There is no charge to become a member and all places of worship and faith-based organizations are encouraged to join and take advantage of the services. Besides posting events, you can also post photos and videos. Each member can also customize the look of their profile. Postings are monitored to keep the site family friendly.

If you are a place of worship or faith-based organization in Southern Arizona, TucsonChurchesEvents.ning.com is available to help you get the word out about your upcoming events.

If you are looking for something to do this week or something special this weekend, the website is especially for you.

It has become one place for everything faith-based.

For more information visit:

For faith-based events:
http://www.TucsonChurchesEvents.ning.com

and

For places of worship:
http://www.TucsonChurches.org

The newly launched website is not a retailer or sells any vehicles, but a catalogue for both dealers and private owners to display their vehicles for a nominal fee.

A photographer takes the photos and information. It is then posted on the website until it sells or up to a maximum of six months. The quality of the photography makes the experience like looking at an online auto magazine.

If you just need a ride, you can get that almost anywhere. But, if you’re looking for something special that reflects your individual style, visit www.TucsonAutoStore.com.

The theme for the day was “From Africa to the White House.”

The annual event chaired by Herald Craig, had a number of displays and activities for all ages. These included movies, books, artist, displays, speakers, dancers and singers.

A program started with the presentation of colors by the Buffalo Soldiers which had set up camp in the parking lot complete with tent and a horse. The program offered a number of presentations from the history behind some of the African music and instruments to Black hair. The Pilgrim Rest Senior Choir sang a number of songs from Black history from slavery to the time of the civil rights movement.

The event was well attended by the community and civic personalities who enjoyed a piece of history, lunch, entertainment and sharing.

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Website

http://goodnewstucson.com/

Blog

http://goodnewstucson.wordpress.com/

I updated my resume with my new skills and started the job hunt. The year ended with not one interview.

I started to feel like maybe I shouldn’t be working for someone else at this phase in my life and go back to the life of an entrepreneur. This is what I really wanted to do anyway.

So here I am, gifted, talented, and motivated. Creatively excelling, but financially challenged.

Prayerfully seeking answers, I started to believe in my spirit that something is fundamentally wrong. I praise God for my relationship with Him, His love and concern for me and my family. God does answer prayer.

What was missing from my “business plan” was that I had not proven myself faithful in my stewardship to Him. I failed to see my unemployment checks as income and thus exempt from tithes. Yes taxes were taken out which made it “harder” to justify taking an additional ten percent out.

With the mounting bills and always feeling behind, you start looking for relief by trying to take control over your circumstances. When you have $50 and the bill is $75, the natural tendency is to try to find the other $25 not the $30 because you have taken out $5 and paid your tithes.

I have found out that my taking control did not leave room for God to work in my life, nor in my behalf. I was not obeying His Word which disqualifies me from His promises with regards to stewardship.

If I mismanage my God given resources with the little I have, how can I be trusted with greater amounts? Truthfully, I not sure I would trust myself.

So now the challenge is to find a way for me to honor God and His word through tithes and offerings. Not just because I need financial help but because I love Him, His correction and want to live a life within His will.

My plan is this; as I receive income, I will immediately take out what I need for tithes and offerings and put it aside. Just take it out of circulation. If it sits in the bank, history tells me that a bill will come in, an automatic withdrawal I forgot about will hit or something will break.

As I start this act of faith, and if this has been a challenge for you, I invite you to covenant with me and let’s defeat the mindset that has us bound in poverty and not taking full advantage of all God has to offer.

When God starts to move, I will be sure to keep you informed and testify of His goodness.

May God continue to bless you and open up your understanding to His Word and His heart.

I am the LORD All-Powerful, and I challenge you to put me to the test. Bring the entire ten percent into the storehouse, so there will be food in my house. Then I will open the windows of heaven and flood you with blessing after blessing.

