This is Efren Penaflorida.

I’m not sure if you’ve heard of him but he’s huge news around here these days.

Efren is a teacher. A teacher without a classroom. Or to be more precise, he’s a teacher with (a classroom in) a pushcart.

He goes around Manila’s slums teaching kids wherever they’ll sit still and listen – dump sites, cemeteries, under busy overpasses.

You see, Efren was once a kid like his students. He lived in a slum area and was harassed by gang members. But like many of the heroes we talk about, he refused to let his circumstance be his fate. He was determined to get an education and make the best of his life.

At 16, Efren started teaching high risk kids in poor urban areas how to read and write. He also taught them Math and English.

That was 12 years ago. Now, at 28, Efren and his group known as the Dynamic Teen Company have changed the lives of over 1,500 kids. They have also expanded with their feeding and first aid programs, treating scabies and wounds. Today, former drug users and scavengers have become literate under his wing and several are now volunteers who teach or help raise funds.

His approach just makes me think how simple helping others can be. He just went out there and shared. It wasn’t always easy getting support but he found ways. The group sold recyclable materials. They even staged and performed in their own little concerts to raise funds.

I’m proud to say, the man the kids call Kuya Ef is now on the world stage. He has been nominated as one of CNN’s Heroes for 2009.

In fact, he leaves for LA today to attend the star-studded CNN Heroes Gala Night.

As a nominee he gets $25,000. If he is voted Hero Of The Year, he will get an additional $100,000.

You can vote for him here… as many times as you like.

2009 Mayor of RSM, CA

Opens City to

Irresponsible Corporations

Sanctuary for Illegal Immigrants?

Unabated Latino Trespassers

Threatening Locals

(syndicated article) 

Photo of the Mayor of Rancho Santa Margarita, CA

Iconic Photo of the Mayor’s City, RSM, CA

Iconic Video of the Mayor’s City, RSM, CA

The Whole Story

Mayor of RSM, CA Shakes Hands

with Irresponsible Corporations

-OVERVIEW-

BRE Properties and the Mayor of Rancho Santa Margarita’s joint responsibility of protecting the safety and quality of life of it’s local inhabitants seems to be -to them- a moot point. Both simply ignore pointed confrontation by any outraged and terrorized RSM taxpayer.

Case in point, the seemingly under-the-table company Sam Cast Landscape Services out of Santa Anna CA., an employer that most would say is a prime candidate for a swift ICE investigation -along with BRE Properties- and to all appearances supports hired personnel that are straight from the devils-highway, (and suspiciously has no website), basically dominates BRE’s southern properties. Why isn’t Mayor Thompson aware of this? Or perhaps he is aware. In what era would one find a reputable company with million-dollar assets in equipment, contracted and/or hired by multi-billion corporations like BRE Properties in RSM CA., that not only abstains from acquiring their own highly visible and/or public website as the first course of action in establishing a business, but maintains virtual invisibility as far as the general public is concerned with near zero internet presence?

“We’re literally being invaded by illegal aliens in our neighborhoods. Stay out of our trash cans means stay out of our yards and neighborhood. Neither the city nor BRE Properties respond to our outcry for help” says one RSM local.

It is no wonder that the locals are rising up in a fury. The above photo and video are just the tip of the iceberg relating to the monumental library of ammunition (photos and HD videos) taken by locals in RSM, who are organizing at a record pace to take BRE Properties and the Mayor of RSM to the mat with proof in hand.

Citizens of Rancho Santa Margarita pay a 67% higher cost of living than the national average, hoping to raise their families in a city that was once seen as family friendly and safe, offering a higher quality of life for their buck, but no more. They’re finding that the slum elements of bad neighborhoods are coming to them, literally to their front door unabated by the powers that be. “RSM locals want their 67% higher cost of living returned,” feeling with little doubt that they’ve been defrauded by the city of RSM and by housing corp.s like BRE Properties, explains a BRE tenant.

Video documentation by highly concerned members of the community shows without a doubt that not only do BRE and other properties refuse to secure their southern CA properties against trespassing prowlers and/or scavenging by unknowns cruising their properties, they encourage it by blatantly allowing it to occur daily. Both the City of RSM and BRE point the finger at each other, stating that it’s not their responsibility when handling the unending complaints.

Still, the mayor’s office refuses to slap BRE with a junction to clean up or pay restitution and get out. Even worse, his office refuses to have trespassing city ordinances and/or state laws (code 602) seriously enforced, according to those living in RSM. One vocal inhabitant says, “RSM is an open hunting ground for trespassing prowlers of would-be crimes of convenience, ever-threatening lawless illegal aliens, rapists, thieves, terrorists and murderers.” “Derelicts come and go as they please, looking as though they drove all the way from Compton or through the devils-highway and we have hundreds of hours of video to prove it,” reports a exasperated mother.

Those enduring this untenable situation, currently trapped in RSM CA. and places like BRE Properties via tainted contractual agreements (victims of facts not disclosed prior, that relate to serious personal and property safety issues), in most part are unprotected with little to no recourse to circumvent prowling trespassers in their front yards, streets, and neighborhoods. Things are quickly coming to a head, with many flocking to their attorneys for plan of action.

Angry RSM citizens gather to form a unique neighborhood-watch linking multiple communities in the area as one massive voice. Feeling swindled, they have some satisfaction, seeing their ever-increasingly motto rapidly proliferate throughout RSM comunities and So-Cal faster than a California wildfire, and it’s burning hot. “Who needs trespassing ordinances after the fact except victims of crime, newspapers, insurance companies, lawyers, mortuaries and funeral-homes,” chants one determined RSM victim!

This is not to say that those captured by near fraudulent contracts in So-Cal’s city of RSM don’t currently see themselves as victims of crime, having their homes violated by unknown and unabated frightening trespassers, as the current powers that be simply look the other way.

“If I weren’t stuck in this contract I’d leave immediately, I don’t care how nice the place is. I’m so concerned about the safety of my family from the RAZA-like scavenger’s daily intimidating gauntlet that my wife has to friggin get through in the wee early morning hours to get to her car, that I may pay the penalty and move anyway, and settle with all responsible parties later in court!” voices one fed-up RSM resident.

Locals are calling for Mayor Thompson head, relatively speaking. The rumor is that the very least that’s planed, taking matters into their own hands, is a collective mass exodus if change is not forthcoming very soon. Can you blame them?

It’s almost like home

It’s safe to say that no one would feel at home with that warm cozy and secure feeling of being snuggled up with your family while clamorous, scary, unknown strangers are prowling around just under your balcony at all hours, no matter how nice the neighborhood or home may be.

Mayor Gary Thompson is amongst the powerfully influential in southern California, while President  Constance “Connie” Moore is one of the most financially influential individuals in California, bringing in a salary of over two million annually with BRE Properties.

One might think that between the two of them, via their mutually advantageous business union, that they could figure out how to not only protect their business investments in Rancho Santa Margarita, but more importantly how to best protect the safety and quality of life of the people living there.

One might also ask why the people in RSM are paying them a 67% higher cost of living than the national average and for what, for a place that’s almost safe or almost like home?

Read…The Whole Story

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Oxidative stress! Free Radicals! Antioxidants!………These are words that we increasingly hear or read, but what do they mean???   What do they have to do with our health as we age?  I know that Oxidative Stress in NOT good, Free Radicals are NOT hippies, and Antioxidants prevent diseases! After that, it gets a bit confusing, so here is the simple version for you!

Let’s start off with a basic understanding of  what Oxygen does in our body first.  We need Oxygen to live!  After we breathe it into our lungs, it travels through our bloodstream to every cell in our body.  Inside our cells, it fuels something called the Mitochondria, also known as the powerhouse of the cell.  Simply put, the Mitochondria is like an engine, and Oxygen the fuel.  We need to give the Mitochondria enough fuel or Oxygen to make energy for our cells to work properly.  Simple enough?

You’re doing great, let’s keep going!  There is a byproduct of this Oxygen-to- energy process that is similar to a car engine creating exhaust.  In our body’s cells the ”exhaust” that is produced, when oxygen is converted to energy, is called ”Free Radicals”.  The colorful fruits and vegetables we eat, and yummy dark chocolate we have for dessert, contain Antioxidants, substances that hunt for Free Radicals to scavenge or “eat for  dinner”!    

As we age, our bodies produce more and more Free Radicals, while our intake of Antioxidants can’t keep up with them.  It’s like going to a smorgasborg after we have had an open buffet!  When our cells have more Free Radicals, or “exhaust”, than Antioxidants, this is known as Oxidative Stress.  We can understand it best as “exhaust overload”!

These Free Radicals are highly charged Oxygen molecules that cause damage to our cell’s DNA/genes, proteins, and fats.  If we experience Oxidative Stress for a long time, our genes in our cells change, or mutate, sending a different message along to the new cells that are formed.  These mutations create the signs of aging we experience on our skin, the stiffness we feel in our bodies, and are also the cause of  many degenerative diseases.

