Cris Carrier (The Power Of Forgiveness)

In 1976, one day before Christmas holiday, Cris Carrier young (10 years old) was walking to his home when suddenly a guy came to him and asked Cris to follow him. Cris followed that guy because Cris thought that guy is his father's friend.

What Cris didn't know was that guy got fired because always drank when he still became a caregiver for Cris' family. That day, that guy was planned to take a vengeance for what Cris' family did to him. That guy shot Cris in his head and left Cris alone among the scrub. Cris unconscious for six days before he was found by someone.

2 weeks after that accident, Cris tried to description the guy that already shot Cris but Cris couldn't do that because still trauma. That guy was released because police don't have any proof. That guy already made Cris' left eye became blind, the miracle is Cris didn't have any serious injured in his head. With the care, love and support from his family, Cris tried go back to his school and his life again.

Almost for 3 years Cris couldn't sleep alone and always sleep with his parents because he felt like there was someone stow to his room.

On September 1996, Major Charles Schere from Coral Gables Corp told Cris that he already found the guy who shot him. Cris went to old folks home and met that guy, Cris became pity because that guy lived alone there and blind because glaucoma.

When he met Cris, he sorry for what he already done. Cris said that he already forgive him a long time ago. Cris always visited that guy and gave a family care to that guy until that guy died.

Valuable things that we can learn :
1. Cris can forgive that guy who already makes him blind because Cris know that Jesus can forgive him and why he can't forgive that guy.
2. Jesus' miracle is so amazing, how can a boy that is shot in his head can still life. Only miracle!
3. Jesus' plan is wonderful at Jesus' time. Just believe HIM!

Michael Weisskopf

Michael Weisskopf (59 years old) is a journalist that have been working for 20 years at The Washington Post. In 1997, he is join at TIME magazine. One of the duty that he must take as a journalist is to make a report of US soldier in Iraq War on December 10, 2003.

This tragedy was happened when he was riding in the back of an open humvee along with TIME photographer James Nachtwey and two young soldiers, Private Orion Jenks and Private First Class Jim Beverly. No one of them realized there was something that was thrown away to their car, but Michael knew it. Michael rose halfway, leaned to the right, and cupped the object. He might as well have plucked volcanic lava from a crater. He could feel the flesh of my palm liquefying. Pain bolted up my arm like an electric current. In one fluid motion, I raised my right arm and started to throw the mass over the side of the vehicle, a short backhand toss. Then everything went dark.

After he was conscious, he shocked because he lost his right hand. That was make Michael so desperate. Fortunately, there was nurse that encouraged him and so proud of Michael because he already saved a lot of lives by threw away the bomb even it was injured himself, he was a hero.

To reduce Michael's trauma, he was sent to hospital in German that specialize to handle trauma. After that, Michael was sent to military hospital Ward 57 at Walter Reed, Washington. This hospital was specialize to take care soldier that lost part of his body. In this hospital, Michael saw and struggle with other patient pain. Not just physical pain but also depression.

From that Michael came up from his trauma and write his experience in to book. His book title is Blood Brothers : Among the Soldiers of Ward 57. His book is released on October 2006.

Because his brave, Michael Weisskopf has received the George Polk Award, Goldsmith Award for Investigative Reporting, National Headliners Award, Daniel Pearl Award for Courage and Integrity in Journalism the U.S. Army's Fourth Estate Award and the Urbino Press Award 2007 (Italy).

"Life that not maximal is not because on what you don't have, but it is because you don't maximal what you have now"

Warren Buffet

Warren Edward Buffett (born August 30, 1930, in Omaha, Nebraska) is an American investor, businessman and philanthropist. He is regarded as one of the world's greatest stock market investors, and is the largest shareholder and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. With an estimated net worth of around US$62 billion, he was ranked by Forbes as the richest person in the world as of March 5, 2008.

