Yucatan Mexico Outreach

Our family has now been living in the Yucatan of Mexico for just over one year now. Last time I wrote a post about the challenges faced by the women of the Yucatan. In response to that, I wanted to share with you our work here and thank all of you that donated to this cause. Everyone asks if that is me in the pictures, but that is my friend Tammy. I am always behind the camera.

This last month the ladies gathered for a 2 1/2 hour workshop and ministry time & baby shower to the pregnant moms, moms wanting to be pregnant and new mothers. The wealthy class and the growing middle class here are becoming educated about the importance of good eating, vitamins and healthy living before, during and after pregnancy. They are also learning about the importance of the parents role in childhood development. The poorer class does not have access to this information or the products needed to carry this out.


So in response we are trying to help with supplies and education. To start the meeting, Michelle made a game for the ladies that created a baby shower atmosphere as we made this a special time for Carmen who is ready to give birth to her baby boy, Isaac. Michelle is super creative and put some hours into a really fun game for everyone to play.
About 30 ladies attended.

Llana led the meeting the rest of the way with a power point presentation she produced about the importance of taking care of yourself before, during and after pregnancy along with step by step development expectations for new babies. Llana is a native Meridian with a degree in childhood development that she earned at one of the Universities here in Merida. Llana explained the importance of taking vitamins before you are pregnant, especially Folic acid.

The ladies had a wonderful time of prayer, teaching, sharing and fellowship. We ended the afternoon with 6 special gift baskets to give away. 3 baskets were filled with items for ladies and the other 3 were made just for the 3 pregnant mom's in the group. The baskets were filled with lots of products a mom-to-be would need, like vitamins, ointment for sore nipples, some diapers and wipes, baby lotion. I wanted to make these ladies something extra special, so she whipped out my sewing machine and put together some adorable tote bags for each Mom. They were so excited!! We also had a baby shower time with lots of presents for Carmen.

Stay tuned for our next update as we will have another outreachr for the Mom's with new babies. We have 4 new Mom's so far that are coming and possibly more. We are preparing more gift baskets and I will be creating something very special for each mom.

Many Yucatecans who were born here just stay here. They basically never leave. One of the few exceptions to this would be some of the upper class Yucatecans heading to the United States or other countries for advanced levels of education. This minority of folks usually come back to utilize their education here to provide services here. Examples of this would be various fields of medicine, architectural practice or various types of law. There is also a small weathly class of people that gained generational wealth from Henekan production and also a growing middle class amoung the educated. However, that still leaves the majority of Yucatecans largely uneducated and often impoverished and they stay that way from generation to generation.

Some of the wealthy and middle class have learned through education how to take care of themselves before, during and after pregnancy, but the lower class here is not educated about the importance of diet and vitamins before, during and after pregnancy. For generations, they have learned that you just have a child, feed them and protect them, but they do not understand the importance of early childhood developement as no one has taught them. They are often too poor to buy these necessary items. They hold there babies almost all the time, crawling is not really encouraged and necessary stimulation does not happen. What you see in their children as they grow is a lethargy and a lack of necessary development

This lower class that we speak of is growing in receptivity however. We have teamed up to provide early childhood development information and supplies like vitamins, books to read to their children, baby rattles, developmental toys. Llana, as previously mentioned, helps with her education in early childhood developement to help us teach these moms and moms-to-be about the importance of taking care of themselves and their new babies to bring them to full development potential.

This is were you can help. Mexico typically might produce some of these items we have been talking about, but it most cases they import them which really drives the price up, almost double in some cases in comparison to the States. We can purchase most of these items here at Wal-Mart as they are the least expensive even here. Please contact us if you would like to provide pre-natal vitamins, developmental toys and other necessary items. We cannot receive care packages as the mail system here can sometimes be unreliable. Many packages are stolen or looted before they arrive.

Please help us break the cycle here for these Mom's with education and supplies!!

Poor households take lead in abandoning landlines

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- In a financial and technological role reversal, a growing number of Americans are getting rid of their old telephones and using only cellphones, a trend being led not by the high-tech elite but by people in poorer states as a way to save money.


