Good News/Bad News

Here is some good news: Yankee pitcher Fritz Peterson now Pitches for God instead of swapping wives. Here in an excerpt from an article about it:

Wife-Swapping Yank Now Pitches for God

By BUCK WOLF, Senior Correspondent, AOL News
posted: 2 DAYS 10 HOURS AGOcomments: 311filed under: National News, Weird NewsWith HP wireless printers, you could have printed this from any room in the house. Live wirelessly. Print wirelessly.


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HOBOKEN, N.J. (Oct. 8) -- Fritz Peterson is pretty sure he isn't going to hell, even though many sports fans remember him for just one thing -- how he met his wife, a woman he's been with for 36 years.
The former New York Yankees pitcher, now 67, figures prominently in the answer to two great sports trivia questions. The first one is this:
In 1973, which two baseball players traded their wives, their two children, and even their dogs?
Indeed, at a time when wife-swapping was a hot topic -- and a sign, perhaps, that the sexual revolution had gone too far -- Peterson and teammate Mike Kekich took the practice to a whole new level.

.........

In the years since, Peterson has rarely talked about his private life. He married the former Susan Kekich, retired from baseball in '76, became an evangelical Christian, and ended up trying to support two households, because his ex-wife and Mike Kekich didn't stay together very long.
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Now, however, Peterson has something to say. He's battling prostate cancer and wants to set the record straight. His memoir, "Mickey Mantle Is Going to Heaven" (Outskirts Press), mixes baseball with reflections on what he calls the "lake of fire" that separates some of us from our place with the Almighty in that great ballpark in the sky.
"I'm not scared of death," Peterson said. "I always thought it would be hilarious to rent a coffin and show up in it at one of those fan fests where the players sign autographs."

This is good news and worth rejoicing in. However, here is some bad news: Irish Priest Kidnapped in Philippines---here is a snippet of that article:

Irish Priest Kidnapped in Philippines
By JIM GOMEZ, AP
posted: 1 HOUR 21 MINUTES AGOcomments: 14filed under: Crime News, Terrorism News, World News
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MANILA, Philippines (Oct. 11) — Heavily armed men barged into a Catholic convent and kidnapped a 78-year old Irish priest late Sunday in the volatile southern Philippines before spiriting him away in a motor boat, an official said.
The six gunmen entered the Columban House in Pagadian City, Zamboanga del Sur province, and dragged Michael Sinnott into a van in front of his horrified aides, regional police commander Chief Supt. Angelo Sunglao said.
"They could not do anything because the abductors had powerful weapons," Sunglao told The Associated Press.
The van was later found abandoned and burned near the convent. The kidnappers then took the priest away by sea on board a motor boat toward a town called Tukuran, Sunglao said, citing fishermen who saw the abduction.
Police have been dispatched to pursue the kidnappers and rescue Sinnott, he said.

Read on: Here.

Hopefully all will work out in the end.

Ecumenical Disaster Relief Efforts In Asia

Baptists appeal for aid after typhoon hits Southeast Asia
By ABP staff
Published: September 29, 2009

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (ABP) -- Baptists in the Philippines are appealing to the global Baptist community for donations as they gear up for relief efforts in the wake of a Sept. 26 typhoon that has killed 300 people there and elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

"For Christians, every disaster is a call to action," said Joel Raner, president of the Luzon Baptist Convention, a regional body affiliated with the Baptist World Alliance that serves in an area of the Philippines hard hit by Typhoon Ketsan. "We are called to help those who are suffering when they need it, and this is certainly the time of most need."

Baptist World Aid, the BWA's relief-and-development arm, urged Baptists around the world to respond to drastic needs of victims of flooding.

"We are also concerned that Typhoon Ketsana is now heading for the Mekong Delta in Vietnam," said Paul Montacute, BWAid director. Montacute said the BWA has also relationships with some Baptist groups in Vietnam, and BWA president David Coffey has visited with Baptist leaders there.

BWAid's Rescue 24 team, operated by Hungarian Baptist Aid and made up of trained international volunteers, is trying to work out details to offer services to the Philippine government, the Luzon convention and Vietnam.

Donations can be made online at the BWA website.

