Dedicated to those with special needs and their families, caregivers, teachers and friends, Prince of Peace (POP) Catholic Parish in Hoover will hold a sensory-friendly Mass on Saturday, February 16, 2019 at 5 p.m.in the main sanctuary. The POP Knights of Columbus Council #11537 are coordinating the Mass which will be followed by dinner in Deasy Hall. This Mass will offer sensory adaptations in sound and lighting and is designed to welcome individuals or families who might not normally feel comfortable participating in Mass. POP leadership explains, “It can be challenging for our brothers and sisters to participate at Mass due to physical and social barriers – or even family member anxiety. Celebrating a sensory-friendly Mass for people with special needs is our way of welcoming all of God’s children to Mass and letting them know that every person is an integral part of our parish family.” The parish is located at 4600 Preserve Parkway, Hoover. Learn more by calling205-822-9125 or visiting www.popcatholic.org. †
Regaining vertical mobility has never been easier in this day and age, and with a stairlift installed in the home, you or a loved one can be on the fast track to independence. A question that is commonly asked amongst individuals looking for a stairlift is, “Can I rent or buy this life-changing product?” The answer to that question is often; yes, you can! Certified stairlift dealers are often equipped to handle both purchases and rentals. However, these options are very situation-dependent. If your staircase is curved, has landings, or is abnormally long, you may have trouble finding a rental product as these features require a custom curved rail stairlift.
Rental Requirements. When searching for a company that may perform rentals or purchases, it is highly important that you ensure a free consultation is included with their services. This consultation (or evaluation) is what will determine if you qualify for a rental option. Rental requirements are typically as follows (though exceptions do exist):
Straight (Indoor) Staircase
10-16 Steps
No intermediate landings
If any of these facets apply to you and your stairs, you should check with the specific dealer that you are doing business with to ensure that you are covered by both rental and purchase options.
Budget & Time Constraints. Before deciding whether you want to purchase or rent a stairlift, it is important to recognize which option would be best for you depending on your finances and time constraints. Most companies require a minimal rental requirement of 3-4 months, due to the laborious installation and removal. Make sure to go over with your dealer the exact costs of the installation, monthly fees, and any removal fee amount. Also keep in mind the amount of time the lift will be needed or potentially needed.
Whether you decide to rent or purchase, it is important to recognize the value and utility that a stairlift can bring to your life or your loved ones. Learn more at Alabama.101Mobility.com or call us at 205-538-5692. We will be happy to answer your questions and provide you with a free consultation to identify exactly what you need and design a plan that suits you.
– Derek Gann
Locally Owned & Operated in Birmingham, Serving Residents Across Alabama
My oldest son Benton tried to make his teeth wiggle all through Kindergarten in hopes of having his name on the “snaggel tooth” bulletin board. Finally, at the age of six and a half, he came running to me with not one- but two loose teeth. He grinned and bared it as he wiggled those teeth right out of his mouth. We took pictures. We jumped around the house. He couldn’t wait to show his friends! Who would have thought there could be such celebration over a gapping hole? As parents, if we did not know to anticipate those shiny, new permanent teeth just below the surface, this scenario would have taken a far different twist. We would have been on our way to our trusted pediatric dentist!
Sometimes it may not look or feel like we have a lot to celebrate. In fact, sometimes it may feel as though all we can do is lift our heads up high enough to peer out of an empty hole. However, God reminds us that despite what the circumstances look like, He has a special plan for us (Romans 8:28). We have so much to anticipate thanks to His love for us through the saving power of His son, Jesus Christ (John 3:16).
This month as we celebrate Valentine’s Day, let’s take the time to thank someone who has encouraged us during a time when we did not feel like celebrating. Let us also seek out a special someone we can encourage and share with God’s love.
“Look to the Lord & His Strength, Seek His face always.” 1 Chronicles 16:11
TO SAY THANK YOU for reading and supporting the businesses and organizations that advertise with us and make spreading Good News possible, we have Three Great Giveaways this month!
