Praise the Sun God with our new Amon-Ra St. Brown shirts/hoodies

]

There was no Detroit Lions player who finished the 2021 season better than rookie wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown. In the final stretch of the season, he was named Offensive Rookie of the Month, was up for Rookie of the Week five times, set the Lions rookie record for receptions and receiving yards, and the Lions started designing trick plays around all the attention that St. Brown was garnering from opposing defense.

There may not be a bigger reason to be optimistic about this team than the emergence of St. Brown. In his rookie season, he grabbed 90 passes for 912 yards and five touchdowns—all of which came in the final six weeks of the season.

So why not celebrate and honor the man we call “The Sun God” with some brand-new Detroit Lions swag? Our friends over at Breaking T have designed these awesome “Sun God” shirts:

The design is available as a normal shirt, hoodie or women’s v-neck. There are also youth size options.

The Amon-Ra St. Brown shirt joins the latest Lions-related apparel from this season. We’ve also got the Dan Campbell “Welcome to Detroit” shirt, as well as “The Walk-Goff” celebrating Detroit’s first win of the year, MC/DC shirts, and, of course, bite a kneecap shirts.

Note: Pride of Detroit does get a certain percentage of sales of the shirt. It’s a way to support the writers, editors, and content creators who provide you with free content all year.

‘God, Me and a Cup of Tea’: Use your binoculars – the RIGHT way

]

×

remaining of

Thank you for Reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading.

Florida Family Raising 15 Kids Gifted 13-Bedroom Property

]

By AMANDA INSCORE, The News-Press

FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — A gift of a lifetime left a Fort Myers family stunned and full of gratitude.

“I’m speechless,” Scott Hamilton said after he and his wife, Cherrie, found out that the house they have been renting for four years will now be theirs.

“I’m amazed how the Lord has worked this whole situation, and I’m happy for the kids, too, because they’ll always have this,” he said.

They are homeowners of a 13-bedroom house in Fort Myers thanks to the generosity of several anonymous donors. Dan O’Berski and his family coordinated the effort to renovate the house in 2017, and they returned Dec. 30, to surprise the Hamiltons with the deed to the house. From start to finish, the project cost about $400,000 and close to 65 people contributed money or volunteered during the renovation.

Political Cartoons View All 386 Images

Scott and Cherrie Hamilton and their real estate agent found the house in 2016, and they thought it would be the perfect place to raise their children and start their nonprofit foundation, Jonathan’s Place. They asked O’Berski, who was a friend, to be on their foundation board, but he wasn’t interested in that. He did want to know if he could “run with this house thing,” so he coordinated volunteers and donors to renovate the house.

Now that the mortgage is paid off, the $1,000 per month they were spending on rent can go to help care for their 15 children living at home, most of whom have special needs. The Hamiltons began homeschooling the children when the pandemic started, and they hired a teacher to help them manage during the day.

Scott and Cherrie Hamilton have 21 homegrown, adopted, and almost-adopted children, ages 30 to 2 years old.

“For us (the house) is just supportive of something that there’s no chance in the world that we could ever come close to doing. What we know how to do is gather people around other amazing people and let them see the awesome work that God is doing,” Dan O’Berski said.

Blackhawks edge Canadiens as Lukas Reichel makes NHL debut

]

Ahead of his NHL debut Thursday against the Canadiens, Lukas Reichel looked up at the Blackhawks’ whiteboard of lines, saw Patrick Kane’s name next to his and laughed.

“I was . . . like, ‘Oh, my God, that’s awesome,’ ” he said before the game. “I’m really happy. He’s my favorite player.”

Alongside Kane and Brandon Hagel, the Hawks’ top prospect showed some encouraging flashes, recording three shots on goal in 15:55 of ice time. He also started his career undefeated as the Hawks rallied for a 3-2 victory in overtime.

Kane scored his first goal since Dec. 4 to tie the game in the third period, and Philipp Kurashev scored the strangest of winners — a breakaway gone awry that, two reviews later, was deemed a goal — to secure the Hawks’ third consecutive victory.

“I was yes, and then no again,” Kurashev said. “I was just hoping they were going to count it. Thank God they did at the end.”

“ ‘First game, first win’ — that sounds pretty good,” Reichel said. “The first period was pretty good. In the second, we made a couple of turnovers, let them get the momentum back. In the third, we played pretty good defensively. Overall, [it was] a solid game. And overall for me, too, a solid game.”

Reichel’s agility, creativity and offensive vision were visible, at least during scattered moments.

