Whatever your cross,
Whatever your pain,
There will always be sunshine,
After the rain …
Perhaps you may stumble,
Perhaps even fall,
But God’s always ready,
To answer your call …
He knows every heartache,
Sees every tear,
A word from His lips,
Can calm every fear …
Your sorrows may linger,
Throughout the night,
But suddenly vanish,
Dawn’s early light ..
The Savior is waiting,
Somewhere above,
To give you His grace,
And send you His love ..
Whatever your cross,
Whatever your pain,
“God always sends rainbows …
After the rain … “

Knight redeems a misunderstanding at Chicago airport

By James DeCrane
Anchor Writer

It was 7 p.m. on July 11. Williams sat down at his gate in Chicago O’Hare International Airport to listen to his iPod as he waited to board a flight home to Anchorage, after a family reunion in Chicago.

He could never have imagined what was about to follow.

Over the airport intercom, he heard his name, summoning him to return to baggage check in.

It’s a call no one in an airport wants to hear and for 65-year-old Cal Williams, it signified the beginning of a surreal experience.

After walking back to the check-in counter, security officers showed Williams a handgun that Homeland Security found in his checked bag. Williams tried to explain that he had misplaced the gun and accidentally left it in his bag from a recent fishing trip to the Russian River. The large bag had numerous pockets, and Williams said he only used the center section to pack for his trip to Chicago.

Airport security understood the mistake and Homeland Security told him they would not press charges, and that he could return to his flight, Williams said.

The state of Illinois and the airport police were not so understanding and decided to press charges.

They immediately handcuffed and arrested Williams and frog-marched him to a patrol car. He spent the next three days at Cook County Pretrial Correctional Facility. With 9,000 inmates at any given time, the facility is one of the largest and arguably one of the most dangerous — pre-trial facilities in the nation.

While fear might be the natural response, Williams said he felt a wave of tranquility and a feeling of closeness to God.

“There was this sense of calmness that had come over me, and before I could ask the question, why me, the answer was clear,” Williams told the Anchor Aug. 23.

Over the course of the next three days, Williams said God used the situation so he could be a Christian witness to a number of people, both inside and outside the correctional system.

On the inside

Once inside jail, officials assigned Williams a bunk that he said was already commandeered by the biggest, meanest inmate on the block.

“He was (unofficially) in control of all the activities that the residents engaged in,” Williams said. “He controlled ‘the Disciples’ and the ‘Vice Lords’, two rival gangs that have been in Chicago for years.”

Williams took the top bunk without argument and befriended other inmates on the ward, including his notorious bunkmate.

“I didn’t nose in their business, didn’t judge them, but listened to their various stories… I learned a lot from those different individuals,” Williams explained.

The other inmates developed a respect for Williams, even calling him ‘Pops’, a term of respect for older inmates.

Williams said he also managed to have an effect on the prison staff as well.

But Williams’s thoughts were also in Alaska.

He told his sister in Chicago to call the Knights of Columbus group at St. Patrick Church in Anchorage to let them know that he wouldn’t make the next meeting.

His concern for the Knights meeting impacted both the superintendent and the prison guard, Williams said.

“(The prison guard) ordered me to slow down on the way back to the cell, he didn’t want to get back to the cell in the emotional state that he was in, because he was teared up about my being there,” Williams explained.

Making an impact behind bars

Williams said his incarceration brought his extended family in Chicago closer together as they prayed each night for him before meals.

“I got a strong sense from my family about their commitment to God,” he said. “I am the only Catholic in the family, (but yet) we knew we were praying to the same God and those prayers were powerful.”

Williams said the spiritual support he felt extended beyond Chicago to his friends and family in Alaska as well.

The many prayers helped energize and prepare Williams for his court hearing, he said.

Williams said his attorney told him that he faced a maximum of 15 years in prison and asked him if he would consider a plea bargain to serve two years in jail instead. Williams refused the deal, and decided to urge his fellow Alaskans to write letters of support to the judge to attest to his character.

Letters flowed in from those who knew Williams, including fellow parishioners, Knights, and politicians such as Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich and former state Gov. Tony Knowles.

Williams said those letters impacted the judge and the state district attorney and they agreed to drop all charges.

“I am forever grateful to God and thankful (to everyone) who wrote letters and prayed on my behalf,” William said.

Giving thanks

Unjustified jail time might leave some bitter and angry but Williams said he is extremely grateful for the opportunity and the closeness he felt to God.

“In a way, I did not want to leave jail, because I felt that feeling would fade,” he said in an email to the Anchor.

Williams hopes his story will inspire others, especially when they are faced with hardships.”We just have to continue toiling and doing (God’s) will, knowing He is there when we need Him,” he said.

Taken from Catholic Anchor Newspaper.

1 Corinthians 10:13 - “No temptation hath taken you — except human; and God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above what ye are able, but He will make, with the temptation, also the outlet, for your being able to bear [it].”

What I like about this story is that in his tribulation, Williams was able to stay focused on God and seek first and foremost God’s desire for him - not his circumstances. By staying faithful, Williams didn’t go for the “okey-doke” - plea bargaining for a reduced sentence. By refusing to play the game, Williams couldn’t get played by the game. Knowing where his strength came from, he turned an apparent misfortune into a blessing for himself and others. I hope that those of you who read this understand how vital it is not to get pulled down by your own anger and instead keep your eyes on God that He may work His wonders through you for His glory that the world may know He is God.

One of THE most inspirational videos I’ve EVER seen!

