moved

i've moved my personal/family blogging stuff to another blog. if you want to go there, it's hobeau stew

Seeing without eyes

This is an amazing video of a kid named Ben Underwood. He lost both of his eyes and can "see" by making clicking sounds like the radar that dolphins use. After I watched this video I saw that Ben died earlier this year, but check out how gifted he was before he died.

www.benunderwood.com

Luxury Fund Update Video

Luxury Fund is not a 501c3 organization. Donations are not tax-deductible, your only reward is knowing that you've helped someone who was unable to help themselves.

Please donate food!

Hey, we're helping the Green Springs Mission collect food for their food bank. The usually have around 100 families that rely on them for their groceries. With the economy doing so poorly, that number is increasing rapidly, but the food supply is not. Can you help out? If you would bring non-perishable food items to the shop, that would be great! We'll collect a bunch and take it to them once a week.


Bring food to 916 23rd Street south Mon - Fri between 10 -7 or Saturday between noon and 7.


Thanks!!

I need your help making a film!

With the help of Bedouins International, a local media company, we're making a film. I need your help to do it though. It's just going to be a 3 -4 minute film to be posted on the internet. I need a lot of different people to be in it. The whole film will be one short message "I am beautiful because I am made in the image of God" . This is a message that I've been telling people for years and now I want to tell even more people, so we're making a film. I'm a Christian, but you don't have to be to be a part of this film, this is a message for everyone. I want the film to be representative of everyone (hippies, yuppies, punks, goths, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, tattooed & pierced, straight looking, black, white, Asian, Hispanic,). Whoever you are, whatever you believe, this message is for you and I want you to help me tell it.

If you are interested, please let me know. We'll begin filming this Saturday afternoon.

Thanks for your help!

Do what you can with what you've got!

Attention Bloggers

As you may already know, we're working on this new project called the Luxury Fund. One way we have seen a lot of new traffic on our LF blog and website is by bloggers writing about it and linking to it from their blogs. If you're a blogger and the Luxury Fund is something that you might be interested in sharing with your readers, we'd appreciate it.

In July we raised $200, in August, we raised $660, this month, we're shooting for $750. I think we can do it! We're giving 25% each to Blood Water Mission, Compassion International, IJM and Love 146. They are all good causes and the more we can give them, the better.
Thanks for your help!!

www.luxuryfund.org
http://luxuryfund.blogspot.com

The Price of Sugar

I had no idea - www.thepriceofsugar.com

The Luxury Fund

Check out the Luxury Fund.
Here's a short video explanation of what it's about.
Let me know what you think.

Interfaith Conversation

I recently read a book called "I sold my soul on ebay". In his book, the author Hemant Mehta (the friendly atheist) said something that got me thinking. He said that Christians are often afraid to discuss matters of faith with people outside their own faith. I think that is sometimes true, but it shouldn't be. How can we relate to people of other faiths without knowing where they're coming from or why they believe what they believe. I personally believe that God created us all in His image and the He loves us ALL very much. So, for me, in an effort to be more like Jesus, I want to know people more, so that I can love them more. I can't know people very well if I haven't even had a conversation with them.

All of that to say that I'd like to start hosting conversations at the Nomad Supply Shop in Birmingham. Notice, I said "conversations" not "debates". I want to invite people of different faiths (or no faith) together to discuss their views on different topics. Topics that I have in mind are creation and the environment, war, poverty, afterlife and the human soul.

I'm not a Bible scholar. I don't have any sort of degree in religion or any "ministry credentials". I'm just a guy who loves Jesus and loves people and I want to share what I believe with people who might want to listen and share what they believe with me.

If you are interested in being a part of this conversation, please let me know.

Our first conversation will be Thursday, July 24th at 7pm.

The topic will be Creation and the Environment.

Please comment here if you think you'll be able to join us.

It will be important to know how many people might be here.

Wild Sweet Orange on The Late Show with David Letterman

Here are some Birmingham friends Wild Sweet Orange on Letterman.

Rich

This is an excerpt from a video by Rob Bell. The name of the video is "Rich".

Jubilee - Watch and be inspired

Drink good coffee with a good conscience

Please read this and check out the pictures at the bottom.

Our friends the Scallywags in Minneapolis, MN are making a difference. You can help make a difference by drinking Ikawa coffee. Here's the deal. The Scallywags are helping Rwandan coffee farmers build bikes to transport coffee around Rwanda. These bikes are replacing the primitive wooden bikes and old rusty bikes that they have used for years. This helps their efficiency and therefor helps their profit, which puts food on the tables of the farmers. When you buy Ikawa Rwandan coffee you are literally putting money in the pockets of good people in Rwanda who are still recovering from the genocide that took place in 1994.

You can buy Ikawa Coffee online or in our shop.