FEBRUARY GIVE-AWAYS
THREE Ways to Win Two Tickets to the Birmingham Home Show at the BJCC February 15-17, 2019. THREE Winners (2 tickets each).
2.Like & Follow Us on Facebook AND Like & Share the Home Show Post!
3. Follow Us on Instagram AND Like the Home Show Post!
Winners (3) Announced 2/12/19 on Facebook so be sure to LIKE our page! Offer Ends 2/11/19.
TWO Ways to Win Two Tickets to the Flourish Women’s Conference hosted by www.connectingministries.org on February 15-16 at Samford University Wright Center. Featuring Liz Curtis Higgs and Lisa Harper!
Like & Follow Us on Facebook and Like & Share the Flourish Post.
Follow Us on Instagram and Like the Flourish Post!
Flourish Winners (2) announced on Facebook 2/11/19 so be sure to LIKE our page! Offer Ends 2/10/19.
TWO ways to Win Four Tickets to see Swan Lake performed by the Birmingham Ballet March 1-3, 2019 at Samford University Wright Center. 4 Tickets to TWO WINNERS (4 tickets each)
Follow Us on Instagram AND Like the Birmingham Ballet post!
Follow Us on Twitter AND Retweet the Swan Lake Birmingham Ballet Post!
Winners Announced on Facebook 2/27/19 so be sure to LIKE our page! Offer Ends 2/26/19.
Come dressed as your favorite character at “Live with Characters” February 23, 2019 at Gardendale First Baptist Church-North Campus. Learn more and buy tickets at www.justkeepsmiling.org
Your children or grandchildren are sure to smile and maybe burst into laughter as they meet their favorite Disney characters, Ninja Turtles, Star Wars characters and more- all while enjoying a “Dance Party.” There will be two “Live with the Characters” shows, 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., on February 23, 2019, each followed by a meet and greet, autograph signings and pictures with the stars of the show. The event at Gardendale First Baptist Church-North Campus is a major fundraiser for the local non-profit ministry, Just Keep Smiling (JKS, www.justkeepsmiling.org). “‘Live with the Characters’ is a favorite fund raiser of all of our volunteers,” explains Just Keep Smiling founder, Sue Jeffreys. “It is a time we come together to do God’s work, having so much fun, while making children smile and have the time of their life.” JKS was born from the experiences of three local women, Patrice Brooks, Debra Cook and Sue Jeffreys. All three women know what it is like to live with tragically losing children or having a child with a life-threatening illness. Fourteen years ago, they established JKS which seeks to assist families with critically ill children by providing financial aid for immediate needs, offering emotional support based on personal knowledge of a child’s serious illness or death, and sharing spiritual insight that conveys the solace, grace and strength found in God. JKS works with a network of social workers at area hospitals to identify families with such needs during their time of medical crisis with a child or children.
Purchase your $10 tickets to “Live with the Characters” at Jeff Dennis Jewelers, Gardendale First Baptist Bookstore or at the door. Special VIP tickets ($25 each) offer reserved seating, souvenir and preshow autograph and pictures (limited to 75 tickets per show). VIP tickets may be purchased by emailing [email protected]. †
Historian David W. Blight’s biography, Frederick Douglass, Prophet of Freedom (Simon and Shuster), has captured the attention of the literary world. It is, in my assessment, simply superb. Douglass was one of the great Americans of the nineteenth century, and Blight has given us a biography worthy of such greatness. As a young, uneducated fugitive slave, Douglass began preaching to a handful of men. A decade later he was the most famous black man in the world. If America had a prophet in the nineteenth century, it was Frederick Douglass.
The most dangerous place in the world is within the gaze of a prophet of God. Prophets possess a proclivity to shatter the status quo, jerking us out of our delusions of safety and comfort. They rip away our facades of righteousness, exposing that which we prefer to remain hidden. When God sends forth a prophet into a land, things happen – and sometimes it isn’t pretty.
