Teachers Saving Children® Inc. - National
Newsletter
Volume 17, Number 2
December 2006
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"Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus”
As I was reflecting on various thoughts this Thanksgiving season, I read the following insights about Abraham Lincoln. His life was a life of many tragedies and unfortunate circumstances, yet he gave thanks and was used of God to lead our country through the most difficult internal conflict in our nation’s history. The more I reflected, the more I sensed that the Lord was impressing upon my heart the importance of giving thanks in everything – including circumstances that seem insurmountable, impossible, and even those that may not make sense, for example, the results of the recent elections nationwide. As you read and reflect on these verses and thoughts, take some additional time to give thanks for LIFE and all the ways that God has blessed you.
“When Abraham Lincoln was seven years of age, his family was forced out of their home, and he went to work. When he was nine, his mother died. He lost his job as a store clerk when he was twenty. He wanted to go to law school, but he didn’t have the education. At age twenty-three he went into debt to be a partner in small store. Three years later his business partner died, and the resulting debt took years to repay.
When he was twenty-eight, after courting a girl for four years, he asked her to marry him, and she turned him down. On his third try he was elected to Congress, at age thirty-seven, but then failed to be re-elected. His son died at four years of age.
At the age of forty-five, he ran for the Senate and lost. At age forty-seven he ran for the vice-presidency and lost. But at age fifty-one he was elected President of the United States.
Abraham Lincoln, in the midst of the Civil War in 1863, established the annual celebration of Thanksgiving. Lincoln had learned how important it is to stop and thank God in the midst of great difficulties.
Lincoln wrote, “We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have gown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us. It has seemed to me fit and proper that [the gifts of God] should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow citizens . . . to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.”
Source: Reprinted from the Monday Fodder (Dave Aufrance, missionary); Originally from a Moment to Consider THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION (John Yates, “An Attitude of Gratitude”).
The Board of Trustees made a decision during its initial meeting to be “above board and reproach” in every decision we make and activity we do. Therefore, we have committed ourselves to having an annual financial review completed by a certified CPA. Each year our reviews have been excellent. As an FYI to our members, the IRS has increased its number of audits for non-profit organizations. As of this date we have been monitored at the low risk level of activity. In addition, the Board of Trustees has also requested each state affiliate to have an annual financial review completed. A copy of those financial reviews is sent to the National office and is kept on file.
Angie Crider is a 41-year-old woman whose life has been transformed. “Mine is a story,” she says, “of a very troubled life filled with many poor choices, with ugly consequences, lots of heartache and hardships, brought on by my own foolishness and ignorance.” She acknowledges that she caused her family, mainly her parents, to suffer a lot. “But,” Angie adds, “my life, today, is also a story of redemption, grace, and freedom."
The oldest of four siblings, Angie showed signs at an early age of artistic talent. Though she was the creative one in the family, she felt she was the “black sheep,” never fitting in anywhere, at home or at school. She was sexually abused by her uncle, about 8 years older than her, starting when she was 7 or 8 years old. She was talking suicide already when she was in the eighth grade.
During her teen years, Angie became, in her words, “defiant, rebellious, and very disrespectful of my parents and their authority.” In high school, she started hanging around older kids, drinking, breaking curfews, being mouthy, and continued being hateful toward her parents. She felt they were trying to ruin her life and her fun by establishing boundaries and rules to command some respect. Her mom, though, arranged for her to spend two weeks during her sophomore year at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, where Angie met “Mike.”
In 1985, at the age of 19, Angie put an aerobics routine together, performed it and won the Dayton Miss Physical Fitness award. She left Ohio and headed for New York, where she lived with “Mike”. . . who, subsequently, became physically abusive. Angie’s life became, she says, “a train wreck waiting to happen, with the likelihood of a tragic ending. . .either in taking my life or someone else’s. I was living my life my way with an ‘If it feels good, do it’ attitude.”
Angie later moved to California, where she worked as a fitness trainer; meanwhile continuing to drink “socially.” She lived in various states for a total of 13 years; married and divorced her first husband during that time. She had three abortions during these years with her first husband, all within a 10-month span of time.
In 1996 Angie crossed over the line of social drinking and eventually, back in Ohio, found herself full-force in alcoholism, resulting in a DUI and jail time. She met her husband Chris at an AA meeting in 2002, and as she worked in her Ohio home county as a fitness instructor in 2004, she says, “I began the path of the greatest journey ever, to accepting Christ.”