There was a one-hour interview on CNBC with Warren Buffet, the second richest man who has donated $31 billion to charity. Here are some very interesting aspects of his life:

• He bought his first share at age 11 and he now regrets that he started too late!
• He bought a small farm at age 14 with savings from delivering newspapers.
• He still lives in the same small 3-bedroom house in mid-town Omaha, that he bought after he got married 50 years ago. He says that he has everything he needs in that house. His house does not have a wall or a fence.
• He drives his own car everywhere and does not have a driver or security people around him.
• He never travel by private jet, although he owns the world’s largest private jet company.
• His company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns 63 companies. He writes only one letter each year to the CEOs of these companies, giving them goals for the year. He never holds meetings or calls them on a regular basis. He has given his CEO’s only two rules:
• Rule number 1: do not lose any of your shareholder’s money.
• Rule number 2: do not forget rule number 1.
• He does not socialize with the high society crowd. His past time after he gets home is to make himself some pop corn and watch television.
• Bill Gates, the world’s richest man met him for the first time only 5 years ago. Bill Gates did not think he had anything in common with Warren Buffet. So he had scheduled his meeting only for half hour. But when Gates met him, the meeting lasted for ten hours and Bill Gates became a devotee of Warren Buffet.
• Warren Buffet does not carry a cell phone, nor has a computer on his desk.
• His advice to young people: “Stay away from credit cards and invest in yourself and remember:
• Money doesn’t create man but it is the man who created money.
• Live your life as simple as you are.
• Don’t do what others say, just listen to them, but do what you feel good.
• Don’t go on brand name; just wear those things in which you feel comfortable.
• Don’t waste your money on unnecessary things; just spend on them who really in need rather.
• After all it’s your life then why give chance to others to rule our life.”

I like and very respect with Warren Buffet because he is smart and low profile eventough he is the richest person in the world. Nobody can be like him.

Wilma Rudolf : Sport Hero

Wilma Rudolph was an exceptional American track and field athlete who overcame debilitating childhood illnesses and went on to become the first American woman to win three gold medals in a single Olympics.

Wilma Rudolph was born in 1940 in Bethlehem, Tenn. The twentieth of 22 children, she was born with polio and suffered from serious bouts of pneumonia and scarlet fever as a young child. All these ailments contributed to a bad leg that some said would prevent her from ever walking. But Wilma had a loving and devoted family who made sure she got medical attention and who provided physical therapy themselves four times a day. She wore a leg brace from the time she was five until she was 11 years old. Then, one Sunday, she removed it and walked down the aisle of her church.

When Wilma was 13, she got involved in organized sports at school, including basketball and track. Soon she was running and winning races. She was invited to a training camp at Tennessee State University by coach Ed Temple, who coached numerous track and field athletes and became Wilma's most important professional influence.

In 1956, when she was still a sophomore in high school, she participated in the Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia. She lost the 200 meter race, but her relay team took home the bronze medal.

Wilma became more determined than ever. In 1958, she began college at Tennessee State University and became a member of Ed Temple's "Tigerbelles" track team. In 1960, she set a world record for the 200 meter dash during the Olympic trials. Then during the Olympic games in Rome, she became the first American woman to win three gold medals in the 100 meter dash, the 200 meter dash and the 400 meter relay. When she returned to Tennessee, she was honored with her hometown's first racially integrated parade.

The next year she received a Sullivan Award, which is given annually to the top amateur athlete in the United States. Subsequent honors included the Black Sports Hall of Fame, the U.S. Track and Field Hall of Fame, the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame and the National Women's Hall of Fame. In 1993, she became the first recipient of President Clinton's National Sports Award.

Wilma had worked her way through school and later became a coach and teacher. Her autobiography, "Wilma Rudolph on Track", was a bestseller, and in 1977 it became a television movie, starring Cicely Tyson. Wilma's greatest pride was her four children.

On Nov. 12, 1994, Wilma Rudolph died of a brain tumor at the age of 54. The Olympic flag covered her casket at her funeral. She will always be remembered for her inspirational determination to overcome her physical disabilities. Through the love of her family and her religious convictions she rose above the racism and segregation of her time. She recognized the importance of good teachers in her own life, and later became a teacher herself. Wilma Rudolph was not only a sports hero, she was also a family hero and a teacher hero.

Written by Nancy Nickerson

Few individuals choose to walk away at the height of their corporate career to dedicate their life to a social cause.

At age 35, John Wood did just that - quitting his position as Microsoft's Director of Business Development for the Greater China Region in order to found Room to Read. He has never looked back.

