On Monday, tobyMac chatted with me  in anticipation of his new CD “Tonight” which hits stores tomorrow.  He shared everything from why it can take several months to write a song, to who starts most fights in his marriage to when we can expect to hear a full album from his 11-year-old.  If you missed any of the interview, you can get up to speed below.  Just push play.  Don’t forget tobyMac is coming to the Asheville Civic Center on Sunday, April 11th.  Details will be on the station web page soon at www.1069thelight.org.

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On Christmas day little John and his parents were on their way down I-40 to Great Grandma’s house to celebrate the season.  They hit a patch of standing water and smashed into the median.  The accident pancaked the backseat where John was sitting.  Thankfully, a car behind the Moorefield’s saw the accident, and the woman in the car was a former military EMT. She ended up saving John’s life.  Today 3-year-old John is still in the hospital.  He is going through intense rehab  because the accident caused some brain damage, and part of his skull had to be removed for surgery.  If you’d like to read his whole story, just click here.

John’s aunt, Carrie, wants to do something special for the family, but she needs your help to make it happen.  First, would you please say a prayer for John and his continued recovery.  Then, if you would send a headshot picture of yourself to Carrie at Carriebearwcu@gmail.com.  She is making a special quilt for the family of everyone who has prayed.   Her goal is to get 4,800 total pictures.  Thanks for encouraging another member of the 106.9 The Light Family.

Below is the full e-mail from Carrie if you’d like to pass it on to your e-mail list, she’d appreciate it.   For the record I’ve been in touch with Carrie personally, so be assured this is not one of those silly internet chain letters.

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Hi all!

Carrie here, the aunt of John Moorefield, the 3-year-old boy who suffered major head trauma from an accident on Christmas Day.  (follow his story at www.caringbridge.org/visit/johnmoorefield)

I’m working on a rather large project for Ginny and Wayne (his parents) and was hoping you all would be willing to help me.  I’m drawing up plans to create a rather large collage of all the people who have been praying for them. I’m wanting it to be one of those pictures where from far away it looks like  a big cross, and then from up close, you can see everyone’s individual pictures.  I’m looking at putting it on a 30 x 40 canvas print so they can hang it in their bonus room back home.

Anyway, in order to do this, I need to collect 4800 photos. That’s where you all come in:

If you would, please reply to this email with an attached headshot of yourself. If you know of other people who have been praying hard for the Moorefield family, please pass this email along to them as well! 

Pictures don’t have to be anything fancy as each picture will only be about a half-inch wide and half-inch tall — so very small  (don’t worry about sizing them for me.  I’ll do that as I go along)    I”m wanting to give Ginny and Wayne just a small glimpse of how many people truly care about their little boy.  I think they will be touched beyond comprehension, so I hope you will choose to participate!

So don’t forget to
1. Email me — Carriebearwcu@gmail.com — with a photo of yourself
2. Forward this email to everyone on your list who have been praying for them.

I know it’s nealry impossible to get everyone who has been praying for them, but I’d like to get at least 4800 of them

Thank you!!!

He’s was buried under what was left of what used to be his house.  He was buried  along with his sister and younger brother.  Little 7-year-old Kiki had to listen to his  baby brother beg for water, before the baby succumbed.  But after being trapped for almost nine-days he never gave up hope.  He continued to cry out for help.  Nine long days after the quake  his aunt, who had come to see if she could salvage anything from the rubble,  heard his voice.

She went to get help.  A firefighter rescue team from New York cut a hole through the concrete rubble, and moments later the world saw the beaming smile of this little boy. 

These firefighters have been through plenty of trying times.  They had been through countless searches this week where it was too late.  This is the same FD NY that responded to the World Trade Center on 9-11.  Many of their comrades never came back out of the twin towers.  In the midst of what has been a very sad week-and-a-half, these brave men had something to smile about.  And they gave the rest of us something to smile about too.

I don’t get to a lot of movies now-a-days with two little ones.  However,  I am going to amek a point to see “To Save a Life.”   This movie was written by screenwriter turned Pastor Jim Britts.  It the story of two teens who had been childhood friends.  One becomes popular, the other a social outcast.  The outcast commits suicide and that causes the popular teen to wonder if he could have stopped it, and to re-assess his life.

If you missed my interview with Pastor Jim, just click play below.  Click on the movie logo if you’d like to go to the movie website and watch the preview.  The movie is playing in most major cities including most of the big ones in our listening area:  Charlotte, Johnson City, Greenville/Spartanburg, Hickory, Asheville, Hendersonville, Winston-Salem and beyond.

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TOYOTA RECALL
 
Toyota is recalling 2.3 million vehicles to correct a problem that could cause the vehicles’ gas pedals to stick. This new recall is separate from an on-going recall of 4.2 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles to correct a problem in which the pedals could become stuck under a loose floor mat.
 