David W. Blight, author of Frederick Douglass, Prophet of Freedom, is Professor of American History and Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Huntington Library, San Marino, California
Frederick Douglass used the power of his words to call America to repentance for its national sin. Using language rich with the scriptures, Douglass traveled the northern states and Britain, calling for the end of slavery. Like Jeremiah, Amos, and John the Baptist, Douglass called not only the sinners and slaveholders to account, but also those who believed themselves to be righteous. No one was exempt from his fierce gaze, not even the President or members of the clergy. Douglass, like the prophets, aimed his sharpest rhetoric at those who worshiped God on the Sabbath and yet were complicit in the systemic oppression of their fellow man throughout the week.
As I read Blight’s work on Douglass, I found myself hoping God would send a new prophet to our nation, someone uniquely graced by God with words of power and fire and judgement. We need an anointed advocate for justice, someone who isn’t afraid to call out wickedness in high places. We need a voice for the poor and the oppressed, the imprisoned and the stranger among us. We need another John or Jeremiah to call God’s people to repentance. We need another Frederick.
–Darrel Holcombe, Owner
Sanctuary Christian Books and Gifts
Colonial Promenade, Alabaster
Home care is rooted in the principle that older adults should be free to age at home with the level of care they need to be safe and comfortable. To that end, most home care providers work hard to ensure that their clients are able to live as independently as possible while receiving the care they need to maintain a high quality of life. Our population is aging rapidly, and with an aging population comes an increased need for different care options, particularly when 9 out of 10 older adults have expressed a strong preference to “age in place” or stay in their own homes. In its simplest terms, home care means assistance with activities of daily living and household tasks. Ideally, home care also provides meaningful companionship for older adults and peace of mind for their families. While it is the oldest form of health care (think: house calls before the advent of our modern hospital system), home care was very limited in its scope until approximately two decades ago. Before then, home care was exclusively an interim solution or a short-term service for older adults recovering from hospitalization. Today, home care can serve as a comprehensive alternative to an institutional setting like a nursing home or assisted living facility.
While home care is most commonly introduced as a service to assist aging seniors, it is also a valuable resource when an individual of any age has had an injury, accident or surgery – or is suffering from a chronic illness. Home care can refer to two different types of care:
Non-Medical Home Care: Trained caregivers provide support with basic activities and functions and instrumental activities, called Activities of Daily Living and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living.
Medical Home Health Care: Licensed medical professionals provide health services such as wound care and injections.
Home care as it is used today typically refers to non-medical services that help a senior live and thrive at home. These services include but are not limited to meal preparation, medication reminders, companionship, bathing assistance, transportation, dementia care, transferring and more. At Home Care Assistance, we are committed to the wellbeing and happiness of the many clients we are privileged to serve. For more information on our services, please visit our website at www.homecareassistancebirminghamal.com.
-Debra Beadles
Owner, Home Care Assistance of Birmingham
5291 Valleydale Rd., Ste. 123, Birmingham, AL 35242
Learn more from author and speaker Jodie Berndt on Thursday February 7 at the Samford Legacy Scholarship Luncheon in Vestavia. For reservations visit www.samford.edu/legacyleague.
That’s a snippet of Matthew 5:16, and it’s the theme verse for this year’s Legacy League Scholarship Luncheon at Samford University. And while there are countless ways we can live out this charge—ways we can let our light shine, reflecting the light of God’s love—one of my favorites is prayer.
And just as there are all sorts of ways we can shine, there are all sorts of ways we can pray. I love praying the scriptures—taking the actual words we read in the Bible and using them to give life to our prayers. Not only is this approach more creative than the prayers I might come up with on my own, but since it taps into the principles and promises first breathed by God, it’s also more potent.
Consider, for instance, how a prayer for my kids to be nice to each other (my constant refrain, back in the day) sounds when it’s cloaked in the language of Ephesians 4:29:
“Let no unwholesome talk come out of their mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up, that it might benefit those who listen.”
See what I mean? That’s really good! Not only does that scripture-prayer banish what my southern friends call “ugly talk,” it opens the door to words that function like gifts, bringing encouragement, edification and blessings to all who receive them!
