Renda Tabbed Preseason All-American

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January 2, 2014

MONTGOMERY – T.J. Renda has been selected to the 2014 Louisville Slugger Preseason All-America team. Renda is a third team selection as a pitcher.
Last season Renda led the SWAC in wins with nine, batters struck out with 85, batters struck out looking with 26, and he also posted an ERA of 2.38. Renda was a 2013 first team All-SWAC selection and 2013 Pitcher of the Year.
In the first game of the season last year versus Chicago St., Renda threw a no-hitter with one walk, one hit batter and 15 Ks. For his efforts in this contest Renda received Collegebaseballinsider.com Louisville Slugger National Pitcher of the Week honors.

Imani Davis Selected to Gator Holiday Classic All-Tournament Team

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Birmingham Times

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January 2, 2014

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Courtesy Tennessee State Sports Information

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Tennessee State Women’s Basketball Freshman Imani Davis was named to the 2013 Gator Holiday Classic All-Tournament Team on Saturday.
Davis, a 6-0 Guard, averaged a double-double of 12.0 points and 10.0 rebounds per game during the tournament. She also shot 41.7 percent from three-point range.
The Tulsa, Okla. native registered her second double-double of the season after scoring 15 points and hauling in 16 rebounds against LaSalle on Saturday. She also knocked down three triples versus the Explorers.
In the game against Florida, she had nine points and four rebounds while shooting 42.9 percent from the field and 50.0 percent from long range.
Davis is currently TSU’s third leading scorer and second best rebounder. She is ranked third in the OVC in steals and 10th in defensive rebounds.

Associated Press Names Four Tigers All-Americans

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Birmingham Times

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January 2, 2014

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Four Tigers — Photo courtesy of Tennessee State Athletics

Photo courtesy of Tennessee State Athletics

Courtesy Tennessee State Sports Information

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Daniel Fitzpatrick, Anthony Bass, Kadeem Edwards and A.C. Leonard of the Tennessee State football team were named to the 2013 Associated Press Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) All-American Team.
Fitzpatrick was the lone Tiger chosen to the AP’s First Team and was second on the team in tackles with 75. He led the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) with eight interceptions on the year and the Fort Wayne, Ind. native broke up eight passes in 14 games.
Bass made the Second Team and was named OVC Defensive Player of the Year after recording 10 sacks, 34 stops and 14.5 tackles for loss. The junior also forced and recovered a pair of fumbles on the campaign.
Edwards was also placed on the Second Team after being selected to the All-Ohio Valley Conference Team for the third consecutive time following a season in which he started 13 games at left guard. The four-year starter accepted an invitation to the 2014 Reese’s Senior Bowl earlier this month.
Leonard was the lone tight end on the Second Team and finished second on the Tigers with 34 receptions and 441 yards for an average of 13 yards per catch. The junior also added five touchdowns, placing him third on the squad.
Tennessee State made the playoffs for the first time since 1999 in 2013 and won a playoff game for the first time since 1986. The Tigers were the first OVC team to win a road playoff game since 1986 and the first HBCU to win a postseason contest since 1999.

Colgate Women’s Games Celebrate 40 Years

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Birmingham Times

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January 2, 2014

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On The Track To Scholastic Success

(NAPSI)—Every year since 1973, thousands of girls and young women from elementary school through college and beyond participate in the Colgate Women’s Games. Now in its 40th season, the series has helped countless students succeed academically, by providing a safe and healthy athletic program that motivates them to make the right personal lifestyle choices.
Each year, more than 11,000 female athletes compete within their own age/grade divisions in a series of preliminary meets where ribbons and medals are awarded weekly, and finalists compete at a world-class sports arena for trophies and educational grants-in-aid from Colgate-Palmolive Company.
The Colgate Women’s Games offers girls of all ages the opportunity to challenge themselves in an atmosphere of friendly competition. The program also promotes the importance of health, self-esteem and continuing education. All school-age girls must present their attendance records and submit a topical essay to compete in the finals.
Fred Thompson, the meet director and program’s founder, says, “Track and field builds self-esteem by providing girls a means to measure their own abilities and see how mental focus and physical practice improve results. This affirms their capacity to affect their own futures, a lesson that lasts a lifetime.”
The Colgate Women’s Games boasts 20 former Olympians and hundreds of age/grade national champions, and high school participants are consistently among the most heavily recruited female athletes in the nation. However, it can be a life-changing experience for many who compete, even if they don’t make the finals.
Thompson says, “We’ve always attracted top talent, but we’ve been very careful to stay just as welcoming to those who may have never competed in an organized event before. Countless former participants return as accomplished adults and say the Colgate Women’s Games instilled a sense of empowerment that contributed in large part to their success.
“Competitive athletics remain one of the healthiest ways to build self-esteem and encourage continuing education, and we’ve been able to provide a successful model for positively affecting young lives for four decades because Colgate-Palmolive Company shares these core values,” Thompson adds.
Participation in the Colgate Women’s Games is completely free. Girls and young women compete within their own age/grade divisions for ribbons, medals and points. Events include 55 meters, 55-meter hurdles, 200 meters, 400 meters, 800 meters, 1,500 meters, high jump and shot put. Top point scorers advance to the Finals, where they compete for trophies and educational grants-in-aid from Colgate-Palmolive Company.
To date, more than $2 million has been awarded in the form of educational grants-in-aid to nearly 4,000 top winners.
The 40th annual Colgate Women’s Games are the largest amateur track-and-field series for women. Coaches, recruiters, athletes, fans and press can follow scores by division and hopeful young track stars can also find information about the program at www.colgategames.com.

