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Lily chryssis a friend of mine, living in the States, got an accident 2 weeks ago but survived!

Read her story:

Hi Guys,

For those of you who don’t know what happened I’m writing to let you
know about an accident I had on Tuesday night. Thankfully, and
miraculously, I am okay, but I’m writing to let you know because I
think you should. If you don’t wear your seat belt, or if you know
someone who doesn’t wear their seat belt hopefully this story will
make you/them change your/there mind.

So I was driving home from work Tuesday night - around 7 PM. I was on
Mass Pike W, driving in the fast - far left - lane (and I was going
pretty fast). Someone on my right looked as though they were about to
cut me off so in order to avoid an accident I swerved to the left. My
car lost control, hit the guard rail and flipped over 6 times! It
landed upright and I crawled out of the passenger window with only a
couple of bruises, scratches, and of course some whip lash. The airbag
came out and I was WEARING MY SEAT BELT! If I had not been wearing my
seat belt then I would not have survived. It was an absolute miracle.
Thank God for the Red Sox game that night because there was very
minimal traffic and I didn’t even hit any cars! There were a lot of
people helping me on the scene but I was fine. My dad took me to the hospital and the doctors were amazed.
My car is completely totalled (I actually have pictures if you want to
see them - it’s REALLY scary! There’s no front to the car anymore…).
But I am fine and I can’t believe it!! I’m still in a bit of shock and I stayed home from work last week
but am back now!

Anyways, I just wanted to share this story with you guys because it
really is amazing how a simple click of a seat belt can save one’s
entire life!!

Take Care and Much love,
 

Lily

And now see the pictures :

    

7amdila 3a salame Lily

My name is Nick Vujicic and I give God the Glory for how He has used my testimony to touch thousands of hearts around the world! I was born without limbs and doctors have no medical explanation for this birth “defect”. As you can imagine, I was faced with many challenges and obstacles.
“Consider it pure joy, my Brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds.”…. To count our hurt, pain and struggle as nothing but pure joy? As my parents were Christians, and my Dad even a Pastor of our church, they knew that verse very well. However, on the morning of the 4th of December 1982 in Melbourne ( Australia), the last two words on the minds of my parents was “Praise God!”. Their firstborn son had been born without limbs! There were no warnings or time to prepare themselves for it.
The doctors we shocked and had no answers at all! There is still no medical reason why this had happened and Nick now has a Brother and Sister who were born just like any other baby.
The whole church mourned over my birth and my parents were absolutely devastated. Everyone asked, “if God is a God of Love, then why would God let something this bad happen to not just anyone, but dedicated Christians?” My Dad thought I wouldn’t survive for very long, but tests proved that I was a healthy baby boy just with a few limbs missing.
“And we know that in all things God works for the best for those who love Him.” That verse spoke to my heart and convicted me to the point where that I know that there is no such thing as luck, chance or coincidence that these “bad” things happen in our life.
I had complete peace knowing that God won’t let anything happen to us in our life unless He has a good purpose for it all. I completely gave my life to Christ at the age of fifteen after reading John 9. Jesus said that the reason the man was born blind was “so that the works of God may be revealed through Him.” I truly believed that God would heal me so I could be a great testimony of His Awesome Power. Later on I was given the wisdom to understand that if we pray for something, if it’s God’s will, it’ll happen in His time. If it’s not God’s will for it to happen, then I know that He has something better.
I now see that Glory revealed as He is using me just the way I am  and in ways others can’t be used. I am now twenty-three years old and have completed a Bachelor of  
Commerce majoring in Financial Planning and Accounting. I am also motivational speaker and love to go out and share my story and testimony wherever opportunities become available. I have developed talks to relate to and encourage students through topics that challenge today’s
teenagers. I am also a speaker in the corporate sector.
I have a passion for reaching out to youth and keep myself available for whatever God wants me to do, and wherever He leads, I follow.
I have many dreams and goals that I have set to achieve in my life. I want to become the best witness I can be of God’s Love and Hope , to become an international inspirational speaker and be used as a vessel in both Christian and non-Christian venues. I want to become financially independent by the age of 25, through real estate investments, to modify a car for me to drive and to be interviewed and share my story on the “Oprah Winfrey Show “! Writing several best-selling books has been one of my dreams and I hope to finish writing my first by the end of the year.
It will be called “No Arms, No Legs, No Worries!”??
I believe that if you have the desire and passion to do something, and if it’s God’s will, you will achieve it in good time.
As humans, we continually put limits on ourselves for no reason at all!
What’s worse is putting limits on God who can do all things. We put God in a
“box”. The awesome thing about the Power of God, is that if we want
to do something for God, instead of focusing on our capability, concentrate
on our availability for we know that it is God through us and we can’t
do anything without Him. Once we make ourselves available for God’s work, guess whose capabilities we rely on? God’s!?
May the Lord Bless you
In Christ,
Nick Vujicic
“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be UNDERSTOOD”

  

Feel free to comment….

Red Lipstick Spreads the LeadWASHINGTON, DC, October 15, 2007 (ENS) - Some of the red lipsticks manufactured in the United States and used daily by millions of women contain high levels of lead, according to new product tests commissioned by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, a nonprofit coalition.

Some of the red lipsticks tested contain high levels of lead. (Photo by Tatiana Sarda)

The tests for lead in lipstick were conducted by an independent laboratory over the month of September on red lipsticks bought in Boston, Hartford, Connecticut, San Francisco and Minneapolis.

