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John 15:5
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
Stay Focused!

The only thing that can stop my destiny is loosing focus. Most of us are Tripolar! We are trying to satisfy me, myself, and I. In order to stay focused you have got to F_it. I know you all are looking at me saying Pastor Mike done lost his mind, he want us to curse. No, that is not what I mean. Back in the day my F_it meant something totally different than what I am talking about today. When your road is dark and you can see the light, you have to FAITH IT!! When the bills are do and you have no money in sight FAITH IT!! In order to get to the next level, you have to Faith it into existence. From now on you have to walk by Faith and not by what you see. The reason I don’t panic is because if He made a way last month, it is no thing for Him to do it this month. People will sometimes get envious when they see you walking in Faith. Faith makes a struggle look good. Faith will cause you to shout over your future blessing even in the midst of your present hell.

There are 3 F’s we need to stay Focused.
(1) Fellowship- Spend time in God’s Word. John 15:5 says I am the vine= the Source, the coiling together. When I get connected to God and coiled up in his vine, you can’t tell where God ends and I begin. When I show up, he shows up! As Mary Mary said it, Its the God in Me!!!!! When you be good to God, he will be good to you. in 2010 I am doing everything for God because he is the only one who never left me. He that abides in Me and I in him. We are the Branches on God’s vine. And when a branch disconnects from the source, over time it withers and dies. So you have to say that no matter what the Devil throws at you, you can’t risk being disconnected from God. When you stay connected to God you gain power. The problem is that sometimes we connect ourselves to people who pull us to them and away from God. But I am saying that this year, I will stay coiled in the vine despite what people do or say because without God I can do nothing.

(2) Faith-
Psalms 55:22, 22 Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.
I may not be there yet, but I am going to throw my burdens to Jesus from where I am. God is faithful. You can come to him with your problems and secrets and keep you when you are not strong enough to keep yourself. Our problem is we throw our burdens to people who turn around and throw they to other people in the form of gossip. You don’t have to worry about your secrets getting out when you give it to God. And when you give it to God, you have to let it go in order for him to work. God has the power to make your enemies your footstools. He will use them to Bless you even when they don’t want to.

(3) Future- Prepare for the Future. If we are honest with ourselves, we would admit that we are failing in a lot of areas in our lives because of poor on no preparation. We must plan and prepare in order to achieve success. Once we do these things, it puts us in position to be Blessed.

Words brought to you by Pastor Michael McClure Jr. and The Rock Church. For more information please do not hesitate to give us a call at 205.798.7621, CIO, Marcus McCord.

You can also follow my personal blog by clicking here.

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Tags: birmingham, inspiration, pastor mike, religion, the rock

(left to right) Ashley Jones, Walter Turner and Chastity Taswell

Birmingham-area high school students who are looking for a new way to study for the ACT finally have a new venue.

The Reach Initiative, which started at the beginning of this year, is a group of college students from UAB and Samford who have dedicated every other weekend to mentoring and tutoring high school students in preparation of the ACT.

The group, comprising of Ebony Hinton, Chasity Taswell, Abdular Kuaan, Phillip Philon, Sam Mobley III, Jacob Wooten, Erin Hulsey, Travis Lilley, Adrian Jones, Walter Turner, and B. Positive’s own Ashley Jones, is one that Jones believes will help Birmingham’s youth in terms of their success rate on the exam.

“We wanted to start the group to positively impact the low graduation/college entrance rates we observed in the Birmingham metro area primarily among minority students,” said Jones. “We believe that if given the right study techniques and some opportunities to practice, we can help raise these students’ scores enough to gain them entrance to a two year or four year university. We want them to strive for higher education–in today’s society, education is key, and we couldn’t just stand back and watch students in our own backyard miss out on higher education.”

Jones said that the group holds two sessions per semester. “Each session is four Saturdays long, and each Saturday consists of two classes–around 1 and a half hour each–and a lunch break. Each of the four ACT subjects are taught for the first three Saturdays, and on the final Saturday, a mock ACT is administered.” According to Jones, everyone in the group is involved in the teaching process. “I teach English with Erin; Walter, Jacob and Travis teach Math; Ebony, Adrian and Phillip teach Science, and Chasity teaches Reading.”

So far, Jones says the group has received successful feedback from their work with the students and hopes the group will continue long after she and her friends have graduated. “We give the students evaluations [about The Reach Initiative’s performance] after every session, and so far, the students find the sessions helpful,” she said. “We want to continue them [the students] until we graduate and hand the program over to other UAB students; it’s a UAB student program, and we hope it thrives after we’re gone.”

One of the things Jones is excited about is actually seeing her group’s lessons help the students with their problem areas. “I think the best thing for me is to see the students learning,” she said. “When a student completes a set of practice questions and gets them all right, or even if they get them wrong and realize their mistakes, it’s great to see that learning happen. I feel better about myself when I see their minds working, and I feel that they’ll be able to take these skills into the testing room when they take the ACT.” One lesson she hopes the group is imparting, however, is that the ACT is just a test.

“[T]he ACT isn’t an unconquerable monster,” she said. “They can master the test and make a good enough score to get into a university and succeed. I hope they see that college is an option, and they’re full of more knowledge than they know.”