Let’s take a moment to go over what we have learned!  Oxygen is changed to energy in our cells’ Mitochondria.  Some Oxygen is left over as Free Radicals. Antioxidants scavenge free radicals.  As we age, we create more Free Radicals and don’t have enough Antioxidants to control them, causing Oxidative Stress and diseases.  We’ve got it!

I’m already seeing the effects of Oxidative Stress in my skin, and feeling it in my body, and BOY I DO NOT LIKE IT ONE BIT!!!  Wrinkles…age spots…. my face was drooping like a wrinkled, old dog!!!   We know what happens to an apple when it is cut it open and left to sit for a while, right? It turns brown and gets all wrinkly!  What we see are the effects of Oxygen on the apple.  That’s what Oxidative Stress is doing to us.  Our hormone levels are decreasing, thus slowing down collagen and elastin production, and we get hot flashes.  Our skin becomes thinner and drier, losing its vibrant glow.  Our Mitochondria don’t work as efficiently, and energy production decreases, making us feel sluggish.  Our genes become damaged over time, shortening our cells’ life and encouraging disease formation.

So what do can we do to slow down this process???  Eating rainbow colored fruits and vegetables and that  “wonder food”, dark chocolate, is a very good start!  It will take a LOT of them to keep up with all the Free Radicals our bodies make.   But this is only one part of a proactive approach to targeting the causes and symptoms of aging.  Addressing all four core influences of aging, starting with Antioxidants, is essential!!

We also need to include Mitochondrial Energy Activators (to keep the amount of free radicals in check),  Endocrine System Modulators (remember those sluggish hormones?),  and Longevity Gene Modifiers (helping our healthy cells live longer)!

It is important to have these nutrients applied directly through our skin care systems, and consumed in a dietary supplement mixture of a variety of Antioxidants and Phytonutrients.  Something NEW that I have found and LOVE is Apriori Beauty’s Celloxylin Skin Care with a Nutrient Reservoir in each of the five steps, and Lifeloxylin Elixir, containing a bountiful blend of ingredients that nourish, protect and prolong the life of our cells and defies aging!!  Since I started using this internal/external system in June, my wrinkles are better, my visiual clarity has improved, my age spots are disappearing…and I’m looking softer, more like a cute little Beagle pup!  When we add to this performance ingredients that help reduce the visible signs of aging, you’ve got a systemic, “whole body” approach to anti-aging and the Cellular Age Advantage!

Thank you, Candace Keefe, and Apriori Beauty, for your innovations that take us Life Years ahead in our fight against disease and aging!!

References:

“Fighting Free Radicals”,  ”Did You Know?”,  Apriori Beauty Website http://www.aprioribeauty.com/FIC/candace/back_office/did_you_know

Harvard Medical School (2006, June 2).  Free Radical Cell Death Switch Identified:  Molecular Pathway May Contribute To Age Related Diseases. “Science Daily”. Retrieved October 28, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/06/060601220956.htm

Oregon State University (2009, September 7). Oxidative Stress Is Underlying Cause Of Huge Numbers of Genetic Mutations, Study Finds. “Science Daily”.  Retrieved October 28, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090907162318.htm

Last weekend, I had the absolute pleasure of working on Cory Bowles‘ RIGHTEOUS. This was his directorial follow-up to one of my favourite short flicks of 2008, THE SCAVENGERS (click here to see the trailer for that film). Both of Bowles’ films are from his production company Transfiction Films.

I was on set for two days in Truro, and they shot another day in Halifax.

I’m really excited for everyone to see this! Everyone on the set was operating on every cylinder possible, I think we may have created something really special.

The film stars Richard Talbot in his first acting role, Kate Macdonald, and myself. The crew was made up of some ridiculously talented people. Jeff Wheaton (assisted by Scott Thorne) conjured up some pretty effing whimsical shots as the Director of Photography. Mr. Zan “Aikido” Rosborough & Adam Burke provided excellent audio recording skills. Meanwhile, John Davies provided rugged good looks and pitched everyone on movies all weekend.

Lots of other people worked on the film, and they were all awesome!

Hopefully, some stills will be available sometime in the near future, so you can have a proper preview of Righteous. Until then, here are three behind-the-scenes shots from the shoot. Don’t you feel special?

Scott Thorne snapped this photo between shots of me cursing at Jeff Wheaton.

Mr. Bowles himself wondering why I’m standing so close to him…

I wanted to take a tough photo of Richard Talbot, however, DOP Jeff Wheaton decided it needed a little more clown…

That’s all for now. When there’s more available, you’ll see it either on here, or over at Transfiction Films’ blog.

Oh, and PS, unrelated note: Ghostbusters is playing this Friday at 11:30pm at Empire Park Lane. What better way to ring in Halloween?

On a recent trip to the Timbavati with a group of guests, I was fortunate to witness and photograph a very interesting (and entertaining) piece of animal behavior. On our very first afternoon game drive we came across a Black-backed Jackal (Canis mesomelas) who had found what he thought was a free meal. There was a little more to the story and this poor guy ended up working rather hard for his meal!

The reserve management had been running an operation to inoculate the resident Lion (Panthera leo) population against rabies. As part of this exercise they had secured an Impala (Aepyceros melampus) carcass to a branch of a Marula tree. The carcass was secured at a height which would keep the lions interested, without allowing them to completely devour the carcass or drag it away from the open area needed for issuing the dart. Our little friend stumbled upon the remnants of the operation and just couldn’t resist attempting to feed of the left overs.

The following series of photos shows the little guy jumping from the base of the tree into a knot or knoll before leaping skywards and grabbing hold of the rump of the Impala. Once he had sunken his teeth in there and managed to get a grip of the carcass, he would either shake or allow the momentum from his leap off the tree to rip free a chunk of the meat before returning gracefully (sometimes not so gracefully) to the ground.

The benefit of the small chunks of meat he was able to rip off was obviously well worth the amount of energy he expended to get to it, as he jumped up the tree over, and over, and over again!

Although not an entirely natural situation, Black-backed Jackal are incredibly well adapted to scavenging and it is not uncommon for them to attempt to grab dangling bits of meat left hanging in trees by leopards (Panthera pardus). All in all, it was a really interesting and entertaining sighting that none who were present will forget any time soon!

A bit more on the Black-backed Jackal

The Black-backed Jackal is a versatile feeder, and will alter its diet according to availability and the degree of inter-specific competition (competition between different species). It typically feeds on small to medium sized mammals, reptiles, invertebrates and birds, but frequently scavenges on carrion. They will also feed on berries and even some plants.

The Black-backed Jackal has a 2-month gestation period. Each litter consists of 3-6 pups, each of which weighs 200–250 grams at birth. At 8 months,the pups are old enough to leave their parents and establish territories of their own. However, a young jackal will often return to the territory to help the parents raise another litter. In these cases, the next litter is much more likely to survive. Like several jackal species, the Black-backed Jackal is typically monogamous.

Grey-headed vulture in flight, Costa Rica (photo 2008)

The scavenger vulture, Costa Rica (photo 2008)

It’s most natural to me to feel an aversion to scavenger birds, like vultures, who feed on carrion and death.  I love how Robinson Jeffers’ poem turns this outlook on its heels.

Vulture
by Robinson Jeffers

I had walked since dawn and lay down to rest on a bare hillside
Above the ocean.  I saw through half-shut eyelids a vulture
     wheeling high up in heaven,
And presently it passed again, but lower and nearer, its orbit
     narrowing, I understood then
That I was under inspection.  I lay death-still and heard the flight-feathers
Whistle above me and make their circle and come nearer.
I could see the naked red hood between the great wings
Bear down staring.  I said, “My dear bird, we are wasting time here.
These old bones will still work; they are not for you.”  But how
     beautiful he looked, gliding down
On those great sails; how beautiful he looked, veering away in
     the sea-light over the precipice.  I tell you solemnly
That I was sorry to have disappointed him.  To be eaten by that
      beak and become part of him, to share those wings and those eyes –
What a sublime end of one’s body, what an enskyment; what a
     life after death.

Hyena

A hyena is a large wild, doglike animal that lives in Africa and Asia.

Hyenas known as spotted hyenas are sometimes called “laughing hyenas” because they make sounds that resemble hysterical human laughter.

But the hyena is not really laughing.  The laughing hyena usually makes it weird, laughing howl only when it is frightened or excited.

Hyena have the reputation of being cowardly animals because they prefer to eat meat already killed by other animals.

They often follow lions and eat the leftovers of the larger animals’ meals.  They even eat the leftover bones, crushing them with their strong teeth and powerful jaws.

Hyenas are not particular about what they eat.  They are mostly scavengers and will eat any “garbage”  they happen upon.

For this reason, they are useful as animal “garbage collectors”  and help keep the ground.