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It was on Good Friday of 2005 that Angie Crider did commit her life to her Savior, to try to live His way and not hers because, as she says, “My way always got me into trouble.”
Today, Angie, her husband Chris, and their daughter Amber attend church together. Angie says, “Even though I know my other children are in heaven with the Lord, I am reminded of the three gifts I threw away when I look into my daughter Amber’s eyes. What really amazes me is that all of these years later, God has entrusted me to be a mother and blessed me with a very healthy pregnancy and a very healthy daughter.”
Angie Crider is a living example of II Corinthians 5:17, one of her favorite Bible verses—“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come.” Angie has done sidewalk counseling in trying to convince other women not to abort their babies. She has given testimony before her church about the sin of abortion and about how the Lord can forgive and heal. She has spoken to Christian youth groups about her transformation. She is a new creation.
*If you or your church group would like to contact Angie to hear her story firsthand or to invite her to speak, e-mail or phone Teachers Saving Children® Inc. for information.
Editor’s Note: Mrs. Bruns, a member of the Teachers Saving Children® Board of Trustees, is a writer and a Language Arts teacher living in Coldwater OH.
Last spring individuals contributed $4256.95 towards the Teachers Saving Children® exhibit at the NEA Expo 2006 in Orlando. Thank you for your generosity in assisting Teachers Saving Children® with this great ministry opportunity.
By faith, the Teachers Saving Children® Inc. – National Board of Trustees has made a decision to apply for exhibit space at the NEA Expo 2007 in Philadelphia PA. We will once again be putting the facts and the wonder of human development before the largest group of decision-makers in the teachers’ union. The exhibit application fee is $1300. Currently we have $626 designated towards the 2007 exhibit. As soon as the designated monies reach $1300, then the application for the exhibit space will be submitted.
Once again we are asking for your generosity so that we might expose more individuals to “awesome” photos, fetal models, and descriptive brochures that show children at various stages of development growing inside their mothers. Please make checks payable to “Teachers Saving Children® Inc. – National” and designate any amount towards this endeavor as “NEA/Wonder of Life Exhibit.” Thank you in advance for any amount you can contribute, no matter how large or small, to help educate teachers about “The Wonder of Life.”
Washington DC – The nation’s largest teacher’s group is attacking abstinence education programs in a new report it co-sponsored. The attack is designed to persuade Congressional lawmakers to cut funding for abstinence education, which studies have shown is achieving its intended results in reducing sex and teen pregnancies. The National Education Association (NEA) and the anti-abstinence group SIECUS co-sponsored the new report, its fourth annual one attacking abstinence programs. The report reviews abstinence education curriculum and claims it is “riddled with messages of fear and shame, gender stereotypes, and medical misinformation that put young people at risk.” The NEA-SEICUS report slams the programs for encouraging students to have sex only after marriage, to be concerned about the failure rates of condoms and other forms of birth control, to dress modestly, and to know about the basics of fetal development. However, a study conducted by a University of Pennsylvania researcher in August found that teaching abstinence education to young teenagers in public schools reduces their sexual behavior. The study found that abstinence helped delay the starting point at which teenagers begin have sexual relations. They found that those who were taught abstinence were less likely to have had sexual relations in a 24 month followup compared to those who were taught about safer sex through the use of condoms but didn’t mention abstinence.
Source: LifeNews.com, October 5, 2006
Once again, NEA President Reg Weaver has granted permission for any NEA member & their family who participates in the March for Life on January 22, 2007, to visit the NEA Headquarters Building. Please check "NEWS FLASH” on our website for complete details.
For complete details concerning the events of January 22nd,
please contact your local Right to Life Chapter or State Right to Life office.
For those pro-life teachers and school employees who can't go to Washington DC,
it is suggested that you attend the pro-life marches or rallies being held in your own local areas.
THEN MARK MAY 5, 2007 PM ON YOUR CALENDARS
TEACHERS SAVING CHILDREN® INC. OF OHIO
WILL BE HOSTING A DESSERT RECEPTION FOR PRO-LIFE EDUCATORS
SPEAKER: Dr. J.C. Willke, President of Life Issues Institute
Location and Time to be Announced
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