They that wait upon the Lord
by Lynn Clark Callister
This article is an exerpt from a May 12, 1998 devotional address given in the de Jong Concert Hall. Lynn Clark Callister is a Brigham Young University associate professor of nursing. Printed with permission.
“Using repetition and completion, the prophet Isaiah wrote, “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint.” (Isa. 40:31) My text is guided today by this magnificent promise, drawing on personal and professional life experiences, other scriptural passages, and the words of the prophets.
As a woman and a nurse researcher focusing on womenís health, when I first think of the word waiting, I think of women bearing children. Old Testament Hannah spoke of her experience when she said, “For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him.” (1Sam. 1:27)
Hannah waited upon the Lord. Patricia T. Holland has suggested that “women appreciate that word labor in a way that no man ever can” (1) I believe this is so. For nine months a woman carries a child both beneath and within her heart. Waiting nine long months and laboring long hours, she then gives birth.”
…”The phrase, “shall renew their strength” seems to imply receipt of the Holy Ghost as a comforter, which enlightens our minds, fills our soul with joy and literally renews our bodies (see D&C 11:13). The scriptures set forth that ”
They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint (Isa. 40:31). These affirming words continue into the next chapter of Isaiah: “Fear thou not; for I am with thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”
“For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee” (Isa. 41:10, 13). His promises are sure. Of this I bear witness in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.”

Read the whole article!

Jenny Hatch

Over the weekend our family went to a local church owned cannery to purchase some bulk foods.
This cannery is owned by the church we attend. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
At the Cannery, families are encouraged to use the facility to store food to use for the one year supply all mormons are supposed to have in their homes.
Our family has this year supply, but we are always adding to it and eating it. This time our focus was on wheat storage.

Here is a picture of me outside the Cannery just before we started working.

Canning a 25 pound bag of wheat – which costs just five dollars

Ben and Andy scooping out the wheat

Ben loved to help with this project

Wheat can with an Oxygen packet that absorbs excess oxygen after the wheat is canned

Pauls uses the machinery to seal the lid onto the can

Jeff labeled the cans

Finished wheat can
This wheat is good for long term storage and is now ready to be put into our basement for the next twenty years. We will probably use this wheat some time in the next five years to make bread, muffins, pancakes, or wheat sprouts….
Jenny Hatch

Are Midwives Failing Women?
by Linda Hessel
(An edited version of this article appeared in Midwifery Today Magazine, Issue 64, Winter 2002)
In Jan Tritten’s editorial, “Out of the Pot, Into the Fire,” (Midwifery Today, Issue 63) she wonders whether the reason that there is an unassisted birth movement is that midwives have failed women. Well, it is true that midwives sometimes fail women, though it is not only through their own faults or negligence or naiveté; it is partly because in order to survive they feel it necessary to practice in ways they might not otherwise.
If one needs medical assistance, a homebirth midwife is certainly better in many cases than a doctor, so concessions to the medical establishment are justified so that women may continue to have that choice. Still, in some places it is illegal to attend women at home as a midwife, and in others the restrictions are vast. One must either, like Gloria Lemay, become a law-breaker and risk imprisonment and loss of livelihood, or one must bow to the powers that be and risk hurting women. Midwives are in a hard place, and the remedy will not be easy to come by.”
…”This is very simply not an issue of how midwives can improve themselves in order to “save” women from birthing alone. For anyone who cares about birth and women, and not just about her own desires and ego, it is important to understand and acknowledge that unassisted birth is a valid and whole choice in its own right — because while a woman may not need a birth professional to catch her baby, she may benefit from other things that person may be able to offer, not least of which are understanding and acceptance.
All of us outside of the mainstream birth machine have something in common: the danger of becoming victims in a political climate that is hostile to our choices. Let us be a support to one another, not just in philosophy but in action also, for the sake of freedom for all women to choose exactly how and by whom, if by anyone, our bodies will be handled.”
Read the whole article!
Jenny HatchJenny@NaturalFamilyCo.com

