Teen Challenge founder killed in traffic accident

One of the greatest evangelists of our time has gone to be with the Lord.

Published Wednesday, April 27, 2011 8:30 PM

David Wilkerson

David Wilkerson — founder ofTeen Challenge which has its South Carolina headquarters in Georgetown County — has passed away.

Charisma Online reports Wilkerson died Wednesday in an automobile accident in Texas.

Wilkerson founded Times Square Church in New York City and was the focus of the book and movie The Cross and the Switchblade.

Wilkerson founded Teen Challenge in 1960. The goal of Teen Challenge is to help troubled youth and adults, particularly those with life-controlling problems due to drugs or alcohol.

Over five decades, the Christ-centered Teen Challenge program has consistently shown one of the world's highest success rates, according to the organization’s website.

The organization’s only facility in South Carolina is on a 45 acre tract in the Yauhannah area of Georgetown County.

It has a dorm that houses up to 20 men which opened last year.

The first building, used as an office and counseling facility was dedicated in 2005. There is also a classroom building.

S.C. Teen Challenge Director Wayne Powell said he has “so many memories” of Wilkerson and “so many lives” have been changed through his ministry. “

We will move on from here because there is a cause that is bigger than us and that is the way he would have it,” Powell said.

Teen Challenge founder killed in traffic accident

Kinda makes you go, 'Hmmmm...'

Sadly, computers do what you program them to do, not what you want them to!

Pak 'n Scram tests morality

DAVE BURGESS

About 24 people cruised the aisles at Hamilton's Mill Street 'Pak 'n Save' store on Good Friday morning after a computer glitch incorrectly opened the doors at 8am without a checkout person in sight. 

About half paid for their groceries using the self-scan service, but that stopped working when someone scanned alcohol, which requires a staff member to check a customer's age before the system is unlocked.

Police were alerted at 9.20am by a report of people leaving with "truckloads of groceries".

Victoria University's professor of religious studies, Paul Morris, said the Easter-time ethical test placed customers in a tricky situation. "It is like real life candid camera where people are clearly faced with this series of moral dilemmas."

There had been a debate about whether you needed to be religious to be moral, he said.

"The Christian Right have tended to think [that] without the Ten Commandments and God's divining hand we would never have been able to develop a plausible and sustainable morality.

"This [Pak 'n Save incident] is like some mad experiment, because you've sent off to church the religious and it's the secular who have gone shopping on Good Friday ... and you've put them to the test.

"Most acted morally and responded in very appropriate ways by trying to pay by using the self-service area. But clearly others saw that fortune had smiled on them in some perverse way."

Supermarket owner Glenn Miller was initially furious over the incident, fearing that thousands of dollars of groceries might have walked out the door. But after reviewing the shop's security footage during the weekend his mood had mellowed.

"I can certainly see the funny side of it ... but I'd rather not have the publicity, to be honest. It makes me look a bit of a dickhead."

The security footage showed shoppers were not aware that there were no staff in the supermarket, Mr Miller said.

"They weren't in for a free-for-all. They were doing their normal shopping and then got to the checkout. Half of them paid and the other half thought, `this is a good deal' and walked out."

The first customer arrived with a young child, spent 20 minutes selecting groceries, scanned them, paid, and walked out, Mr Miller said. "I still think she probably doesn't know we weren't there. It is the funniest thing. You just have to laugh your head off when you watch."

Mr Miller did not intend to take legal action to pursue those who had not paid. "The story has been in the papers ... and on TV, so hopefully that will make some people feel guilty and they will cough up."Professor Morris said the footage revealed nearly all would have paid had alcohol purchases not blocked the self-scanners.

All cash handed over would go to the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal, Mr Miller said, though by yesterday no repentant customers had come forward.

- The Dominion Post

Classic Carson with Jack Webb

I got this in an email and thought I'd share it with you.


YouTube - Johnny Carson and Jack Webb by alexjonesnowondailymotion

Who has the power?

I'm the type of person who finds logic very comforting. I need to know all the 'why's before I can truly understand the whole picture. For example, back in the dark ages when I went to college, my biology teacher couldn't tell me 'why' a cell decides to divide--I was just suppose to accept that it does. Well, that wasn't happening and I didn't do well in the class. [Of course, later on, when they invented microscopes that could look inside a cell, they found that there was, indeed, rhyme and reason for what a cell does. *insert 'I was right' dance here*]

Of course, sometimes, the logic thing can take my brain on tangents that are better left untaken. One example is our juvenile next-door-neighbor. I wondered how my calling the noise control people on him affects his wife. Does he take it out on her by yelling at her? Does he make the house walk on eggshells because nobody knows what to say? But then, I realized that I shouldn't have that much power over his life and he's a fool if he gave it to me!


And I think about the silly person with the 30-year grudge I posted about earlier. Why is she letting me affect her after all this time? I k now I'm good, but didn't know I was THAT good!!


I think about someone I know that wants me to tip-toe around and never get loud because, in their far, far away past, somebody yelled at them and made them feel bad. Sorry, kiddo, being loud sometimes is who I am. Our family gets loud. That's who we are. You need to deal with it. Why are you letting someone who is probably dead (or, at the very least, not even aware of their impact) have power over you a half a world away and several decades later? I don't want to be able to make you feel bad by reminding you of someone in your past. Nobody should have that much power.

So for all those people whose lives are governed by the words and deed of others, I say, Life is about choices. 

Choose to believe that God loves you exactly the way He made you.
Accept that you are worthy of respect and love simply because you're breathing.
Choose to overlook other folk's imperfections if you want them to overlook yours.
Quit letting other people decide if you are going to be happy. No one should be able to make that decision but you.
Decide to be happy every morning!