Here's a blurb from the Ikawa website:

Rwanda is a small country with one of the greatest population densities in Africa. Hundreds of thousands of Rwandans were killed in the Genocide, mostly in a three-month period of 1994. In the time since then, much growth and restoration has taken place. Many Rwandans who fled to neighboring countries in decades past are coming back with their families to make their homes there again. Many of the country’s 9 million citizens are subsistence farmers who work the thousands of hills, and grow a little coffee to boost their meager incomes. In recent years, the introduction of cooperative coffee washing stations has made it possible for many farmers to sell their own specialty coffees at greater prices, directly to micro-roasters. Our roaster, Bull Run, financed the construction of one cooperative’s washing station, and works directly with that cooperative to improve the farmers’ economy.

In 2007, Project Rwanda and other U.S. organizations introduced hundreds of cargo-bearing coffee bicycles to a few Rwandan cooperatives, which allows farmers to get more harvested coffee cherries to the washing stations in much less time, enabling families to get better prices for their coffee. Participants in the coffee bike program are also able to improve their quality of life by using the heavy-duty bicycles to transport other goods, and passengers. The Scallywags Bike Shop has sent several delegations of mechanics to work with Rwandan cooperatives in assembling and maintaining coffee bikes. We use these same coffee bikes in Minneapolis, delivering the same high-quality Rwandan coffee from family-owned cooperatives, and we recycle our profits back into this chain, working towards a more just distribution of wealth – improving the livelihoods of Rwandan farmers.

mmm... delicious Rwandan coffee tastes even better knowing

that you're directly supporting families in Rwanda.

Here's a wooden bike that the

farmers used for transporting coffee.

Here's a new coffee bike that the Scallywags

helped build for Rwandan farmers.

Who we are... What the shop is about

Who we are:

We are nomads. In the literal sense, because we travel the country much of the year going to shows, festivals and rainbow gatherings.

We are also nomadic in the spiritual sense, because we believe that our bodies and spirits are on this earth temporarily, and when our bodies are dead, our spirits will live on forever.

What we’re about at the Nomad Supply Shop:

Caring for this earth and its inhabitants.

We believe that it is our duty to be good stewards of this earth while we are here, and so we support as many organic and sustainable products as we are able.

We believe that we should love our neighbor as we love ourselves, and so we support as many Fair Trade and Justice organizations as we are able.

And we believe that God has gifted each of us uniquely and that those gifts are intended to benefit others. We love to support artisans who are gifted in making beautiful things to wear and enjoy.


We hope that you will frequent the shop and make yourself at home here.

We're open

Yes, the time has finally come. We're open. We're here from 10 - 5 Monday through Friday and an occasional Friday or Saturday night. Come by and see me. Have a cup of coffee and stay a while. If you need a place to check your email or do your stuff, bring your laptop or use our computer. Our goal is to have all Handmade, Organic, Fair Trade goods and an environment that makes you feel right at home (or better). Come see for yourself.

I hope to see you soon.

Some after shots

We're almost done. Here are a a couple of pictures. We still have some organizing to do and we're still getting inventory in, but you can get the general idea by these pics. If you're in town, come see me. I'll be here half a week next week and then we'll have an official opening the second week of January.

We're open (Sort of)

Well, I've decide that since I'm in the shop everyday, I might as well open the doors. I originally wanted everything to be just right before we opened, but I've realized that it'll be a while before it's just right. We have more inventory to get in and more organizing to do, but I'm there everyday, so come see me. I'll have coffee and tea waiting for you when you get there. This week and half of next week I'll be there from 10am until 5pm (Monday - Wednesday next week). After that I have some family stuff and a couple of shows to go to (New years with WP in ATL) and then we'll be officially opening around the second week of January. At that point, we'll be there for good.

I hope to see you soon.

Before and After

There was a lot of work to be done to the shop to make it our own. We've gotten a lot done in the short time we've had, but we have a lot more to go. I hope that we'll have it all done and the doors will be open in a couple of weeks. For now, take a look at the "before" pictures. I'll send some "after" shots when we're done, or better yet you can come by and see for yourself.

Setting up shop

If all goes well, we'll be opening the doors to our new shop in a couple of weeks. We're going to open a shop called Nomad Supply on the southside of Birmingham. We'll have all sorts of hand crafted stuff from people all around the country. We are blessed to have relationships with some very artistic and crafty people. We'll have a lot of stuff that you would find at festivals and in parking lots of shows. Some of the things we'll carry are t shirts, hats, stickers, glass stuff, jewelry, hand drawn and painted prints, patchwork clothes, rocks, incense, oils, gauged jewelry and a lot more. Not only will we have cool stuff to buy, we'll have FREE coffee, tea and internet, so you can come hang out without bringing your cash. The shop is located at 916 23rd street south. If you're familiar with southside, it's where Faith Skate Supply used to be, next to Aerochild Tattoo, across from Cave 9 and Alabama Art supply. Come see us, and if you'd like to help us spread the word, we sure would appreciate it. We hope to see you soon.