HANDS HEADLINES

Hard to believe that Avery – our oldest daughter – is now 5 and ready for kindergarten.

After much prayer, searching and many conversations with homeschooling parents, we decided to homeschool Avery – at least for this year. Then after we made the decision, we had a seemingly bigger decision of deciding which curriculum to use. Do a quick search online, and you’ll discover that there are not dozens, but hundreds of different homeschool curriculums to choose from. Can you say . . . “a liiiitle overwhelming!!” Most of them are Christian based curriculums, so that is good, but the choices within Christian homeschooling are vast.
Avery seems to be very excited about it, and we think it will best suit her learning style to be homeschooled – at least in the short run.

Thank you! ~ David & Shannon

HANDS’ HEADLINES
July 29, 2004

770-944-0036 (H)
www.HandsHeadlines.com

David and Shannon Hand
Reaching students in the Southeast,
Sending students to the world.

“Mommy, Daddy! . . . Look!!” How often we hear this exclamation from our daughters who both love to color and make crafts. They are so excited to have us “come see what I made!” We are eager to value their handiwork. It gives them and us joy to appreciate anything they have made.

In the Bible, there is a familiar story about a man named Zaccheus who also exclaimed, “Look!! See this!” He was responding to Jesus after He had showed him great kindness and brought salvation to his soul. As the story goes in Luke 19, Zaccheus was a wee little man who climbed a tree to observe Jesus as He walked by one day. It’s easy to think of this as a trivial story. However, its implications for your partnership with us in ministry are profound. What do we learn about Zaccheus that applies to us and you?

1. Zaccheus experienced a joyful life change through Jesus. He received Jesus gladly – into his home and into his life. He realized (as we should) that Jesus came to set him free from sin. He couldn’t contain his gladness as he saw that he had a fresh start – a brand new life to live.

2. Immediately Zaccheus was eager to demonstrate to others Jesus’ amazing love. He looked around and saw that God had already given him something he could use to do Christ’s work: he had money! Zaccheus said, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor.” He saw giving money as a grand opportunity to imitate Jesus in His work! If Zaccheus was only interested in giving mere recompense for his crooked actions, he would have offered to pay back only the amount he had obtained dishonestly. Yet, he went far beyond that and gave it joyfully.

3. Zaccheus realized that Jesus had taken remarkable initiative to go out of his way to come to his house – and to save him. Why would Jesus, after so many instances of healing sick people and helping poor people, choose to spend time with a loathed, wealthy-by-corruption, seemingly worthy-of-little-attention tax collector? There was a reason Zaccheus had to climb the tree to see Jesus beyond the fact that he was a small man: he was a social outcast. No one would even give him any position on the street! Tax collectors were simply odious to the common Jewish society of the day. They were considered traitors and vile sinners. And, Zaccheus also knew that he was a sinner. He knew he needed Jesus because his great wealth could never fulfill him nor make him socially acceptable. Before Zaccheus did one thing to deserve Jesus’ love, the loving Redeemer went to him and changed him from an outcast to an insider – openly welcoming him into His Kingdom.

Many college students today also seem relatively well off – the elite – on their way to controlling the financial world. Yet, many of them are spiritually impoverished. Jesus wants to go to them. He wants to bring radical change to their lives so that their minds, passions and resources are redirected towards showing His love. You help facilitate this process of Jesus going to them through your prayer and financial support. Thank you for seizing this opportunity to help change the world through reaching college students.

David & Shannon
+ Avery, Addison & Toby

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Contributions:
Please make checks payable to “Campus Crusade for Christ” and mail to:

Contributions
100 Lake Hart Drive
Orlando FL 32832
Account # 0438803
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The Hands
514 Benson Hurst Drive
Mableton, GA 30126

770-944-0036
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Hands Headlines.com

All of my techie friends will like this: I just calculated how many diapers we have used in our house to date: no less than 9,500!! With at least a couple of years worth more to go.
And yes, praise the Lord for disposable diapers!

Anyway, just a thought.

David

Technology. For many people, this word describes a mixed bag of thoughts and emotions. On days when the “Check Engine” light illuminates on our dashboard or our computer screen reads, “A Fatal Error Occurred,” we grimace with frustration. On other days, technology is our best friend and we sing its praises.

The bottom line is that technology is a tool. Tools are not an end unto themselves, but can help accomplish a great deal of work. Any tool that helps connect people with the Gospel is valuable.

History has shown that the Lord can use certain tools to trigger a tidal wave of people being drawn into His Kingdom. Six hundred years ago, one such tool was (and still is) the printing press. Today, we believe another such tool is the Internet.

God is already using the Internet to draw students to Himself. One of Campus Crusade’s many websites – www.EveryStudent.com – was developed as a place online for seeking students to investigate who God is. Take a look at just a small sample of the emails David has received from students visiting this site:

Seeking and Searching

—–Original Message—–
From: ———@hotmail.com
>College: tameside
>Is there a god? and if so i would like you to show me if you have any
>kind of proof! Also where is heaven….is it just make believe passed
>through the generations? and what religion are you? Please write back

—–Original Message—–
From: ——-@devuyst.com
To: david.hand@uscm.org
Subject: question
hello, I’m a 21 year old student from ny state. I’ve just finished
reading the article “Is There a God” and had a couple questions about it.
It is very hard for me to explain what I’m talking about but I feel an aweful emptiness eveytime I think about my life and what has caused me to live the way I do. I, for some reason, can’t bring myself to go on without investigating these things. Thank you for your time and I very much respect and appreciate the website.

—–Original Message—–
From: Paul
To: david.hand@uscm.org
Subject: Get Personal – EveryStudent.com
how can you believe in something so blindly? if I told you that there is this book I found about how your religion was wrong would you believe me? I think not. so why are you so sure that there is a god, because the Bible says so? someone could have made the whole thing up and you can’t prove that someone didn’t. maybe what happened to you, you did you self. how about you give yourself some credit. there is no absolutes in life

—–Original Message—–
From: virgi
To: david.hand@uscm.org
Subject: Get Personal – EveryStudent.com
hi david
i think u are in a wrong illusion.let me tell u there is nothing like god
if so then he is not worthy to be called as god. he is sooooooooopartial.even some men are better then him.i am in a mess and i saw u in www.everystudent.com.
well u too can’t help me , but still iam struggling with god a lot , ineed some help,i don;t understand him .hope u can help me
16 yrs old
iam from india
hope u contact me sssoon

Don’t these students sound thirsty for God? Once again, these are all people who freely initiated with us after visiting a website. What an opportunity and privilege to reach students with such significant spiritual questions!

Did You Know?
• 57,000 people visit EveryStudent.com each month
• Google.com – an Internet Search Engine – receives about 200 million requests a day for information on just about everything.
• By 2005, Web users outside the U.S. are forecast to make up 700 million of the total one billion users.
• Currently, countries in the Asia-Pacific region comprise over 50% of all DSL (high speed Internet) users.
• In 2003, Campus Crusade saw almost 10 million people accept Christ in one Asian country

THANK YOU for your vital prayers! Please keep them coming.

David & Shannon