Visual source:  redorbit

To download issues 0,2-11 Thanks to Sparkman

scavengers

Kenya

Sacred ibis take flight

Coming to Kenya with the BBC’s natural history unit you’d be forgiven for assuming that I was here to spend a few weeks on safari.  For sure, the BBC’s cameramen and women have had a long and fruitful relationship with Kenya’s amazing wildlife over the years, resulting in some of the most sensational wildlife sequences ever seen on TV, a particular favourite of mine being the awesome spectacle of thousands of wildebeest crossing the Mara river during their yearly migration filmed for Planet Earth.

Not withstanding this age old tradition, we have indeed come here in part to film Kenya’s wildlife, we just aren’t staying in a stilted safari lodge nor whizzing around the plains in an open top four wheel drive.  We’re in Mombasa, and for the last 3 days I’ve been wading through mountains of rubbish in this city’s sprawling waste dump.

On our first morning at the dump we arrived at dawn and I spent the first few minutes clambering over the twilight debris looking for a suitable high vantage point from which to shoot a panorama with the first light from the rising sun.   Atop the largest pile I could see I came across this quiet scene.   I shot a few frames and then climbed down.

I don’t know anything about this boy… what his name is, or how old he is. I don’t know if he has a family.  The clicking of my camera didn’t wake him.  Sitting here now writing this at a desk in my hotel room I wish I could tell you something about this young soul other than the fact that he is one of quite a number of youngsters who live and work at the dump, days spent sifting through Mombasa’s refuse looking for food and things to sell to middle men for recycling. 

Since that first morning here, a steady stream of people have stopped their work to come and talk with us about life on their dump.  Many of them just come to chat, seemingly oblivious to the notion that there is anything that the outside world can do to help them other than continuing with its culture of rampant consumerism.  It’s a cruel irony, but the reality here is that this is their life and work and it provides them with an income that keeps them alive.  There’s no doubt that the majority of people living here would rather be somewhere else; the sad fact however is that their farewell would inevitably herald the arrival of a replacement in no time at all.  Walking around this waste land, I am reminded once more that mother nature is not prejudiced.  Scavenging at a dump is an environmental niche that she invites all species to inhabit, our own included.  

Scavenging for food at the dump

Good morning friends.  Today, everybody is invited to the celebration of Vulture Awareness  Day.  City NO’s will join to Vulture Awareness Day celebration.  We should participate all in giving importance to it. 

September 5 will be celebrated as International Vulture Awareness Day (IVAD-09) worldwide. Several NGOs, including some based here plan to celebrate the event by creating awareness about vulture conservation in the region.

According to Junagadh-based NGO, Mudra Ecological, Cultural and Heritage Ovation Society, several peaks and ranges in Girnar Mountains near Junagadh are considered among the few nesting sites of vultures.

The ambitious ropeway project is also being considered a possible threat towards the conservation of these birds. According to sources, some nature clubs and environmentalists have raised the issue with the Centre, even as public agitation for the early commencement of the ropeway project gathers momentum.

J Nimish, a member of Mudra society, said: “We are not opposing the ropeway project, but believe at the same time that vulture conservation should not be sidelined. Both the ropeway project and vulture conservation are equally serious issues. We will approach education institutions and provide them with information about the importance of vultures and their conservation.”

Ankit Shukala and Mitesh Dave, other members of the NGO, who favour development of tourism here, echo the same view.

Some nature clubs and environmentalists have expressed doubts that the ropeway project will threaten the vulture habitat and nesting site on Girnar Mountains.

According to environmentalists, at present, Girnar Mountain houses around 30 vultures.

The bird is considered shy and has a habit of taking shelter in isolated areas far away from human population.

During the last one decade,vulture population has drastically reduced in the Indian Sub-Continent.

Incidentally, Gujarat Minister of State for Environment and Forest Kiritsinh Rana, had also said in his reply to a question on February 20, 2009 during Question Hour in the Gujarat Assembly, that vulture population in the state has reduced from 2,647 to 1431 in two years from 2005-07.

Gujarat was the first state in the country to ban the use of diclofenac drug, considered to be the prime reason for the disappearance of these scavengers. – Yahoo

Sibte Husain Bukhari

I had no idea the hipster bar was so congested.  I’d never been there before.  Still not, in fact.  I was just passing by on my way to what my gentleman friend so lovingly calls, “The Tortilla Dumpster.”  That’s when I fully understood the difference between a hipster and a scavenger.  Both are clad in ironic t-shirts, but only one will take you to the Hexagon on a Friday night, while the other will ask you to keep watch outside a poorly lit parking lot, and wonder with deep disappointment why you don’t happen to have a bag for loose garbage chips on hand in your trunk.

I sat in my car in the dark; rolled down the window for a glimpse at the fun-havers ’round the corner, their dancey tunes filling the street.  The music seemed, however, to be coming from the building next to me.  A sprawling structure called simply, “The Ivy Building.”  And rightly so.  Only it surely wasn’t an office building, and not a light flickered from any one of the hundred or so windows.  Just as I wondered alarmingly what kinds of abandoned secrets live here, a stray cat sauntered gracefully across the street, and settled on its Ivy-wound steps.

It was a simple moment.  But it seemed monumental in its absurdity.  The Boy comes back with a bag he’d evidently found in or around the dumpster, filled to the brim with taco chips.  I’d fancy it a fun adventure had he kissed me at any point during the evening.  But I was a cigarette-bumming getaway car.  And I’m thinking that maybe three months is a little long to remain stagnant; at bay.  But this is not news and I’m just really high, trying to make poetry of this nonsense I’ve gotten myself into.

But I will say the following, in a variety of tenses and towards a myriad of individuals:

-If there are honestly good tortillas, unexpired meats, fresh-ish vegetables, and cold-but-not-more-than-a-few-hours-old pizza in dumpsters across the country — why the fuck are these restaurants/grocery stores/fast food emporiums not finding a way to usefully pass along these edible items?  How hard would it be to neatly package salvagable foods and donate them to a shelter?  Why must there BE treasure to uncover in a fucking dumpster?  I can’t pretend to find a solution, but there must be some nonprofit that could go around and collect these remnants.  Keep them away from, you know, actual garbage.  If he had taken me to a food shelf, I would have been more impressed.

-Fuck your overuse of the phrase “you’re my friend.”  We have sex.  Several times a week.  And I can’t be myself around you.  We’re not friends.

-Oxycontin is no fun. Especially when you get impatient and take a Vicodin before it really gets a chance to kick in.  R.I.P. Heath Ledger.

-In spite of hating you sometimes, I like you a lot.  I love it when you touch me.  But only because it’s a rarity.

-I’ve decided that it’s time to integrate push-ups into my workout routine.  Previously I had been swayed by my inability to do even one.  Said barrier still stands, but I’m working towards my first full-fledged push upwards.  And many more.

-Let’s make love and listen to Death From Above.