PCUSA'S Response:

PDA Response

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance is working with our partners, the United Church of Christ in the Philippines and the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP). The NCCP has been monitoring the situation through its member churches, regional ecumenical councils and people’s organizations in the affected areas. Local churches in the affected communities have been immediately opening their premises as evacuation and relief centers and providing basic humanitarian assistance of food, drinking water, nonfood relief items, basic medicines and personal hygiene necessities.

Action by Churches Together (ACT) is cooperating to provide assistance to poor urban communities in the riverside areas of Quezon City; there, in addition to the loss of homes and possessions, most residents have also lost their means of livelihood as factory workers, tricycle drivers and small vendors. ACT is preparing a package of relief goods, including food, water, clothes, candles, sleeping mats, mosquito nets, pots and pans, etc., that will be distributed to the most vulnerable families affected in this region.

ACT is preparing an international ACT appeal to provide additional assistance of food, drinking water, nonfood relief items, basic medicines and personal hygiene items. Support for local partners will include transportation, communications and operational support for volunteers and relief coordinators as well as design of relief packages that are compliant with Sphere Minimum Standards of disaster relief, monitoring and reporting.

The ELCA's response is here. The ECUSA's response is here and last but not least, many Roman Catholics are helping out alongside their Protestant brothers and sisters:

Philippine churches work frantically on relief for storm victims
Wednesday, 30 Sep 2009
More news

By Maurice Malanes

Churches and church-based organizations in the Philippines are helping thousands of families, who have lost relatives, homes and other properties after a tropical storm unleashed torrential rains for nine hours, flooding Metro Manila and neighbouring provinces.

As of 28 September, the government's National Disaster Coordination Council reported 144 people killed, four missing and 23 injured as a result of the storm "Ketsana" two days earlier, locally known as "Ondoy". It said the numbers of victims are expected to increase.

"We are concentrating on massive relief operations. The system is overwhelmed, local government units are overwhelmed," the disaster council's head, Anthony Golez, told reporters. "We were used to helping one city, one or two provinces but now we were following one after another. Our assets and people are spread too thinly."

The nine-hour deluge left some areas of Metro Manila, a sprawling city of 12 million people, under six metres (20 feet) of water.

Protestant and Roman Catholic churches and organizations such as Caritas Manila, a Catholic agency, immediately responded, delivering at least 1000 bags of relief goods to hundreds of families on 27 September.

(Read on: Here).

Shark News

Rare Shark Caught, Eaten in Philippines By OLIVER TEVES, AP
posted: 1 HOUR 45 MINUTES AGOcomments: 203filed under: Animal News, World NewsPrintShareText SizeAAA

MANILA, Philippines (April 7) - Fishermen in the Philippines accidentally caught and later ate a megamouth shark, one of the rarest fishes in the world with only 40 others recorded to have been encountered, the World Wildlife Fund said Tuesday.

The 1,100-pound 13-foot megamouth died while struggling in the fishermen's net on March 30 off Burias island in the central Philippines. It was taken to nearby Donsol in Sorsogon province, where it was butchered and eaten, said Gregg Yan, spokesman for WWF-Philippines.

Yan said a WWF Donsol Project Manager Elson Aca took pictures of the megamouth and tried to dissuade the fishermen from eating it. Shark meat is the main ingredient in a local delicacy.

The first megamouth was discovered in Hawaii in 1976, prompting scientists to create an entirely new family and genus of sharks. The megamouths are docile filter-feeders with wide, blubbery mouths. Yan said the Burias megamouth's stomach revealed it was feeding on shrimp larvae.

Yan said the fish was tagged "Megamouth 41" — the 41st megamouth recorded in the world — by the Florida Museum of Natural History. It was the eighth reported encountered in Philippine seas.

He said the megamouth was caught in 660-foot deep waters, which are also frequented by the endangered whale shark, the world's largest fish and also a filter-feeder in the Donsol area, about 185 miles southeast of Manila.

Aca said the presence of two of the world's three filter-feeding sharks along with manta rays and dolphins indicates that the region's marine ecosystem was still relatively healthy and should continue to be protected.

Yan urged fishermen who encounter the rare shark to immediately report to authorities or the WWF.

Others megamouths have been encountered in California, Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia, Brazil, Ecuador, Senegal, South Africa, Mexico and Australia.

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2009-04-07 08:50:37