The Hawks plan to be patient with him nonetheless. He implied he’ll play again Saturday against the Ducks, then head back to Rockford of the AHL for a while.

“He’s obviously one of our highly skilled prospects coming up, and we want to do it right,” interim coach Derek King said. “There have been years of seeing players get called up early, started too early, and they don’t end up finishing with our team. So this is a chance to do it right by him.”

All-Star Cat

For the first time, Alex DeBrincat is an NHL All-Star. Entering Thursday sitting fourth in the league in goals (23), he was an obvious choice to represent the Hawks during the Feb. 3-6 event in Las Vegas.

The rest of the Central Division team is composed of the Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar, the Wild’s Kirill Kaprizov and Cam Talbot, the Jets’ Kyle Connor, the Coyotes’ Clayton Keller, the Blues’ Jordan Kyrou, the Stars’ Joe Pavelski and the Predators’ Juuse Saros.

Seth Jones, meanwhile, is a candidate for the “Last Man In” spot that’ll be determined by fan vote.

COVID’s rotating door

The Hawks got three players back from COVID-19 protocols Wednesday and Thursday — then promptly put two new players on the list. Hagel, Erik Gustafsson and newly-acquired Sam Lafferty all returned, but Dylan Strome and Kirby Dach were ruled unavailable shortly because of COVID before game time. Kurtis Gabriel, who was assigned to Rockford on Wednesday, was also added to the list.

Breaking Bread, Serving God, Building Community

]

On a sidewalk in the heart of Clinton, Massachusetts, on a drizzly day with hints of fall in the New England air, a woman stooped down to converse with the youngest daughter of Nicole and Victor Broushet, the owners of the Vegan Nest Café restaurants. The woman’s eyes crinkled in the corners as she bent her cloud-gray head to listen intently to the toddler’s broken phrasings. An older sister, on the verge of kindergarten, sauntered over for a hug and conversation. The sounds of daily prep and smells of cooking food wafted from the open door of the café, setting the backdrop for the slow but steady traffic of cars and pedestrians and the hushed conflab.

About a half-hour later, the woman appeared on the sidewalk again, this time with a bag containing small toys for the two girls and their older sister, who had been digging through large puzzle pieces in the children’s nook of the café. Happy smiles later flashed as the three children carried around little pink ponies with tiny hairbrushes. On this day, the woman did not stop for a bite to eat in the now-open café; she had just wanted to “visit” for a spell.

“She’s a customer, but also a member of the community. She likes to bring things—toys or treats—for the girls. A lot of people who come here do. It’s like a family,” Victor said with a smile when I asked about the exchange. “That’s our community.”

And make no mistake, while the Broushets run two restaurants in Massachusetts, with the second one opening in July 2021, they are involved in so much more that they hesitate to define their cafés—and their career paths—as traditional.

“We consider what we do medical missionary work,” said Nicole. “And it’s about creating community. We’re not just a restaurant. I always joke about how I actually forget sometimes that we are a restaurant because we have all of these other aspects.”

And even though Nicole admits their family works hard and long hours, it is an investment with incredible returns. “It’s such a community-oriented space that it doesn’t feel like work.”

Nicole shares that the platform for their restaurants is that they seek to draw attention to the issue of food insecurity and health inequity, as well as looking at disparities in how people have access to food and education around food, and the associated health outcomes. “Whether it’s socioeconomic lines, racial disparities, whatever the case may be, there are many ways in which at different times different people are left out of the questions and issues around food. That’s something very important to us to address through the café,” she explained.

The Broushets spend some time talking with a customer at the Vegan Nest Café in Clinton, Massachusetts. The couple often visits with their customers and will pray with them when asked. [Image provided by Pieter Damsteegt/screenshot]

The Vegan Nest Café explores these issues in several different ways. The Broushets conduct culinary and nutrition education through cooking classes. They host Freely Given Tuesday, where customers “pay” what they are able, even if it is just paying kindness forward after receiving a free meal. They collect donated food and help stock refrigerator boxes of free food around the cities of Worcester and Clinton. They also do advocacy work: making sure people in the community know what things are available to them, helping people obtain important information, and advocating for the people who may have suffered adverse health outcomes and need a voice.

“Our cooking classes are a big way we share that we love to cook, and we love to show other people how to cook,” said Nicole, as we see a couple customers receive steamy plates of tofu sandwiches and vegan mac and cheese with microgreens. “We love to show them how to make things not only delicious but nutrient-dense. God has given us natural remedies, a means to be able to help heal the body, or at least do as much as possible within our human power to be able to keep ourselves well. We show people how to combine different foods to get the most nutrients out of them. This helps in healing, avoiding disease, and maintaining a basic level of health.”