This is the first operational year for The Reach Initiative, and the group hopes to grow from this point forward. “[W]e’re a small organization that wants to make a big difference in Birmingham,” said Jones. “We’ve started from the ground up, and we’d love to establish relationships with organizations in the Birmingham community to make our program better for our students.”

If you would like any information about The Reach Initiative, you can call Jones at (205) 936-7574, the group’s secretary, Chasity Taswell at (205) 427-4447 or email The Reach Initiative at thereachinitiative@gmail.com or reach@uab.edu. You can also download their brochure here.

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“I believe that children are our future, Teach them well and let them lead the way” -Whitney Houston, Greatest Love Of All

Recently, many media outlets have started to focus their attention on the growing gaps and problems in the American School System. From charter schools and private academies, to online courses and homeschooling, our children have a so many ways to gain an education; yet to some, it seems they are still being robbed of the knowledge they really need. Over the past decade, films like Waiting for Superman and government rulings, like the infamous, No Child Left Behind Act passed by President G. W. Bush in 2001, have put the spotlight on the lack of equality in our nation’s schools. Concerned parents feel that this is unacceptable. How can one of the most powerful countries in the WORLD lack in education? How can we as a nation pass along our war strategies with other nations but forgo passing on our rich histories and new technologies to our future generations? It seems that we have almost placed our children on auto-pilot when it comes to education. The days of the parent-teacher conference are almost extinct, along with the PTA, and community assemblies. Our children are already raising themselves at home, due to the burden of the economy on their parents, but should the burden be placed on them to teach themselves too?

My nephew is nine years old and when he brought home a less than perfect report card last year, I asked him why he felt he didn’t make the honor roll. He told me he tried and the teacher failed him anyway. I then asked him was he having any problems understanding in class. He informed me that he has problems reading and comprehending and he told his teacher about these problems and he received no extra attention. So who’s to blame? Can I really be upset with the teacher whose classroom is overflowing with students. Or maybe my sister’s to blame, the single mother of four, who’s working and just recently finished school herself. Is it the infamous “system”? Or maybe it’s my nephew’s fault for not learning quick enough. I cannot point the finger at any one person and feel completely satisfied with my answer. Truth is, I feel to blame in some strange way. I feel that we are all to blame. Our education system is failing our children and many of us do not care or do not show enough concern. I personally have not shown an interest in volunteering in our schools since 2008 and thinking back, I really miss tutoring kids and making a difference. It’s hard to balance work, home, and everything else that life throws at us but should we use that as an excuse to “leave our children behind”? Over the past few months or so, I’ve attended several lectures, visited different websites, and participated in several small group discussions and I’ve drawn only one conclusion: Something has to be done or the future will be very, very bleak and that’s not going to work for me.

I want to know YOUR opinion about the American Education System and the pros and cons of alternative education methods (charter schools, homeschooling, etc.) Below I’ve listed a few websites that are focused on the improvement of our education system.

• http://www2.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml (The U.S. Department of Education)
• http://dr-steveperry.com/ (Dr. Steve Perry’s Website)
• http://www.donewaiting.org (“Done Waiting’s” initiative site)

My hope is that you will visit these sites, along with others, and form your own opinion on the future of our children. Do you agree that the education system is failing our kids? Do you believe that there is nothing wrong with the education system? Do you have ideas or suggestions on how we can “fix” or improve our educational system. Well I want to know! As the Community editor for B. Positive, I want to know how you really feel about your child’s, and in a way, your own future.  I will gather all of the best comments and use them in a future article.

“For tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today”~African Proverb

PLEASE COMMENT! Even if you don’t feel comfortable commenting directly under this article, I still want your opinions! E-mail me at MarlesaW@Bpositivemag.com. Please keep in mind that this site is family-friendly and we want to try to keep all content at least PG-13.

Be INVOLVED, Be HEARD, Be POSITIVE!!!

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Tags: Children, Education, Future, learning, Opinion, Schools

Are you thinking about starting a business? Want to move to a better part of town? Tired of listening to supervisors who don’t care? Are you frustrated with your life and want to make a drastic change? Regardless of your reasons, you have the power to change your current situation. Always be aware that the only thing holding you back from success is you! Want to make a step in the right direction? Expand your knowledge. If you want to make a difference in this world, not matter how small or large, you will first need to know what you’re getting yourself into. You may not want to save the world, but you might want to start a clothing drive for the victims of the earthquakes in Haiti or start a memorial fund for the families of those killed during the war. No matter what you chose to do to help the global community, you will have to take advice, criticism, and information from others with more experience/expertise for you. So while you’re online reading the hottest online magazine (B.Postive, of course) or tweeting about how boring work is, take some time to educate yourself on whatever it is you need to do in order to uplift, change, or motivate yourself. The city of Birmingham is filled with plenty of FREE opportunities to increase your knowledge of politics, business, personal growth, etc. You can find some of them on the Active Culture website:  http://www.activeculture.info. On this site you’ll find everything from lectures to local fund raising events in Birmingham and the surrounding areas. If you are looking for some internships/job opportunities/ fundraiser ideas, the following sites should help get you started and they also all have local offices for your added convenience:

• http://www.timewarner.com/corp/careers/index.html
• http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/
• http://bgca.org/Pages/index.aspx
• http://rmhc.org/

Remember that you hold the key to your future and you can create the change you desire.

Be Positive, Think Positive, Live Positive!

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Tags: change, global, helpful information, helping others, internships, local events, motivation, websites