A couple weeks ago, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone was interviewed on The Colbert Report.  If you’re curious about Twitter and want a basic introduction, or just want to see one of the faces behind this growing phenomenon, here’s your chance.

If you’re not familiar with The Colbert Report, the whole thing is a spoof on ego-centric, conservative cable TV news shows. Pretty funny.

Someone just passed this my way, and I enjoyed it enough to pass it along to you.

You can find out more by visiting www.playingforchange.com.

(And you can share it with a friend using the links below…)

OK, so this video has crossed my path twice in the past couple weeks.  I guess that means it’s time to share it with you guys.

So… what does it all mean?  I’d love to hear your answer in the comments…

Many of you probably know (or maybe not) that over the winter a coalition of churches in Valparaiso worked together to provide overnight shelter and three meals a day for homeless men.  At some point in the next few days, I’ll write more about that.

What you might not know is that during that time a group of Christian business men (all from Valparaiso Mennonite Church, I think) decided to do more.  They realized that many of these guys really have no place to go during the day and that they need help if they are ever going to find jobs and escape the cycle of poverty and homelessness.  So they created the not-for-profit New Creation Men’s Business Advocates, Inc. to provide some of that help at the New Creation Men’s Center.

I’m not an official spokesman or anything, but I do volunteer there once a week, doing a quick Bible study and prayer with the guys on Monday mornings.  Also, some folks from our church are going to bring in a couple meals a month during the summer.  Together with a bunch of other folks, we’re hoping to provide one meal a day for the guys to supplement their food stamps or whatever.

Right now, New Creation Men’s Center is open Monday-Friday, 8:00 am – 6:00 pm.  They provide a lot of services for men who find themselves without a home:

• a shower
• a laundry room
• a workout room
• a computer lab with internet access
• a place to receive mail and phone calls
• storage lockers
• case management, to help them set goals, find resources, and take steps out of homelessness

In addition to these, New Creation provides a place for the men to meet with people like counselors, nurses, and pastors, who come to the center on a regular schedule and by appointment.

New Creation is also providing some work opportunities for the men, to provide short-term income as well as building some job skills and experience.  They can provide day labor for a variety of tasks (contact them to see if the work you need done fits their capabilities).  And soon they will be opening a second-hand store for large items like furniture and appliances.

You can contact New Creation at (219) 548-3548 or by emailing their executive director, Tom Isakson, at tomi@ncbai.org.  If you have time, resources, or ideas to contribute, this is a good cause and a good team worthy of your support.

At lunch, Stacey and I compared notes from this morning’s service.  She served in KidMo with the elementary-age kids this morning, and before she dove into the songs and the story, she wanted to make sure the kids knew that Easter was about more than the Easter bunny. So she asked all the kids “Why do we celebrate Easter?”  And one of them immediately called out, with a big smile on his face, “Because Jesus is dead!”

(She honestly doesn’t remember which kid it was.  That means it was probably yours.)

She kept from bursting out laughing and asked, “And…? What happened next?”  And several kids called out, “And he came back to life!”

Just to make sure that stuck, she made them call out “Jesus is alive!” a whole bunch of times. 

I was going to tell this joke at the beginning of this morning’s message, but I ended up feeling a bit rushed for time, so I skipped it. Now I wish I hadn’t. I stumbled across it twice in the past week, once as a joke involving three blondes at the Pearly Gates being interrogated by St. Peter, and once like this:

A Christian School teacher asked her class the week before Easter if they knew what happened on Easter and why it was so important.

One little girl spoke up saying: “Easter is when the whole family gets together, and you eat turkey and sing about the pilgrims and all that.”

“No, that’s not it,” said the teacher.

“I know what Easter is,” a second student responded. “Easter is when you get a tree and decorate it and give gifts to everybody and sing lots of songs.”

“Nope, that’s not it either,” replied the teacher.

Finally a third student spoke up, “Easter is when Jesus was killed, and put in a tomb and left for three days.”

“Ah, thank goodness somebody knows” the teacher thought to herself. But then the student went on: “Then everybody gathers at the tomb and waits to see if Jesus comes out, and if he sees his shadow he has to go back inside and we have six more weeks of winter.”

What do you think?  Is it worth holding onto so I can tell it next Easter?