Boston doctor says he almost had to be INTUBATED after suffering severe allergic reaction from Moderna Covid vaccine

Ignorance of the truth does not exempt you from the consequences of the truth…Please pay attention to these stories we are posting on this subject. https://www.rt.com/usa/510775-moderna-covid-vaccine-allergic-reaction/

Stan Szymanski (or Encouraging Angels) is not a medical doctor. This is not medical advice. In all matters pertaining to the health and care of a human being consult a medical doctor. This is not legal or financial advice. Consult appropriate professionals in those fields for that type of advice.

EA's Emerging Worldwide Horizon

Because of the articles we have been inspired to start writing for the EA Blog recently about subjects that affect our community, Encouraging Angels is enjoying an emerging worldwide reach and impact.

Because of the kindness of Mr. Steve Quayle, he has seen fit to republish the last 2 feature articles I have written on subjects that affect our community, ‘NY Times Cries Wolf’ and ‘Is UnEstablished Nanotechnolegy The Real Reason People Are Having Allergic Reactions?’. Because of Steve’s brilliant and stalwart work in pursuing truth and Gods’ calling on his life, his over 25 years of truth telling, book writing, over 9000 hours on talk radio and now his bi/tri-weekly web show at QFiles.tv , we have benefited from him exposing our writing and mission with his wide reaching audience.

Just in the last week we have reached the following countries according to our analytics at Squarespace as of about 12 noon EST 12/26/20:

United States

Canada

United Kingdom

Australia

Netherlands

Germany

South Africa

Brazil

Philippines

Romania

Israel

New Zealand

Switzerland

Mexico

Russia

Italy

Singapore

Thailand

China

Ireland

India

Sweden

Taiwan

Uruguay

Czechia

France

Hong Kong

Norway

Uganda

Chile

Colombia

Denmark

Spain

Finland

Republic of Korea

Panama

Austria

Bahamas

Ecuador

Estonia

Croatia

Hungary

Japan

Montenegro

Malaysia

Peru

Poland

Serbia

Slovak Republic

Ukraine

Vietnam

Albania

Argentina

Algeria

Greece

Guam

Iraq

Kenya

Kuwait

Pakistan

Puerto Rico

Portugal

Saudi Arabia

Tunisia

This is due again to the kindness of Mr. Quayle and the Grace of God. In light of this advancement, I hope that you might see fit to share what we here at EA are doing in music, mission and message in the form of participation or support.

Stan Szymanski (or Encouraging Angels) is not a medical doctor. This is not medical advice. In all matters pertaining to the health and care of a human being consult a medical doctor. This is not legal or financial advice. Consult appropriate professionals in those fields for that type of advice.

NY Times cries ‘Wolf’

NY Times cries ‘Wolf’

By Stan Szymanski 

In ‘Covid Overload: U.S. Hospitals Are Running Out of Beds for Patients ‘ (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/27/health/covid-hospitals-overload.html ) the November 27, 2020 New York Times (NYT) article by Reed Abelson, the author ‘cries wolf’ in regard to the virus situation. Ms. Ableson claims that ‘hospitals are facing a crisis-level shortage of beds and staff to provide adequate care for patients’. This cry, of course, feeds into the need for the pharma industry to come to the rescue to provide the country with an untested mRNA vaccine laden with ‘unestablished nanotechnology’ https://www.encouragingangels.org/new-blog/2020/12/20/xxu2ini4cysyzsr8ir1s2ek5ieytnf

Is this a valid cry for help or is it one designed to garner attention and sell the wares of the wolf?

I believe that The Lord led me to a specific article to test the thesis of the above NYT article. Yesterday, I found an interesting website known as ‘Becker’s Hospital Review’. I found a novel page titled ‘COVID-19 hospitalizations by state: Dec. 23 (https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/public-health/number-of-covid-19-hospitalizations-state-by-state-july-15.html) by Mackenzie Bean. In this update Bean related the details of The Atlantic's COVID Tracking Project. From the above Becker’s Hospital Review page: 

’The Atlantic's COVID Tracking Project compiles data directly from the websites of local or state public health authorities. When data is missing from the websites, it supplements available numbers with information from official news conferences. Data was last updated Dec. 20, Dec. 21 or Dec. 22, depending on the state.

States are listed alphabetically. Not all states report both cumulative and current totals.’