Government estimates released Wednesday show at least 30 percent of adults in 10 states rely entirely on cellphones, with the highest percentage in Arkansas and Mississippi, where many cannot afford to pay for two separate lines.

Wealthier households have been slower to use wireless technology as their sole means of making calls.

"The answer's obvious: No one has money here," said John N. Daigle, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Mississippi with broad experience in the telecommunications industry. "If they can do without a landline, they'll do it to save money."

William Phillips of North Little Rock says he grew tired of paying for a landline his family rarely used. So he and his wife dumped their old phone and now have prepaid cellphones that cost a total of $75 a month.

Phillips, a 39-year-old commercial pilot, taught his 12-year-old son, who doesn't have a phone, how to email him rather than call when the boy is at home.

"I've heard people talk about it, that they ought to do it," Phillips said. "They're just hanging onto that phone number."

About 35 percent of adults in Arkansas and Mississippi have only cellphones, according to figures from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In New Jersey and Rhode Island, the states where the smallest proportion of people depend strictly on wireless phones, that figure is only 13 percent.

Mississippi has the highest poverty rate in the nation -- 21.9 percent in 2009, according to the Census Bureau. The Arkansas figure was 18.8 percent. The nationwide rate is 14.3 percent.

In 2009, the Census Bureau defined poverty as a single person making less than $11,000 a year or a family of four making less than $22,000 a year.

"I think people decide, 'I can afford one but not the other,'" said Ellen Reddy, who works for a nonprofit community center that helps low-income residents in Holmes County, Miss. She said poor people in her area often have cellphones with a limited number of minutes.

"When the minutes are gone, oftentimes we can't reach our families," Reddy said. "I think people are making choices."

The number of American households that rely exclusively on cellphones has been growing steadily nationwide, hitting 27 percent in the first half of 2010, an eightfold increase in just six years. Arkansas has had the greatest increase, with 15 percentage points. New Jersey's 7 percentage-point growth was the lowest.

Donielle Flowers of Little Rock doesn't remember the last time she had a landline. She's chosen to carry one of two cellphones -- a free, government-subsidized phone with 250 minutes a month, and a prepaid phone that costs $60 a month.

"It's an extra bill," Flowers, 34, said of landlines. "I'm rarely at home, so I just need a cellphone. I'd be lost without it."

That matches the conclusion of Stephen Blumberg, a senior CDC scientist and an author of the survey. Over the years, Blumberg has found that lower-income people are more likely than higher-earning Americans to have only wireless phones. Younger people and renters are also quicker to shed traditional landlines.

New Jersey is neither young nor poor, and that's keeping it at the bottom of the list, Blumberg said.

On Wednesday, many people walking around the capital city of Trenton were talking on cellphones or texting family, friends and colleagues. Among them was Harry Weaver, a 46-year-old insurance agent who said he loves the freedom and convenience his smartphone provides.

Weaver acknowledged that he "pretty much lives" on his smartphone but said he has no plans to pull the plug on his home landline. As the father of three teenage daughters, Weaver says he wants a "dependable" phone line in case his girls need to reach their parents in an emergency.

"We could probably end our landline service and save some money, but it gives me peace of mind to know there's another way they can reach us if needed," Weaver said.
Some customers feel landlines offer more security, especially if they ever need to call 911. Since wireless phones are not linked to a fixed address, the caller's location can be more difficult for dispatchers to pinpoint.

The latest state-by-state figures, which cover the 12 months through June 2010, may indicate changes are needed in the way some public opinion polls are conducted, Blumberg said.

As the use of cellphones has grown, major pollsters have routinely included cellphone users in the people they call randomly. The number of cellphone users they call reflects national cellphone use, but Wednesday's findings suggest those numbers may need adjustment in states with especially high or low cellphone dependence, he said.

In addition to those in Arkansas and Mississippi, at least 30 percent of adults in eight other states -- mostly in the West -- rely strictly on cellphones. Those states were Colorado, Idaho, Kentucky, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon and Texas.

At the other end, only six states -- mostly in the East -- joined New Jersey and Rhode Island in having fewer than 17 percent of adults using only cellphones. They were Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and South Dakota.

The CDC estimates were based largely on data from the agency's National Health Interview Survey, for which it has interviewed 109,187 households over the past 3 1/2 years.

