Parents Warned Not to Let Children Play 'Blue Whale Challenge' Suicide Game

 
Blue Whale ChallengeParents should be aware of the Blue Whale Challenge that kids are playing on social media.

A social media game called the "Blue Whale Challenge" in which children are urged to cut themselves and take their own lives is raising alarm in the United States where suicide prevention advocates are advising parents to be vigilant.

The "Blue Whale Challenge" is a 50-day challenge competition where teens compete among themselves on social media as an online curator gives them tasks to carry out, such as watching horror movies and performing self-harming activities like cutting, CNN reported on Sunday.

The Sun reported in May that pictures of these self-harming acts were being posted by the teens on Instagram.

On the final day participants are prompted to take their own life. This online challenge, which reportedly began in Russia two years ago, has been reaching young people through social media platforms Snapchat, Facebook and YouTube. Suicides worldwide have been linked to the game, and as The Washington Post reported on July 11, is believed to have led to the suicide of a teenage boy in Texas.

A press statement from Russian state media says that Philip Budeikin, a 21-year-old psychology major, is now under investigation for "incitement to suicide." The statement adds that Budeikin confessed to creating the game and used a social site to encourage over a dozen teenagers to kill themselves.

Suicide prevention organizations are issuing advice to parents about the game's dangers, encouraging them to remain vigilant.

"Unless there is reason to believe your child already knows of or has played the game, don't bring up the 'Blue Whale' game. By doing so, you increase the chance that your child will investigate it on their own," the website of the American Society for Suicide Prevention advises. "Monitor your children's online and social media activity to ensure they are not engaging with this game."

Phyllis Alongi, a licensed professional counselor and clinical director for the New Jersey-based Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide, explained in a phone interview with The Christian Post on Wednesday that it's essential parents take the initiative in fostering conversations with their "screenagers" — especially when they're distressed — and must actively monitor both the amount and the kind of media intake.

She also emphasized that there are many contributing factors to suicide and each case is unique, but the "crisis thinking" that adolescents are prone to engage in need not be fed by destructive media.

"The way kids process information is different from the adult brain," Alongi said. "Their problem-solving skills are not as fine-tuned as ours, so it's difficult for them to see past intense emotional pain."

Parents need to be armed with information, she emphasized. Her organization offers a free educational video called "Not My Kid" that answers the 10 most-frequently asked questions about suicide. The video dispels the myth that when they talk to their children about suicide they're planting the idea in their minds.
"Kids are typically relieved when they have someone to talk to," she said.

CP asked Alongi what she thinks is driving the seeming uptick in all types of media where suicide is shown as a positive solution to problems, such as in the series 13 Reasons Why, which in its final episode the lead actress takes her life in a grisly fashion.

"Unfortunately, the media tends to glamorize and sensationalize suicide," she said, noting that extensive research shows that when suicide is portrayed in this way it negatively impacts children and anyone else who is already having suicidal ideation.

"Anyone in the media who wants to report on suicide needs to follow the safe messaging guidelines," she stressed, referencing the website Reporting on Suicide.

She further noted that while she doesn't intend to criticize the producers of 13 Reasons Why, she did find it unwise that all of the episodes of the series were released at the same time, which enabled binge-watching and no time for teenagers to process the content.

Because the acting was good and the storyline compelling, people became "emotionally invested" in the characters without realizing the potentially destructive messages being sent, she added.

Church Mourns as Funeral Is Set for Pastor, Father of Five, Killed in Crash

 
(Photo: Facebook)Pastor Trevor Morris (center) and his family.

Parishioners of Union Hill Baptist Church in Brownsboro, Texas, mourned their late pastor and father of five, Trevor Morris, 40, on Sunday three days after the Marine Corps veteran died in a crash on his way to his other job as vice president at Burton Oil Service Operations Thursday.

"We come today to honor Brother Trevor and in doing so we'll be glorifying God," Deacon Bill Wallace told the congregation Sunday, noting that the Morris family "needs their love the most today."

Morris died tragically early Thursday morning when the plane in which he was traveling crashed near Tyler Pounds Regional airport shortly after takeoff.

As parishioners embraced and comforted each other over the loss on Sunday, Wallace said he wanted to operate the service just the way their late pastor did — with openness and acceptance.

"We're so full of love here at this church. We're a small congregation but you cannot find anymore love than you can find through these doors," Wallace said.

The church announced on Saturday via their Facebook page that visitation for Morris will be at Rock Hill Baptist Church on Monday from 5 – 7 p.m. His memorial service will follow at the same location on Tuesday at 10 a.m.

Last Friday, about 300 people gathered at Rock Hill to remember the departed pastor as his parents, Diane and Calvin Morris, greeted them through tears.

"He will always be our pastor," Rodger Stanberry said, according to the Tyler Morning Telegraph. "He's as good as they come. He loved his family and would call on them during church service."
Tiffani Shelby, Morris' sister, reportedly knelt at the altar with tears in her eyes and prayed until her father came and comforted her.