According to Bean, ‘California has the most COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the U.S., according to the COVID Tracking Project’. A report from each of the 50 states is included on Becker’s page. Here are a few examples from various parts of the country of the current reporting of hospital bed capacity that Becker’s reported:

Alabama 

Current: 2,527

Cumulative: 31,305

State's hospital bed capacity: 15,278


California

Current: 18,961

State's hospital bed capacity: 72,511

(Note California did not report a ‘cumulative’ number of virus cases)


Florida

Current: 5,634

Cumulative: 61,279

State's hospital bed capacity: 54,744


Kansas

Current: 630

Cumulative: 6,267

State's hospital bed capacity: 9,659


Maine

Current: 185

Cumulative: 985

State's hospital bed capacity:  3,400

Interesting, isn’t it? California has 18,961 ‘Current’ cases and a stated hospital bed capacity of 72,511 or an overall hospital bed occupancy rate of 25.3% (18,961/72,511=.253). Maine has 185 ‘Current’ cases and a stated hospital bed capacity of 3,400 or an overall hospital bed occupancy rate of 5% (185/3,400=.05).

I am no mathematician, however, if you simply add all of the states’ ‘current’ cases and divide them by the sum total of the reported number of available hospital beds in each state you get an average percentage of hospital occupancy per bed available. When I did my calculation for all 50 states (I am not a statistician and these results have not been audited; check the math for yourself), I get this result: The average occupancy per hospital bed available in the United States is approximately 14.6% as of December 23, 2020.

If this is true, is the NYT saying that once our hospitals on average in the U.S., get to just under 15% capacity that all hell starts breaking loose with claims of: hospitals running out of beds, a shortage of nurses (up to one quarter out sick) due to numerous nurses testing ‘positive’ for the virus, a lack of PPE (personal protective equipment) and more.

From the NYT article... ‘Even if hospitals in some cities appear to have enough physical space, or can quickly build new units or set up field hospitals, staff shortages offset any benefit of expansion.

“Beds don’t take care of people; people take care of people,” said Dr. Marc Harrison, the chief executive of Intermountain Healthcare, a sprawling system of hospitals and clinics based in Salt Lake City.’...

So if a state like California (25.3% state occupancy) or even the highest on 12/23/20, Arizona, with 28.3% occupancy still has a margin of almost 75%, can’t the state regulatory bodies inform people in public service announcements where to go to get help if certain hospitals are at capacity? Can’t the state regulators kindly ask doctors and nurses who are sitting on their hands in the outlying areas to go to the busy hospitals where they are actually needed? 

As Dr. Marc Harrison stated above (and in the NYT article), “Beds don’t take care of people; people take care of people”. Another way of saying that might be to say that ‘we have 100 beds in this hospital but only enough staff to actually care for beds with 50 people in them’. If that is the case, and ‘staff shortages’ are already a known issue, again, why aren’t human assets (i.e. nurses, doctors, technicians etc.) being paid for with some of the emergency money that is going to big phama and redeploy these human assets from where they are not being utilized from low occupancy states (like Arkansas 7.5% state occupancy) to nearby Alabama who state Covid occupancy is double (16.5%)? Couldn’t some human assets from Oregon (8.6% occupancy), for example, be redeployed to be of some assistance to California (25.3%)? 

During the catastrophic events of 9/11, first responders, construction workers and people who just wanted to help from most states in the nation converged on New York City, to do what we in the USA do better than anyone else in the world: to offer help to people who are in the worst period of their lives. We did it for ourselves in 9/11, we did it with the rebuilding of Europe with the Marshall plan, also with the occupation and reconstruction of Japan after the nuclear attacks and so many more times after earthquakes, tornadoes and tsunamis around the world. And here we are now in the midst of the greatest health crisis (the Wuhan ‘Covid-19’ virus), and what Gerald Celente calls the ‘Greatest Depression’ (https://usawatchdog.com/greatest-depression-already-started-gerald-celente/) and yet, the (mostly Democratic) governors of the United States of America will not allow people to travel across state borders without imposing a 14 day quarantine on anyone who does so (https://www.health.pa.gov/topics/disease/coronavirus/Pages/Travelers.aspx). These ‘officials’ not only have no sense of urgency to provide the redeployment of human capital where needed, they penalize anyone who has the ‘get up and go’ to do it themselves. These ‘officials’ have no sense when it comes to the only thing to get the economy back on its feet and that is people working and small businesses thriving. They have no sense to let loose the American ‘Can-Do’ attitude. In short, they have no sense at all.