It’s More than What You Eat

While the Broushets are adamant that a plant-based, nutrient-rich diet is vital, they say it goes deeper. They believe God is so relational and loving that He not only cares about what happens to us in terms of salvation; He also cares about day-to-day decisions that can help or harm us.

“Our food choices and our health decisions impact not only our physical health but also our relational health, our emotional health, our environment. All of these different aspects are touched by the decisions that we make on a day-to-day basis,” said Nicole, referencing 1 Corinthians 10:31. “When I realized this, it opened up God in a really awesome way for me. God and I are on this journey together, and recognizing this has really allowed me to experience God in a very intimate relationship.”

She further explained, “That is the essence of the health message: surrendering every decision, every aspect of our life to God and understanding that, as Creator, He knows what’s best for us.”

Victor agrees. “And as an Adventist, you’ve got to know what to do with the health message, and that the relationship with God can come from following it and surrendering to Him,” he said. “Every Seventh-day Adventist should have some training in medical missionary work to handle those types of situations—not just for strangers, but for your extended family, your immediate family, and yourself.”

From Texas to Massachusetts, by Way of New York

Nicole grew up in a Christian home, and her passion for clean eating started early. “I grew up in Texas, which is big on farming and cattle and all of that, and my kindergarten field trip was to a slaughterhouse,” she shared. “Going through that experience, I was absolutely horrified. I made the decision that day that I would abstain from eating animals.” While Nicole didn’t know the proper terms until much later, she did, in fact, become vegan. As she continued to mature, she also started focusing on the environmental and health impacts but didn’t connect her beliefs with her faith until she met Victor in her early 20s.

Victor, an electrician from New York City, was raised Seventh-day Adventist and explained that eating healthfully was a principle espoused by the Adventist Church. “I told Nicole that this is something that my church really believes in, in terms of eating healthfully and being mindful of what we eat, and that there’s actually a strong spiritual component,” said Victor.

When Victor shared his thoughts on the health message, Nicole was surprised to learn there were people who lived for Jesus and didn’t eat meat, so she started studying.

“At first, we were living for ourselves—not really interested in church. Her dad got us back into going to church. Then my dad encouraged us to go with him,” Victor said, “but it wasn’t clicking for me yet. I finally got to a point where I said, ‘God, I can’t do this the same way I did it before. You’re going to have to show me something different or I can’t be a part of this.’ And He did. From that moment, I’ve had a supernatural experience. My entire family has had a supernatural experience with God from that day forth.”

“I came into the health message first and then into the Sabbath truth. Then pretty much right after we got married, I made the decision to be baptized,” Nicole added.

Nicole, an organizational psychologist working in the nonprofit sector for large NGOs and conducting leadership development, conflict resolution, and group dynamics, enjoyed eating healthy and delicious food. It wasn’t until Victor’s dad became terminally ill that she and Victor had the opportunity to explore more fully the connections between health and diet and then take a medical missionary training course. The couple both finished the training, then started a small “sanitarium” out of their little New York City apartment.

Nicole shared that in those early days, “We would have people stay with us, and we’d help them with different things that they were struggling with. Whether it was high blood pressure, mental health disorders, struggles with HIV and AIDS, or people just having issues with maintaining a healthy weight because of medications, we’d work with them, assisting them in a practical way to apply simple methods to help bring about healing and spiritual revival. From there, we started going to schools, universities, and businesses throughout New York City, where we’d teach about nutrition, health equity, [and] food accessibility. We’d spend our time predominantly in the food-insecure areas—food deserts in Brooklyn, the Bronx, different parts of the city—exposing people to the things that would be able to help prevent or overcome disease.”

As the Broushets continued teaching, people would ask them to cater. Nicole dedicated herself full-time to the ministry of education and cooking. Eventually, their meal preparation grew to cater for 1,000 people—out of that little New York City apartment—and they realized two things: they enjoyed it and could actually do it. “That’s when we really started praying in earnest,” said Nicole, “and we started digging into the Old Testament, looking at the kings of Israel, the rise and fall of the various kings. We started looking at leadership and purpose and how these various men were called to certain things and whether or not they fulfilled their calling, and how it impacted the nation around them. We kept praying.”