Dan Dunn paints astounding likenesses of celebrities as if by magic in just minutes! “Dan Dunn’s Paintjam” is is an exciting high-energy, improvisational painting performance. Watch in amazement!

An amazing and innovative commercial for BMW that utilizes the moving sculptures of world-renowned artist Theo Jansen. His works are a great mixture of engineering and art. The sculpture as shown in the commercial propels itself using free wind energy.

One of my favorite scenes.

‘G’ (played by Eddie Murphy) is asked to sell a starfish pendant on a home shopping network. This trinket is an example of the mass-produced stuff being pushed by the network onto its audience. But ‘G’ transforms this meaningless trinket into a sentimental keepsake by sharing with the viewers a wonderful memory triggered by the pendant…

“There was a storm.

And thousands and thousands of starfish were washed up on the shore.

And there was this beautiful little girl running down the beach picking up the starfish.

She was frantically throwing them back into the ocean.

When l saw her doing this, I said to her,

‘Why are you doing that? You can only save a few before they die. What difference does it make?’

And she looked at me and she said,

‘To that one, it makes a difference.’

‘To that one, it makes a difference,’ that little girl said.

And she was right. At that very moment, she was making a difference for that starfish…

And she was making a difference for herself too because she was connected to that starfish.

And that’s what life is all about — connecting.

In fact, that’s the only time you’re ever alive, really, is when you’re connecting.”

How does one address poverty? Give a man a fish or teach a man to fish? Does poverty merely describe a deficit of economic capability, or does it more accurately describe a state of mental handicap brought on by a combination of sociological, emotional and psychological traumas derived from an environment of sophisticated systematic oppression so keenly devised that it has become self-propagating? Who will inspire the progeny of a generation overwhelmed by the challenges of a society in which they struggle to survive? How will a social structure with an evolving morality and ethical awareness address the sins of it’s past and nurture the seeds of the future imprinted with psychic memories of generational oppression? A mouthful, huh? Just some thoughts generated by the following article by Robert Warner for The Enquirer.

Taylor started thinking about the bigger level at an early age — he developed a passion for designing video games at age 12 and created his own company.

Ephren Taylor had ‘em after these questions:

“So what is your plan to actually make some money? Are you gonna get gangsta, go out and rob somebody, rob a bank, take a couple cars, make a little bit of money? Are you gonna stand on a corner and sling a little bit, make what I call outfit money? Just a little bit of bling to buy a coupla outfits.

A millionaire at 16, he was perfect to walk into Battle Creek’s South Hill Academy on Friday afternoon at age 24 and give the last-chance kids there a little hope that, like him, they could translate a tough past into an amazing future.

Taylor, of Kansas City, is the owner of two publicly held companies and an occasional Fox News commentator. He joined BET correspondent and National Public Radio contributor Jeff Johnson — former youth director of the NAACP — and motivational speaker and author Q. Scott Riley of Chicago onstage for a presentation as part of the Urban Wealth Tour, which concludes its two-day visit to Battle Creek today.

After Taylor made $3,800 for two weeks of work building a Web site, he found out the site’s owner made $800,000 from the site.

Taylor asked, “How many (Air) Jordans can you buy with $800,000?”

He continued, “Ask yourself: Which side of the equation are you on? Do you want … to make an impact on your community, make an impact for others, or do you want to sit here in these chairs, sit here day in and day out, sit here through all of these classes, and then one day wind up like everybody else? I don’t think anybody wants to be like anybody else.”

Standing arm’s-length from the front row of students, Riley held up a $10 bill and asked “Who wants this?”

Students shouted and clamored for it for more than 20 seconds before a girl in the second row simply reached out and grabbed it.

“Nobody is in the business of funding your dreams for you,” he said. “You have to go get what you want.”

New Yorker Johnson tuned right in to his audience, both in message and street dialect.

“Half y’all know that if somethin’ else go down, you kicked out. That’s it. Period. So the school system and the city have already labeled you as troublemakers. … So you gotta learn how to sing, dance, … somethin’, cause you trapped. Forget it. You better learn how to entertain these white people,” he said, laughing. “Get to dancin’,” he chuckled as he shucked and jived in front of the students, who laughed uproariously.

Turning serious, Johnson said, “The problem with the mindset of most of us is we want to be ghetto rich, not real rich. We just wanna be ‘hood rich.

“Not for real, because at the end of the day, most of those we’re trying to emulate, they got a rented car and a rented house and some rented hos and some rented jewelry ’cause the video, they ain’t making no money. … And y’all are emulating mediocre people when you’ve got excellent gifts.

“Today I heard about 25 times before this event started, ‘Nigger.’” Johnson said, citing several examples.

“So what is your mentality in this room? The mentality you have is gonna block you from even using what they talked about to become a millionaire, because you have to believe that you are valuable before you can be valuable to somebody else.”

Clearly aware of the issues confronting the community, Johnson took a major one head-on with those who can do something about it.

“In this city, you got gangs,” Johnson said.

“They broke.

“You being rich don’t mean you roll in no Cutlass with no rims on it, livin’ at your mom’s house.

“You’re broke, killin’ people who’re broke, too.

“But y’all ain’t fightin’ the conditions that’s keepin’ all y’all broke. So who’re the real gangsters?

“You’re shootin’ people reppin’ a block where your moms don’t own the house, fightin’ somebody else on a block where their moms don’t own the house.

“So y’all are bangin’ for the landlord.”

Robert Warner can be reached at rwarner@gannett.com.