Speaking of ‘no sense’ we can discuss what is being counted as Covid-19. First, ‘Minnesota lawmakers say coronavirus deaths could be inflated by 40% after reviewing death certificates (https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/coronavirus-death-certificates-minnesota-inflated?fbclid=IwAR3DjL2P3pUHPZSf85yYO-urdBet6SgrmbPnJ0Xnq70ihI1ADw3wq5DSvsg). If this is the case, just what is the real number of people who actually died from the Virus? At https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/12/22/why-has-the-flu-disappeared.aspx an article titled, ‘Why Has the Flu Disappeared?’ states the following : ‘The CDC reported that the percentage of respiratory specimens submitted for influenza testing that test positive decreased from greater than 20% to 2.3% since the start of the pandemic.’ Additionally: ‘The “COVID” deaths the CDC has been reporting are actually a combination of pneumonia, flu and COVID-deaths, under a new category listed as "PIC" (pneumonia, Influenza, COVID)’. And the final preface point of the article: ‘According to the CDC, flu cases began to decline in response to “widespread adoption of community mitigation measures to reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2,” but why do such measures work to eradicate flu while COVID-19 continues to rise?’

So while we were were trying to conquer Covid-19 we mistakenly conquered the flu instead??? This makes no sense. What seems to appear is that the ‘officials’ who count the numbers of Covid cases changed the definition of what constitutes a Covid case. And the change in the count allowed the ‘Main Stream Media’ to continue to report large numbers of Covid cases when the actual count of -real- Covid cases are potentially -vastly- different and you might bet that they would be vastly lower.

Speaking of the ‘Main Stream Media’ that brings us back to to the New York Times article. One of the most well known and beloved of Aesop’s Fables is ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’. A synopsis of it is found here (https://fablesofaesop.com/the-boy-who-cried-wolf.html)...

(From the same website) ‘A bored Boy tending Sheep cried “Wolf!” to get attention. He did it again and people came. A third time and the Boy was ignored. Goodbye flock.

A liar will not be believed, even when telling the truth’.

In our case, the ‘boy’ is the ‘Main Stream Media’, like the New York Times who shout ‘Wolf’ and who actually carry the water for the ‘wolves’. The ‘wolves’ are those who look to attack the citizens of The United States of America. Don’t think you are under attack? Citizens of the US: 1) You were hit with a bio weapon (the Wuhan virus). 2) You are being told to take an untested mRNA vaccine that contains ‘Unestablished Nanotechnology’( https://www.encouragingangels.org/new-blog/2020/12/20/xxu2ini4cysyzsr8ir1s2ek5ieytnf ) . 3) If you are one of the owners of the small businesses that drive the economy of the U.S. you are being told to stay home and bankrupt yourself for the ‘greater good’. You and your family will not recover if things don’t change. Quickly. The population of the the wolves include at least (most likely more than) one foreign government. When they look at you they see a bag a of groceries or a carcass depending on what stage of extinction you are in.

Upon examination of what we have looked at in this writing, can we really say that we believe that the information put forth in the November 27, 2020 NYT article by Reed Abelson is the whole story and that we should use it to allow it to  influence our thinking and decision making? Or is it subterfuge to hide the wolves and their intentions until you are so unsuspecting and weakened from dining on disinformation that when they are so close, even at your dining room table, that you can’t recognize that it is you who is for dinner.

©️2020

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Stan Szymanski (nor Encouraging Angels) is not a medical doctor. This is not medical advice. In all matters pertaining to the health and care of a human being consult a medical doctor. This is not legal or financial advice. Consult appropriate professionals in those fields for that type of advice.

Hospital Workers Turn Down COVID Vaccine; ‘There’s Too Much Mistrust’

Thank God. At least these Chicago hospital workers are starting to stand up! Will you share this story with those you love? Then you can give them the -other side- of the story that CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, MSNBC and Rachael Levine won’t tell (disclose) them of the potential risks of taking a vaccine with ‘Unestablished Nanotechnology’!

https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/hospital-workers-turn-down-covid-vaccine-theres-too-much-mistrust

Stan Szymanski (nor Encouraging Angels) is not a medical doctor. This is not medical advice. In all matters pertaining to the health and care of a human being consult a medical doctor.

Why EA is highlighting the problems with Allopathic Treatments

Why has EA been so busy keeping up on highlighting the problem with the Allopathic treatments being offered to attempt to squelch the pandemic?

It is simply because numbers of people who are disabled, MR or Special Needs have been negatively affected by a ‘simple’ needle stick into the arm. We are not talking about a reaction to the vaccine like temporary swelling around the injection site or a mild fever. We are talking about Vaccine -Injury- that in some cases could be avoided. Here are just a few of the things that can happen as a result of Vaccine Injury. Guillain-Barre syndrome, anaphylaxis, Transverse Myelitis, Encephalitis and so, so much more. For more info go here and here.

It cannot be overstated the cost of vaccine injury to a family. It includes, financial (including bankruptcy), relationships (including divorce) and the robbing of actual life from a person whether it be partial or full. We make no claims as to whether any vaccine causes damage or not and this is not medical advice-please consult your doctor.