The government also uses statistics from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey taken between 2006 and 2009, plus information from listed telephone directories. The figures are then blended to produce a single estimate.

The report is available at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr039.pdf.

But even in Arkansas, some people are holding tight to their landlines.

"I was taught to have a house phone at home, whether you use it or not," said Dale West, 40, who carries a $60-a-month cellphone and pays about $35 a month for his landline. "Even though you got a cellphone, you never know."

Resource YahooFinance.com

This Almost Perfect Food Gobbles Up Your Body's Toxins

The website, Green Med Info, has assembled a list of studies that found evidence of over 40 conditions that chlorella can help to prevent or ease.


The conditions include:

•Hypertension

•Anemia

•Diabetes

•Acute Stress

•Fibromyalgia

•Liver Cancer

According to one of the studies on the subject:

“Chlorella vulgaris (CV) has been reported to have antioxidant and anticancer properties ... Our study shows that CV has definite chemopreventive effect by inducing apoptosis ... in hepatocarcinogenesis [liver cancer] induced rats”.

Chlorella, a single-celled fresh-water algae, is one of the most heavily researched algae in the world. It's often referred to as a near-perfect food as research through the years have identified an astounding range of health benefits. While being well known for its ability to detoxify your body by binding to toxins and carrying them out of your system, that's certainly not all it's good for.

Chlorella's Impressive Range of Health Benefits

As you will see, chlorella seems to fit the description of a "wonder nutrient" that serves far more than just one function. Here's a sampling of some of the health benefits associated with this green algae:

Repairing nerve tissues

Increasing your energy levels

Enhancing your immune system

Normalizing your blood sugar

Improving digestion

Normalizing your blood pressure

Promoting healthy pH levels in your gut, which in turn helps good bacteria to thrive

Removing potentially toxic metals from your body

Enhancing your ability to focus and concentrate

Eliminating bad breath

Chlorella can also be of benefit to vegetarians and vegans looking for proteins and B vitamins from a non-animal source. About 60 percent of it is protein, and because it contains all the essential amino acids your body needs, it's considered to be a "complete protein."

Chlorella also rich in:

•GABA

•Folate

•Vitamin B12

•Iron

Six Health Conditions Chlorella May Help Prevent or Treat

As mentioned earlier, chlorella has and still is being researched for a number of health conditions. Here's a list of six common health problems and diseases where chlorella may be of particular benefit:

•Insulin resistance—Earlier this year, researchers discovered that chlorella has the ability to improve fructose-induced insulin sensitivity. As I’ve discussed on numerous occasions, excessive fructose consumption is the number one cause of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. In this animal study, after being fed fructose-rich chow for four weeks, the rats were then given chlorella three times a day for five days, which brought their elevated glucose-insulin values back to normal.

The authors concluded that: “Oral administration of chlorella has the ability to improve insulin sensitivity, which may be used as an adjuvant therapy for patients with insulin resistance.”

•Detoxification. Is particularly helpful when used in conjunction with an infrared sauna and taken two hours before you go in the sauna. This way the chlorella will be in your intestine and read to bind to the toxins that are released when you are in the sauna. It will bind irreversibly to the toxins and be safely excreted when you have your bowel movement.

•Diabetes—Additional evidence supporting the theory that chlorella can improve insulin sensitivity can be found in an earlier study. Here, the algae was found to improve insulin sensitivity and glucose uptake in the liver in type 1 diabetic rats. The authors suggest chlorella’s hypoglycemic effects may be due to improved glucose uptake in the liver and the soleus muscles. Another mechanism may be related to decreased levels of nonesterified fatty acids (NEFA), since insulin sensitivity is usually blunted by elevated NEFA in type 1 diabetes.

•Hypertension—The results from a placebo-controlled, double-blind study published two years ago suggest that chlorella can significantly decrease high-normal blood pressure and borderline hypertension. The authors proposed that it may be a beneficial dietary supplement for preventing hypertension, with no apparent adverse side effects.

•Anemia, proteinuria and edema in pregnant women—Pregnancy-induced hypertension and anemia are common, and potentially dangerous. One of the primary causes for these conditions is the woman’s nutritional status. A study published last year found that chlorella may help improve both of these conditions in pregnant women, likely due to its high folate, B12 and iron content.