John's career at Microsoft spanned 1991 to 1999, where he ran significant parts of Microsoft's international business, as the Director of Marketing for the Asia-Pacific Division, Director of the Internet Customer Unit for Microsoft Australia, and Director of Marketing for Microsoft Australia.

In 1998, John took a vacation that changed his life. Trekking through a remote Himalayan village, he struck up conversation with a schoolteacher, who invited John to visit his school. There, John discovered that the few books available were so precious that they were kept under lock and key - to protect them from the children! Fewer than 20 books, all backpacker cast-aways, were available for more than 450 students.

What started with a simple email requesting friends donate used books has grown into Room to Read, an award winning non-profit that over the past eight years has established over 5,160 libraries, donated and published 4.3 million books, built 442 schools, and funded over 4,036 long-term scholarships for girls - impacting the lives of over 1.7 million students worldwide.

John strives to bring the lessons of the corporate world to the non-profit sector. Room to Read combines his passion with the discipline of a well-run global company. He has been described by Fast Company Magazine as "all heart, all business."

John has received countless honors for his work, including recognition as a "Young Global Leader" by the World Economic Forum and as one of Time Magazine's "Asian Heroes." Room to Read is a five-time winner of Fast Company Magazine's Social Capitalist Award, a recipient of the Skoll Foundation Award for Social Innovation, and a recipient of Draper Richards Fellowship for social entrepreneurs.

John holds a Bachelors of Science, magna cum laude, from the University of Colorado, and a Masters of Business Administration from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. He lives and works in San Francisco, CA.

Source : www.leavingmicrosoftbook.com/author.html

He Ah Lee - Four Fingered Pianist

Lee Hee-ah, 20, a disabled pianist who is making a deep impression on many people around the world by playing the piano despite having only four fingers, will release her first album.

Her album entitled "Hee-ah, a Pianist with Four Fingers" will hit the market around June 20.

The album will feature Lee's favorite classical numbers, such as "Fantaisie Impromptu in C sharp minor, op. 66" and "Waltz No. 10" by Frederic Francois Chopin, "Hungarian Dance" by Johannes Brahms, "Plaisir d'Amour" by Giovanni Battista Martini, "Serenade" by Franz Peter Schubert, and "Piano Concerto No. 21 -- the Second Movement" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

The album also features "Amazing Grace," sung by Lee, and "Hee-ah's Song" written by Stephen Moon (Korean name Moon So-yon), a graduate of Seoul National University's Department of Composition who was in charge of producing the album. The recording began three years ago. Only "Hee-ah's Song" was recorded recently, but most of the other numbers, including "Fantaisie Impromptu in C sharp minor, op. 66," were recorded around 2002.

Lee's mother, Woo Kap-sun, 50, said she had originally intended to record her daughter's music in an album not to be sold, but to be kept in Lee's personal archive.

"In fact, I was concerned very much about the sales of the album, because Hee-ah's performing skills naturally fall behind those of normal professional pianists. The album was not designed for my daughter to play music for somebody else, but to represent her inner spiritual world," said Lee's mother.

Lee played with the Thames Philharmonic Orchestra in Britain on June 12. According to her mother, Lee received a standing ovation after playing "Hee-ah's Song" as an encore performance in Britain.

Taken from www.english.kbs.co.kr/society/news/1354631_11773.html

Igor Plotnikov

Disabilities maybe makes a lot of people become shame and feel inferior. They become person that don't have spirit and hope again in their live.

Disabilities have no bearing on how much a person can achieve in life. Take for example Igor Plotnikov, Russian swimmer, who set a world record for the 50m Butterfly swimming event with a time of 32.52 seconds at the 2004 Paralympics in Athens.

Now, if someone were to ask how you thought a swimmer without arms would do in a contest against athletes who’s arms were intact I’ll bet you’d guess wrong.

Don't blame yourself and other people because your disabilities. Don't become shame and feel inferior person. You must accept whatever you are because Jesus never wrong to create you. Try to make your weakness to become your strong point.

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Autistic Teen's Hoop Dreams Come True

Senior Jason McElwain had been the manager of the varsity basketball team of Greece Athena High School in Rochester, N.Y.

McElwain, who's autistic, was added to the roster by coach Jim Johnson so he could be given a jersey and get to sit on the bench in the team's last game of the year.

