Finally, someone understood that.

Two News Teams dug out a little girl in Haiti.

He is the only Australian TV cameraman ever to win the Gold Walkley for journalism but when Richard Moran heard the soft, desperate cry of a baby girl beneath the rubble in Haiti, he put down his camera and started to dig.

"He was up to his waist, lifting out pieces of concrete," says Nine Network reporter Robert Penfold, who was with him.

"And then, out of the ruins came this little girl, and I will never forget it. She did not cry. She looked astonished, almost as if she was seeing the world for the first time".

Confusing local viewers, however, was that both Nine and its rival, Seven, were saying they helped bring the little girl out, and the footage seen around the world was indeed of Seven's Mike Amor, standing above the hole in the ground.

He reaches forward to take the dusty little girl, pours water over her head to clear away dust, and then gives her something to drink.

Nine doesn't have that footage, and its team was yesterday feeling a bit of the kick in the guts that good journalists get when rivals have exclusive footage of something so marvellous but, as Amor himself said: "That moment, it was beyond news.

"The focus of everybody on that hill was the little girl, and as any of us will tell you, it was Deiby who went into that hole, and dug, and dug, until he got that little girl out. He's the hero."

Deiby Celestino is the Nine Network's fixer (interpreter, and sometime security guy).

He had gone "up the hill" (meaning, to an area outside Port-au-Prince, where many homes were destroyed) with the Nine team, because Save the Children promised to make an Australian aid worker available for interviews. Seven was there, too. While they were waiting, locals told them they could hear a baby crying under the rubble. "We walked perhaps 3m across this hillside of completely collapsed homes," says Penfold. "We had to walk over sheets of tin, and then climb up over concrete, and then jump down, on to another slab of concrete, to where four men were standing, pointing, and you could hear crying, from somewhere underneath."

Moran, who won the highest award for journalism, the Gold Walkley, in 2003 for his coverage of the Canberra bushfires, put his camera with a microphone attached into a cavity, and Penfold said: "It was gut-wrenching. "There were slabs of concrete all around, and we couldn't see what we could do, and at the same time, we couldn't walk away."

He said Deiby, "who is this short, wiry, muscly guy", said "I think I can get in there" and down he went. Mr Celestino told The Australian: "I could hear her . . . I had to keep going." He called out in Creole "Come to me?" and then, out of the darkness, the 18-month-old's face emerged.

Of seeing the toddler emerge from the rubble, Amor said: "I haven't seen anything so remarkable since the birth of my own child. "The emotion for all of us has been incredible."

If I understood correctly, two rival newsteams teamed up momentarily to help rescue this girl. But only one got footage, the other cared more about the girl.

When it says that the camera was put into a cavity, does that mean they pointed it so they could see down there where the girl was, not for the purpose of getting news footage, but for the purpose of trying to rescue the girl? That's how I understood it. Channel Nine used its camera to find the girl, and Channel Seven used its camera to capture the whole event while men from both teams helped to rescue her. Am I understanding the event correctly?

This morning my two year old got out of bed and came to see me, blurry eyed and still in his P.J's. "Good Morning", I said. "How did you sleep last night?"

"With my eyes closed," he said immediately.

Well, there you go. Can't argue with that. :-) But he wasn't joking. That was his honest answer and that's how he understood the question.

Children are concrete thinkers. They have difficulty with the abstract. Expressions and figures of speech are so often lost on them. Many an amusing moment when I do children's sermons on Sunday Mornings comes when a child answers a questions with a concrete or literal answer.

I wish I had started a journal of all the times my kids interpreted something I said literally. So many of those email jokes people send around with kids saying cute things to their Sunday School teachers are just kids understanding what grown-ups say literally. We laugh. But that's how they think. I always try to remind myself of that when talking to kids. But I didn't see this one coming.

I think our kids should be laughing at us. Do we realize how silly we sound?

What examples do you have of your kids answering you or understanding you literally? (Please don't paste one of those email joke things. I want to hear about your kids.:)

Or give me examples of silly things we grown ups say, if taken literally. (Like "I got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.")

Yesterday driving home I passed by a yard where a girl who looked to be about 6 was wrestling in the yard with a playful dog who looked to weigh about 80 pounds. It was one of the best things that graced my eyes on an overcast day.

Philip Melancthon once said to his friend Martin Luther, "Today, Martin, you and I will discuss God's governance of the universe," to which Luther replied, "No, Philip. Today you and I are going fishing, and we'll leave the governance of the universe to God."

