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November 2008 Archive of News and MusingsFriday, November 14, 2008 If I die tomorrow, or in 35 years, I pray that something like this--an advocacy and inspiration to pray and stand for the least the last and the lost--is my legacy. If you can, let it be my epitaph: Posted by Steve Schwartz (11/14/2008 10:18:55 AM | link) Friday, November 07, 2008 - Pearl Bailey Posted by Steve Schwartz (11/7/2008 5:08:34 PM | link) Thursday, November 06, 2008 Edna shared these words as she sat in my office. A few days prior she had shared at BHA's annual ministry celebration banquet. When I asked her to share, I said what I always do to women in the program, "if you don't feel comfortable sharing your story with all of our supporters, I completely understand...please don’t feel pressured." But she wanted to share.
So Edna stood up front at the banquet and told us about her marriage. She had nine children in sixteen years. Then her world came crashing down. Edna learned that her husband was sexually abusing her daughters. He went to jail. Her children were taken by children and youth. Edna went into a major depression. She got into a new relationship and had a son, but that man was abusive. Edna and her two-year-old son ended up in the local shelter for victims of domestic violence. She was broken, hurting, and had no idea where to go next. While in the shelter, Edna heard about BHA and called every day until we had an available apartment for her. "Thank God for Brethren Housing because I didn't know where I’d be going when my 30 days at the shelter were up." Edna came to BHA, and found a fresh start. ...continue reading "A Harvest of Hope"... Posted by Steve Schwartz (11/6/2008 10:49:25 AM | link) Thursday, November 06, 2008 I'm referring to e-mail spam. I was talking to someone at another organization recently that was concerned that unsavory e-mails were being sent out that appeared to be coming from their non-profit. I assured them that there was nothing they could do about it* and they weren't to blame. But it made me realize that perhaps I should explain how this happens in case you ever receive such e-mails with bha-pa.org somewhere in the return address. Basically, you can set most e-mail software to use any name and e-mail address as the return address. For example, instead of "Steve Schwartz (sschwartz@bha-pa.org)" I could set it to say "George W. Bush (gbush@whitehouse.gov)". If I did that and sent an unsavory e-mail, George Bush wouldn't be responsible for anything, I would...for the unsavory nature of the e-mail as well as the deception. So why do people do this? To avoid spam filters. If people or companies spam large groups of individuals trying to sell cheap Canadian drugs or whatever, their e-mail address gets flagged by spam filtering software and pretty soon any messages they send are blocked. So they have special software that searches websites for e-mail addresses (like those on our Contact page) and then uses the random e-mail addresses collected as the "From:" address. We're not responsible for it, and there is little we can do about it...except be informed. When it comes to spam, e-mail fraud, viruses, or hoax stories sent by e-mail, the best we can do is become better informed and able to spot untruths and deception. Just this morning I got an e-mail from myself offering cheap prices on prescription drugs. I'm pretty sure I didn't send it, so I just hit delete and went on with my day. It's possible you'll get one like this. I encourage you to do the same. *One caveat: a specific computer can be infected with a virus that then uses your e-mail account to send out e-mails to spread the virus. This is less common these days with the proliferation of good anti-virus software. But, if you think your computer might be infected, install some anti-virus software to check if this is the problem. (Two respected free anti-virus programs are AVG and Avast.) Posted by Steve Schwartz (11/6/2008 9:58:58 AM | link) News and Musings Archive |
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"It helps me to be able to talk about it...to get it out in the open."
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