The late pastor lived with his wife, Nafisa, and five children Kylor, Cole, Lane, Cana and Boaz in Murchison prior to his death.

"Y'all, words can't really express what I feel right now. I am grateful for the 15 years I had with this amazing guy, but we had plans for so many more," his heartbroken wife wrote on Facebook early Friday morning.
Morris served as pastor at Union Hill from 2009 to 2012 before moving to Ecuador to serve as an international missionary. In October 2016, he returned to his leadership role at the church again.

"Nafisa and I have a heart for the gospel and seeing the lost come to know and follow Jesus. Because of this passion, our full intention is to spend every day of the rest of our lives working as hard as we can, in His power, to see as many as possible meet Jesus," Morris said on his church's website prior to his death.
Eric Johnson, Baptist Mission Association of America International Missions director, who met Morris through missionary work, told the Telegraph that Morris had a passion for God and his family.

"He loved his wife, gave God the glory and served Jesus. He was a husband, a great friend. He loved to share the message of Christ," he said.

In 30 Years People Won't Have Sex to Make Babies, Stanford Professor Says

 

(Photo: Reuters)Newborns in a file photo.

Within three decades sexual intercourse will no longer be necessary to conceive a child. Instead, parents will choose from a range of embryos made with their DNA in a laboratory, a Stanford professor claims.

Hank Greely, who directs Stanford Law School's Center for Law and Biosciences, believes that although the reproductive technology already exists to create life outside of the womb, over time the process will become less expensive, as Quartz reported Saturday.

When many embryos are created couples will be able to choose which ones they want and screen out the embryos that carry potential for diseases, he said.

"I think one of the hardest things about this will be all the divorces that come about when she wants embryo number 15 and he wants embryo number 64," the professor said. "I think the decision making will be a real challenge for people. How do you weigh a slightly higher chance of diabetes with slightly lower risk of schizophrenia against better musical ability and a much lower risk of colon cancer? Good luck."

The process in lab "involves taking a female skin sample to create stem cells, which is then used to create eggs," the article explained. Those eggs are then fertilized with sperm which results in a selection of embryos.
Greely dismissed concerns that he is somehow advocating creating "perfect" children even as ethical issues remain.

"This is not designer babies or super babies," he maintained. "This is selecting embryos. You take two people, all you can get out of a baby is what those two people have."

From a Christian standpoint, however, completely divorcing sex from its procreative function proves problematic as the thinking Greely expresses is indicative of modern culture which regards the human body as a mere vehicle and children as commodities.

In a recent interview with The Christian Post, bioethicist and filmmaker Jennifer Lahl explained how the fertility industry is fraught with abuses and expressed her frustration with pastors who don't preach about infertility and reproductive issues even though they frequently appear in the Bible.

"[Christians] have full permission to speak about how children come into the world. They are gifts, they are blessings," Lahl said.

But the Bible never establishes that anyone is entitled to them and most people today, regardless of their faith background, operate with "shallow theological thinking on the most profound matters of making human life," she added.

"Make no mistake, once we move into the laboratory, we are making children. They are not begotten, they are made. They are manufactured."

Greely also believes that parents will one day be able to select the hair and eye color for their children, and eventually even more complex traits like intelligence.

"I don't think we're going to be able to say this embryo will get a 1550 on its two-part SAT," Greely said last week at Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado. "But, this embryo has a 60 percent chance of being in the top half, this embryo has a 13 percent chance of being in the top 10 percent — I think that's really possible."

Pastor Donates Life-Saving Kidney to Ailing Congregant After He Spent Years Praying for Miracle

 
(Photo: Go Fund Me)Pastor Basilio Montez (R) of Holy Ground Baptist Church in Cameron, Texas, and his congregant, Jesus Cerecerez (L).

A Christian man who had been praying for relief from end stage renal disease since 2015 recently got a life-saving answer from his pastor who turned out to be a matching kidney donor after God told him to give his ailing congregant one of his own organs.

End stage renal disease is the final stage of chronic kidney disease where the kidneys of those afflicted don't work well enough for them to live without dialysis or a kidney transplant.
In a narrative on fundraising website GoFundMe, Jesse Cerecerez, a longtime member of Holy Ground Baptist Church in Cameron, Texas, explained how his life changed after he was diagnosed with kidney disease.

"In April of 2015 I was diagnosed with E.S.R.D. (End Stage Renal Disease) my doctor told me that my kidneys had failed. I started dialysis treatments on May 5, 2015, and that has changed my life forever. Dialysis is a rough lifestyle to live. I felt as if all my freedoms were taken away from me. These last two years have been really hard. I take dialysis three times a week. Every day I have been praying for a miracle in my life," Cerecerez wrote.

 

Without even knowing if he was a suitable matching donor, Cerecerez said his pastor, Basillio Montez Jr., told him last fall that God asked him to donate one of his kidneys. Eight months after Montez made his anointed offer, medical professionals determined he was a suitable matching kidney donor for Cerecerez.