Subjects took six grams of chlorella per day, starting somewhere between the 12th to the 18th week of gestation, until delivery. The chlorella group had significantly lower rates of anemia compared to the control group. They also had fewer incidences of proteinuria and edema; two symptoms associated with pregnancy-induced hypertension. Here too, the authors concluded that: “Chlorella supplement may be useful as a resource of natural folate, vitamin B-12 and iron for pregnant women.”

•Fibromyalgia—Although the individual results were varied, it may be worth considering chlorella if you suffer with fibromyalgia. A study published in 2000 tested the effectiveness of two commercially available chlorella-based products on patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia, and the overall results showed a 22 percent decrease in pain intensity. However, while seven patients reported improvement in their fibromyalgia symptoms, six reported no effect at all, and five claimed their symptoms had worsened during the trial... So keep that in mind if you decide to try it. While it may help some, it might not work at all for others.

•Liver cancer—A study published in 2009 discovered that chlorella triggers cell death (apoptosis) in rat liver cancer cells, which suggests it may be useful in the prevention of liver cancer. The authors concluded that: “Our study shows that chlorella has definite chemopreventive effect by inducing apoptosis via decreasing the expression of Bcl-2 and increasing the expression of caspase 8 in hepatocarcinogenesis-induced rats.”

For additional research findings, check out Green Med Info's chlorella page, which lists more than 40 health conditions for which chlorella may be of benefit.

Chlorella—A Potent Detox Agent

Heavy metal toxicity, just like chemical toxicity, has become one of the most pressing health hazards of our day, and this is where chlorella may be profoundly useful. Its ability to bind to heavy metal toxins, allowing them to be safely excreted from your body, has been well established. It's particularly crucial for systemic mercury elimination, because the majority of mercury is rid through your stool. Once the mercury burden is lowered from your intestines, mercury from other body tissues will more readily migrate into your intestines where chlorella will work to remove it.

You can also add cilantro, which works as a synergetic detoxification aid along with the chlorella. This combination is particularly useful to take when you're consuming seafood, as most are invariably contaminated with heavy metals and chemicals. Ideally you would take it with the meal so the chlorella can bind directly to the toxins while they are in your gut, before they absorbed into your body.

In order to optimize heavy metal detox, you'll want to take at least four grams of chlorella every day, year-round.

Be aware that side effects may occur. As your body starts to detox, you may initially experience some slight nausea, and/or mild diarrhea. If these symptoms are too bothersome, you may want to lower your dose initially, and slowly increase the dose. As your body is cleansed of toxins, these side effects should disappear. Infrared saunas are another phenomenal detox approach. I seek to do a 20 minute sauna virtually every day I am home. I will be writing more about this useful tool in the near future.

The Crucial Detail that Determines Chlorella's Effectiveness

The key to chlorella's detoxing abilities lies within its membrane, but the fibrous cell wall of chlorella is actually indigestible to humans. This is why most chlorella products use the term "broken cell wall," to describe the fact that the chlorella has been rendered digestible.

If a product does not specifically tell you that the cell wall has been broken, you are likely flushing your money down the toilet as the chlorella will simply pass right through you without doing you any good. As Ginny Banks explains in this previous interview, it's in your best interest to make sure you're getting a high quality product for this reason.

Resources: Mercola.com

Mossy Oak Camo Breakup Liberty Collection

I love to show off our new items and we have many new ones rolling out over the next couple weeks.

For info, email us at here

 

4th of July Fun Craft For Kids~Patriotic Paper Fan

The 4th of July is coming and I thought this would be a super cool & fun idea for the celebration!
What you need:
Red and white wrapping paper , Popsicle sticks , blue construction paper , scissors and glue.

Instructions:

Cut a sheet of wrapping paper 35" long by 5" high. Accordion-fold the paper, allowing about 1/2" for each fold. Glue ends together so it makes a circle. Flip the fan over. Make a handle by glueing a popsicle stick onto each side of the seam where you glued the circle together. Cut out two stars from the blue construction paper and glue them in the center of the fan on the front and the back.

Resources: BabyCenter.com