchal times of Moses and Aaron.

I found this while stumbling onto BBC News...

Many Lemba are Christians and Muslims, but they embrace their Jewish roots

By Steve Vickers BBC News, Harare

In many ways, the Lemba tribe of Zimbabwe and South Africa are just like their neighbours.

But in other ways their customs are remarkably similar to Jewish ones.

They do not eat pork, they practise male circumcision, they ritually slaughter their animals, some of their men wear skull caps and they put the Star of David on their gravestones.

Their oral traditions claim that their ancestors were Jews who fled the Holy Land about 2,500 years ago.

It may sound like another myth of a lost tribe of Israel, but British scientists have carried out DNA tests which confirm their Semitic origin.

These tests back up the group's belief that a group of perhaps seven men married African women and settled on the continent. The Lemba, who number perhaps 80,000, live in central Zimbabwe and the north of South Africa.

Lemba women do not have Jewish DNA

And they also have a prized religious artefact that they say connects them to their Jewish ancestry - a replica of the Biblical Ark of the Covenant known as the ngoma lungundu, meaning "the drum that thunders".

The object went on display recently at a Harare museum to much fanfare, and instilled pride in many of the Lemba.

"For me it's the starting point," says religious singer Fungisai Zvakavapano-Mashavave.

"Very few people knew about us and this is the time to come out. I'm very proud to realise that we have a rich culture and I'm proud to be a Lemba.

"We have been a very secretive people, because we believe we are a special people."

Religion vs culture

The Lemba have many customs and regulations that tally with Jewish tradition.

They wear skull caps, practise circumcision, which is not a tradition for most Zimbabweans, avoid eating pork and food with animal blood, and have 12 tribes.

Many people say that the story is far-fetched, but the oral traditions of the Lemba have been backed up by science Tudor Parfitt University of London

They slaughter animals in the same way as Jewish people, and they put the Jewish Star of David on their tombstones.

Members of the priestly clan of the Lemba, known as the Buba, were even discovered to have a genetic element also found among the Jewish priestly line.

"This was amazing," said Prof Tudor Parfitt, from the University of London.

"It looks as if the Jewish priesthood continued in the West by people called Cohen, and in same way it was continued by the priestly clan of the Lemba.

"They have a common ancestor who geneticists say lived about 3,000 years ago somewhere in north Arabia, which is the time of Moses and Aaron when the Jewish priesthood started."

Prof Parfitt is a world-renowned expert, having spent 20 years researching the Lemba, and living with them for six months.

The Lemba have a sacred prayer language which is a mixture of Hebrew and Arabic, pointing to their roots in Israel and Yemen.

Despite their ties to Judaism, many of the Lemba in Zimbabwe are Christians, while some are Muslims.

"Christianity is my religion, and Judaism is my culture," explains Perez Hamandishe, a pastor and member of parliament from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Despite their centuries-old traditions, some younger Lemba are taking a more liberal view.

"In the old days you didn't marry a non-Lemba, but these days we interact with others," says Alex Makotore, son of the late Chief Mposi from the Lemba "headquarters" in Mberengwa.

"I feel special in my heart but not in front of others such that I'm separated from them. Culture is dynamic."

Crowds

The oral traditions of the Lemba say that the ngoma lungundu is the Biblical wooden Ark made by Moses, and that centuries ago a small group of men began a long journey carrying it from Yemen to southern Africa.

Hearing from those professors in Harare and seeing the ngoma makes it clear that we are a great people and I'm very proud David Maramwidze Lemba elder

The object went missing during the 1970s and was eventually rediscovered in Harare in 2007 by Prof Parfitt.

"Many people say that the story is far-fetched, but the oral traditions of the Lemba have been backed up by science," he says.

Carbon dating shows the ngoma to be nearly 700 years old - pretty ancient, if not as old as Bible stories would suggest.

But Prof Parfitt says this is because the ngoma was used in battles, and would explode and be rebuilt.

The ngoma now on display was a replica, he says, possibly built from the remains of the original.

"So it's the closest descendant of the Ark that we know of," Prof Parfitt says.

Large crowds came to see the unveiling of the ngoma and to attend lectures on the identity of the Lemba.

For David Maramwidze, an elder in his village, the discovery of the ngoma has been a defining moment.

"Hearing from those professors in Harare and seeing the ngoma makes it clear that we are a great people and I'm very proud," he says.

"I heard about it all my life and it was hard for me to believe, because I had no idea of what it really is.

"I'm still seeing the picture of the ngoma in my mind and it will never come out from my brain. Now we want it to be given back to the Lemba people."

Fire Bible Banned at School

The title isn't the best since it doesn't "sound" like the bible is the item that is banned, but it's an important topic nonetheless...

If you cannot see the video because you are viewing this in your browser then go to:

www.pablo-emmanuel-otaola.blogspot.com

Meet Logan

My dad sent me this the other day. It's worth the minute to listen and watch it...