At the beginning of the year, many churches and Christians embark upon a corporate or personal fast.  Many of these fasts are based on the 21 Day Daniel Fast where the fast allows eating of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans and water.  Sometimes this list is modified but basically, this is what is allowed.

The Purpose of This Post

I was raised in a very traditional Pentecostal church, so I grew up fasting.  However,  there are many different denominations that didn’t observe this practice.  So, my purpose here is to add some insight to help “rookies” survive a 21 day corporate fast.

Prepare for the Fast

For me, the most important element to surviving a 21 day Daniel Fast, without falling off the wagon, is preparation.

• Positive Attitude:  Approach the fast with a can do attitude.  Christianity is based on faith, so you must believe that you can successfully endure the fast.  A negative or defeatist attitude will most likely result in defeat.
• Caffeine and Sugar Withdrawal:  If you are heavy coffee and soda drinker or eat a lot of chocolate and sweets you will probably experience withdrawal in the form of headaches or cravings.  To help with these symptoms, start to cut back on sweets and caffeine at least a week before the fast begins.  The symptoms won’t last the entire fast but probably for about 3 days.
• Know Your Food Groups:  It’s difficult to survive a fast if you don’t have enough to eat, so you should know your food groups.  For instance, some fasts will say you can only eat fruits and vegetables.  Did you know that nuts are a fruit?  Nuts are also a great source of protein.  Learn your food groups.
• Go Grocery Shopping:  Make a list of what you are allowed to eat during the fast and purchase what you need for at least a week.
• Cook Ahead And Freeze:  Soups and some vegetarian casseroles can be prepared ahead of time and frozen.  You can make a very hearty bean soup with vegetable broth.
• Take Your Lunch To Work:  Taking your lunch to work will relieve the stress of finding what you can eat on a restaurant menu.

Notes About Fasting

• If you have severe medical conditions, check with your doctor before beginning a fast.
• You can pray without fasting but you can’t fast without praying.  A fast without prayer is a diet!
• Be humble in your fasting.  It’s not necessary to announce to the world that you are fasting (Matthew 6: 17, 18).

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The Elder Care Workshop that was co-sponsored by Caregivers Health Mart (my company) and Destiny World Church took up a lot of my time.  After the workshop, my god-sister’s condition steadily declined and that also was time consuming.

I’d been taking care of Gladys in my home since 2008.  She passed away Thanksgiving weekend.  Now I am taking care of the last of her legal affairs and bills.

I’ll be posting again soon.  Thanks for your patience.

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This workshop will give you some tools to prepare you for helping your elderly family members.  The last thing you want is to find out one day that Mom or Dad had a stroke or heart attack.  Mom or dad has developed Alzheimer’s.  Or, they just need help and can’t function by themselves anymore.  This workshop will help you to be proactive instead of reactive.

What’s Gonna Happen To Mom and Dad?

Destiny World Church
Saturday, November 6, 2010
10:00 AM – 2:00 PM

7400 Factory Shoals Road
Austell, GA 30168
(1 mile from Six Flags)

Register Now!  It’s Free

Some people wonder why I care so much about this topic.  It’s because five years ago my god-sister had a stroke and could not longer take care of herself.  She was 78 years old, a widow and childless.  It became my family’s responsibility to care for her and we were clueless.  I don’t want that to happen to you.

Workshop Topics

• Exploring Elder Care Options (assisted living, personal care homes, etc.)
• Let’s Talk About Long Term Care Insurance
• Understanding Advance Directives (everyone needs to have these)
• Hospice is a Service, Not A Place (you don’t have to be dying to receive hospice services)

Statistics from National Family Caregivers Association

More than 65 million people, 29% of the U.S. population, provide care for a chronically ill, disabled or aged family member or friend during any given year and spend an average of 20 hours per week providing care for their loved one.
- Caregiving in the United States; National Alliance for Caregiving in collaboration with AARP; November 2009

The value of the services family caregivers provide for “free,” when caring for older adults, is estimated to be $375 billion a year. That is almost twice as much as is actually spent on homecare and nursing home services combined ($158 billion).
- Evercare Survey of the Economic Downturn and Its Impact on Family Caregiving; National Alliance for Caregiving and Evercare. March 2009

The typical family caregiver is a 49-year-old woman caring for her widowed 69-year-old mother who does not live with her. She is married and employed. Approximately 66% of family caregivers are women. More than 37% have children or grandchildren under 18 years old living with them.
- Caregiving in the United States; National Alliance for Caregiving in collaboration with AARP. November 2009

1.4 million children ages 8 to 18 provide care for an adult relative; 72% are caring for a parent or grandparent; and 64% live in the same household as their care recipient. Fortunately, most are not the sole caregiver.
- National Alliance for Caregiving and the United Hospital Fund, Young Caregivers in the U.S., 2005.