The public is being fed a steady stream of propaganda from the ‘mainstream media’ that seems to imply that we can get back to normal if everyone would just get the vaccine. One problem is that there is a lack of disclosure that there may be other ways of dealing with things that look like the flu and pneumonia (consider looking at www.mercola.com for info concerning this as just one example). Secondly, the public is not being completely informed as to the inherent risks of receiving this type of ‘prevention’ as the CDC is being hit with reports of reactions to the current jabs (https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/cdc-issues-new-guidelines-launches-probe-after-1000s-negatively-affected-following-covid).

My wife and I did 8 1/2 years of ICU level care for our daughter in our home and lived in the hospital for 6 months with her and with her disease state. We spent our retirement to take care of her as well as borrowing money to continue on. I gave up a good career and income to choose my daughter over those things.

People, the costs of damage to a human being can be very high indeed. Can’t the landscape be changed to protect the consumer first and not the producer of the pharmekia (https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/300aa-22)?

‬‬“Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.”

‭‭Revelation‬ ‭9:21‬ ‭KJV‬‬

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Stan Szymanski (or Encouraging Angels) is not a medical doctor. This is not medical advice. In all matters pertaining to the health and care of a human being consult a medical doctor. This is not legal or financial advice. Consult appropriate professionals in those fields for that type of advice.


Is Unestablished Nanotechnology The Real Reason people are having ‘Allergic Reactions’ ?

In this article referenced from The Hill (https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/530966-fda-investigating-allergic-reactions-to-pfizer-vaccine-reported-in-multiple ) they are reporting that they are looking into the potential role of polyethylene glycol (PEG) as the ingredient that may be causing the multiple ‘allergic’ reactions in the roll out of the vaccine for the virus. Polyethylene Glycol is an ingredient that can be manufactured to different lengths and geometries for different metabolic purposes (https://www.sigmaaldrich.com/technical-documents/articles/materials-science/polyethylene-glycol-selection-guide.html). The beginning of the first sentence in this article (https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/6/eaay9937) states that ‘ Polyethylene glycols (PEGs) can improve the diffusivity of nanoparticles (NPs) in biological hydrogels (italic emphasis added).

Is it possible that it is not the Polyethylene Glycol that people are reacting to, but the possible (again, I say -possible- as I do not know all of the potential reactions to the ingredients in the vaccine nor their potential reason for inclusion in the vaccine nor the potential benefits or side effects) effects of nanoparticles as part of a hydrogel injected into human beings for the first time ‘en masse’? Apparently, this is not the first time that Polyethylene Glycol has been injected into human beings and previous claims have been made as to its ‘safety’ (https://www.kdheks.gov/immunize/download/Facts_about_Childhood_Vaccine_Ingredients.pdf).

The vaccines contain nanotechnology. In the following article ‘ COVID-19 Vaccine Frontrunners and Their Nanotechnology Design‘ (2/3/21 link addendum: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acsnano.0c07197 Why did I have to add a new link to the supporting article? Because the original one (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7553041/) is now ‘Page Unavailable’ at the US National Library of Medicine. Gee, I wonder why?) it states: ‘Moderna reached clinical trials 63 days after their sequence selection.8 It is striking that an unestablished nanotechnology formulation reached clinical testing almost a full month before established approaches (i.e., inactivated and live-attenuated vaccines) entered clinical trials.9,10This highlights the opportunity for less developed technology platforms in vaccine development and, if proven successful, may enable a more rapid response to future emergent infectious diseases’.

Did you catch the …’It is striking that an unestablished nanotechnology formulation reached clinical testing almost a full month before established approaches (i.e., inactivated and live-attenuated vaccines) entered clinical trials.’… Unestablished nanotechnology??? If something is ‘unestablished’ then who knows what the potential benefits and more importantly, the risks are to a human being??? We have relayed reports of people passing out soon after taking the jab. If you don’t know why nanotechnology is a concern please take a look at https://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-the-possible-dangers-of-nanotechnology.htm The above supports asking the question: ‘Is unestablished nanotechnology going to save you or hurt you?’ In my humble estimation, I do not know and apparently neither to the manufactures. Caveat Emptor people-please.

©️2020
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Stan Szymanski (nor Encouraging Angels) is not a medical doctor. This is not medical advice. In all matters pertaining to the health and care of a human being consult a medical doctor.

Nurse Passes Out on Live Television After Taking Coronavirus Vaccine

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/12/watch-nurse-passes-live-television-taking-coronavirus-vaccine/

The Twitter account with the video was (surprise) suspended. Please note that the author of the tweet is a doctor.

Here it is on YT (until they take it down):

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fNSOwkOMH_s

Neither Stan Szymanski nor Encouraging Angels are medical doctors and this is not medical advice. Anything regarding the health of a human being please consult your medical doctor or health care professional. For informational purposes only.