-I have to remember to swing by the nail salon tomorrow and pick up the sham keys to my grandmother’s apartment at the Memory Care Pavilion.  She forgot them.  Ba-dum-ching.  (Notice my use of the word “sham.”  The apartments do not lock, but it makes her feel safe.)

~~~~~~~

I’ve been writing a lot of posts while totally stoned, but then not posting them for fear of being incoherent or ridiculous.  But I’m just gonna wing this one.  I am high enough to admit that lately I feel like a sad little girl.  I feel I have the right to pity myself for playing Cinderella to my father’s lifelong mess, holding my mother’s chemo pump above the shower while she attempts to at least humanely clean herself, reminding my grandmother repeatedly at the annual Memory Care Family Barbeque that she does not, in fact, work there. And yet I am numb to the pain of it all.  I feel okay.  I have orgasms every once in a while.  But what I’d really like is the freedom to crawl into his arms and cry it out or feel admired.  For a moment I thought I had that when he reached for me in the middle of the night.  Wrapped his arms around me, kissed the top of my head.  But his glorious erection laid cause for the occasion.  And before I knew it, I was riding him, sleepily.

But my ability to gyrate like Lindsay Lohan in “I Know Who Killed Me” leaves me reason to believe I’m making progress towards physical fitness.

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by David J. Stewart & Andrew Friedman

At Benny Hinn’s crusades—he dazzles the crowds, plays captivating music, and manipulates the emotions of the audience; BUT, he is not of God.  What is happening is not of God.  Benny Hinn is a master con artist, who fully understands the human psyche.  I was watching one of Benny Hinn’s crusades the other day on TV.  At first impression, Benny Hinn appears as a man of God.  He has that curious and distinguishing look that mesmerizes the crowds.  Benny Hinn comes across as an extremely interesting character, with the power to hypnotize the masses with his charm, music, and exploitation of the Bible.

As I watched Benny Hinn perform on stage, it reminded me more of a rock star in concert.  There were many thousands of people in the audience, and no doubt, millions more on TV..  Just as rock-n-roll fans, the audience was in the palm of the performer, Benny Hinn.  Hinn never mentioned the word “sin,” never mentioned the word “Saviour,” but just kept talking about how wonderful Jesus is.  This is one of Satan’s greatest deceptions.  We read in Acts16:16-18, “And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation.  And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.“  Just as the demon possessed woman in Acts 16:17 who spoke the truth while also serving the Devil, so does Benny Hinn speak of Jesus Christ while serving the Devil.

Hinn’s money comes mostly from people in TV land, who are foolishly conned by what they see on TV.  It couldn’t be more obvious that Benny Hinn has hired a top-notch group of manipulators to work with him.  One of the camera tricks which Hinn employs is to zoom in on certain audience members who look like they’re having a religious experience.  Seeing someone having such an uplifting experience, while hearing the emotion-producing music, and listening to Hinn ramble on with religious lingo, easily mesmerizes the viewer.  As I watched Benny Hinn, he told the audience to get ready to receive the power of the Holy Spirit.  Next, hundreds of people towards the front, dressed differently than the people in the back, all fell backwards to the floor.  It was apparent to me that the event was staged.  Then came the alleged healings.  During the healing period of the crusade, several dynamic, sharp-looking, and trained people bring forth the alleged recipients of Hinn’s healing power.  To no surprise, as is COMMON to self-proclaimed faith-healers like Oral Roberts, ALL of the healings are unable to be substantiated.  A small boy was brought up on stage, allegedly deaf in one ear since birth, but now able to hear.  Another woman in a wheel-chair was wheeled up to the platform, allegedly crippled from diabetes, then she walked on stage.  Another man was claimed to have been deaf in both ears from birth, but now was healed.  Then Hinn prompted the man to speak in an attempt to confirm the healing, and he did speak.  So when did the man learn to speak if he was deaf his whole life?

I’d like to see someone with no legs receive their legs back.  Why doesn’t Benny Hinn ever go into a hospital and empty it out of all it’s sick patients?  Why only on stage, behind the camera, while asking for money?

Benny Hinn ministries took in over $100,000,000 last year alone.  Again, I ask, why doesn’t Hinn ever use his alleged power to heal the sick people in hospitals?  The reason is abundantly clear … Hinn is a fraud.  Hinn, like John Edward, Sylvia Browne, Oprah Winfrey, Joel Osteen, Rick Warren, and so many other false prophets, EXPLOITS Christianity and God’s Word to gain wealth, prosperity, control, influence, and popularity.  God’s power is not for sale.  Do you really think God would allow anyone to exploit his power on stage, for money, and to a false prophet who praises the cult of Catholicism?  Satan is working relentlessly through today’s false prophets to UNITE Christianity with false religion, which is APOSTASY!  When Constantine declared Christianity as the official religion of Roman in 380 A.D., it led to total apostasy, and the beginning of the formal Roman Catholic cult.  Don’t be deceived, Benny Hinn and Billy Graham are false prophets who are leading ecumenical churches into the New World Order (the beast system of antichrist).  Satan knows that the easiest way to deceive people is to obscure and blur the truth of God’s Word.  This is why we see so many watered-down Bibles nowadays.  This is why we see Protestants praising Catholics, and Catholics protecting homosexual priests, and homosexuals twisting the Bible around to claim that Sodom and Gomorrah’s sin was only a lack of hospitality.  The Word of God is under attack!

The Bible teaches that the gift of healing ended with the Apostles.  The sign gifts were only to validate the message of the Apostles.  This is evidenced by the Biblical fact that the Apostle Paul, who had once been healed of a deadly snake bite, couldn’t find relief for his thorn in the flesh later in 2nd Corinthians 12:7.  2nd Timothy 4:20 also states that Paul couldn’t heal his friend Trophimus,

“…but Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick.”

Paul spoke of Timothy’s “often infirmities” in 1st Timothy 5:23, but he couldn’t heal his friend Timothy either.  Clearly, the “gift” of healing had ceased.  If you want to read an excellent in-depth Biblical examination of tongues, healing, and gifts, then please read FACE TO FACE WITH TONGUES by Pastor Max D. Younce.

In Benny Hinn’s crusades, he sings, he praises the name of Jesus, he places his hands on people and they fall to the ground; BUT, it is not of the Holy Spirit.  I’d like to see Benny Hinn cry one time.  I’d like to hear Benny Hinn expose the demonic Catholic religion.  Benny Hinn is a fraud!  According to a Dateline investigation in December of 2002…

Where does world-famous televangelist’s money go?

Benny Hinn has millions of believers and millions in donations

NBC News

Dec. 27, 2002 - Maybe you spotted him while you were channel surfing one night
or maybe you were already tuned in. Either way, he's hard to ignore. Benny
Hinn - televangelist, faith healer, and appointment viewing for millions of
believers. His popularity and his wealth are matched only by the devotion he
's shown by his followers, many of them desperate for help. Their stories
and his ministry play out almost every night in made-for-TV mini-dramas. But
there are other stories, other scenes that reveal much more about Pastor
Benny, caught on Dateline's hidden cameras. Correspondent Bob McKeown
reports.

   HE ALWAYS ARRIVES onstage when they begin to sing the hymn, "How Great
Thou Art."

    And whether you measure success in his TV ratings, attendance at his
live services or crusades around the world, or the money he raises, he is
unquestionably one of the most popular and successful televangelists in the
world today. His television show is available around the globe. He attracts
capacity crowds at arenas and stadiums at home and abroad. And scenes like
this one in his TV studio are a big reason why:

    Benny Hinn: "Yes Lord. A lower back is being healed. Thank you Lord.
Emphysema is being healed. We rebuke it in Jesus' name. Somebody's legs have
just been healed."

      On television or at his crusades, Benny Hinn promises that wherever
he goes, miraculous healing will follow.

    Benny Hinn: "In the name of Jesus, I rebuke the allergies out of you.
Touch! - The glory of God is in the studio. We are having a visitation in
the studio today as we have been taping these TV programs."

    Those miracles, Hinn says, can cure injury and illness - even
terminal disease.

    Benny Hinn: "The healing may happen instantly, and may happen
gradually but
 surely as God is God, your legs will work again, and your body
will be healed again."

    And according to Benny Hinn, it gets even more miraculous than that.

    Benny Hinn: "On the program today, you are going to see a clip of
this man who was raised from the dead."

    Those dramatic claims - and his dynamic preaching style - have
attracted millions of devoted followers, like Carlotta Moore.

    "When I go to a crusade, I'm going because I need to be refreshed. I
need to be renewed. I need to be revived in my spirit," says Carlotta Moore.

    Moore says she also watches Benny Hinn's TV show everyday.

    "The Bible speaks of spiritual fathers," says Moore. "That is my
spiritual father. He's a
 leader. And he is a mentor."

EVANGELIST AND FUNDRAISER

    And he is a master fund raiser as well, so along with that devotion
comes money - a lot of it. Though pastor Benny denies it, estimates of total
ministry revenue exceed $100 million a year.

    Benny Hinn insists his only mission is to preach the gospel, save
souls, and heal the sick. But is there
 more than that to the man they call
pastor Benny?

    "Dateline" looked at the ministry of pastor Benny Hinn, who claims
miraculous power flows from God through him. We'll take a closer look at all
his healings and at all the money that goes into his collection buckets.

     Hinn was born in the Middle East, raised in Canada, and modeled
himself after a faith healer, the legendary Katherine Kuhlman. Hinn started
a church in Orlando, almost two decades ago. By 1999, he'd left Florida,
building his ministry's administrative headquarters in Dallas and his TV
studio in southern California where he now lives.

    Hinn's claims of miracles have made him immensely popular, but those