20 hours per week is the average number of hours family caregivers spend caring for their loved ones while 13% of family caregivers are providing 40 hours of care a week or more.
- Caregiving in the United States; National Alliance for Caregiving in collaboration with AARP. November 2009

This workshop is free.  Why not take a few hours out of your Saturday to get some valuable information that can be of great benefit. See you on November 6th.

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As I write this post, I am on vacation in the Bahamas.  I’ve been looking forward to getting some down time and relaxation from my daily caregiving rituals with my god-sister who has dementia.  This morning I was awakened by an extremely loud “wake-up call” that I did not request.  I looked at the clock, it was 7:30 AM.  Once I’m startled awake it’s almost impossible for me to go back to sleep.

Since I was awake, I turned on the television.  It was on CNN who along with other reporters and cameras were camped out on the New Birth Campus waiting for Bishop Long to speak to his congregation.  According to reporters, people began arriving at New Birth Church about 5:30 AM to hear what Bishop Long had to say about the allegations of sexual misconduct.

The purpose of this post is neither to defend nor condemn Bishop Long.  I don’t know the facts and I have no idea what “evidence” will be presented when this case goes to trail.  At this point only Bishop Long, the accusers and God knows what happened.  What I do know is how it feels to be part of a congregation that has to endure public scrutiny of its pastors, leaders and the ministry.

Unless you’ve experienced it, there are considerations we don’t think about during these trying times.  The public and the media want the story.  If it means running stories without the facts – so be it.  If it means basing the story on speculation – so be it.

Essentially, Bishop Long is the story – not his wife, not his associate ministers and not his congregation.  However, Bishop Long and New Birth Ministries have an international reputation and are receiving international coverage.  Because of this, whether Bishop Long is innocent or guilty, there will be a great deal of collateral damage.

What Collateral Damage?

The effects of this scandal reach further than just Bishop Long.  When a ministry experiences any type of scandal it  affects many people.

• Wife, children and family
• Close friends
• Church staff
• Church members
• People who benefit from New Birth’s community work

These people will be inundated with comments, questions, whispers and stares.  Some will experience personal ridicule and teasing and criticism from people they know and strangers.  They will endure the ugly gossip and conversations that goes on in barber shops and beauty shops.

The internet has changed the way we receive information.  What we get now is in real time.  It may or may not be accurate but it is dispersed immediately.  This scandal was the number one trending topic on Twitter for several days.  I scanned the comments the first day but some of them were so ugly that I just stopped reading them.  It was disturbing.

What Can We Do?

Pray for everyone involved:  Bishop, family, friends, staff and congregation.  I guarantee you that this is very stressful and confusing.  Pray for the organizations that are supported by New Birth Ministries because sooner or later New Birth will suffer financially and the organizations involved will suffer financially as well.

I don’t know how this will play out.  I am concerned for all involved but I am most concerned for the Church.  No matter how you look at it – if Bishop Long is guilty or if the men made it up – it makes the church look bad.

With that in mind, we should also pray for the status of Christianity and the church.  What are your thoughts?

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Here are a few definitions that I found for exposure:

• disclosure
• revealing or unmasking
• presentation to view
• subjecting to influence

What, you ask, does this have to do with the church?  It’s one of the ways to learn what’s going on in ministry outside of your own realm of influence.

About once a year our staff schedules a visit to a local church that is different from ours.  Last week we visited The Church at Chapel Hill in Douglasville, Georgia.  Last year we visited North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia.  In previous years we visited World Changers Church International in College Park, Georgia and New Birth Baptist Church in Lithonia, Georgia.  By visiting with these ministries some of what we learned was:

• different ways to think about television production
• ideas for our academy
• the value of a good creative team
• excellence in hospitality

Exposure is good for any ministry because there is always something to be learned.  Even though our ministry is open to learn from other ministries, we also have ministries or pastors who schedule visits with us because they want to gain some insight from us.  There’s always someone who does something better than you.

Church visits are just one way to gain exposure.  Other ways include, but are not limited to:

• attending conferences
• mission trips
• volunteering with other churches during disasters
• inviting people to share with your ministry leaders

During the Atlanta floods in September 2009, my daughter and I volunteered with HopeAtl, an effort initiated by Pastor Shaun King of Courageous Church.  We were impressed with the people we met who came from around the country to help Atlanta’s flood victims.  Neither my daughter or I had been involved with an effort like HopeAtl.  We were blessed by the experience and gained new friends.

The whole point of this post is to encourage ministry leaders to learn from and share with other ministries.  Your denomination, race or income level should not matter.  What matters is what we as Christians can do for each other and for the community.

Take the challenge and expose yourself.  I promise you won’t feel naked.

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