Five is a magic number.

When a child is born, the first thing the parents do is check: 5 fingers on each hand. 5 toes on each foot. For some reason there is such perfection within the number 5.

Unfortunately, every day 18,000 children around the world will die before seeing their fifth birthday and 800 women will loose their life in childbirth daily. This bond between mother and child is something that can only be divinely created. But like all things that grow, it must be nourished and sustained.

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…changing its employment policies to contradict the entire Christian tradition’s understanding of sin and obedience, vice and virtue where human sexuality is concerned would not be, as the letter’s writers and signers seem to imagine, an embrace of an “agree to disagree” accommodation between Christians who differ on “narrow doctrinal matters.” Such a change would be a capitulation by one side, and a victory by the other, on a question that goes to the heart of what it means to be a Christian organization. World Vision got the message loud and clear from many supporters that they would no longer consider it a Christian organization if it really undertook this capitulation.

The signers of the Whitworth “Response” claim with equal clarity””when they want to be clear””that the Christian thing to do would be toss out the Great Tradition wherever it rests on “a few passages in the Bible” that “have been historically misconstrued.” So again, why do they pretend that a victory for their principle, and a defeat for their adversaries’ principle that they revile, is a sweetly reasonable coming-together-across-differences?

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A big-hearted restaurant owner known as “Momma” leads a group in Arlington, Washington called the Soup Ladies who for 10 years have been dishing up meals for first responders. They are feeding hot meals to search and rescue workers at the site of a tragic mudslide roughly 70 miles away in Oso.

Watch the whole thing from NBC.

World Vision U.S., an evangelical Christian charity known for asking donors to sponsor a hungry child, set off an uproar when it announced this week that it would hire Christians in same-sex marriages.

The charity, the nation’s 10th largest, is based in Washington State, where same-sex marriage is legal, and said it intended to present a symbol of “unity” for Christians in an era when controversy over homosexuality is splintering the church.

Instead of the unity it sought, World Vision’s move was swiftly denounced by some prominent evangelical leaders as a “disaster” and a devil-inspired betrayal of biblical morality. Christians proclaimed online that they had canceled their child sponsorships. Less than 48 hours later, World Vision reversed course, calling the decision “a mistake” and pleading for forgiveness.

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In our board’s effort to unite around the church’s shared mission to serve the poor in the name of Christ, we failed to be consistent with World Vision U.S.’s commitment to the traditional understanding of Biblical marriage and our own Statement of Faith, which says, “We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God.” And we also failed to seek enough counsel from our own Christian partners. As a result, we made a change to our conduct policy that was not consistent with our Statement of Faith and our commitment to the sanctity of marriage.

We are brokenhearted over the pain and confusion we have caused many of our friends, who saw this decision as a reversal of our strong commitment to Biblical authority. We ask that you understand that this was never the board’s intent. We are asking for your continued support. We commit to you that we will continue to listen to the wise counsel of Christian brothers and sisters, and we will reach out to key partners in the weeks ahead.

While World Vision U.S. stands firmly on the biblical view of marriage, we strongly affirm that all people, regardless of their sexual orientation, are created by God and are to be loved and treated with dignity and respect.

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Richard Stearns has every right to try to make his case, but these arguments are pathetically inadequate. Far more than that, his arguments reveal basic issues that every Christian ministry, organization, church, and denomination will have to face ”” and soon.

The distinction between an “operational arm” of the church and a “theological arm” is a fatal misreading of reality. World Vision claims a Christian identity, claims to serve the kingdom of Christ, and claims a theological rationale for its much-needed ministries to the poor and distressed. It cannot surrender theological responsibility when convenient and then claim a Christian identity and a theological mandate for ministry.

Add to this the fact that World Vision claims not to have compromised the authority of Scripture, even as its U.S. president basically throws the Bible into a pit of confusion by suggesting that the Bible is not sufficiently clear on the question of the morality of same-sex sexuality. Stearns insists that he is not compromising biblical authority even as he undermines confidence that the church can understand and trust what the Bible reveals about same-sex sexuality.

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…a new program initiated five years ago in Georgia suggests, these hurdles aren’t insurmountable. The nonprofit FaithBridge was started by Bill Hancock, a director of counseling programs who had lived on the streets as a teenager, and Rick Jackson, an Atlanta businessman who had spent time in the foster-care system.

Hancock wondered why churches weren’t more involved in finding solutions. He said he noticed that in Cobb County, Georgia, there were 1,100 churches and 300 children in foster care. He liked the odds. Plenty of people he knew had an extra bedroom and understood the needs of children. He began to break down the problem.

