Good leadership means taking care of our health.

I got this article forwarded to me in the email. I thought it summarises the situation about cancer prevention quite well. Coming from Johns Hopkins Hospital, it is worth reading through:

1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion..

2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person's lifetime.

3. When the person's immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumors.

4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has multiple nutritional deficiencies.
These could be due to genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors.

5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the immune system.

6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastrointestinal tract etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.

7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.

8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size.
However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction.

9. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications.

10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy... Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites.

11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not feeding it with the foods it needs to multiply. Cancer cells feed on:

• Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar it cuts off one important food supply to the cancer cells.
• Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus.
• Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little chicken rather than beef or pork.
• A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment.
• Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high caffeine. Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer fighting properties.

12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes.
Undigested meat remaining in the intestines becomes putrefied and leads to more toxic buildup.

13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering.
By refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body's killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.

14. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Flor-ssence, Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs etc.) to enable the bodies own killer cells to destroy cancer cells. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body's normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells.

15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor. Anger, un-forgiveness and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit.
Learn to relax and enjoy life.

16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level.

Alpha Succeeds under Empowering Leadership

Alpha's success in any situation (whether church, workplace, prison or campus) depends on the quality of the leadership. It was John Maxwell who said, "Everything rises and falls with leadership." I used to be quite sceptical of this statement, thinking that perhaps this statement is undermining the role of the Holy Spirit in the church. However, having seen Alpha implemented in various contexts (churches, prisons, and workplaces) in the last 12 years, I have to admit that Alpha's success can be attributed solely to the type of leadership that is being exercised in that context.

But how does this reconcile with Alpha's own understanding that it is the Holy Spirit who ultimately determines the success of the ministry. However, we need to recognize that the issue is not human versus divine leadership. Clearly as Augustine was right when has wrote, "Without God we cannot; but without us, God will not." So it is really a cooperation between divine and human leadership. While it is true that it is ultimately God who ensures the success of any ministry, yet human leadership can facilitate or hinder the work of God. What kind of human leadership do we need to ensure Alpha's success in any context? I believe that the answer is simple but not easy--it is simply an empowering leadership as opposed to a controlling leadership.

The empowering leadership is actually working with God's Spirit. Jesus has said, "When the Spirit has come upon you, you shall receive power" (Acts 1:8). The Holy Spirit empowers every believer with His gifts. But to release these gifts among the Alpha team, the human leadership providing the oversight for the Alpha team has to empower the team to express freely God's gifts given to the team. When a church leadership is empowering rather than controlling, God can then fully express His leadership through the gifts of the people whom the Spirit has empowered.

Chee Min

Kum Yan Alpha 5 Sunday (28.6.2009)

Kum Yan Methodist Church launches Alpha 5 with an Alpha Sunday Service today. The purpose of the Alpha Sunday is to rally the congregation to start praying for guests for Alpha 5 Intro dinner.

We had two events for the Alpha Sunday: (1) a special Sunday service and (2) an Alpha booth at the carpark after the service where church members can sign up and submit their prayer cards with 3 invitees per card in exchange for a stick of icecream. At the service, I interviewed our brother John and three of his invitees who were present at the service today. Most of his invitees have remained in Kum Yan after the Alpha courses. After that, I preached a short sermon based on Matthew 9:35-38 entitled "The Harvest is Plentiful," emphasizing that it is only when we see people as Jesus saw them ("harassed and helpless, like sheep without shepherd") that we can see the plentiful harvest. After my sermon, our Alpha 5 coordinator Patrick urged congregation to sign up as helpers and put down three guests they would like to invite on each prayer card. He promised that a stick of ice cream will be given to everyone who submitted a prayer card. I thought it was a fun and creative way to encourage prayer and participation for Alpha 5.

At the carpark, the Alpha team set up the Alpha booth with tables for church members to submit their prayer cards with invitee lists. For every prayer card submitted, the church member received a stick of free ice-cream potong. The prayer cards were then hung on the prayer tree set up at the carpark. This will continue every Sunday until the Intro Dinner in August. Today's response for the prayer cards was very good for the first Sunday of the Alpha publicity launch.