And here’s the thing about praying the scriptures. There is not a need we will face in parenting—or in any of life—that God has not already thought of, and provided for, in his Word. And it’s no accident, I think, that God’s Word is described in the psalms as a “lamp for our feet” and a “light for our path.” When we tap into the Bible—letting it animate our desires and our dreams—our prayers begin to line up with what God wants to do, and our lives reflect the light of his love.
Let your light shine. That’s as much an invitation as it is a command. And the more we allow the lamp of God’s word to ignite and burn brightly within us—fueling our words, our deeds, and our prayers—the more we’ll be able to turn the spotlight on God. To Him be the glory, now and forever.
Jodie Berndt
Best-selling author of the Praying the Scripture series
Featured Speaker Legacy League Scholarship Luncheon, February 7, 2019
WXJC’s Chris Danielson’s radio career began as a teenager and has taken him as far north as Alaska.
Birmingham’s new WXJC/101.1 FM recently launched “The Chris Danielson Show,” focused on providing local content from a “Real Common Sense, Real Bible Insights” perspective. We caught up with host Chris Danielson to learn more.
Q. Chris, what can listeners expect to hear on your show in 2019?
A. It’s a show that is always going to have a real biblical attitude. I am always going to look at any of the topics we discuss through the lens of Scripture and what possible implications for the true believer who is listening…. We are going to be intentionally Christian and specifically for Christian people. The other big thing is to give Christian listeners a voice. A place they can share their viewpoint, their concerns, what God is doing in their world, you know, do the Iron sharpens Iron thing together on a daily basis.
Q. How has God prepared you to “talk the walk every afternoon” with your listeners?
A. I’ve been in radio for 3 decades and the last few years my career path took me away from regular daily broadcasts. I was on the shelf with no show for over three years, or 1116 days if you’re counting, and wasn’t even sure I would ever get back on the air again. During this time, I would ask myself the “what if” questions. You know, what if some station wanted you for a talk show again, what kind of show, what type of content would I truly desire to do?… What I desired more than anything else was to partner with a station that wanted a talk show that at the end of the day would be about helping folks be stronger in biblical literacy, be stronger in their walk with Jesus… have an attitude that leans toward the Scripture within all the things that a talk show should be.I’ve been in Christian ministry for much of the last 20 years. Seminary trained, missionary for 3 years, former pastor, the whole nine yards. Because I started on the air at age 16, it never left me. Having a radio show is something I have simply been about my whole adult life.
Chris and Emilee Danielson with children and grandchildren. Left to right: Nick Van Slett (Son in Law), Hannah Van Slett (Daughter), Zackary (Son), Emilee (Wife) Riley (Granddaughter) Jacob (son), Chris Danielson, Chris Stone (Son in Law), Dana Stone (Daughter)
Q. In addition to being a radio host you also serve as pastor of The Baptist Church at Lay Lake. How do you balance both?
A. I am so blessed to be able to preach every Sunday and have a true family of brothers and sisters who are sold out & committed to seeing the Kingdom of Christ advanced. It is such a cool thing. It keeps me in the Word in a way that carries over to the airwaves- pastoring this church is such “hand in glove” with the new radio show.
Listen and join the conversation with Chris Danielson every weekday afternoon on Birmingham’s WXJC, 101.1 FM from 3-6pm, www.wxjcradio.com. †
Hoover’s Prince of Peace (POP) Knights of Columbus Council 11537 purchased 72 coats and donated them to several charitable organizations in the Birmingham area. It’s all part of the national program called Coats for Kids and the POP Knights have been participating for years. Knight Bruce Grasso (left) led this year’s local effort and POP Catholic Church Associate Pastor Fr. Jose Luis Gomez Guevara (right) assisted with distribution.
Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic School (OLS) students recently participated in several community service projects. Seen here are second graders (from left to right) Peyton Bradford, Oliver Barrow, and Grant Walton with boxes they filled with items for children in a third world country. The Cross Catholic Outreach Box of Joy program delivered the boxes in time for Christmas.
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Rental Requirements. When searching for a company that may perform 
– Derek Gann 
-Laurie Stroud