I am glad God leaves to us the business of such things as playing with dogs, fishing, skipping rocks, flying kites, watching sunrises, watching sports, swimming in the ocean, drinking beer, making love to our spouses, and making people laugh.

God is good and so is life.

But you can help save a life with just $4.

Mosaic is raising funds for their new mosquito net campaign. They are trying to purchase 3,000 nets for women and children in Uganda.

You can support them by going here. Mailing address is on the site, or you can give online.

One great distinctive about Mosaic is that they have 0% overhead. 100% of your donation goes directly to help those in need. (Their administrative costs are paid for by an independent donor.)

Element has designated 20% of our budget to Mosaic for the past year, and we have found them to be a great organization doing wonderful, tangible ministry to the "least of these" in Africa.

Breaking new Champ video. From Cryptomundo:

There is breaking news from Vermont of new footage of an alleged lake monster (”Champ”?) from Lake Champlain.

This appears to be a developing story in the state . . .

More on Champ.

I was just looking for Easter Poems for our Easter Bulletin and I found a picture of C.S. Lewis' wife's grave. The engraving has a mini-poem. Here it is:

"Here the whole world (stars, water, air
And field, and forest as they were
Reflected in a single mind)
Like cast off clothes was left behind
In ashes, yet with hope that she,
Re-born from holy poverty,
In lenten lands, hereafter may
Resume them on her Easter Day."

How awesome is that! What he's saying, is that Easter makes a difference. For those of us who are in Christ, just as Jesus had his "Easter day", his Resurrection day, so will we.

And the reference to "Lenten lands" (the same as Douglas Greshem's autobiography) is, if I understand it right a reference to the fact that "Lent" is the days of preparation up until Easter. So living here on earth was for Joy, as it is all Christians, the days of preparation for her very own Easter Day...

Because Christ did it first!

Lent means "40" and is a reference to the 40 years Moses spent in the wilderness preparing to lead his people from slavery, and the 40 years Israel spent in the wilderness preparing for the Promised Land, and the 40 days Jesus spent preparing for his ministry.

So if this earthly life of ours are our "Lenten Lands" then we are in the wilderness preparing for exodus from slavery, preparing for the Promised Land, preparing for ministry(service) in heaven...and preparing for our own Easter Day!

We are preparing for our Resurrection day. We will each have one, because Christ had one too. That's part of the joy of Easter. Because Jesus walked out of his grave, alive, more alive than ever before, gloriously victorious over death, so will you, because he went first.

The first "Easter" guaranteed that there will be many more...one for every Christian.

I think that's awesome.

Perhaps you Lewis scholars can elaborate on the meaning of this poem more for me....like what does "holy poverty mean? And to whose mind is he referring in the first two lines? Joy's or God's? I love the way he rhymes this whole thing.

AND I'm still looking for a good Easter verse, so please put any suggestions in comments. Who knows, maybe it'll show up in our church bulletin. :)

The apostle Paul said,

“To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel…” (I Corinthians 9:22-23).

What does that mean? Here’s a recent news story that I think illustrates it. Fireman dresses like Spiderman to save boy.

A Thai fireman turned superhero when he dressed up as comic-book character Spider-Man to coax a frightened eight-year-old from a balcony, police said Tuesday. "I told him Spider-Man is here to rescue you, no monsters are going to attack you and I told him to walk slowly towards me as running could be dangerous," Somchai told local television. The young boy immediately stood up and walked into his rescuer's arms, police said.

Pardon the analogy, but isn’t that a lot like what God did? He took on human form, something we were familiar with, so that he could rescue us and take us to God. Jesus was the ultimate missionary. He came to live with us and be like us so that we might be saved. And now we carry on his mission. Paul became like the gentiles to win the gentiles. Our missionaries today become like Africans, or South Americans or even tattooed bikers, so that they might save people. You and I are charged with that same task. How do we do that? How do we become like them in order to save them? We go where they are, like Paul did. He went to the Synagogues, he went to Mars Hill, he went to the marketplace. Wherever people were, Paul went. And wherever he went, he communicated in a language people could understand. To tentmakers, he talked like a fellow tentmaker. To ordinary people, he spoke like an ordinary person. To Jews, he spoke as a Pharisee. To Greeks, he spoke as an educated Roman citizen. It was always the same message, but made understandable for the hearers.

