Aaron Reddin onLife, Liberty, and Pursuit of Jesusness

You may have caught some of these blog posts about my 17 year old cousin, Mikey, who found out that he has a mass in the center of his brain. Being the goofball that Mikey is, he has named the mass “Wilson” after the volleyball from Tom Hanks’ Castaway.

Well, after many bouts with seizures and being misdiagnosed several times, Mikey is in Los Angeles awaiting brain surgery tomorrow morning. 

With a mass in the center of his brain, he has made his way to L.A. to see a Dr. Shahinian at the Skull Base Institute.  ( <—click that link!!)

You can imagine the cost of both parents having to take off work for a few weeks, flying to L.A., the hotel cost, having to eat every meal out in Los Angeles….etc…

The financial burden this has brought on my aunt and uncle is tremendous!  There will be a benefit dinner in Plainview, AR this Sunday to try and help them with this situation. 

The response that you all gave when I initially asked for prayer for him was completely overwhelming!  But now they are even more overwhelmed. 

Will you please join in prayer for them, and please do anything you can to help this family meet all their financial commitments while also incurring tremendous costs for this whole process? 

I’m asking all my friends, family, and internet homies to help.  You can help a couple different ways. 

1.  Paypal:  you may give through paypal to make it easy for yourself.  The funds will go into my paypal account, and I will be putting it into their “relief funds” this Sunday.  Please give here:

2.  You may mail a check to my PO box and the same thing will happen.  I will take the received help to their home this Sunday.  Please send your check to:

Shon & Carla Reddin

C/O Aaron Reddin

PO Box 250061

Little Rock, AR 72225

I can’t tell you how much your help, love, prayer, and generosity are going to impact this family. 

PLEASE help spread the word of this need by clicking the “share” button on Facebook, ReTweeting it on Twitter, and any other way that you have to share this need with others. 

You all are amazing, and I will keep you posted on Mikey’s condition here on the blog.   Thank you!!

Two men.  Both have a need.  Both are searching for a way to meet that need. 

One of the men has resources, but is looking to either increase or maintain those resources.

One of the men has nothing.  He likely wouldn’t know where to start, if a “starting point” were even available, to begin to obtain his own resources.  Maybe he’s crazy.  Maybe he’s lazy.  I don’t know.  And neither do you. 

Both men realize that the quickest and most beneficial method of obtaining said resources is to get help from others.  Both men realize where to go to find the most “others”. 

An intersection.

One man goes to each car with a rubber boot.  That’s right, a rubber boot.  People roll the windows down and fill that sucker up with cash!  And they’re happy to do so.  They smile big and hurry to get him some money before their light turns green.  The world seems right.  The man got what he wanted, and the people are happy that they got to be at that intersection to help.   I mean, firefighters need more money don’t they?  I mean, don’t all of their funds come from private donors and such?  Oh….

The other man is lucky if he isn’t arrested.  And when I say “lucky”, I mean he lives in paranoia and has to watch over his shoulder about once per second.  No smiles for him.  He doesn’t even have a rubber boot!  Who does he think he is?? 

He doesn’t come to your window unless you tell him to.  But most of the people at his intersection won’t even tell him to have a nice day.  He is ignored.  Made fun of.  Dehumanized.  And likely either arrested, or told by police to go away. 

His need does not get met.  And all those people leave that intersection never thinking twice about the fact that this man has nothing.  Never mind the reasons why because only he and God know. 

I’ve seen the police here in Little Rock run people off over and over and over.  Even arrest them. 

Because they panhandled.  Because they asked for help.  Because they’re homeless. 

Nobody minds if a firefighter stands on the corners begging for change.  They celebrate it! 

But when it’s a homeless man, the standard is changed.  Is that OK? 

I’m not saying that I condone panhandling.  That’s a post for another day.  But I do have to ask why one can do it and be celebrated, and the other is treated like a piece of trash and forced to leave the area. 

What are your thoughts?  Even if I just pissed you off, leave me a comment and tell me what you think.  You won’t hurt my feelings. 

Saw this over on Ellen’s website.  Changed my life…..

More and more non-profits are realizing the importance of a great tagline.  It can be the difference in getting the attention of a potential donor, or boring people beyond ever listening to your pitch. 

Quick, simple, and direct seems to be the way of the tagline.  Many of the “experts” are telling NPO’s to simply explain very practically what they do in their tagline. 

HEREis a quick write up from The NonProfit Times about the best taglines of 2009.  The best?  “Nothing Stops a Bullet Like a Job” comes in with the gold medal.  I love it.  Homeboy Industries does job training and such for former gang bangers.  It’s quick, catchy, and simply brilliant. 

