ruthless winter to come: sleeping in ice & snow

Every year, the media and the local government advise that the elderly and children be protected from the cold. They also offer hot-line phone numbers for people to complain if they've got no heat and/or hot water. Of course, there's also the worry of the homeless -- those who sleeping in the cold streets out of no other choice. Shelters are offered as an alternative, which of course can only hold a certain number of people leaving many in the cold. In all, winter in NYC can be brutal and ruthless especially if you're cold with your body heat dropping by the minute and getting numb.

I'm listing some organizations if you care to help or need help.

• Coalition for the Homeless
  http://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/
• NYC Department of Homeless Services
  http://www.nyc.gov/html/dhs/html/home/home.shtml
• New York Homeless Shelters
  http://www.homelessshelterdirectory.org/newyork.html

What I just wrote above is absolutely nothing unless you've lived through this. Do something. At least, support whatever outreach ministry your church offers. Said the latter, if your church doesn't have outreach programs, find another church.

religion in a technological world

Technology is a great way (maybe the best way after the Gutenberg press and the publishing the Bible for common people to read and study, circa 1450, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutenberg_Bible) to propagate the name of God. For example, if a church or congregation leader wants to communicate with others for any reason whatsoever, he/she can send an email, post a quick note on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/) and/or Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/) aside from posting such information on the church website.

In a real life example, the pastor at FAPC (http://www.fapc.org/) sent an urgent email this past winter during a heavy storm indicating that many children activities and the 9:30 service were canceled for that Sunday. This way the congregation knew that the church would open late and Sunday school was canceled for that Sunday only.

Groups like Geeks and God (http://www.geeksandgod.com/) promote open source technologies to create websites, forums, email systems and other services that a church can use to reach its congregation and others. For example, some churches have a live feed of their service for those who can't go to church for whatever reason (handicapped, elderly, etc) or excuse.

At the same time, some companies offer their services for free for non-profit organizations (churches included, of course not using the words "church" or "religion" to be politically correct). In this latter case, Google (http://www.google.com/) fits perfectly providing some services for free to promote other or the same services in a larger scale for a fee.

I will stop here 'cause I can write for hours about technology. I might continue later.