That’s our challenge today. How can we take the same, life-saving, unchanging, hope-filled message of the Gospel, and communicate it in a way that the lost people in your neighborhood will understand it? You can do that. Obviously, you don’t need to dress like Spider-Man. But you are housewives, business leaders, medical professionals, teachers, bankers, grandparents, soccer parents, students and neighbors. You are a person other people trust and will listen to, and you speak their language. And I don’t mean English. You understand and can communicate in a way that a fellow mom, or banker or student or neighbor would understand. God has given you the opportunity to be a missionary. Look around. Where has God placed you? How can you communicate the Gospel to those people that God has placed you in the midst of, in a way that won’t scare them or confuse them, but rather will lead them right into the arms of Jesus?

If you have any stories about how God has used you to make the Gospel understandable to someone else, will you share them under comments?

. . . getting an email from a former student who you ministered to over fifteen years ago, and hearing that he is walking with the Lord, doing Kingdom work, and happily married, and being thanked by that student for the small part you played in his life.

That just happened to me. I've been pretty discouraged about the students that were in my care, or who I had an influence on, more recently, many of whom (not all, but many) appear to have discarded their walk with Jesus pretty effortlessly.

This gives me some hope. And a whole boatload of encouragement.

Riffing, kind of, off this post by Andrew:

If you're a believer, could you tell us in the comments thread how you came to faith in Christ? Did it happen all in a moment? Was it a process? How did God save you? As far as you know, have you always been a Christian?

Do you remember what it felt like to not be a believer? What drew you towards faith? Has your Christian life seen a good, steady growth in faith and love toward God since you were redeemed, or have you experienced fits and starts, slippings, fallings, and restorings?

What's your story? We'd love to hear it - feel free to expound at length in the comments. Thanks!

(You can read the other posts in this series by clicking here).

Are there any scripture passages at the moment that are specifically impacting your life, offering you much-needed encouragement, or challenging you? I'd love to hear about them - feel free to quote them in the comments thread and tell us a little bit about why these passages are rocking your face off (ok, I couldn't think of another action verb to use here that said it just the way I wanted to say it).

I'll start.

(You can read the other posts in this series by clicking here).

Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them . . . - Romans 12:6

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace - 1 Peter 4:10

Every follower of Jesus has been granted at least one spiritual gift, and sometimes (often?) more than one. Places in the New Testament where the spiritual gifts are listed and discussed include Romans 12, Ephesians 4, and 1 Corinthians 12-14, as well as other places in the Bible.

If you're a believer, do you know what your spiritual gifts are? Are you using them?

Let us know in the comments. Note: It will be real tempting for commenters to be overly modest here, or to downplay things so as not to appear conceited. I'm pretty good myself in the self-deprecation gig. But try to avoid that. Spiritual gifts are gifts. If you have been granted a spiritual gift, I'm sure God is developing it in you for his purpose. Tell me something good.

(other posts in the "Tell Me Something Good" series can be found by clicking here).

Have you ever experienced unexpected kindness from a stranger? If you have, tell us about it in the comments.

This one is a bit tougher than my other "Tell Me Something Good" posts (#1 and #2), but I'm hoping to hear some good stories.

I've got a good example, from this 2005 post recounting our Hurricane Rita evacuation adventure.

Just then we heard the voice of an angel. "Do you need help?" It was a local Brenham girl, who's name I never got. She had walked up to Andrew and Kyle. "Can I help you?"

I walked over. "Yes, please. Is there any gas in this town?"

"Yes. I just got some. There's a line, though."

I could have hugged her. Our angel led us through backstreets in Brenham to a gas station that had two lines of cars leading to it. It was on its last thousand gallons, but we got our gas. And that's when I knew we were going to make it to San Antonio.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. - Philippians 4:8

Is there anything good going on in your church? Are you blessed when you're there? Do you hear from God when you're there? Is it doing good things in your community, or in the wider world? Are you growing because you attend? Are you in a place of service there, and is that a joy? Have you made genuine friendships there? Are you active in Christian community?

If so, I'd love to hear about it. Leave your good news in the comments.

(This is a follow-up to the previous Tell Me Something Good post.)

Do you have something good going on in your life? Something you're excited about? Something you're looking forward to? Something good happening in you?

I'm in one of those ". . . whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things" moods.

So tell me something good (in the comments thread). Thanks!