Category: slice of life

Heaven’s new little angel

The story of this tiny short life puts things in perspective. It is told on Establish the Work of Our Hands, by Mary Beth Oyebade, a missionary in Jos, Nigeria who along with her husband Bayo oversees the Mashiah Foundation, a ministry to people infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS.

On August 14th, Mary Beth introduced Moses, an 8 month old whose mother had died of Aids in June. Relatives who had cared for him had waited for him to die and had even quit feeding him, but he refused to die. Esther, the matron at Bezer Home had picked him up at the hospital and named him Moses. Mary Beth closed the post this way: Does the baby have HIV? We don’t know. Does it matter? No. Every child needs to be loved no matter what their circumstances.

On September 4th, Mary Beth gave an update on Baby Moses (great photo), He’s keeping his food down, and responding very well to all the love and attention he’s getting. Whenever I hold him, I notice that he loves to make eye contact, and he also likes to be reaching out and touching people.  Please pray for this little guy’s future.

On September 21st, Mary Beth had bad news that Baby Moses had been injured: This morning, as his bath water was being prepared, little baby Moses suddenly squirmed out of his caregiver’s hands, and fell into very hot (near boiling) bath water. He was instantly plucked out, but the damage was already done. We ran around this morning getting medical attention for him. He is now on admission at the hospital. Although he has improved greatly in his time at Bezer Home, he is still frightfully small—about the size of a normal 2 month old, when he’s actually about 9 months old. We do know that he is a survivor, and we believe that this little guy will fight for his survival this time too. Volunteers are taking turns with his round-the-clock care at the hospital.

On September 23rd, Mary Beth reported that Moses’s burn was not too severe and that his appetite was good. Despite his frail health and small body, she was hopeful.

Last night, the posting read: Baby Moses is in the arms of the Lord. We all thought he was recovering and would be discharged from the hospital soon, but he simply slipped away this evening.

Tax up close and personal

In November of 2008,  56% of Minnesota voters approved what has come to  be known as the Legacy Amendment. The goal of the Amendment is to appropriate money from constitutionally dedicated funds and provide for policy and governance of outdoor heritage, clean water, parks and trails, and arts and cultural heritage purposes.

The Amendment raised the state sales tax 3/8 of 1%, starting July 1, 2009 and lasting 25 years. Libraries were included in the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund of the legislation, which will receive 19.75% of the sales tax generated each year. This Fund will be divided among many recipients, including the following:

  • Board of Arts (with opportunities for partnerships with libraries and schools)
  • Regional Public Library funding for arts and arts education programs (will receive $4.25 million in FY 2010 and $4.25 in FY 2011)
  • Minnesota Digital Library (will receive $500,000 in FY 2010)

Public Library funding for arts and arts education programs is allocated to the 12 regional public library systems according to the current regional library basic system support (RLBSS) grant formula.  In addition to our local programming, ECRL will participate along with the other regional public library systems to fund a state project to bring arts and culture into libraries.

Libraries will be good stewards of this money. As the center of our communities, we are looked to as cultural leaders. The Legacy Amendment funds will enable us to bring even more cultural experiences to communities from the metro area to the rural areas commonly referred to collectively as Greater Minnesota.

I’ve been planning with my staff and board for how we can best use this money. Little thought has gone to where it comes from — after all, it’s only 3/8 of 1% sales tax. That’s hardly noticeable at all.

That’s what I thought until this morning. Almost every day on my way to work I stop at the local Holiday station to feed my addiction with a large Diet Coke. I run into the station store with a dollar and a nickle clutched in my hand to pay for the 99 cent drink. Trouble is, today when I stopped to pay on my way out the door and held out the dollar bill and nickel in my hand, the clerk said $1.06. I must have looked puzzled, because she quickly added, “that’s that new culture tax.” The tone in her voice indicated she didn’t share my positive view of the “culture tax.”

Hmmm, a tax no one’ll notice? Not exactly.  So now I carry in a dollar and a nickel and a penney.