Malachi 3:10 (Contemporary English Version)

Jacki and I with our grandchild

When my daughters were growing up, the last thing they wanted to hear from me was, “I need to see you in my office.” Not that I had an office, but hearing that meant that

1. They were in some form of trouble and

2. That the result would be a spanking, punishment, or even worst, a lecture.

So when my wife told me that the doctor wanted to see both of us, I knew this couldn’t be good.

As we were hearing what the near future was going to be like for us and what the medical field had planned, with all the answers we were getting, not all of the questions were being addressed. With all of the natural questions regarding the treatment process and necessary lifestyle changes, the one big question that was answered almost immediately from within was “Why?” The answer, “That God might be glorified.”

Now a lot of family and friends are going to be impacted by this, but what about the three main lives? Jacki, me and the life we have together. What about us? For God to get the glory out of this chapter in our lives, what do we have to do? We have never been here before. We have been through a lot together, but nothing like this. This is at a whole new level.

Once we embraced the fact that God was in control, and true, this is at a new level, everything we had gone though individually and collectively was in preparation for “such a time as this.” In our spirits we believed that God was going to help us through the process and we would be left with a testimony and a greater trust in Him. This was not about Jacki nor I but more about the lives that her testimony was going to touch and restore hope for those in need.

As a husband and father, on the spiritual level I understood that I was also being tested and need to exercise faith and trust in God. On the natural level, I was challenged emotionally and intellectually.

Christmas 2007

Where was I going to get the strength to meet Jacki’s needs, reassure her that I love her and meant it when I said “…in sickness and health.” Be strong enough to hold the family together and let them see that what we tried to teach them about the power of God is no joke. That those far and near will see and hear the peace of God in our conversation and day-to-day interaction. How was I going to concentrate at work knowing my wife is suffering with a disease I can’t even pronounce? I didn’t know.

The one thing I did know was I didn’t have a choice. If I was going to be successful in all I had to do, and be true to my commitment to my God, my wife and my family, I had to rely on God to get me through this and to be obedient to His directions.

I believe that a blessed life in Christ is possible when you forego your opinions and discussions and take heed to His word. I have found when you develop “blind obedience” to the Word of God, you are executing based on your faith and trust in Him and I believe God honors that.

Christmas 2009

I was interviewed by a fellow journalism student who was working on an article about older people returning to school. During the interview, family life came up and I shared what Jacki and I had gone through. She asked, “How did you do it?” She seemed to be in disbelief that we couldhave been through so much and still be together. “I know some men would have left and buckled under the pressure,” she said. This may be true. When I told her I didn’t have a choice and there was no decision to make about caring for my wife, she wanted to debate that you always have a choice. After much discussion, I could see that this was a concept that she just didn’t get. The power of love and commitment when combined with Christ becomes one of the strongest forces known to man.

My wife is now two years cancer free. I am excited and relieved as well. As I look back over the process, there were so many things going on it all is somewhat of a blur to me. I tried to do what I thought I had to do to the best of my ability. Yes I was scared. Felt helpless at times. Wished it was me instead. Couldn’t imagine what life would be like without my Jacki.

Thank God, I don’t have to.

“I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”

Philippians 4:13 (New International Version)

Cosmic touch entertainment is pleased to announce the launching of their new website at www.cosmictouchentertainment.com. Cosmic touch entertainment, owned by local artist Jack Anderson is a full-service entertainment and music production company.

Anderson, a.k.a. Jacki Blu, is also a local performing and recording artist specializing in old-school R&B, soul and urban music.

Based in Tucson Arizona, Blu has performed locally for special community events as well as Texas where he has family roots.

Blu is looking to expand the business with promotion and artist development under his music production company, D-Zone Music.

Visit: http://www.CosmicTouchEntertainment.com

Gerard Ruff

Gerard Ruff is a native of the Hampton/Newport News area of Virginia was influenced by his mother, grandmother and several of his aunts as he often heard them singing in church and around the house. He attributes his diverse appreciation for music to the exposure he received as his Dad would play albums which included, great Gospel, Blues, Jazz, Pop, Classical, R&B and many other genres of music. As a song writer and singer this album showcases the ability and skill that Ruff has developed over the years. This album seems to be written with praise and worship in mind.