Birmingham Emancipation Association Annual Commemorative Celebration Of The Signing of the Emancipation Proclamation

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Birmingham Times

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January 2, 2014

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Birmingham Emancipation Association is the oldest continually running celebration in the state of Alabama that has annually recognized and celebrated the Observance of The Signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. January 1st of each year the Association held a program at a local church. On Wednesday, January 1, 2014, the program will held at Bethel Baptist Church, Berney Points, 1637 Pearson Avenue Southwest, Birmingham, Alabama, 35211 at 10 a. m. where the Reverend William H. Greason is Pastor. The speaker was Mr. Jarvis E. Patton, Sr. The goals of the celebration are as follows:

1. To commemorate the January 1, 1863 signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln that in principle “freed the slaves.”

2. To recognize local citizens/organizations in the greater Birmingham area that have made outstanding contributions for the betterment of society in religion, business, politics, education, media, science, fine arts, etc..

3. To generate funds that support local youth in their college pursuit (endeavor). Since 1999 the Birmingham Emancipation Association has awarded scholarships to over seventy (70) youth (graduating high school students) to begin college. This scholarship is named for former president, the late Dr. W. C. Patton, who served as Alabama Voting Rights Director.

Dad Loses 40 Pounds to Become Daughter’s Liver Donor

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Birmingham Times

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January 2, 2014

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By Ruth Manuel-Logan
Special To The Times

A year ago, Eduardo Camargo was on one of the toughest missions of his life, but it was a battle he had to win at all costs. Camargo needed to lose forty pounds in less than two months so that he could be a liver donor for his baby girl, Jazlyn, according to ABC News.
The 35-year-old dad, who weighed in at 210 pounds, had a fatty liver, which is common in people who are overweight. People who are obese in general are also not good candidates for organ donation because they have a greater risk of complications during surgery.
Camargo had always battled the bulge and was never a victor. This go-round however, Camargo had to win his fight since he had made the decision that he’d be the one to save his daughter’s life, not his wife, because he felt his three children needed a mother more than a father.
Camargo, who had not exercised since high school, set his sights on dropping the weight for Jazlyn, who suffered from biliary atresia, an oftentimes congenital and life-threatening condition in infants, in which the bile ducts inside or outside the liver do not have normal openings.
The devoted and determined dad began cutting his meals down, incorporating more veggies into his diet and drinking water instead of soft drinks. He also added running to his exercise regimen, which became especially taxing on his knees. The doting dad told ABC News, “There were days when I thought my knees would give out and all I wanted to do was stop, but I would think of my daughter and I would keep going. After a while I worked my way up to six miles in an hour.”
Jazlyn’s determined father’s hard work in losing the weight paid off in November of last year when he got down to 180 pounds in less than two months. The weight loss also resulted in a liver fat percentage decrease to under 2 percent, which pleased the transplant doctors.
Camargo became cleared for the surgery just one day before Jazlyn’s liver began to fail. The next day, Camargo underwent the surgery where doctors removed one-third of his liver to give to his daughter.
Both surgeries were successful.
Camargo will suffer no ill effects from the surgery and his liver regenerated within three months after the procedure. Jazlyn will, however, have to remain on immunosuppressant medications, but should lead a normal life.
Now more than a year later, Camargo and Jazlyn are fine. He has maintained the majority of his weight loss and is grateful to be able to enjoy the holidays with his baby. Camargo has also become an avid supporter of organ donation. As a matter of fact, he managed to get his entire clan to sign the backs of their driver’s licenses to become organ donors as well.
Now, nothing warms the devoted dad’s heart more than seeing his little girl actively running all about his home. “It’s a scary experience going through it but the outcome pays off,” Camargo told ABC News. “When you see your child running up and down, you know something good came out of it.”