My personal favorite tagline ever, comes from Union Mission in West Virginia.  They have the right idea.  I know, because I work for a mission myself.  Their tagline?  “We Feed People.  It’s What We Do.”  That is so true.  That’s what they do.  That’s the big idea, made simple.  Now there’s a tagline that would make me want to find out more.  Oh, and you can visit their website by simply going to….yep you guessed it www.wefeedpeople.com

What does your tagline say about your NPO?  Better question:  What does your tagline say TO the rest of us?

This is an awesome, and quick video from the Union Rescue Mission in Los Angeles.  Pretty much the same as the one I work for, just like 40 times it’s size!!  They are big and doing big things!  I can’t imagine doing what I do in LA, where there are like 60,000+ homeless people.  Can’t imagine.  Check out what they have going on out there!

I know too many awesome people, who are doing awesome things, that may not be around in short period of time.   One cannot simply do things the way it’s always been done, and expect to survive. 

Your efforts and your organization could easily die out if you are not on-board with the way that the rest of the world is operating. 

This generation (my generation) operates and does things in a totally different way than those before us.  You can’t ignore it, and you can’t ignore us.  If you do, you will fizzle out in a few short years. 

Don’t believe me?  Take a look at newspapers.  Are any of them growing?  How about traditional churches?  Any of them growing?  And when I speak of growing, I’m not referring to the addition of recycled Christians. 

Whether you are running an office supply company, an icecream truck, or a church, if you don’t catch up you will get left behind.  Look at your business or organization in light of this video, and try to see where your future is going.  Are you moving along with the world, or are you still somewhere back in the 90′s wondering why everyone else is making headway but you?

You or someone you know has been affected by drugs/alcohol whether you like it or not. Now is the time to get involved in eliminating that burden in someone else’s life. Now it the time to step up and give back. If you destroyed lives through addiction, now is the time to help rebuild lives. Get in the game and support Recovery Month.

To find out how you can get involved on a local level, or to find help with addictions, please click on the “contact” page at the top of the screen.  Thanks!

A study out of UCLA shows just how easy it is for underage drinkers to obtain alcohol on their own.

“… participants were able to override the system or purchase alcohol without an employee’s assistance 19 times out of 97 attempts (20% of attempts).”

The report is brief and you need to check it out!!  HERE

HUD reports that of the 664,414 homeless in January 2008, only about 124,135 are experiencing “chronic homelessness”.  In other words, not even a quarter (19%) of the total number of homeless people counted, would have fit into our “idea” of what a homeless person looks like. 

The 2008 Annual Homeless Assessment says on page 34 that from 10/1/07 until 9/30/08, approximately 1 in every 190 people in the U.S. used a homeless residential facility at some point.

The report says that 159,142 families with children were sheltered in 2008. 

These numbers may be surprising to you.  The sad thing is that you see the “chronic homeless” person on the streets and you can identify him/her.  You most likely would never be able to pick out sheltered homeless people.  Yet they are out there.  The moms, the dads, the siblings and children, and even the grandparents make up the entire homeless population. 

This the the point that I so often try to convey to people:  Most homeless people are not out begging for your money.  They are out trying to make their own! 

1,594,000 people used an emergency shelter in that same 12 month period mentioned above!

There was a 9% increase from 2007 to 2008 in the number of homeless persons in families.

Wow, I could take number after number and try to convince you that homelessness is not a waste of our time and money.  I could spend all day doing this, but hey, that’s what HUD has already done.  Check the report out for yourself and at least look at the highlights.  They’ve made it very easy to skim through and still have your whole world rocked!  View the report in it’s entirety HERE.

We have a sister Rescue Mission in Los Angeles that coincidentally is also named the Union Rescue Mission.  We aren’t directly affiliated, but they do such a great work that I always watch them to see if I can learn anything.

I always can.  As you can imagine, there is much more need for outreach on Skid Row than there is in Little Rock, AR.  I keep up with their blog, and here is one reason why:

Brenden Foster, their original Hero for Hope…….

Everyone needs someone in their corner, cheering them on!!!

If you made it to a Film Festival in almost any given city lately, then you have surely noticed the film War Eagle, Arkansas.

I personally didn’t get to see it when it opened at the Little Rock Film Festival, but I will be sure to check it out soon when it comes to theatres. It will open June the 12th around Arkansas and will soon be rolling into major cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and the likes.

Please watch this trailer, and then read more about the film here.