Abreaction…Resuscitation Centers and HIV False Positives

Two more reasons for you today to -not- take the jab…your life could be at stake…(this is not medical advice..consult your Medical Doctor on all matters regarding your health)…please see our notes in the previous blog post as well..go to FB and watch the Encouraging Angels ‘This Is Not A Christmas Show’ show from last week…

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/12/09/resuscitation-facilities-required-at-corona-vaccination-hubs-in-uk-after-two-experience-anaphylactoid-reaction-to-the-jab-15198362/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/12/11/australia-scraps-vaccine-after-hiv-false-positives/

Neither Stan Szymanski nor Encouraging Angels are medical doctors and this is not medical advice. Anything regarding the health of a human being please consult your medical doctor or health care professional. For informational purposes only.

This Is Not A Christmas Show Links

Here are the links mentioned in today’s show. Neither Stan Szymanski nor Encouraging Angels are medical doctors and this is not medical advice. Anything regarding the health of a human being please consult your medical doctor or health care professional. For informational purposes only.

http://tapnewswire.com/2020/11/robert-f-kennedy-jr-new-covid-vaccine-should-be-avoided-at-all-cost/

https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/11/11/coronavirus-antibody-dependent-enhancement.aspx

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/global-covid-19/shielding-approach-humanitarian.html

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/11/johns-hopkins-study-mysteriously-disappears-shows-spite-covid-no-deaths-2020-prior-years/

https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/12/09/coronavirus-hoax.aspx

https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/08/24/quercetin-and-vitamin-c-synergistic-effect.aspx

https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/10/26/zinc-for-covid.aspx

https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/11/10/coronavirus-n-acetylcysteine.aspx

https://www.facebook.com/encouraging.angels/videos/10226659974064824

Stan Szymanski (or Encouraging Angels) is not a medical doctor. This is not medical advice. In all matters pertaining to the health and care of a human being consult a medical doctor. This is not legal or financial advice. Consult appropriate professionals in those fields for that type of advice.

The 2020 Goals of Encouraging Angels

Dear friend of Encouraging Angels:

2019 was a transitional year for EA as we moved into a ‘broadcast’ model’ to reach many more who stand to benefit from our broadcast of ‘Alive At 5’. Depending on the week (viewership fluctuates of course) we served 3-5 times more individuals (who also may have more than one person watching). year over year. The analytics for our website were also up significantly: Unique visitors up 19.7%, Visits up 33.5% and Pageviews up 36.6% (year over year 10/29/18 - 10/29/19). Dec 2019 was one of the biggest months for website growth as month over month Unique Visitors increased 373%, Visits +400% and Pageviews were up 466%.

In 2019, EA broadcast to its base on Facebook as we ‘learned the ropes’ when it came to live internet broadcast of music and message. As some of you could attest to it was just painful to go through the process at times with us.

We still have much to learn as our main goal of advancement is to bring our method of distribution from Facebook to the internet (and world) at large. This is going to take more technical expertise than we have right now; another steep learning curve ahead! Another goal is for us to host three concerts with a full band (rather than just Stan) during 2020. Just as our Dec 2019 analytics showed great development in our new ‘business’ model, we trust that 2020 will be a year of increase in the number of people we serve. We are working on the funding for the above and pray that the Lord will provide for us to be supported in this endeavor as He faithfully has for over a decade.

Thank you for being interested enough to keep up with what we are doing by taking the time to read this update. We will still be off for a few weeks from broadcasting ‘Alive’ as we work on other projects here at Encouraging Angels world headquarters (Sounds glamorous right? Believe me its not…).

Happy 2020!

Stan and Cindy Szymanski

Encouraging Angels

www.encouragingangels.org

Mercury

May 5, 1961: The date of the launch of the first US manned space flight. Alan Shepherd’s Freedom 7 capsule reached an altitude of 116 miles an when he splashed down the flight had taken just 15 minutes,

NASA of course orbited the earth (John Glenn), went from a 1 person capsule to a 2 person capsule (the Gemimi program) and reached the Moon in the summer of 1969 with Apollo. But it all started with Mercury.

Encouraging Angels launched our live broadcast of Alive At 5! last Wednesday. It took a lot of work to get to that point and we are still working out issues of a technical nature. We are still really in the period of a ‘soft launch’ as we work out the bugs before we do a ‘Grand Opening’ with a marketing campaign to help get the word out.

We look to serve the special needs/disabled/MR community wherever they are. The fact is that the majority of the disabled and their caregivers have limited ability to get out so we are using the broadcast to speak directly to them. So if you (the affected person and the caregiver) are ‘stuck’ where you are you can use the broadcast to have a sense of belonging and a place to receive music, message and fellowship.