He would find out the number of children in a particular zip code in need of a foster home, go to a church in the area to present their stories without using their names, and see what happened. He announced at one church that there were 11 kids in his own zip code, representing four sibling groups. Four dozen people showed up at a meeting to volunteer. Read it all.

Throughout their married life, Greg and Renee Wood have always been the ones who take care of other people.

As Christian pastors for nearly 20 years, they tended to the spiritual – and temporal – needs of their congregation.

As parents, they raised six children of their own while also taking in dozens of abused youngsters….

…when the Woods found themselves sick, unemployed and on the brink of being evicted from their home earlier this year, asking for help didn’t come easily to them.

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An historic church placed on the heritage ”˜at-risk’ register has been awarded a £250,000 lottery grant for repairs.

The Anglican Holy Trinity Church, in Woodlands Road, Darlington, recently celebrated its 175th anniversary, but dry rot in the roof has left it in danger of serious damage.

The Grade 2* church is classed as being in a ”˜very bad’ condition by the English Heritage Place of Worship At-Risk register.

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When Qatar’s royal family was looking for advice on charitable giving, it turned to a well-regarded professor named Abd al-Rahman al-Nu’aymi. The 59-year-old educator had a stellar résumé that included extensive fundraising experience and years of work with international human rights groups.

But one apparent accomplishment was omitted from the list: According to U.S. officials, Nu’aymi also was working secretly as a financier for al-Qaeda, funneling millions of dollars to the terrorist group’s affiliates in Syria and Iraq even as he led campaigns in Europe for greater freedoms for Muslims.

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Yogi Omar was so strapped for cash that he nearly didn’t stop to help a scruffy panhandler who asked him for change on a downtown street corner just after midnight Thursday.

But just as he was about to walk away, something compelled him to turn around and offer the man food and clothing.

“I wanted to give him food more than anything else, really,” Omar, 30 said.

He stopped in his tracks, though, when the man refused his offer of help ”” and instead asked Omar what he could do for him.

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[Cecil] Williams fainted at the 125th Street platform in Manhattan on Tuesday, and as he tumbled forward, Orlando landed in the tracks alongside him. Orlando tried to rouse Williams, who was unconscious. They lay there as the train passed above them.

Both survived. But because Orlando is slated to retire in January, and Williams’ insurance won’t pay for a non-working dog, they would have had to part ways.

Now, thanks to several anonymous donations to Guiding Eyes for the Blind, all of Orlando’s expenses will be covered.

Read it all (the video is just wonderful as well).

A World Medical Mission team prays over medical kits as they are assembled and shipped to the Philippines. Take a look.

ORANGEBURG, SC ”” A nonprofit Christian ministry is working to improve the lives of young people and adults through a mission that involves a mix of horses and skills training.

Cope couple Dan and Jan White started God It Made Ranch a year ago as the 41st mission station of Columbia-based Christ Central Ministries Inc., which was founded in 1992 by Pastor Jimmy Jones and had a food ministry as its first mission. Women and children’s shelters, men’s shelters, veterans’ transitional housing and clothing distribution are among CCM’s other missions.

“But we’re the first horse ranch. They had been praying for one of these for a very long time. I moved to Lexington where my dad lives a year ago, and that’s how I found Christ Central,” Jan White said. “I started volunteering for the children’s shelter, the women’s shelter and the homeless shelter. They also have a GED program and a rehab center.”

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With the help of thousands of volunteers, San Francisco transformed itself into Gotham City to grant a special wish to a 5-year-old boy. NBC’s Joe Fryer reports.

Watch it all–makes the heart glad.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has become president of Livability, the national Christian disability charity which works with churches to help thousands of disabled people in the UK and overseas.

Archbishop Justin Welby’s presidency will help continue the close and historic relationship between the Church of England and Livability, which was formed after two older Christian charities, John Grooms and the Shaftesbury Society, merged in 2007.

In his inaugural letter to the charity, the Archbishop said that “disabled people have much to offer to our local communities, workplaces and to society in general” but that they face “real financial hardship and unacceptable barriers when trying to access education, training, housing, transport and the care they require.”

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Consider giving to local church organizations in the Philippines that are capable of handling donations and capable of empowering local churches, such as the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches or Philippine Relief and Development Services.

Affiliating with international aid organizations that have established relationships and resources (such as the Micah Network, Integral Alliance, World Relief, World Vision, and Samaritan’s Purse) is another way you can ensure you will help rather than hurt.

Overall, our research has found that one of the most effective ways to help after a disaster is to make financial contributions to recognized aid organizations. Financial contributions make sure that the right assistance is available at the right time.

