Please support Team C-FAM/Lejeune as they help Children with Down Syndrome find Mentors

from Austin Ruse of C-FAM

Imagine you are all alone. There are lots of people around you but still you are all alone. No one comes to be your friend. At school you eat alone. After school your only friend is your mom or dad. You see other kids play but none of them come to play with you.

What is wrong with you? Nothing except you have Down Syndrome.

This is the sorry state of affairs for hundreds of thousands of children and adults who have Down Syndrome or other intellectual disabilities. People may think you are strange.They may simply not know how to talk to you. And so they stay away.

Your life can be sad and lonely.

As pro-lifers we know this can be a deadly condition. We know that 80% or more of children with Down Syndrome are aborted.

Why?

Because of ignorance. Because mothers know their child may face such a life of loneliness and they simply cannot take it. Or they wonder if they can live up to the needs of such a child.

Happily there is a wonderful organization founded to help people with Down Syndrome find and have friends, friends for a lifetime. This organization therefore helps mothers with babies with Downs in the bellies make the choice for life!

The group is called Best Buddies, an international organization that forms clubs in schools and otherwise trains students and adults how to become friends, lifetime friends, with those with Down Syndrome.

C-FAM and the Friday Fax fully endorse Best Buddies International.

In fact, in October I am climbing on my bicycle and riding 100 kilometers in order to raise money for Best Buddies.

I did this first two years ago in order to lose weight! Ok, it did not really work. But I did become the second highest fundraiser, thanks to your help.

Last year I started a cycling team. We call it C-FAM/Lejeune. We are partnering with the Jerome Lejeune Foundation, which is the largest funder of Down Syndrome research in the world and explicitly pro-life!

Last year C-FAM/Lejeune was the second highest fundraising team. We won the cup for the raising the most of any "independent" team. We beat out major corporations!

We are riding again. Ten of us! And we need your help.

As I promised two years ago and last year, if I win the fundraising cup, in my acceptance speech in front of hundreds of influential people, I will mention the pro-life cause and the plight of children who are aborted in the womb simply for having Down Syndrome! I promise!

We have already taken the pro-life message to this organization. Last year I spent a long time talking to Olympic runner Carl Lewis. He is on the board of directors of Best Buddies. He had never heard that 80% of babies with Down syndrome are aborted. He was appalled!

So, I need to raise $30,000 and I need to do it fast. I am competing with some very rich guys who work for big corporations. I can win with your help and if I win, unborn babies win!

So, please go to http://mydc.bestbuddieschallenge.org/austinruse and give as much as you can.

Can you afford $100? Can you afford $1000? Any amount will help the children with Down Syndrome.

Go to http://mydc.bestbuddieschallenge.org/austinruse right now. Do not hesitate. Go now.

Please pray for our success. And give as much as you can to help this great cause. By the way, if you file your taxes in the United States, your contributions are tax deductible.

Yours sincerely,

Austin Ruse
President/C-FAM
Publisher/Friday Fax

PS Do me a favor and send this to your whole address book, to all your family and friends!

Tuff Love Stops a School Shooter

Antoinette Tuff looked at the face of death at the Atlanta school where she is a secretary. The young man was full of hate and without hope. He was also armed with an AK-47 and other weapons. He wanted to die that day and bring as many innocent children with him as possible. It was another Sandy Hook in the making. But this time there was no tragedy. Instead there was peace through a rare type of heroism which the world doesn't understand. Antoinette Tuff stopped the power of hate with a force even more powerful. The power of Christ's unconditional love. With it, she stopped a crazed shooter without pointing a gun. The world is in awe at the unbelievable strength of this modest woman.
What amazed the public is her calm under tremendous pressure, she knew the situation was extremely volatile, and could turn at any moment. Antoinette had fear, as anyone would, but she also had love, and as Scripture says, "Perfect love overcomes fear."
She had an advantage, however. Antoinette Tuff knows where her strength comes from.
"I give it all to God, I'm not the hero, I was terrified."
When the interviewer on the news said, "But you kept it together" She replied, "I don't know how I did" then thought about it and added, "Through His grace and mercy I did.I just explained to him that I loved him. I didn't know his name, I didn't know much about him, but I loved him. And it was scary, because I knew at that moment, he was ready to take my life with his, and if I didn't say the right thing, then we all would be dead."

Antoinette overcame hatred with love, showing compassion to a hurting stranger, letting him know that she too

 has known sorrow. After thirty three years of marriage, she lost her husband, and she, like the shooter felt that no one loved her. She took a chance and shared her pain with the agonizing young man who admitted he was off his medication. She was buying time to give the police a chance to gain control of the situation and secure area, bringing the children to safety.But she was also speaking to a lost sheep, a young man for whom Christ died.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.Romans 5:8

She knew God's love was stronger than death, and can overcome hatred. She knew that we are commanded to love our enemies.

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Matthew 5:43-48 (NIV)

Antoinette Tuff showed the world a dazzling glimpse of that perfection in the most horrifying of circumstances.
Read more here.