If you run or work at an institution or church, we look to perform, minister and broadcast live from your venue. If would would be interested in hosting EA’s ‘Alive At 5’ please contact us.

Getting A New Ship To The Launch Pad

Encouraging Angels is a ministry to the disabled, the MR and special needs through music, message and testimony. We have been ‘at it’ going on 13 years and our ‘Alive At 5:55’ is now entering its 10th year. We have ministered to a lot of affected folks as well as those who love and care for them (whether they be family or professionals).

We have seen a lot of changes as well and that brings us to the purpose of this post. We are committing 2019 to being a year of change and growth. Change in getting many more involved in experiencing the ‘music, message and testimony’ by reaching out through a regular broadcast to those are cannot come to us. We will engage in a campaign of phone calls and marketing in order to get those who cannot physically come to us to be not only aware of us, but aware that they can participate in their own way through the broadcast we will provide.

So this is indeed a ‘new chapter’. But in 2019 change in delivery also means a change in the technology used to achieve it. A -big- change.

Before we kick this off we have to learn how to set up and produce a 3 camera shoot. We have to learn how to set up and operate a professional audio and video broadcast interface (hardware and software). Because we are broadcasting in the public domain we have new copyright issues to comply with that we didn’t have to really worry about previously. And a few other things as well that go along with this change…

Its a lot to assimilate, understand and carry out in order to get this ship onto the launch pad and a bit more for a successful launch into this new endeavor. We hope that as you see this emerge in the near future that you and/or your friends/family or acquaintances who are those we are looking to serve will consider participating.

Delays and Delta Dawn

So we normally start our Spring/Summer session of 'Alive At 5:55' a few weeks earlier than we are this year. My wife's Dad developed pneumonia and died (91 yrs old) just about 4 weeks ago and as you can imagine, there are a few things to do in wrapping up his affairs and the emotional cost of saying goodbye to someone so close whom we really (especially my wife) really took care of for the last 11 years since his wife (my mother-in-law) died.
 

As you may know, our ministry to the disabled is a music ministry that helps to create socialization and acceptance of the disabled and 'MR' community. Music is a very healing thing and something that binds people of many backgrounds together.

As my wife and I sat with her Dad in the hospital on his last day on earth, my wife took out her iPhone and put on Pandora for her Dad. He loved country music; both kinds: Country -and- Western. 'Delta Dawn' came on and I couldn't help but to think of just how fitting that song was for him... 'and did I hear you say he was-a meetin' you here today to take you to that mansion in the sky?'

For all of us, at that moment when we breathe our last, we will be met by 'he'. Either 'He' known as Jesus Christ, our redeemer because we made a decision to trust Him with our life and believed that 'He' is the Son Of God, is very God of very God and lived the perfect life in our place and died on the cross to save us from our sins and rose to life so that we might have eternal life. Or...you will be met by 'he' known as Satan and taken to a place that is completely separated from God and what Jesus described as a place where...'the worms that eat them do not die, and the fire is not quenched.' (Mark 9:48)

As my wife eulogized her Dad later that week she told those that were there to honor him that she and I had had numerous discussions with her Dad about accepting Christ as his savior and that her Dad did indeed accept Jesus as his deliverer and that we could have the confidence that her Dad was now in the presence of The Lord-he was now in 'that mansion in the sky'.

So as we start our 2018 season we do it with a heavy, but grateful heart and that the reason we keep doing Encouraging Angels is so that we can share Jesus with those that we know and minister to.

The Pittsuburgh Marathon and The Narrow Road...

So there was this Juggler who was giving a sermon...

Sounds like the start to a joke right? Well this was part of the church service that I was a part of last week for my special needs friends (I was delivering the praise and worship for the service).

The juggler (who normally juggles for the congregation but didn't juggle this week; he was substituting for the pastor who was off in California...) started off talking about 'The Narrow Road'. He talked about his niece who lost her way, fell into the drug culture, robbed a bank and is now on her way to paying her debt to society. His message was not structured well, but he made his point: follow Jesus and stay on 'The Narrow Road'.

His abrupt message made me think about my race in the recent Pittsburgh Half Marathon. This was my first race at this distance (13.1 miles) and I loved it was was excited to run it.

Starting at about mile 11 there is a -very long- uphill section of the course that starts in the South Side when you turn from Carson Street onto the Birmingham Bridge. It is almost 1 1/2 miles uphill until you start your final decent to the finish line on the Blvd. of The Allies. At the end of the Birmingham Bridge the Half Marathoners make a 'left' and run up into the Hill District and the Full Marathoners make a 'right' and go up into Oakland.

