Prayers please

The young family of a Wyoming Catholic College professor was hit with tragedy today. Two of their three daughters were killed in a car accident when another vehicle struck their car in the snow. They were 6 and 3 years old. The middle daughter and the father are unharmed, and the mother, who was in the car with her daughters, has not sustained serious physical injuries.

Please keep this family in your prayers. If you'd like to donate to help defray funeral expenses and to make up for the fact that presumably neither parent will be working for a while, there is a link here.

Nominate your favorite charities

Hi all!

As part of my budgeting kick, I am trying to organize my charitable giving. I would like to organize it by the works of mercy, so I am trying to find a charity for each one. I would like your input! I'm especially looking for your suggestions for charities for places where I have holes, but if you have a really good suggestion for a space I already filled, toss it out anyway! Here's what I've got so far:

Feed the hungry: The local food pantry
Give drink to the thirsty: I have heard of charity:water. Are there other similar organizations?
Clothe the naked: Little Dresses for Africa
Harbor the harborless: Habitat for Humanity
Visit the sick: ?
Ransom the captive: I want this to be some sort of charity that opposes human trafficking. There are a huge amount of them, though, and I am having a hard time evaluating them. Anyone know of a good one?
Bury the dead: The monks who make child coffins for grieving families.

Instruct the ignorant: The Catholic University of America
Counsel the doubtful: The Gabriel Network
Admonish sinners: ?
Bear wrongs patiently: ?
Forgive offences willingly: Retrouvaille
Comfort the afflicted: Project Rachel
Pray for the living and the dead: Nashville Dominicans

Anyone have anything to add or change? It would be greatly appreciated!

(Note: I'm not going to donate money to charities that advocate positions that are contrary to Catholic teaching, even if they do good work in other areas.)

7 quick takes, volume 11: scattered and short

1. This may be brief, because I have a paper to write! Normally, I don't really freak out about papers, especially not in philosophy, because that is my major, and I am good at it. (That is magnanimity, not pride. I hope.) This paper, though, is causing difficulties, because the library system here doesn't work super well, and it's in German.

2. The library system here. Sigh. I could write a whole ranting post, but I won't. Instead, I will say that while the Uni Freiburg renovates its library, the rest of us suffer. My typical way to get a group of secondary sources together is to find a call number that's relevant, and then flip through the books on the shelves around it. Here, because the books are not on their shelves for the duration of the renovation, you have to put the name of a book into their computer system and they will fish it out and you can go pick it up in two days. This makes it harder to find secondary sources, and harder to procrastinate.

3. Let me just say that while my super sturdy (and bright pink!) backpack may be designed for carrying around many large hardcover books, my back is not.

4. On a more cheerful note, I don't have any work to do other than that paper, so I hope to get in at least one more good birdwatching trip before I leave.

5. Does anyone have any experience traveling through Pearson airport? I have a really long layover there, and I'm wondering if it's worth the hassle to leave the traveler area and try to meet up with my aunt who lives in Toronto. On the one hand, I would have to go through immigration an extra time (or maybe two), but since Canada and the US are pretty friendly, it shouldn't be sooo bad. Should it?

6. Freiburg has a wine fest! I went with Kevin and a friend. We had a great time, although I didn't manage to get any very good photos.

7. Last but not least, please pray for a friend of mine, who fell down a hill and broke his nose and required 91 stitches to repair the damage done to his face. 

For some quick takes with maybe a coherent thought running through them, go see what other people are saying at Conversion Diary.

Prayer request

I don't usually ask people to pray for me (maybe because all my friends are so quick to offer!) but now I am going to. Monday night I had severe stomach pain. I thought it was my gallbladder and therefore not urgent, so I waited until the morning to go to the doctor. He diagnosed me with appendicitis and sent me off to the hospital.

The hospital ran a battery of tests (many ultrasounds, blood tests, urine test, and three different doctors) and sent me home because they didn't see a conclusive reason to operate. They had me come back this morning and the situation is much the same: my appendix is definitely causing me pain, but the blood tests and ultrasounds wouldn't by themselves suggest surgery. So I am going back again tomorrow at 8am and if things aren't better the doctor said they will probably do surgery and remove my appendix since it certainly seems to be the source of the pain.

I am not too terribly worried, since I am under the care of the head surgeon (apparently my case is too weird to trust to a regular doctor) in ambulatory surgery at the best hospital in Freiburg. But of course, avoiding surgery and general anesthesia is always a good thing!