"About eight months ago Pastor Basillio and his wife came to visit me. During his visit he explained that God had impressed in his heart to donate a kidney to me. I was shocked and excited all at once. So he went and got tested, and he's a match," Cerecerez revealed in late May.

On June 16, two days before Father's Day, Cerecerez went on to have a successful kidney transplant and he shared how grateful he was on his Facebook page.

"So on this Father's Day weekend I'm in the hospital. This past Friday I was given the gift of life by my pastor. I am forever grateful! Thank you pastor for allowing God to use you in this mighty way of donating your kidney to me. Love you pastor!" he wrote.

Both men are now recovering. A day after the surgery, Cerecerez was already jesting in good spirits.
"So now that I received my pastor's kidney, he tells me I'm a Cowboy fan! Lol Dang it!" he quipped.
"I got my life back and I can't wait to see what else God has in store for me," he told 11 Alive in an interview Monday.

Montez explained that even though he was fulfilled in his normal duties as a pastor it was a special honor to be called to save a life.

"We praise God for everything that God has been doing," he said. "For the healing that he's been giving us and always for his honor and his glory."

This Mother Wanted to Hold Her Baby One Last Time…You Won’t Believe What Her Touch Did!

We are told of the incredible power of a mother’s touch, but how far can that extend? For one couple, it seems to have extended farther than anyone would imagine!

When one of their twins, born prematurely, was pronounced dead, its mother took the child in her arms. She began to talk to the baby, holding him skin to skin for two hours. You won’t believe what happened next!



The practice of holding a premature baby skin-to-skin is called kangaroo care. It first began in Columbia in the 1970s in response to high death rates in premature babies. It is often used when no incubators – or inadequately working incubators – are available. But it has also become common practice for all babies, because of its benefits.

The term kangaroo care comes from the kangaroo’s practice of keeping its baby – or joey – in its pouch. Kangaroos are marsupials. When they give birth, the babies are relatively undeveloped. So, they climb into the mother’s pouch and attach to her nipple to grow and continue to develop. This lasts about nine months. At that point the joey only leaves the pouch for short periods of time, returning to be nursed by the mother. The joey leaves the pouch for good after about a year and a half. Animals like wallabies, wombats and koalas are also marsupials and have similar pouches for their young.

Kangaroo care involves placing the newborn in an upright position skin-to-skin against the mother or father’s chest for several hours a day. What practitioners see during kangaroo care was a stabilization of breathing, heart rate and more. Because the baby is next to the parent’s chest, his or her chest stays warm, which helps the baby breathe better. Respiratory problems from inadequately developed lungs are a major complication in premature babies.



It was precisely in this type of environment that a miracle occurred for the mother, Kate, in this video. Even when doctors dismissed her initial words, she believed. And what was the reaction?? You’ll have to see!

We know a mother’s love is powerful!

UMC High Court Rejects Request for Reconsideration of Ruling Against Lesbian Bishop

 
(Photo: Charmaine Robledo)Karen Oliveto, the first openly gay bishop in the history of the United Methodist Church, at her consecration service July 16, 2016, at Paradise Valley United Methodist Church in Scottsdale, Arizona.

The United Methodist Church's highest court has rejected a motion to reconsider its ruling that an openly lesbian's election to the position of bishop violated church law.

In an email sent out to the parties involved in the case, Judicial Council Secretary the Rev. Luan-Vu Tran explained that the ruling was going to stand.

"... after careful review and prayerful consideration, the Motion to Reconsider JCD 1341 of the Western Jurisdiction College of Bishops has been denied," wrote Tran, as reported last Friday by United Methodist News Service.

In late April, the United Methodist Judicial Council ruled 6-3 that the Western Jurisdiction's election of Karen Oliveto to the position of bishop violated the UMC Book of Discipline, which prohibits non-celibate homosexuals from ordination.

"Under the long-standing principle of legality, no individual member or entity may violate, ignore, or negate Church law. It is not lawful for the college of bishops of any jurisdictional or central conference to consecrate a self-avowed practicing homosexual bishop," read the decision.

"Paragraph 310.2(d) requires that all clergy persons make a complete dedication to the highest ideals of the Christian life, including but not limited to, their commitment to abide by and uphold the Church's definition of marriage and stance on homosexuality. An openly homosexual and partnered bishop is in violation of these minimum standards."

Last month, the jurisdiction requested a reconsideration of the ruling. Richard Marsh, counsel to the Western Jurisdiction, said in a statement that the brief was meant to help advance acceptance of the LGBT community within the church.

"The Western Jurisdiction College of Bishops believes it has an obligation to the wider LGBTQ community within the Church and beyond to point out the fundamental errors contained in this decision," stated Marsh.
In the brief, Marsh argued that Oliveto being in a same-sex marriage did not necessarily make her a "self-avowed practicing homosexual," which is the specific group the Book of Discipline says cannot be ordained.

"The Judicial Council is without authority to expand the list of chargeable offenses. Only the General Conference can declare that same gender marriage is a chargeable offense, and it has not done so despite opportunity," argued the brief.

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