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Samaritans was started in 1953 in London by a young vicar named Chad Varah, then incumbent of St Stephen Walbrook. Through his work in a number of different parishes in the City he had seen the range and extent of the distress experienced by people everywhere, every day. During his career he had offered counselling to his parishioners, and he increasingly wanted to do something specific to help people in distress who had no one to turn to. He makes reference to one example of a girl aged 14, whom he had buried – in unconsecrated ground. She had started her periods, but having no one to talk to believed that she had a sexually transmitted disease and took her own life.

He says, “I might have dedicated myself to suicide prevention then and there, providing a network of people you could ‘ask’ about anything, however embarrassing, but I didn’t come to that until later”.

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Scott Pelley: What do you see when you look around the city?

Paul Tudor Jones: I see people in pain, people in need, people at times without hope, looking for something that will give them some compelling future. I see too many people in homeless shelters, on food stamps. I think a lot of us don’t like to focus on it, but it’s a significant part of this country that needs to be addressed….You cannot have significance in this life if it’s all about you. You get your significance, you find your joy in life through service and sacrifice. It’s pure and simple.

Read or watch it all (video highly recommended).

Muslims are among Britain’s most generous givers, topping a poll of religious groups that donate to charity, according to new research.

Muslims who donated to charity last year gave an average of almost £371 each, with Jewish givers averaging just over £270 per person.

Nearly one in ten of Jewish givers donated more than £1,000. Among Muslim givers, most donated between £300 and £500.

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A Philadelphia doctor has been convicted of the first-degree murders of three babies delivered and killed with scissors in late-term abortions.

Dr Kermit Gosnell, 72, was acquitted on another charge of killing a fourth baby, who let out a whimper before he cut its neck, prosecutors said.

He was also found guilty of involuntary manslaughter of an adult patient who died of an overdose.

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Humanitarian agencies are running low on funds to help millions of people affected by the war in Syria, prompting one United Nations official to warn: “Our capacity to do more is diminishing.”

Syria’s two-year-old war has fueled a humanitarian catastrophe in the region, U.N. officials say. The U.N.’s Security Council has demanded an end to the escalating violence and condemned human rights abuses by all sides.

“Our agencies and humanitarian partners have been doing all we can. The needs are growing, while our capacity to do more is diminishing,” U.N. Under-Secretary General Valerie Amos said in a video appealing for worldwide support of aid efforts.

Read it all.

Check out this resource for your awareness and prayers.

Some dodge the stones and bottles thrown at their tents in the dead of night, others watch helplessly as their tarpaulin shelters, huddled in camps sprawled across the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, are destroyed with knives and sticks.

Rights group Amnesty International has collected dozens of such testimonies from Haitians who have been kicked out of makeshift camps set up by those left homeless by the January 2010 earthquake. Many camp residents have moved out, but just over 320,000 Haitians still live in them.

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Imagine you were forced to leave your home? Given no option but to pack everything into one bag and to leave Northern Ireland.
That is exactly the situation that more than 500,000 Syrians have been forced into.

Into Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan they continue to pour, in search of safety and shelter from the bombs and bullets that have killed 60,000 people. Three-and-a-half thousand crossed into Jordan last Wednesday alone.

Read it all.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Watch it all–very heartwarming.

People put information on Facebook, news outlets did stories on our loss, and we sent emails to our friends.

The outpouring of support was immediate and generous. A contractor who got a tweet from his pastor at Seacoast Church had his own tools stolen several months ago, so he knew how it felt to lose such needed items. He purchased for us some brand new tools and also some used tools, spending over $700 of his own money.

Members of the Charleston Trident Home Builders Association and the Custom Residential Architects Network donated more than $4,000 in a matter of days. One of our board members offered to match donations by other members up to $2,500.

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A high-profile panel of religious charities has issued a wish list this holiday season.

The charities want smarter donors and active board members, plus a few more IRS audits of churches that break the law.

Most of all, they want Congress to leave them alone.

Read it all.

Watch it all–heartwarming stuff.

Founded in 1872, Louisville’s Woodcock Foundation has given scholarship money to needy college students for the past 50 years.

With assets that once totaled about $1.5 million, the Episcopal-church-affiliated charity gave away nearly $500,000 in the past five years alone to 60 to 70 students a year.

But now the foundation ”” named after the third bishop of the Diocese of Kentucky, the Right Rev. Charles Edward Woodcock ”” has only $8, and students who were awarded scholarships last year never got their money.

Makes the heart sad–read it all.