ALL GOT STUCK

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Birmingham Times

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January 2, 2014

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But striking a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground; and the prow stuck fast and remained immovable, but the stern was being broken up by the violence of the waves. Acts 27:41

I read an article today written by an Intensive Care Nurse about the way people suffer when on the ICU unit. She explained how often the treatment given is just a prolonging of the inevitable. There are times when someone in the family will say “do what it takes to save them” and the doctors follow the directive and then other times when a family member says “let them go” and the doctors won’t. I found the article interesting because it’s somewhat like that in the lives of people that say or believe they are healthy. There are times when some things are inevitable, you cannot avoid them. Death is one of them but not just physical death but also relationship death, emotional death, financial death and spiritual death. Unfortunately, too many people are listening to others rather than make a decision for themselves leading everyone to be stuck together.

The small and great are there, And the servant is free from his master. Job 3:19

In order to be free, you must be willing to make a concrete decision about what you want to do in life and let others know. In medicine, a Living Will will address this issue and in life sometimes you need to write down your wishes, likes or dislikes for others to understand and respect your position. If you don’t make what you want clear, you will find yourself stuck in a place of hopelessness. A place you don’t want to be and are very unhappy with. Don’t get stuck in a place you don’t want to be or doing something you don’t want to do. SPEAK UP FOR YOURSELF and be free.

It’s your life – not theirs,
Minister Deidra Bibb

Helping Caregivers To Deal With Stress

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Birmingham Times

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January 2, 2014

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(NAPSI)—There’s helpful news for family caregivers. Two new free tools designed to help them better understand their role and deal with the stress that can accompany it are now available.
A family caregiver is anyone who plays a role in an older loved one’s care—a role that can be challenging. According to The Family Caregiver Alliance, family caregivers report chronic conditions, including heart disease, cancer and diabetes, at nearly twice the rate (45 percent vs. 24 percent) of non-family caregivers.
Plus, a recent study from Home Instead, Inc., franchisor of the Home Instead Senior Care® franchise network (www.homeinstead.com), indicates a reluctance to ask for help and chronic illness are two characteristics that can make family caregivers more vulnerable to caregiver distress. Each Home Instead Senior Care® franchise office is independently owned and operated.
To help, Home Instead recently released two new tools free for family caregivers. Their “Are You a Caregiver Quiz” is designed to help a family caregiver identify and recognize the role of caregiver. The “Family Caregiver Distress Assessment” was created to enable caregivers to help determine their potential risk for caregiver distress and to be aware of its possible resulting effects, such as depression, heart disease, high blood pressure and obesity.
Many who completed the assessment identified “watching their loved one decline” both physically and mentally as most stressful.
Said company president Jeff Huber, “It’s important for caregivers to understand that stress can impact one’s ability to care. If they don’t care for themselves, they may put their senior loved ones at risk.”
To access the free caregiver tools, visit www.FamilyCaregiverStressRelief.com.

Black Head of Southern Baptists Rev. Fred Luter At Odds with ‘Duck Dynasty’ Star

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Birmingham Times

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January 2, 2014

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Taken from Eurweb.com
You may or may not be aware that a Black man, Rev. Fred Luter, is head of the overwhelmingly white Southern Baptist Convention. For the record, he’s the organization’s first ever Black president.
It should come as no surprise that Rev. Luter is down with Phil Robertson‘s biblical views on homosexuality but parts ways with the “Duck Dynasty” patriarch’s memory of race relations before the Civil Rights movement.
As we reported, Robertson, in a GQ magazine interview, said that in his Louisiana youth he picked cotton with African-Americans and never saw “the mistreatment of any Black person,” adding that they were “singing and happy” and didn’t complain about white people.
Obviously that’s not the reality of millions of Blacks in Louisiana, including Rev. Luter who grew up in New Orleans. He flat out says back in the day in Louisiana there was nothing happy about segregation or “being hung in a tree because of your race.” He adds that Blacks were definitely complaining, if not to Robertson.
But as we said up top, Luter defends Robertson’s quotation of a Bible passage that calls homosexual acts sinful. The pastor says he didn’t consider those remarks hateful.
Fans of “Duck Dynasty” have rallied to support Robertson after the A&E network put him on indefinite “hiatus” from the reality show.

FROM THE BIBLE

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Birmingham Times

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January 2, 2014

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by Jerry Kingery

From everlasting to everlasting

Lord, where are thy former lovingkindnesses, which thou swarest unto David in thy truth?
Blessed be the LORD for evermore. Amen and Amen.
Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.
For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.
Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.
In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.
For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled. Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.
For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.
The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Return, O LORD, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants.
O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil.
Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children.
And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.

from Psalms 89 – 90

For a free Scripture packet, please write From the Bible, BIBLE FOUNDATION, PO Box 908, Newberg, Oregon 97132; email: bf@bf.org.