healings, combined with his ministry's enormous wealth, have also triggered
scrutiny of a different kind.

      "I say he's in the business of raising money and spreading his own
celebrity," says Ole Anthony, who heads the
 Trinity Foundation - a Christian
watch-dog group that examines the workings of television ministries. The
organization operates on donations, grants, and sales of its magazine and
tapes.

    Ole Anthony himself has been highly critical of television preachers
who don't divulge the details of how they raise and spend their money -
especially Benny Hinn.

    "We've gotten most of the complaints lately from Benny's organization
and Benny's followers," says Anthony. "That became our focus, we've been
following him intently since 1993."

    "Dateline" asked the Trinity Foundation to provide access to, among
other things, documents and videotape it's collected about the Hinn
Ministry. We reimbursed the foundation for its costs.

    And we also went looking for some answers ourselves. For almost two
years, "Dateline" sought permission to videotape Benny Hinn's crusades, to
see how this affluent
 television ministry really works.

    Eventually we were allowed to bring our cameras to a crusade in
Atlanta. But the ministry made it clear we were only permitted to tape the
first hour or so. Then after Hinn's entrance, a few hymns and some saving of
souls, we were told to stop.

VIEW FROM A HIDDEN CAMERA

    So, in order to try to find out what really goes on behind the scenes
of the Benny Hinn Ministry, we attended a number of other crusades and
walked in right though the front door with everybody else. Only this time,
the cameras were hidden.

    At least once a month, somewhere in the U.S., 50,000 or 60,000 people
attend one of Benny Hinn's two-day crusades. Over the past two years, we
followed pastor Benny around the country to Hampton, Virginia; Las Vegas;
Buffalo, and a few cities in between.

    At each of the crusades we attended, the faithful began to arrive
hours before
 the service. And so did we with our hidden cameras.

    But even when you get there early, the best sections are already
taken - reserved for major donors, church VIPs and, at the back, for the
disabled and those in wheelchairs.

    In Buffalo, we found our seats high up in the bleachers and we began
recording the service in the middle of that noisy crowd with a hidden
microphone and camera.

    What brings the faithful out to see Benny Hinn is the healing. The
expectation that sometime tonight they're going to see, or perhaps even be -
one of those people who arrive desperately ill and leave miraculously cured.
 What brings the faithful out to see Benny Hinn is the healing. The
expectation that sometime tonight they're going to see, or perhaps even be -
one of those people who arrive desperately ill and leave miraculously cured.

      The script - Benny Hinn's tried-and-true formula - was always
 the
same. And it always started with the music. There's an orchestra, a heavenly
host of local church choirs, and an all-star cast of Christian headliners.
The crowd's emotional temperature seems to rise, as they anxiously wait for
pastor Benny.

    "It's organized more closely than a political convention," says Ole
Anthony, of the Trinity Foundation.. "There's the repetitive music, there's
the mood lighting, there's this whole arrangement of waiting and waiting and
waiting until he comes on stage. The band is playing, "How Great Thou Art"
and then the process starts."

    Once he arrives onstage, pastor Benny preaches, prays and spiritually
tends his flock.

    Benny Hinn: "If you mean business with God, he means business with
you."

    At a Benny Hinn crusade, you can't
 help but notice the faith of his
followers and how much they appear to believe in him and his healing
message.

    The impression one gets being among that crowd is that whatever's
happening down there on the stage, however it may or may not be
choreographed, these people have come because they truly believe.

    "There's no question that the people that are there have strong
belief or a strong want-to-belief," says Anthony, "and so they respond."

THE TENSION BUILDS

    In fact, all evening, throughout the arena, the tension keeps
building because everyone here knows what's going to happen next.

    Benny Hinn:
 "There's power here, people. Lift your hands and receive
it."

    According to pastor Benny, that "power" will soon lead to miracles:

    Benny Hinn: "By moving those legs that have been crippled for all
those years."

    This is from a highlights tape we bought from the ministry's Web
site.

    Benny Hinn: "You're tired of all the pills you've taken, and all the
needles they put in your body and all the pain you felt. Well, I'm here to
tell you, you will be healed tonight!"

      After the preaching, there's the passing of the collection buckets.
And then comes the moment when Benny Hinn makes his
 much-anticipated
announcement - God is speaking to him, he says, revealing a multitude of
miracles, actual healings now taking place throughout the arena, some of
them very specific.

    Benny Hinn: "There is a young man named George. George has HIV. But
my brother George, the holy ghost is burning it out of your body!"

    At all of the evening crusades we attended, it was about 10 p.m. when
Hinn announced God was speaking to him.

    Benny Hinn: "Another arthritis has been healed."

    Benny Hinn's ministry says that in order to verify the miraculous
healings that have taken place, it screens those who claim they've been
healed before they get up on stage.

    First, Hinn staff members talk to the people who get in line. This
screener is even a
 doctor and he evidently thinks this woman is a good
candidate to announce her healing up on the platform with pastor Benny.

    Doctor: "No pain? Great job. You couldn't do that before? (As she
moves her head around.) That is neat. Yeah, take her up there."

    The people selected by the screeners are then introduced to Benny
Hinn and the capacity crowd. Those who've been healed, and others who attend
each service, are given a blessing by pastor Benny with his own personal
touch. And whether he blows or flicks or waves his hand, the faithful are
strewn across the floor like bowling pins. So what exactly is at work here?

RELIGION OR HYPNOSIS?

    "They'd fall down," says Michael Cohen. "They'd fall backwards. He'd
blow on them. They'd fall over. And I thought these were actors that came in
and they paid them so much. And they had a string and they pulled them
 down."

    Even some who were skeptics at first soon became believers, like
Michael Cohen.

    "And when I finally went up there, I ended up falling down," says
Cohen. "I closed my eyes but I knew that Benny didn't push me. I knew I wasn't
 pulled or tugged. I knew that was God touching me."

    But Ole Anthony says he thinks it's a phenomenon that has much more
to do with mass hypnosis than religion.

    "And they watch him on television over and over and over for years,"
says Anthony. "And they see it, they expect it, they see other people
upstage are falling over right and left. Sometimes Benny falls over the
place. It's a circus. It's like professional
 wrestling."

    Bob McKeown: "But in fact he's been on the record time and time again
saying he is not a healer."

    Ole Anthony: "Of course."

    Bob McKeown: "It's God who heals."

    Ole Anthony: "Of course."

    Bob McKeown: "He's just the vessel that's been chosen."

    Ole Anthony: "What's the reason that people come to the crusades?
What's the main thing that happens onstage? That's his attraction. He
promotes himself as a healer, as a healing ministry."

    But according to former Hinn insiders, there's a great deal more to
Benny Hinn's crusades than what you see on television - and what we've found
supports that. A woman who worked at crusades said she was instructed to
look particularly for those standing in front of their wheelchairs.

    Benny Hinn: "Look at all the empty wheelchairs here in Las
 Vegas,
people!"

    Empty wheelchairs apparently imply there's been a lot of healing
going on. But for every one of the people declared healed by pastor Benny on
stage and on TV, many more leave the arena still sick or disabled.

    "Desperate people, the really desperate ones, the ones that break
your heart are at the back on the crusade, they won't let them up in the
lines," says Anthony.

    The broadcasts of Benny Hinn's crusade in Buffalo did not include
what our hidden camera captured. This man was escorted from his seat by
security guards after crying out for pastor Benny to touch his apparently
ill son. "I wanted to take my son up there and get prayed. That's all I
wanted," he said.

    So not everyone who wants to get up on stage is allowed to.. But what
happens to those who are called up on the platform to be touched by pastor
Benny? To try to find out, we attended a crusade in
 Las Vegas, and we did
our best to keep track of each and every one of the miracles Benny Hinn
proclaimed. By our count, there were 56 of them in all - many of which ended
up on this videotape we purchased through the ministry.

    This little boy said his damaged vision was cured: "And as soon as
God healed me, I could see better."

    According to one woman, her cancer was gone. Hinn said God told him a
demon had caused the cancer, and he cast it out.

    Benny Hinn: "Go out of her! It's gone!"

    One woman said she had a diseased lung.

    Benny Hinn: "The lord is asking me now to ask him to give you a new
lung."

    According to pastor Benny, she got that new lung, right there on
stage.

    Benny Hinn: "That's why she's coughing... that's why she's coughing."

    And there was this woman, who said she was cured of lung cancer. She
says: "She had cancer in the lungs. She don't have it now!"

HEAVYWEIGHT HEALING

    In his 25 years of healing, there have been thousands of similar
stories from Hinn's followers - none of them more famous than this one. At a
crusade in 1994, Benny Hinn came to the aid of the former heavyweight
champion of the world. Evander Holyfield had lost his boxing license because
a medical test had revealed a serious heart
 ailment.

    Benny Hinn (at a crusade): "The Lord is telling me right now he is
repairing Holyfield's heart completely."

    Reportedly, Holyfield promised Hinn a check for $265,000, and before
long, he got a clean bill of health, and won the world title back.

    But Benny Hinn doesn't only minister to the rich and famous.

    Bob McKeown: "And you needed a miracle."

    Belva Ventura: "Oh, did I."

    Bob McKeown: "You and your son."

    Belva Ventura: "Yes."

      We met Belva Ventura at a crusade in Worcester, Massachusetts. She
and her son had both been diagnosed with cancer. Both had been told it was
terminal. Before long, she and her son were on stage in front of 14,000