Twenty of 33 brand-name lipsticks tested contained detectable levels of lead, with levels ranging from 0.03 to 0.65 parts per million, ppm. None of these lipsticks listed lead as an ingredient, according to the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, a coalition of women’s, public health, labor, environmental health and consumer rights groups.

“Lead builds up in the body over time and lead-containing lipstick applied several times a day, every day, can add up to significant exposure levels. The latest studies show there is no safe level of lead exposure,” said Mark Mitchell, MD, MPH, president of the Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice.

Eleven of the tested lipsticks exceeded the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s 0.1 ppm limit for lead in candy - a standard established to protect children from directly ingesting lead.

The Food and Drug Administration has not set a limit for lead in lipstick.

Among the top brands testing positive for lead were:

• L’Oreal Colour Riche “True Red” - 0.65 ppm
• L’Oreal Colour Riche “Classic Wine” - 0.58 ppm
• Cover Girl Incredifull Lipcolor “Maximum Red” - 0.56 ppm
• Dior Addict “Positive Red” - 0.21 ppm

Lead can affect almost every organ and system in your body, according to the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, ATSDR. The main target for lead toxicity is the nervous system, both in adults and children. Long-term exposure of adults can result in decreased performance in some tests that measure functions of the nervous system, says the ATSDR. It may also cause weakness in fingers, wrists, or ankles.Lead exposure also causes small increases in blood pressure, particularly in middle-aged and older people and can cause anemia. Exposure to high lead levels can severely damage the brain and kidneys in adults or children and ultimately cause death.

In pregnant women, high levels of exposure to lead may cause miscarriage, says the ATSDR.

High-level exposure in men can damage the organs responsible for sperm production.

Lipstick is often ingested (Photo by Dario Sarmadi)

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics says the tests show it is possible to make lipstick without lead - 39 percent of lipsticks tested had no detectable levels of lead - and cost does not seem to be a factor.Some less expensive brands such as Revlon ($7.49) had no detectable levels of lead, while the more expensive Dior Addict brand ($24.50) had higher levels than some other brands, said the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will conduct its own tests to follow up on the group’s results, although the agency has not found dangerous levels of lead in previous tests, said FDA spokeswoman Stephanie Kwisnek.

Once added to most house paints, lead in paint has been outlawed in the United States since 1978. The Housing and Urban Development Agency says lead was originally used in paint “because it made colors more vibrant.”

Not all red lipsticks contain lead. (Photo by Josie Lee)

The Cosmetic, Toiletry, and Fragrance Association says, “Lead is not intentionally added to cosmetics. Lead is a naturally occurring element that is found everywhere in the environment. Consumers are exposed daily to lead when they eat, drink water and breathe the air. The average amount of lead a woman would be exposed to when using cosmetics is 1,000 times less than the amount she would get from eating, breathing, and drinking water that meets Environmental Protection Agency drinking water standards.”The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics is calling on the industry to reformulate products to remove lead, to require suppliers to guarantee that raw materials are free of lead and other contaminants, and to join the campaign in demanding that the FDA more strictly regulate personal care products.

The Campaign says it finds “disturbing” the “absence of FDA regulatory oversight and enforcement capacity for the $50 billion personal care products industry.”

“The cosmetics industry needs to clean up its act and remove lead and other toxic ingredients from their products,” said Stacy Malkan, author of the just-released book, “Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry.”

“Repeated, daily exposures to low levels of lead add up - and they add up on top of lead from paint and drinking water, which is especially a problem in low income communities. There’s no excuse for lead in lipstick or toys. Companies should act immediately to reformulate lead-containing products,” Malkan said.

The industry association says the FDA has set “strict limits for lead levels allowed in the colors used in lipsticks, and actually analyze most of these to ensure they are followed.” The products identified in the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics report meet these standards, the industry association says.

“Despite the negligible levels of lead found in some lipsticks,” the trade association said, “cosmetic companies are committed to reducing that level even further. For decades, cosmetic companies have worked to minimize all product contamination, including lead. They actively and continually review all raw materials to ensure that they contain the lowest levels of impurities possible.”

The full report, “A Poison Kiss: The Problem of Lead in Lipstick,” including complete test results, is online at: www.SafeCosmetics.org.

I do notice that the last time I wrote here was August 31…ages ago. We finished the summer day camp, in fact I was so glad we finished coz we were all exhausted; having 55 kids in a 2-store building with no playground is just impossible and this for a whole month !!! Our youth leaders were overworked and the kids were getting unbearable..so thank God we finished the month, we’ll have to study it regarding next year.

So many things happened, joyful events and more sad ones:

At the nunciature my good friend Monsignor Visvaldas left for the Netherlands:  I wish him all the best, he’s doing great there

I went to Belgium on September 1 and enjoyed being with my family:

 here in Paris with my sis Kris and husband Tony

 with my mom and best Belgian friend

Then I got back and my friend’s sister got married: a huge (more than 900 invitees) and beautiful original wedding that we all enjoyed:

 

Then last weekend I went to Amman coz my friend priest Yaser was ordained bishop. This is the first Jordanian bishop Jordan ever had so imagine the joy of the people

Long ceremonies somehow chaotic but truly joyful, you can read about it in Arabic on: www.abouna.org

                                       

This first picture is when the candidate bishop stands in the aisle and slowly comes forward while the choir sings: Axion (greek) = (he’s) worthy. The second is when the new bishop addresses the crowd at the end of the 4 hour lasting ceremony.

Of course I was able to meet with my friends and enjoy their company. I’m grateful for the nice and profound encounters.