All the while when you are running the Birmingham Bridge there are volunteers announcing on bull horns for the Half Marathoners to turn left at the bottom of the bridge. Even when you make the left hand turn to head up into the Hill District the Pittsburgh Marathon has large signs that read 'You Are Now On the Half Marathon Route'. Thank goodness that the people in charge of the Marathon were very demonstrative about telling us runners which was the right way to go as I am sure that more than one runner has made a wrong turn there in the past in midst of competition, stress and exhaustion.

If you were running the Half Marathon and were to make a wrong turn and headed into Oakland instead of the Hill District it would be very disheartening to first, discover that you were headed the wrong way and secondly, to realize that you had to run a lot further that you would have had to if you had just followed 'the way' in the first place.

In life, when you make a wrong turn and judge yourself for making a mistake, most of the time you can turn around (repent) and keep running in the race towards the finish line. If however, we do not judge ourselves and keep going the wrong way someone else is going to judge us; either an actual judge (like with the Jugglers' niece) or we will have finished the wrong race.

So we can repent and still make it to the finish line. But make no mistake; there is only -one- finish line in any race. If someone tries to shorten the race or cheat to get to the finish line, he or she is disqualified. And so, there is only one road with one gate, the Narrow Road to Heaven. Jesus said Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. 9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. (John 10:7-9(a))." Just as there is only one finish line in any race and only one way through it, there is only one way to be saved, one 'gate', one Savior.

I am very happy to have run and trained for my first Half Marathon. I loved it and would do it again. Hopefully the next time I won't have to train hurt and run hurt. I finished in front of 59% of the race participants. Not bad for a first time. My talented 20 year old son on the other hand finished in front of 98.2% of the race participants (and that is with stopping to go to the bathroom in the middle of the race!).

In the midst of the competition, stress and exhaustion of life if we keep our eyes on Jesus we don't have to make wrong turns. Even though the way is difficult sometimes (for some of us, all the time), we will get to the finish line if we keep our sights set on the right guideposts. So what does a Juggler, a sermon and a Half Marathon have in common? A lot it seems........

 

Why am I writing about running on a disability blog?

On the surface it doesn't seem to make much sense.

If our job is to ‘encourage’ the church to fulfill its obligation to the biblical command to `go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.' (Luke 14:21b, NASB), then what does running have to do with that?

Just because your task is to get the church to satisfy its duties to go to the disabled/special needs/MR population and make them a part of the church it doesn't mean that the 'church' actually will do it. In the early days of Encouraging Angels I spent a lot of time in 'cold calling' churches and pastors to 'encourage' them to allow us to have a 'Disability Sunday' at their church. This way someone in the church might take the the mantle of assimilating the affected into the local body of believers while they hear the story of our family and in particular, the story of our daughter, Hannah.

Long story short, 99% of the church could care less about the disabled. If they did, you would find them in the church. The year 2000 US Census stated that about 19% of Americans claim a disability. When is the last time you saw -one- wheelchair in church, let alone five or ten? That's why we started 'Alive At 5:55'.

I ran 10 miles yesterday without having a face to face meeting with the pavement like last week (if you didn't read it, please take a look at last weeks blog). Felt pretty good when I was done. Race coming up soon...

In life, when people don't do what they should it is disappointing. When the church doesn't do what Jesus has clearly commanded, they are probably apostate. They may talk a good game, but the real evidence of faith is -action-. If they were recruiting disabled folks at the same rate they coral business owners, professional football players and people who don't have visible 'impairments' I wouldn't be so hard in my assessments.

Running in a competition is a bona fide article of truth. No matter how you feel or what injuries (impairments) you have, the clock still tells you the real facts when you are done. Although not all can run in a competition because of certain conditions, -all- can and must run the race of life. Encouraging Angels wants to run with our 'special' friends for as long as we can.

I went for a 10 mile run but I was tripped up in Shadyside today...

I am training for longest race I have ever run. Last Sunday I thought that it was over as I was suffering from not only terrible shin splints (for the last 6 weeks) but also acute Plantar Fasciitis. This past Monday I went to see Dr. Martin Gallagher M.D. who gave me chiropractic manipulation and acupuncture to treat my shin splints and the plantar fasciitis. Later on that day I was able to run four 1-mile repeats!

Since I was now functional again (I will be receiving at least one more treatment) I have been training all week which leads me to today...what runners call the 'long run'. I (and my son who also ran 10 miles; but not with me because he is just too fast for me) went out to Oakland/Shadyside to run a 5 mile loop two times. It serves to build endurance and provide a good excuse to eat a hot dot at the 'O' (the 'Original' Hot Dog shop) in Oakland for our protein when the run is over.

The first three miles went fine. Then, a young couple crossed my path around Mellon Park and began to run in front of me. Their pace was about the same as mine and I didn't want to stay behind them (a big mistake as you'll see), so I passed them and was acting like a 'rabbit' (pace setter) for them.