Johnson hoped the situation would even enable him to get McElwain onto the floor a little playing time.

He got the chance, with Greece Athena up by double-digits with four minutes go to.

And, in his first action of the year, McElwain missed his first two shots, but then sank six three-pointers and another shot (video), for a total of 20 points in three minutes.

"My first shot was an air ball (missing the hoop), by a lot, then I missed a lay-up," McElwain recalls. "As the first shot went in, and then the second shot, as soon as that went in, I just started to catch fire."

"I've had a lot of thrills in coaching," Johnson says. "I've coached a lot of wonderful kids. But I've never experienced such a thrill."

The crowd went wild, and his teammates carried the excited McElwain off the court.

"I felt like a celebrity!" he beamed.

McElwain's mother sees it as a milestone for her son.

"This is the first moment Jason has ever succeeded (and could be) proud of himself," reflects Debbie McElwain. "I look at autism as the Berlin Wall, and he cracked it."

His teammates couldn't be happier.

"He's a cool kid," says guard Levar Goff. "You just get to know him, get used to being around him. A couple of weeks ago, he missed practice because he was sick. You feel different when he's not around. He brings humor and life to the team."

Jason's next goal: to graduate.

©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Helen Adams Keller

Helen Adams Keller (June 27, 1880 – June 1, 1968) was an American author, activist and lecturer. She was the first deafblind person to graduate from college. The story of how a remarkable teacher broke through the isolation that a lack of language had imposed on the child, who blossomed as she learned to communicate, is a staple of American folklore and has become known worldwide.

What is less well known is how Keller's life developed after she completed her education. She was a prolific author, was well traveled, and campaigned for workers' rights, women's suffrage, and many other progressive causes.

Early childhood and illness

Helen Keller was born at an estate called Ivy Green^[1] in Tuscumbia, Alabama, on June 27, 1880, to Captain Arthur H. Keller, a former officer of the Confederate Army, and Kate Adams Keller, a cousin of Robert E. Lee and daughter of Charles W. Adams, a former Confederate general^[2]. The Keller family originates from Germany, and at least one source claims her father was of Swiss descent.^[3] She was not born blind and deaf; it was not until nineteen months of age that she came down with an illness described by doctors as "an acute congestion of the stomach and the brain", which could have possibly been scarlet fever or meningitis. The illness did not last for a particularly long time, but it left her deaf and blind. At that time her only communication partner was Martha Washington, the six-year-old daughter of the family cook, who was able to create a sign language with her; by age seven, she had over 60 home signs to communicate with her family.

In his doctoral dissertation, "Deaf-blind Children (psychological development in a process of education)" (1971, Moscow Defectology Institute), Soviet blind-deaf psychologist Meshcheryakov asserted that Washington's friendship and teaching was crucial for Keller's later developments.

n 1886, her mother was inspired by an account in Charles Dickens' American Notes of the successful education of another deafblind child, Laura Bridgman, and traveled to a specialist doctor in Baltimore for advice. He put her in touch with Alexander Graham Bell, who was working with deaf children at the time. Bell advised the couple to contact the Perkins Institute for the Blind, the school where Bridgman had been educated, which was then located in South Boston. The school delegated teacher and former student Anne Sullivan, herself visually impaired and then only 20 years old, to become Keller's instructor. It was the beginning of a 49-year-long relationship, eventually evolving into governess and companion.

Sullivan got permission from Keller's father to isolate the girl from the rest of the family in a little house in their garden. Her first task was to instill discipline in the spoiled girl. Keller's big breakthrough in communication came one day when she realized that the motions her teacher was making on her palm, while running cool water over her hand, symbolized the idea of "water"; she then nearly exhausted Sullivan demanding the names of all the other familiar objects in her world (including her prized doll). In 1890, ten-year-old Helen Keller was introduced to the story of Ragnhild Kåta, a deafblind Norwegian girl who had learned to speak. Kåta's success inspired Keller to want to learn to speak as well. Sullivan taught her charge to speak using the Tadoma method of touching the lips and throat of others as they speak, combined with fingerspelling letters on the palm of the child's hand. Later Keller learned Braille, and used it to read not only English but also French, German, Greek, and Latin. (Read more...)