people, right next to pastor
 Benny.

    Bob McKeown: "And what did Pastor Hinn say to you?"

    Belva Ventura: "Oh, he hugged us. And he put his arm around me. And
he couldn't believe all the cancer in one family. And he said we're gonna
get this cancer out of this house right now. It's not gonna bother you no
more. And we came home, we were happy. I was healed. I know I was."

    The question is, despite all the claims, how does anyone really know
if Belva Ventura or any of the others was indeed miraculously healed at one
of Benny Hinn's crusades?

    So we asked pastor Benny to help us follow up on some of the people
we saw on his stage. Then we did some following up of our own.

    Bob McKeown: "As far as you know, the ministry has no idea whether
your cancer is still there or not."

    Belva Ventura: "No."

    Bob McKeown: "Whether you're alive or not."

    Belva Ventura: "No. No. they don't."

   Benny Hinn: "But as surely as God is God - your legs will work again,
and your body will be healed again, and your lungs will breathe again, and
your eyes will see again!"

PROOF OF HEALING?

    At all of his live crusades, Benny Hinn proclaims a breath-taking
litany of miraculous healing. Pastor Benny has said that everyone who gets
up on his platform has been checked by a doctor. His ministry also claims
 it
has a follow up process with people afterwards that it describes as
"exhaustive" and "thorough," and that medical information it collects is
reviewed first by a nurse, then by a doctor.

    So we wanted to find out how that process works and which of those
claims of miracles actually can be verified. We thought a good place to
start would be with the ministry itself. Last year, we asked Benny Hinn to
help us confirm the 56 healings we counted at just one of his crusades - the
one in Las Vegas.

      By the time we asked, dozens of those "miracles" had already been
broadcast around the world on his TV show, including the woman who Benny
Hinn said had grown a new lung right there on stage.

    Woman: "Feels like something in there, like someone was reaching in
my heart, in my lung."

    Benny Hinn: "I want you to
 go back to your earthly doctor, have him
give you an X-ray. I want to hear about it. I want a full story."

    But if Hinn knows the full story about who was healed in Las Vegas,
he's not sharing it with us. In a letter from its lawyer, the ministry
refused to provide proof of any of those healings to "Dateline."

    So since the ministry wouldn't give us any information, we did some
checking of our own about Las Vegas, and other reported healings.

    Remember the woman we met in Las Vegas who said she'd been cured of
lung cancer? With our hidden camera, we were able to go back stage to her
follow-up interview.

    Hinn staffer: "Now, what happened tonight that makes you feel God
touched you?"

    She did speak to a Hinn staff member, but it's hard to know how from
this conversation alone he could have known
 whether she was cured of cancer,
or even if she had it in the first place.

    Staffer: "That primary tumor can be one cell."

    She was asked a few questions, but it didn't appear to us that there
was any medical examination.

    Staffer: "Keep trusting God. Follow it up with your physicians. Thank
you so much. The Lord bless you all."

    Unfortunately, there's one thing we were able to determine about this
woman without the ministry's help. She died two and a half months after the
crusade. The cause was lung cancer.

    And then there was Evander Holyfield's heart ailment - which seemed
to disappear after that crusade in 1994 - touted as one of pastor Benny's
greatest healing successes.

    When Holyfield then won his world title back, it seemed a storybook
ending - except for one problem. According to the Nevada Athletic
Commission, two different clinics determined that Holyfield
 had been
misdiagnosed. His doctor had been given incomplete information about his
condition. In other words, there was nothing seriously wrong with Holyfield'
s heart in the first place. But three years later, pastor Benny was still
claiming credit for the champ's miraculous healing.

    On the "Larry King" show with Pastor Benny, he was aksed: "Evander
Holyfield credits you with curing his heart problem, although doctors said
that maybe it was misread in the first place."

    Hinn: "God healed him in one of our crusades, yeah."

    Evander Holyfield had no comment through his lawyer.

STILL DYING OF CANCER

    And remember Belva Ventura, who said Benny Hinn cast out cancer from
her and her son?

      A few weeks after that crusade in Worcester, Massachusetts, Belva's
son died of cancer. When we visited several months later, she said she hadn'
t had a follow-up call from anyone in the Hinn organization.

    Bob McKeown: "As far as you know, the ministry has no idea whether
your cancer is still there or not."

    Belva Ventura: "No."

    Bob McKeown: "Whether you're alive or not."

    Belva Ventura: "No. No. they don't. Otherwise, they would have got
hold of me. Nobody did."

    Her physicians evidently were not convinced of her claims of healing.

    Bob McKeown: "What do your doctors say?"

    Belva Ventura: "They laugh. They look at me and they laugh. They don'
t believe me."

    Belva
 still believed apparently until the end. A month after our
visit, she died. The cause, her doctor told us, was cancer.

    Bob McKeown: "If Benny Hinn, by whatever means, can give people like
that hope, is that not a good thing?"

    Ole Anthony: "Then why don't we just - why doesn't the FDA approve
snake oil? And we could have snake oil salesmen run around offering and
saying, "This little tube of water here, cost you $1,000. And if you take
it, you'll be cured of cancer." It's the same thing except he's doing it in
God's name, which makes it terrible, terrible. He's lying. False hope has to
always be exposed. It must be exposed."

    Benny Hinn says it's possible for someone to be healed at one of his
crusades only to have the illness or injury return later. Here's how he
explains it:

    Benny Hinn: "This is your Day Vegas... My
 Friend, hear this well. The
reason people lose their healing, is because they begin questioning if God
really did it."

    That, says Ole Anthony, only makes matters even worse for those who
are desperately ill.

    "Now they're twice as bad off as they were before because now,
according to Benny, they've done something wrong," says Anthony.

    After repeated requests to verify healings - specifically the 56 we
saw at the crusade in Las Vegas - Benny Hinn's ministry sent us details of
what it said were five irrefutable and medically proven miracles, but none
was from the Las Vegas crusade we were asking about.

    The cases they gave us ranged from a herniated disc, to heart
problems, cancer and Lou Gehrig's disease. When we called them, all five
people insisted they had been healed, but four of them wouldn't or couldn't
provide their medical records, and we could not speak to their
 doctors.

    As for the woman who said she'd been healed of Lou Gehrig's disease,
for which there is no known cure, we did speak to her neurologist, who said
he suspected she didn't have Lou Gehrig's disease in the first place.

    Though the ministry says publicly that the medical information it
collects is reviewed by a nurse and a doctor, in a letter to us from its
lawyer, the ministry acknowledged to us that it is ".... Impossible to
investigate and substantiate each and every one" of the healings proclaimed
at pastor Benny's crusades.

    But with our without absolute proof of the miracles, millions of
followers keep coming to the crusades, and continue to donate millions to
his ministry.

    But now, people who've worked inside the Hinn organization are
raising questions about where some of that money has gone.

Part two: Former insiders question what happened to some of the church
 money

Benny Hinn (at his crusade): "Only those who have been giving to God's work
will be spared."

    The money starts pouring in at Benny Hinn's crusades, thousands of
people filling hundreds of pastor Benny's collection buckets at every
service we attended.

    Chris Hinn: "One side cash, one side checks."

    A 1994 security tape shows Hinn staffers and volunteers counting the
collection money at a crusade.

    For three years in the mid-1990s, Mike Estrella says he was one of
those responsible for counting crusade collections in his capacity as Benny
Hinn's head usher.

    At the time, Estrella says, he was a devoted follower, and
 still
credits pastor Benny with curing his heart condition.

    Bob McKeown: "In cash, what was the biggest night you counted?"

    Mike Estrella: "In cash? Well, one night I counted $420,000."

    Steve Brock: "A dollar a day. Everybody say it with me - a dollar a
day."

    It may sound like they start out small, but the numbers soon get very
big. According to documents provided by the Trinity Foundation, and
published reports - Benny Hinn has more than 100,000 people who promise to
give him a dollar-a-day. If they keep that pledge, that would add up to at
least $3 million a month - $36 million a year.

    The people on this list seemed to be even more generous than that -
it appears some of them pledged or gave more than $100,000 apiece last year.

    Benny Hinn: "The greatest thing you can do for your finances is to
give to the work of God."

    On TV, and at his
 crusades, Hinn promises that not only will God
improve your health, but your financial life as well - perhaps by getting
you out of debt with an unexpected financial windfall. But first, you have
to give money to his ministry. Hinn calls it "sowing the seed."

    Benny Hinn: "Amen. So expect a financial harvest but you have to sow
a seed to see it happen... you may want to call your seed in today. Our 800
number is on the screen."

    Hinn follower Carlotta Moore told us she sows a seed of $12,000 a
year with pastor Benny, and that she expects to be financially rewarded.

    Carlotta Moore: "Because the Bible say [sic] what you sow, you gonna
reap. Now if you sow good things, you
 gonna reap good."

    Bob McKeown: "But might that mean that if you give money, you get
money back?"

    Carlotta Moore: "Oh yes, you will get money back. You will get money
back. Out of the clear blue sky, checks will come from somewhere. You go to
put on a dress or something, or take out a pocketbook up there in the
closet. There is $50 or $60 laying up in there. You'll be like, 'Woah, woah,
woah. Thank you, Lord.' You understand?"

    And the money Benny Hinn's ministry gets is not only in the form of
donations.

    "He sells his books, he sells his tapes, he sells everything, and is
just a money machine, and money pours in," says Ole Anothony. "He's one of
the most successful money raisers in history."