The vehicles covered under the recall are:
 
2009-2010 Toyota Rav4, Corolla, Matrix
2005-2010 Avalon
2008-2010 Camry
2010 Highlander
2007-2010 Tundra
2008-2010 Sequoia
 

If you need more information, you can contact Toyota directly at 1-800-331-4331.

A day after the earthquake, a young woman climbs over shopping carts and the rubble of a collapsed store on January 13, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (THONY BELIZAIRE/AFP/Getty Images)

I didn’t realize just how bad the disaster in Haiti is in the wake of  the 7.0 earthquake  that hit yesterday. Thousands are dead (one Haitian Senator even estimated the death toll at 500,000, though he later admitted he has no way of knowing for sure).

In the middle of all of this there are always those who step up to help. As I write it’s Wednesday afternoon. About an hour ago, Samaritan’s Purse our sister company sent a plane on its way to Haiti. The plane is carrying temporary shelter structures, blankets, medical aid and water purification technology. 80-percent of the disease that follows a disaster is the result of dirty water.

Another team of about 20 people will leave from the United States tomorrow and head to Haiti.  Samaritan’s Purse vice-president of programs Ken Isaacs says they need your prayers more than anything else.  You can also donate directly to the Haiti relief effort from their website at www.samaritanspurse.org.  You can also call them at 1-800-567-8121.

This afternoon I got the chance to talk to Ken Isaacs with Samaritan’s Purse.  He talked about the needs and what SP is doing to help right now.  If you missed, the interview,  just click play below.

Do what you can with Samaritan’s Purse or any other organization that you trust.  It’s going to take a little from a lot of us to make a difference.

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Football –there’s nothing more American. I love college football. Moving here from Boise, I’m still a huge fan of the BSU Broncos. While I knew who Texas Longhorn quarterback Colt McCoy was, I didn’t know much about him. I still don’t, but I’m very impressed by what I do know. This 23-year-old has waited his whole life for a chance to play in the national championship game. He got that chance last night, and ended up getting hurt in the first minute of the game. He couldn’t play the rest of the night. For many people (myself included) a lot of whining would have ensued. That was not the case with this young man. You’ve got to hear what he said to believe it, so here it is…

It’s not long after you have a child that you realize that she has a personality of her own.  It’s not long after you have a toddler that you realize he has  your good qualities and your bad ones.  In fact, some of your qualities may be magnified.  When it’s  a good quality, that’s great!  When it’s a bad quality, not so much.

My three-year-old is prone to being a little strong-willed, and just a tad bit stubborn.  (And by tad I mean, if she has the gumption, she could be the next leader of the free-world.)  This child potty-trained herself at 18-months.  We just found her sitting on the potty one day, and she started going on her own.  She wants to do everything herself. (more…)

Danny Cahill was 430 pounds six months ago when he first set foot on The Biggest Loser

Danny after at 191 lbs.

 Ranch.  Today he weighs in at a healthy 191 pounds.   Recently he talked with me about the weight loss journey and his faith.  I loved what he said that it wasn’t enough to just set a goal, as in weight-loss or anything else.  He said you have to know the “whys.”  The whys for him were being to use the musical talents God gave him and being there for his wife and kids.  Click below to here this powerful interview.

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You probably know it as a popular song from country artist Carrie Underwood.   It literally became a prayer for me this morning.   I live on a steep hill which gets treacherous when the roads are snowy.  On the way to work this morning, I saw my neighbor’s mini-van stopped at the bottom of the hill.  She had been sliding too.  I hit my brakes long before I was anywhere close to her.  Quickly my car turned from a controlled vehicle on wheels, to an out-of-control, hunk of metal on skids.  As I hurtled towards the mini-van I prayed out loud “Help me, Jesus!”  In retrospect, that kind of surprised me, because not too long into my past something more of the four-letter variety might

Tracks from where my car missed the tree (barely).

have come out of my mouth. Anyhow, I went off the left side of the road and then bounced back across to the right  into the front yard of the person who lives at the bottom of the hill.    I was still sliding quickly and now I was heading towards a decent sized tree.

Again, I yelled, “Jesus, help me!”  The car spun

My car rests in the ditch after narrowly missing a row of mailboxes.

180 degrees and, I barely missed the tree.   Then it continued down the hill towards a row of mailboxes that were held up by sturdy wooden posts.  I knew I was going to hit the posts, but again, miraculously the car slid just to the left of the mailboxes.  It came to rest with a thud, backwards in the ditch at the bottom of the hill.

“I just destroyed my neighbor’s yard,” was my first thought.  Then I realized I was okay, and a breathed a thank you.

Isaiah 65:24 says, ” Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.”  I’m glad God heard my two-second prayer before it was even on my lips.  Countless times he is looking out for you and me.  It gives me comfort to know that he looks out for me, even when I forget to ask, or even after I’m already sliding towards trouble He is still looking out for me.