Black Friday Deaths & Our Next Move

Did you hear about the Wal-Mart employee in New York who was trampled to death by a stampede of Black Friday shoppers? Read all about it here.

Apparently that new 50-inch plasma HDTV going for $798 was more important to these people than an elderly man’s life, and apparently no other shoppers bothered stopping to help (several other Wal-Mart employees were trampled trying to reach him). After all, his name was Jdimytai Damour – probably just an immigrant anyway.

To top it all off, when employees began telling people in the crowds the store was closing due to the death of the man who opened the door, shoppers said things like, “I’ve been in line since this morning! ” and kept shopping.

This is sad. I wonder how many of those shoppers who saw what happened and chose to press on toward the deals instead of stopping to lend a helping hand claim to follow Jesus, and I wonder how many gave Wal-Mart employees grief when they chose to close the store to sort things out.

I wish there’d been a Good Samaritan in the crowd.

Folks – go after your deals, but for goodness sakes keep it in perspective. I can assure you a $69 digital camera or a $9 DVD of The Incredible Hulk is not worth being unkind to someone else over – much less killing them!

This is an example of middle class suburban thuggery where your grandmother is the culprit. It’s disgusting.

Police are reviewing the surveillance tapes of the stampede as I write this. I hope they catch the culprits – all 2,000 of them – we’ll see what happens.

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In other news: it’s Saturday the 29th, and we’re packing again. My mom and dad got into town yesterday bringing two of my neices with them. We’ll spend the rest of the day finishing up packing to move here, then tomorrow we’ll enjoy our last day at the Austin Avenue Church of Christ.

Dad will be preaching in the morning, then we’ll have a congregation-wide potluck after which the missions committee will have an official commissioning ceremony for Airiel and me. Our family will be prayed over and officially sent out to evangelize San Francisco with Austin Avenue’s blessing and support.

I must say I’ve been impressed with missions emphasis of the Austin Avenue Church of Christ. The congregation has been around over 100 years, and 60 of those have been spent heavily involved in various mission works around the world.

I’ve learned so much simply by observing how they do what they do, and am taking a lot of their experience with me. I’ve sought to devour every little nugget of wisdom I could, and while I’m certainly not full I do believe I’ve gained a pound or two since I’ve been here (mentally speaking :p ).

Airiel and I will miss our friends here in Texas, but are looking forward to getting to work in San Francisco.

It’ll still be another month before we arrive in CA. December is reserved to say goodbye to our families.

After tomorrow we’ll be going to Arkansas for two weeks to spend time with my side of the family, then to Florida for two weeks to see Airiel’s.

In the meantime, we’ve hired a moving company to take our stuff from Texas to California – let’s hope they don’t break much of it. :p

The rest of today will be spent enjoying the company of a few people we love – hope yours is a good one!

Here’s some pics I snapped yesterday:

Jim & Geraldine Woodell (my parents), Airiel, and our youngest in my dad's lap

Conrad with his Papaw

Airiel and my mom looking at pictures

Mikaila, Emily, & a sleepy Naomi

Naomi had just woken up from a nap

Emily & Mikaila this morning

 We’re in the midst of a move – I won’t be posting here for a few days.

If you just have to read something (and I know you do), check out the “Worth a Look” section on the right. I’ve compiled a list of quality links you really ought to check out.

Have a blessed day!