My Hero

Do you wanna thank or pay tribute to someone? Browse a photo on your computer and place it on the movie. It's so cool! Just have a little patience 'til the complete download and show your hero to the world. You can send it to your facebook and twitter.

Hawk alert

Lately, this lovely hawk has visited our neighborhood . From dawn to dust it can be seen and heard. We hope our birds are safe. They have an attentive guard dog. He barks and bites.

Drink Tall Horse

The label is cute, but the best about Tall Horse is the flavor: light, gentle and fresh. I'm not a wine conoisseur and one glass is enough to knock me out. But the south-african Tall Horse has a good price and a sweet taste. It's worthwile and praised by people who knows best:

"This is a lovely wine. It has a sweet and simple flavor that went incredibly well with the fish we prepared for dinner last night. There also wasn't that unpleasant aftertaste that has accompanied most of the white wines I've tried in my life. I'm pleasantly surprised with how much I like this wine and hope to find more cheap whites that please me as much. I'm not ready to jump on the white wine band wagon just yet though; I think I just got lucky picking out the bottle. Who can go wrong with those herbaceous grassland aromas?" (Wine for the Cheap)

"The labels also create interest with their name and the illustration. The simple drawing is obviously a giraffe but the wines are called "Tall Horse." There is a story behind this that dates back to the early 1800's and a gift of a giraffe from the Sultan of Egypt to the King of France that the French called a tall horse. A good story and a great label design can go a long way towards selling more product and Tall Horse Wine is a great example of that." (Lightning Labels)

Faith like Potatoes

De By Star Filmes

"Sometimes you watch a movie, and the story hangs with you, like the scent of perfume or the lyrics of a song, for days afterward. This movie is like that. (...) Faith like Potatoes is the true story of Angus Bachan, a farmer from Zambia but who moves his young family to South Africa in 1978. It’s a HARD life. He’s starting from scratch, trying to clear his hard-scrabble land, raise his kids, and get out of debt all at the same time. He nearly has a nervous breakdown from worry, financial problems, and overwork. His wife drags him to church where he gave his life, his heart, his family, and his farm to Jesus Christ. And amazing things start to happen.

The real Angus Bachan is still alive, still living in South Africa. You can read his biography from his website. Probably the most compelling element to the film is that all this stuff REALLY happened (and is still happening). After Angus dedicates his life to Christ, his farming takes on new meaning. Where he once was a nasty, angry man, he is kinder but still full of Scottish spunk. He and his Zulu foreman, Simeon Benghu, form a close brotherhood that is today, three decades strong, “My children are his children, and his children are my children.” (...)

The DVD also came with a stunning documentary featuring Angus Bachan, his wife Jill, and the actors and film crew of Faith like Potatoes. We like the documentary as much as the film. The film is kid-friendly, except for the part when a little boy is injured by a tractor. It’s pretty gory at that part– I’ve seen some gory war movies but this was absolutely heart-wrenching because it was a little boy. We had to skip it for the kids’ sakes.

Watch the movie. You won’t be the same." (Freak Frugalite)

Prepare your heart for Christmas!

Jill and Angus Buchan

De By Star Filmes

Simeon Benghu

De By Star Filmes

Christmas Day Morning

Carl Larsson

Christmas with a Capital C

Let's say:

Feliz Natal! Feliz Navidad! Joyeux Nöel! Fröhliche Weihnachten! Buone Feste Natalizie! God Jul! Sarbatori Fericite! Merry Christmas!

Bakhita

February 8, is the feast of St Josephine Bakhita, the first saint of Sudan. I was lucky to be at Saint Peter's Square in October, 2000, when she was declared a saint by Pope John Paul II in the Jubilee Year 2000. I was there because Saint Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer was canonized the same day. After renting the movie "Bakhita", from Giacomo Campiotti, I realized how fortunate I was to be in Rome that special day.

"Josephine was born in Darfur, Sudan somewhere around 1869 and taken by muslim slavers when she was only about 7 years old. She was sold to various master’s including one who beat her nearly to death and then the Turkish General whose wife had her tattooed. She was 13 when this happened. A woman was hired who put 114 cuts all over the saint’s body (not her face) and rubbed them with flour and salt to ensure maximum scarring. The pain and blood-loss this child suffered is beyond imagining.

She had no memory of her own name and was named Bakhita by her captors. It means ‘fortunate one’- a cruel joke but one that she was to treasure. All her life she sought God and Truth, believing she would find it some day and as she sought Him, she was bound to find Him.

Finally little Bakhita was bought by an Italian consul Callisto Legnani who rescued her with the intention of setting her free. But the war with the Arab factions was heating up in Africa, the Italians needed to leave and he gave Bakhita over to a friend whose Orthodox wife was expecting a child. They escaped to Italy and Bakhita became nurse to the little girl Minimma.

Some time later Minimma’s parent’s left for business and Bakhita was to take the child and live under the care of the Canossian sisters. It was here, at last that she found what she was looking for.

There is a crucifix in the chapel there, where she first set eyes on her Lord and Saviour. She never hated those who had tormented her so much and as the sisters taught her about Jesus and the Church she found a Lord who loved her and a freedom she had never had.

When Minimma’s parent’s returned they wanted to take Bakhita back with them, but she was granted her freedom in an Italian court.

In 1890 she was baptised and took the name Josephine-or more correctly Guiseppina Margarita. She joined the Canossian sisters and worked as portress for something like 45 years. She seems to have had a great love of the children and they of her, calling her ‘la nostra madre moretta’ (our little brown mother).

Her years of slavery had knocked her about though and she suffered with poor health. She died on Feb 8th 1947, undoubtedly having suffered to watch Italy go through upheaval of war.

I love her because she never let what happened to her as a child destroy her life. She loved no matter what and was never resentful. Her ability to forgive, just astonishes me.

I love the fact she genuinely wanted to know who God is-where He was to be found-and He guided her to Himself."

From "Thinking Love, No Twaddle"