Personal favorite: Track 2 – Keep Standing

Gerard Ruff
gandkruff@aol.com

Album can be previewed at:
http://www.digstation.com/AlbumDetails.aspx?albumID=ALB000039196

Jacki Blu

Tucson celebrated the life of Martin Luther King Jr. with a number of events and activities over the MLK holiday weekend.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom March & Festival Celebration, was held on Monday. The march started at 8:30 a.m. on the University of Arizona Mall, east of Old Main, and proceed to the DeMeester Outdoor Performance Center in Reid Park, South Country Club Road and East 22nd Street. The festival ran from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The park was filled with people visiting information and vendor booths throughout the day while being entertained by the local talent appearing on stage.

The final act of the afternoon was Jack Anderson, AKA “Jacki Blu,” a musician and singer here in Tucson.

Born in 1951 with music roots from east Texas, Anderson has been playing the guitar, piano, writing songs and performing since the age of 10.  Early influences were Chuck Berry, Elvis, and James Brown. In later years, influences included Curtis Mayfield, Temptations and Earth Wind and Fire.

Anderson was given the street name “Jacki Blu” because of the song “We People Who Are Darker Than Blue” by Curtis Mayfield in the early`70s.  Anderson is also known as “The Cosmic Man with The Cosmic Touch” and the original “Dusty Funkateer” with the new Desert Soul sound called “Dusty Funk.”

Anderson performed three songs from of his debut album. These included Sugar Hill, Just Luv and the title track Chiken Wang. The song Sugar Hill was written and dedicated to the neighborhood where Anderson grew up in Tucson. Sugar Hill is the area that was formally the “Black neighborhood” and is located at 4^th Avenue and Seneca.

Anderson continues to create and perform in the style that he is passionate about but with a freshness that today’s young people can enjoy as well.

Jacki Blu can be contacted at:
Cosmic Touch Entertainment
2234 N. Camino Castlile, Suite 1005
Tucson, AZ 85705
(903) 343-3010
Email: cosmictouch@hotmail.com
Website: www.myspace.com/cosmictouch

Ralph C. Romero Jr.

The Ralph C. Romero Jr. Scholarship Foundation was established to honor the life of a young man who loved his family, adored his friends, cherished each day, and lived to dance. The scholarship is awarded each year at the Flowing Wells High School as part of the Spring Dance Concert.

Ralph C. Romero Jr. – a University of Arizona fine-arts student with an intense passion for dance lost his life June 14, 2007 just two days before his 20th birthday.

Dance truly was Ralph’s passion and he found joy in every aspect of the art. He wanted to know everything he possibly could and he took pride in his knowledge.

Ralph didn’t begin dance classes until his junior year at Flowing Wells High School but his incredible work ethic and eagerness to learn allowed him to stand out.

“Ralph excelled in every avenue of dance. He was a beautiful technician, a gifted choreographer, and an outstanding performer” said Sasha Naasz, Dance Director for Flowing Wells High School.

The scholarship was created to help wonderfully talented and deserving dancers become more than they could on their own and so that they too, like Ralph, can pursue their dreams.

The benefit dance concert will be held Friday, January 29, 2010 at 6:00 p.m. in the auditorium of Flowing Wells High School at 3725 N. Flowing Wells Road, Tucson, Arizona 85705. Tickets are $5 and will be available at the FWHS Dance Office, M-F  from 9am-3pm.

Donations can be made to The Ralph C Romero Jr. Scholarship Foundation and sent to the high school at:

Flowing Wells High School
Attn: Amber Duke
3725 N Flowing Wells Road
Tucson, AZ 85705

For more information contact Amber Duke at (520) 696-8071.