At this point I was feeling quite confident and decided to pick up the pace. No sooner did I do that that a piece of the Shadyside sidewalk peeked up to see what was going on and grabbed my left foot. At least that's what it felt like.

I really, really hate seeing the sidewalk rising to greet my face. It is as if the world immediately starts running in slow motion. It's always the same, first the foot that trips is the first to hit, quickly followed by the right knee, left elbow and finally the right hand to stop my head from hitting the pavement. After hitting the ground, my pride immediately jumped up (as well as myself) and said 'I'm fine' when the young couple stopped to see if I was alright.

There was a strangely unsettling mix of cinders and fresh blood on a substantial areas of the left elbow. My right knee corresponded in harmonious agreement with the same amalgamation of ingredients and size. My right wrist was now quite sore. Most surprising of all was the feeling of strain on my side and chest. As I began running again to finish the first half of the run (where I could wash out my wounds) I questioned myself if I wasn't have a heart issue. What had happened is that when I stuck my left elbow out during the crash, I stretched muscles/connective tissue I didn't even know that I had throughout the entire left side of my sternum.

I did finish my 10 mile run today. The good news is that by the time I finished the 10 miles, I completely forgot about the shin splints and foot pain that was there earlier!

So what do you do when you're tripped up? I think that the best thing to do is make sure you are functional and keep on keeping on, even if you are hurting.

Sometimes you push through one (or two) problems and encounter another set of problems on your way to your goal. I guess that I am very blessed that I have the opportunity to struggle to cope through all the problems that runners have with long distances. Many of my special needs and disabled friends don't get the opportunity to endeavor to meet these types of goals, even though some really wish they could. At least we can always have hot dogs together (like my son and did at the 'O')!

P.S. Maybe getting tripped up in Shadyside will lead to a way for us to link running, hot dogs, Encouraging Angels and these friends together.

What do you do when people dissapoint you?

What do you do when people disappoint you? I was supposed to go running with a friend this morning after planning to have him pick me up so we could go to another part of the city to run where it is relatively flat and we could do long, slow training run. After waiting for a very long time, he didn't show up.

My day and plans were out the window and I still have a race to run in a few weeks that I need to keep training for.

Disabled and Special Needs people (and those that care for them) live life a lot like good runners do. They have to prepare to get out of the house each day wearing special clothes for what they do. A runner has special shoes just for the type of race or training they are involved in. Affected people not only have special shoes, but many have wheelchairs, speech equipment, feeding tubes and lots more just to run the race of life. Many runners have coaches; the disabled have Occcpational, Vision and Physical Therapists who help them improve.

And like my friend, lots of people act like they are running the race with you and pay verbal homage to the 'said' faith that they are 'down for the struggle' with you. But in fact, in this life when the race is getting ready to start you are sometimes faced with running the race with very few friends. In many cases you must be prepared to run the race -alone-.

Easter was just last week. By the time Jesus went to the cross, all the apostles had abandon or forsaken Him. Oh, a few watched while He was on the cross, but Jesus finished His work on earth -alone- on the cross.

Today, Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father with all power. He finished His race and finished well and accomplished His goal. My friend may have left me on my own today, but I still have race to run. And so it is time to stretch, put on my running clothes, eat a gel, put on my headphones and head towards my aim...and at least for today...-alone-.....

The Resurrection: -Knowing- that you know

As I write this it is early Easter morning. I feel a quite confidence in -knowing- that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, just as He said. Skeptics and unbelievers have various explanations to explain away the resurrection. Once upon a time the students of Harvard Law challenged Dr. Simon Greenleaf, who wrote the 3 volume masterwork 'A Treatise on the Law of Evidence' which the The Dictionary of American Biography called "the greatest single authority in the entire literature of legal procedure'. This same man was also the 'Dane Professor of Law' at Harvard.

He stated in one of his classes that the resurrection of Jesus Christ was just  'a legend'. In a refutation, three of his law students challenged him to apply his well known guidelines of evidence to the resurrection account. Greenleaf accepted and commenced his investigation. Greenleaf set out to prove that the account of the resurrection was just legend. However as he examined the facts in light of the evidence Greenleaf accepted the details and evidence as proving the resurrection of Jesus Christ as fact.  This work culminated in his writing of 'The Testimony of the Evangelists'. I believe that it is profound that a man of his legal stature became a Christian in light of his honest examination of the historical information found in the Bible.

Have you considered making your own honest examination of the facts of the resurrection of Jesus? Consider reading 'The Testimony of the Evangelists' and the accounts of the resurrection in the New Testament (Matt 28, Mark 16, Luke 24).

Confidence comes from -knowing- that you know...

Stan