    In recent years, the Hinn ministry's total annual income has
increased dramatically from $50 million in 1997 to the latest estimates -
that the ministry says are inaccurate - of more
 than $100 million a year.
And because the ministry is registered as a church, all that money is
tax-free and Benny Hinn is under no legal obligation to make his finances
public.

    Bob McKeown: "Is there any way to know how much Benny Hinn makes?
Whether he's personally benefiting or not, and where the money goes?"

    Paul Nelson: "There really isn't, and that's why an organization like
ECFA has been formed."

    Paul Nelson is president of ECFA, the Evangelical Council for
Financial Accountability. Billy Graham, Pat Robertson, and the Salvation
Army are among its 1,000-plus members who voluntarily disclose to potential
donors more financial information than the law requires.

    "We believe that most people would like to know that the charities
that they give to are governed responsibly, that they practice disclosure of
their finances and other activities, they willingly answer questions,
 and
that they raise funds with integrity," says Nelson.

    Members release audited financial statements, including the salaries
of their ministers.

    Benny Hinn is not an ECFA member. He wouldn't tell us his annual
salary, but five years ago he acknowledged it was then between $500,000 and
$1 million a year.

    And Hinn won't specify how his ministry's money is spent, except to
say he doesn't personally benefit from any of it.

    Benny Hinn: "Every dollar you give this morning is going to the work
of the Lord."

    What Benny Hinn does tell his followers is that all their donations
are spent on God's work - for example, the expenses of his TV show and
crusades, the salaries of his staff, supporting churches and orphanages
around the world and more importantly.

    Benny Hinn: "So everything you give this morning is going for souls.
Is going for what?"

    The crowd repeats: "Souls."

    And many of his faithful, like Carlotta Moore, say they have no doubt
that's true.

    "We're not giving it to Pastor Benny, we're giving it to the ministry
to do the work the Pastor Benny has been entrusted to do," says Moore.

    But this former Hinn ministry staff member says he has reason to
question pastor Benny's sincerity.

    "And Benny was laughing and joking and saying, 'Hey guys watch how
much money I make tonight,'" says Michael Cohen.

    For years, Michael Cohen and his wife were church members. He also
belonged to Hinn's security detail, traveling the world with
 him. Cohen
recalls an incident after a service at the church where he says pastor Benny
bragged about his financial conquests.

    "Like one little grandmother one time came up and cried, I think she
said, this is my last $5. And we got back in the Green Room and he said,
'Ha, I got her last $5, guys,'" says Cohen.

    The ministry says the incident never happened.

    As for his lifestyle, pastor Hinn has explained that some of the
perks he has enjoyed like custom-made suits and expensive cars have been
paid for by his personal income, including the royalties from his many
books.

    While that may be true and legal, it's only part of the story.
According to the Trinity Foundation, the biggest customer for pastor Benny's
books is pastor Benny's own ministry. Trinity says the Hinn ministry buys
thousands of the books for which Hinn apparently collects the royalties.

    The ministry then
 offers them for sale at crusades and on its Web
site, and gives them away to donors.

    According to Paul Nelson of ECFA, that kind of business deal is too
close for comfort, and wouldn't be allowed if Hinn belonged to his
organization.

    "Our standards prohibit the royalty in that case going to the
individual," says Nelson. "The royalty must go for the benefit of the
ministry."

    The Hinn ministry also spends a great deal on pastor Benny's
lifestyle when he's on the road. These records show hotel suites for well
over a thousand dollars a night and transatlantic flights on the Concorde -
at more than $8,000 round trip. That is, before pastor Benny began flying in
a multi-million-dollar private jet.

    But Hinn contributor Carlotta Moore says that use of money given to
Hinn's church for God's work is just fine with her.

    "I'm pretty sure NBC's man that owns NBC probably got his own
 jet and
multimillion dollars," says Carlotta Moore. "Probably got houses here,
houses there, and this that and the other. And I believe that the preachers
of the gospel, I believe they should live better than even NBC's president."

    But Benny Hinn's followers may not know about how all of their
donations are spent. For example there's Hinn's palatial new home, now being
built for $3.5 million in an exclusive gated community overlooking the
Pacific Ocean.

    The plans call for more than 6,000 square feet - 7 bedrooms, 8
bathrooms and a basement garage with enough space for ten cars. Who's paying
for that? Not pastor Benny. That mansion on the Pacific is considered the
Hinn ministry's church residence or "parsonage," and the ministry is picking
up all the expenses for land, construction, even property taxes.

    The ministry says the house is a good investment, but Paul Nelson of
ECFA says Benny
 Hinn should be concerned about the perception of that house
deal. He says the expenditure of millions of dollars of church money on a
house for it's leader, is almost unprecedented.

    Bob McKeown: "Are you aware among your membership of any church
residence, parsonage, that is worth $3 million?"

    Paul Nelson: "I am not aware of that."

    Bob McKeown: "Not Billy Graham's..."

    Paul Nelson: "I don't believe so. No."

    Bob McKeown: "...residence? Pat Robertson's?"

    Paul Nelson: "I don't believe so."

    However it managed to pay for his house. Benny Hinn's ministry has
apparently had problems finishing other special projects.

    Since February of 2001, the Hinn Web site has been soliciting
donations for a new orphanage to be built in this little town outside Mexico
City saying it would be finished "soon.."

    But when we checked in Mexico, more than a
 year-and-a-half later, we
could find no sign of any construction. But the Hinn web site kept promising
that construction would be finished in, "a few short months."

    That was news to the local official in charge of construction in the
town, who told us the Hinn ministry hadn't even been issued a building
permit yet.

    What we did find, however, was this sign - curiously not in Spanish,
but English - attached to a house the ministry called it's 'temporary
orphanage,' which appeared to be empty. The Hinn Web site continued to
solicit donations.

    And then there was pastor Benny's most ambitious project - his $25
million healing center to be built in Texas.

    Benny Hinn: "And the Lord said to me to build a healing center that
people can come to 24-hours a day, any day of the week to be prayed for and
get
 healed."

    That was Benny Hinn raising funds for the project in 1999, but this
was Benny Hinn on a Christian telethon a year later: "Many of our wonderful
friends have called and said, 'What's with the healing center?' and
basically what the Lord has said to me is to wait for his voice."

    Hinn announced that God had told him to postpone construction, so he
said he was going to spend that money on other things.

    Benny Hinn: "I am putting all the money we have in the ministry to
get out there and preach."

    According to ECFA's Paul Nelson, that kind of unilateral diversion of
funds would simply be unacceptable.

    "They're creating a backlog of funds and they're not really released
to spend those funds on anything else,"
 says Nelson.

    But now apparently, pastor Benny has changed his mind again and says
the money raised for the healing center is being held in special ministry
accounts until the time is right.

    Benny Hinn: "The day will come, I am in no hurry, neither is God. The
day will come I will fulfill that vision."

    Remember Mike Estrella, who was the head usher at Hinn crusades? He
says one night, the ministry's chief executive officer offered him a wad of
cash taken from the collection.

    How much money? Mike Estrella says thousands.

    According to Estrella, the man who took that money from the
collection buckets was pastor Benny's righthand man, CEO Gene Polino.

    "I just push it back," says Estrella. "One day he told me
 these
words, he says 'Mike, if you follow me and listen to me, I guarantee one
thing, you never have to work again.'"

    After that Mike Estrella says, he began to watch Gene Polino more
closely.

    Estrella: "One time, Polino says give me all the hundreds and all the
fifties. And I did that. And many of them went to his pockets."

    Now how does he know that? "Because I saw him doing it," says
Estrella.

    In a telephone interview, Gene Polino, now retired as Hinn's CEO,
denied those claims.

    Gene Polino told "Dateline" he has "no problem" with Mike Estrella,
but that the former head usher sometimes got "confused." But two years ago,
in a deposition given under oath, Benny Hinn's 's brother Christopher, who
worked in a crusade counting room, testified he too saw Gene Polino
regularly stuff $50 and $100 bills into a bag. Christopher Hinn also
testified that the ministry CEO told
 him "...don't worry about it." Hinn and
Estrella both say they don't know if Polino kept the money they described
seeing him take.

    But Gene Polino told us none of it happened, insisting he never took
any money from the collections.

    Bob McKeown: "You categorically deny that?"

    Gene Polino: "Surely."

    Polino was never charged with any crime and the ministry says he did
not engage in any wrongdoing while employed by the church.

    Christopher Hinn and Mike Estrella both say they told Benny Hinn what
they saw, and we wanted to ask him about it. Through his lawyers and
spokesmen, Hinn repeatedly turned down our request for an interview. We
finally approached him outside his hotel after a crusade in Buffalo last
year.

    Bob McKeown: "Pastor Hinn, I'm Bob McKeown from 'Dateline, NBC.'
Could we have a word with you? We would like to arrange an interview. As you
know,
 we've been trying to contact you."

    Benny Hinn: "I'm so tired right now. I'm worn out."

    Bob McKeown: "Well, we would be pleased to do it at any time you'd be
available."

    Benny Hinn: "Alright."

    Bob McKeown: "In the near future. But as you know, we've been trying
to do this for several months now."

    Benny Hinn: "I know, I've been so busy."

    Bob McKeown: "And we haven't had much luck with you."

    Benny Hinn: "No, no, no, no, hey, hey, hey, gentlemen, please."

    Bob
 McKeown: "We seem to be having a bit of a problem with your
security detail here."