One day during this time, the Broushets were driving down a beautiful autumn road in the middle of the city, when Victor turned to Nicole and said, “The Vegan Nest.”

Nicole replied, “Yeah. Sure. But what is it?”

“I don’t know,” he answered, “but it’s in my head. The Vegan Nest.”

When they got home, the couple created a Facebook page called “The Vegan Nest.” They started posting all kinds of health information. People were reading and interacting with the material. And the Broushets started to cater more and do pop-up events, which allowed them to reach more people. “We did vegan festivals, pop-ups; we drove down to Tennessee to Coffee Fest with our herbal coffee. We eventually did an event in New England, and one thing led to another. We were not planning on opening a restaurant, but here we are. Four years later, we are happy to say that we have not only one but two locations, and we’re growing,” said {who?}

“We had an unexpected opportunity in Worcester—a miracle, really,” said Victor about their first café, which opened on November 5, 2017, near a pharmacy school and next to an Irish pub. “And I’m like, ‘I’m all in.’ I immediately quit my union job. I said, ‘Lord, I know You have this. You’re my pension.’ Whatever money I had accumulated over 28 years was exactly enough to take over the place.”

A Pandemic, Prayer, and a Food Truck

Nicole Broushet talks about the benefits of eating a vegan diet with two interested persons at one of the many food festivals the Broushets have worked in New England. [Image provided by Victor Broushet]

The Broushets have established themselves as community members who know their neighbors by their first names. Willing to listen to those in need gives them the opportunity to make friends and share their expertise—and their faith—to those who, in turn, are willing. Often, even the simplest of exchanges leads to prayer.

And those prayers with and for others often lead to miraculous answers for all involved.

“We’ve had employees who’ve come to know Jesus through working here with us,” said Nicole, sharing that several, along with family members, have either joined the church or are in Bible studies.

“We’ve had customers come in and see something that needs fixing and help us with it,” she continued. “And we’ve seen how God works during the pandemic.”

The couple signed the contract on the Clinton location on March 5, 2020. On March 10 everything started shutting down because of the pandemic. “It was like a bad movie,” Nicole said. “We were getting pings and messages and notifications with friends in the business saying they were shuttering their doors, laying off their staffs, and closing down. It was scary.”

Nicole recalls standing with her phone in hand when Victor came over and gently put the phone down. “We’re going to pray,” he said. And they did, rededicating the café to the Lord.

The Broushets worked 80- to 90-hour weeks. They struggled to keep their staff, putting a halt to the second location buildout. They were concerned about their customers and friends. Then the Lord gave them the nesting box concept. With the nesting box campaign, they’d check in with certain customers they knew that had health situations to make sure they had what they needed, and the Broushets and their staff delivered boxes of food.

“It was hard. And it’s still hard,” said Nicole, “but I do know and trust in God’s goodness.”

And God’s not done yet. “We just received a grant from the Boston Celtics, Vistaprint, and the NAACP to fund a food truck, which we plan to use to provide food equity,” Victor said. “Although it’s a small portion of what we need to build out the entire food truck, it’s a start. And that’s how God works, you know? He gives us the start, and we must be patient, and then He’ll provide the rest. I have no doubt that God’s going to provide everything we need for the community food truck.”

“Our goal is to create this arm of the restaurant that will be able to go into low-income neighborhoods, to rural communities, and provide food, completely donation-based, fair exchange, throughout the week,” added Nicole. “We’ll be able to make sure that people have access to healthy food. As part of the program, we’ll also be able to share information and guidance and provide counsel. We plan to have trained medical missionaries come on board and be there to be able to offer these services. It’s going to be an incredible opportunity to connect with communities here in New England.”

Nicole continued, “I like to say it’s truly a highways-and-byways type of ministry, going out and doing what we can to reach everyone. Building community—it’s that breaking bread together.”

We pause as Nicole greets a customer she hasn’t seen in months. She approaches, and the uniformed worker beams. Nicole listens as the man updates her. She encourages him to try a special dish. He does, and with a lift in his step, he carries his carryout container across the warm brick-and-wood-accented dining area to his waiting delivery truck.

“We are still learning every single day,” Nicole added, “but the incredible thing is that God is on this journey with us, and He is responsible for our success. We just have to step forward in faith. It’s kind of a back-against-the-wall situation. You’re either going to do it or you’re not. And when you make that decision to go forward, there is no going back.”

“We’ve put our faith in Christ and will just keep going.”

Link for their interview: https://vimeo.com/652203812

This article was originally published on the North American Division’s news site