This article in the
New York Times
has some interesting insights into the efficacy of Flu Vaccines and Anti-viral drugs…
Quotes:
“In one paper, international researchers analyzed all the data from patient studies on the flu vaccine performed worldwide in the last 37 years and discovered that vaccines showed at best a ”modest” ability to prevent influenza or its complications in elderly people.
”The runaway 100 percent effectiveness that’s touted by proponents was nowhere to be seen,” said Tom Jefferson, a researcher in Rome with the Cochrane Vaccine Fields project, an international consortium of scientists who perform systematic reviews of research data….”
“In the second paper, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta found that influenza viruses, particularly those from the dreaded bird flu strain, had developed high rates of resistance to the only class of cheap antiviral drugs available — drugs mainly used to treat flu once patients have caught it. These resistance rates have increased rapidly since 2003, particularly in Asia.
”We were alarmed to find such a dramatic increase in drug resistance in circulating human influenza viruses in recent years,” said Dr. Rick Bright of the disease control centers. ”Our report has broad implications for agencies and governments planning to stockpile these drugs for epidemic and pandemic strains of influenza.”
Before 2000, almost no virus was resistant to the drug Amantadine. By 2004, 15 percent of influenza A viruses collected in South Korea, 70 percent in Hong Kong and 74 percent in China were impervious. During the first six months of 2005, 15 percent of the influenza A viruses in the United States were resistant, up from 2 percent the year before. All human cases of the bird flu A(H5N1) strain — which is still extremely rare in humans — have been resistant, the researchers said.
The immediate implications of these finding are most ominous for the developing world, because wealthier nations have been stockpiling newer and vastly more expensive antiviral medicines, like Tamiflu, which are effective against the disease but still under patent.
Even so, the research is alarming because it demonstrates how quickly and unexpectedly flu viruses can become impervious to medicines once they are put into common use, as they would be in the case of a pandemic. Also, at their best, antiviral medicines do not cure influenza. They reduce transmission of the disease and lessen somewhat the symptoms and complications in people already infected, including the high rate of associated pneumonias….”
“What you see is that marketing rules the response to influenza, and scientific evidence comes fourth or fifth,” Dr. Jefferson said. ”Vaccines may have a role, but they appear to have a modest effect. The best strategy to prevent the illness is to wash your hands…”
Marketing rules the response to most infectious disease as well as most Vaccinations….Read what Barbara Simpson had to say about it yesterday…
“Here comes government. Under the guise of public health, citizens are required to use the vaccines. Every baby born is a new customer and, as the number of vaccines grows, so does the market need. What happens when they develop one vaccine for 20 or 30 diseases? It’s in the works. How soon before it’s mandated? What happens if doctors won’t treat you unless you comply? What happens if you refuse?…”
Jenny Hatch

Amanda Terfansky Counter spoke at the Second International Husband/Wife Homebirth Conference in 2001.
She has a passionate story to share of empowerment and wholeness. Here is a link to her story, which is a transcript of her talk from the conference…
Quote:
“It is a long way that I have come over the past sixteen months. In March of 2000 I was a well-dressed, somewhat well-educated young mother with a great job in the medical field. We had just purchased our first home and a brand new car. I was pregnant with my second child. If the child was a girl, she was to be the last. My aspiration was to rush through child-rearing and complete my degree in Health Service Administration. One month later, seemingly crippled by the sickness of the pregnancy, I resigned my position.
And since then, oh, it IS so far the other way my life has gone. From the time I gave up my job until now, we have also given up our home, our sport utility vehicle, and our materialistic lifestyle. This change has rocked the boat with family, quelled friendships, and created an invisible rift between the rest of the society and myself. Our second child, a girl, is NOT the last.
I no longer subscribe to current medical dogma. I wear my babies, I sleep with them, I breastfeed them, and I give birth to them unassisted. I felt the PHYSICAL reaction; the racing heart, the butterflies in my stomach, and the dizziness that others have described feeling when they “discovered” unassisted birth. For me those feelings indicated that what I had found was right. And now that I have experienced it, I will not give up, shut up, let up, or slow down.
Somehow, at some point I should have seen it coming that I would end up a “birth activist,” if you will. Before even conceiving my first child I reveled in other women’s stories, and the beauty of their pregnant bodies. In college I read Mary Crow Dog’s account of giving birth at Wounded Knee, assisted by four women friends, and when I was pregnant with my son, I would fantasize about giving birth alone. But in all honesty I had no idea that in 1997, in America, people INTENTIONALLY did that.”