    Benny Hinn: "I know, I'm sorry about that."

    We did eventually get a final answer from Benny Hinn to our interview
request - it was still "no."

    Benny Hinn's brother Christopher has left the ministry after a
dispute with his brother, and the church says it has had no further dealings
with him.

    As for those other former Hinn insiders, head usher Mike Estrella and
security man Michael Cohen, they say that when they tried to complain to
pastor Benny about abuses in his organization, they were fired.

    In another letter from its lawyer, the ministry says Mike Estrella's
allegations are "unfounded and
 unsubstantiated," and that he was "... Acting
irresponsibly, maliciously or suffered from some impairment when making the
charges."

    As for Michael Cohen, the ministry says, "he is motivated by a
misguided personal vendetta against pastor Hinn and the church..." and
called him an "...unstable and unreliable source."

    Bob McKeown: "What would he say about you now, and the things you're
saying about him?"

    Michael Cohen: "He may tell people that haven't been around for
years, that I'm a disgruntled employee. The fact is, when I first started
working for him, for two years, I wouldn't even take a paycheck."

    Bob McKeown: "Do you believe that he has healed people? "

    Michael Cohen: "No."

    Bob McKeown: "Or that people are healed because of him?"

    Michael Cohen: "No. I don't. I believe that people have been healed.
It's God's power, it's not Benny's. Benny, in the
 last couple of years,
wields this power around likes it's his power."

    Cohen and Estrella maintain they were true believers, who put their
faith in a man they thought could bring hope and healing to millions.

    "What I saw was a big business rolling millions of dollars every
year, many people getting rich," says Mike Estrella. "And the rich getting
richer, and the poor getting worse."

    But then, there's Carlotta Moore, a pastor herself, who like millions
of others says she still believes in Benny Hinn.

    She says, "Pastor Benny's job is the work that God has called him to
do, to be that mediator, that channel for that anointing that God has placed
on his life, the work that God has called him to do, to carry that work out
here on Earth."

    Benny Hinn (at a crusade): "Stand up, lift your hands, and
 receive
from heaven, in the name of Jesus!"

What more information do you need?
Benny Hinn is a manipulator who EXPLOITS the Gospel and Christianity.

You are a false prophet, a liar, & a misled snake in the grass who has no truth in him. It’s a shame, really. you ought to read my testimony of miracles that occurred in my life when Jesus Christ made Himself known to me, in 11/06/2006. Typically, many pagans lack the courage to view my testimony in it’s entirety, but hopefully, you’re not as cowardly as the rest of your type usually is.

According to you & your pride, Jesus Christ is “fake”. but you just keep telling yerself that, & when you begin to beg Him for yer eternal life at the end of time, yer gonna look back at every single time He tried to send one of us your way to try to get you to see the truth about who He is, & the miracles that He could have performed in your life, but out of all that worldly garbage pride you people so covet, you chose not to. So be it. It’ll be your loss, & you’ll have no one else to blame for your getting tossed into hell, but yourself.

I hope that you will come to your senses, my main man. the test for you at this time is this: Do you have courage? Are you that eager to avoid an eternity writhing in agony in hell? Let us see, if you are brave, or if you are a sorry sucker of Satan. Y would you wanna side with an eternally- condemned deity (Satan) who will do nothing but get inside your head to fuck with yer health, both physically & spiritually? Surely you cannot be that much of a sorry sucker, are you? Or is it that you’re just plain weak? Because anyone who has either heard of an extensive story of miracles that Jesus Christ the King of peace performs in one of our lives, or if one of you have read one of our extensive testimonies of the miracles that He’s done in our lives but refuses to give Him a chance anyway, is nothing more than a sucker, & a coward — PERIOD.

Don’t you know that Satan is nothing more than a permission boy? He’s just some bullshitter & a chicken shit, who every time he hears the name of Jesus Christ, he runs like one. Oh & just so you know my man … we as the born again Christian have power over witches & warlocks. So getting cute with us will only get the fire returned back to you, alrghty then? Hahahaha …

Keep in touch, my main man.

Sincerely,

Andrew Friedman

http://delta-flt1189.xanga.com/703169840/miracles-that-actually-happened-to-me-on-the-night-of-11062006/

DELTA_flt.1189@yahoo.com

Here in Nova Scotia, shellfish such as lobsters and crabs are our most famous scavengers, bottom feeders that keep the ocean clean of decaying matter.  Scavenging may be a dirty job, but somebody has to do it.   Some scavengers, such as cockroaches and vultures,  are considered quite unattractive, making the job they do seem even more lowly.   Others, such as lovely molluscs, seem to make the act of scavenging less repulsive.  However, regardless of  how they appear to the rest of us, all scavengers are skilled at making the most of whatever they can find.

A scavenger hunt is a game where the goal is to complete tasks or find items on a list. The Mid-Summer Scavenger Hunt outlined earlier this season involves taking photos showing each of 5 elements in nature: water, earth, fire, wood and metal. You take your list and your camera, go outside and do your best to find one of each. Scavenger hunting is fun and all are invited to give it a try.  The last day to submit your entry is this coming Monday, July 20th.

Although going out into nature with your eyes wide open is its own reward, there will be prizes for participants.  If you haven’t submit your entry yet, remember to…

• Be creative.
• Think outside the box.
• Be a lateral thinker.
• Engage both sides of your brain.

Prizes will take the form of color reproductions of drawings featured either on Flandrum Hill or my art blog, Drawing Conclusions.  Last season, all in good fun, Gerry of Torch Lake Views offered a virtual Goldsworthy award.  Who knows what interesting things will happen this time round!

As of this morning, two creative scavengers in Michigan have already participated and posted their results:

• Jessica at The Magical Mundane and
• Kathy at Opening the Door, Walking Outside

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Dear Seagull,

Hey you! With the motley feathers on the top of your head. You look like your mama bred with a squirrel, maybe, and a rat somehow licked your egg and transferred some dirty DNA.

Look at that other seagull over there. As my favorite boyfriend G, pointed out, he probably flew over from Bremerton. He’s clean, and white and gray where he’s supposed to be, and in fact, he’s standing on top of a rock while you seem to be in some sort of uneven hole? And you, my friend, are pure Seattle. You’ve been bathing in tank oil and eating french fries from Ivar’s tourists forever.

Your left foot is all duck-footed– you’re a seagull, remember– and man those feathers on the top of your head are GROSS. They are about to wither and die while still on your body.

And in fact, your entire body is a kind of mottled (accurate and perfect in its connotation of ugly) grayblackwhite and maybegreen? Which cannot be natural. I’m telling you, that squirrel/rat combination did no good to your mother’s genes.

What the hell, seagull, you’ve taken from being a smallish vulture/overly large crow/flying raccoon/freegan (scavengers, people, they’re all scavengers) to being a searatquirrel, whose main weapon is UGLY.

I just really felt the need to express that.

All right, go on, waddle off and fly in a crooked line into the sunset,

MM

The Mystery of the Bride

“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” – John 20:29

Yesterday, Saturday, June 27th (hopefully it wasn’t anyone’s birthday) was my first scavenge. Not as successful as I would have liked but it was fun and sneaky (probably because the caches were being extra secretive and not showing their location). Thankfully, I had my good friend Andrea along for the journey. Or it would have been one long, boring venture. We also had my loyal companion Rocko “The Monster” Brown join us. He led for good company and  actually got into the theme of things by showing off his knack for “sneaking” up on people.

Anyway, so the trip started out with a quick find and then came to a complete halt. It is pretty sad but we unsuspectingly drove up on the first one and the hint for the cache was unbelievably helpful. The caches name was Hanna’s Dolphin located N 30° 22.535 W 081° 23.964. It took a bit of looking and there were some people hanging around so we had to act like we were looking for something we lost but it was very exciting when we found it!

Where's the scavenger?

A simple, discrete example of what you are looking for.

Well anyway, we signed the log left a rubber-band and an old movie ticket then carried on our journey.

The next cache was NOOOO Where near easy. We trekked through the jungle (woods) got lost, followed a path, took a log bridge…

The bridge

Got eaten by mosquitoes and ran into who knows how many banana spiders. We took this path will little complaint but still no find. It was in some area that was literally surrounded by spider webs. Ugh… we tried. Hannah’s Nature Trail N 30° 22.529 W 081° 24.202 was a bust. I am not going to let this one go to easily though. We know where it is at we just have to find a way in there. Next time we will chose different attire for this one… like long sleeves and for my dumb butt pants.

The final one should have been extremely simple. It is what they call a “grab and go.” You deucehole N 30° 22.137 W 081° 24.272 Unfortunately there was no grab and go about it… first the comments said the find was about 50 feet off and they gave the “supposed” coordinates. Then we went to where we thought it would be and in what we thought it would be in and there was nothing. Plus it was starting to get dark and we were sweaty sweaty… so we started to roll back to the car. However, on the way back we heard some strange noise in the bushes and low and behold guess what we saw…

Nope not the cache!

An armadillo! He said, “hey, what’s up fellow scavengers.” Then carried on his simple way.

Overall, the day might not have had the conclusion that we would have liked but we had a great time along the way. So, that is all that counts. But next time!!! You better believe that the eagle eyes are going to be put on and those caches will be found!!!

Until next time, this is Jaymie from the toosneakyscavengers signing off!

PEACE!