Kenney Myers

Author | Actor | Producer | Kickboxer | Entrepreneur

Kenney Myers

15 Blogs that Talk About the Power of Prayer

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prayerMillions of people pray every day for a variety of different reasons.  Whether you’ve found yourself in need of a listening ear or you want to praise a recent triumph, prayer has the ability to help people feel more grounded as they communicate with a higher power.  How and when you pray depends upon your religion.  In some religions, prayer is spoken aloud in a chant, sometimes as a group and others as an individual.  Group prayer is believed to have more power because there are a greater number of people communicating at the same time for the same things.  These 15 blogs will share information with you regarding various forms of group prayer, healing prayer and how and why it’s beneficial to keep a prayer journal.

Group Prayer

There are many ways to have group prayer.  Every time you go to church you take part in group prayer.  There’s a large group of people all around the world who pray for various leaders of the world at the same time, hoping to encourage positive outcomes with various world decisions. These five blog entries will shed some light on different group prayers practiced around the world.

  1. The Power of Group Prayer – A powerful example of what group prayer accomplished for a young man is shared on this blog.  The story details why he needed it and what the outcome was.  There’s even information on how you can accomplish something similar.
  2. The Power of Group Prayer – This blogger shares a difficult time that she is having at work and explains how she tapped into the prayers that are sent out to the world every day by monks and nuns.  She explains how she paid it forward by praying for others as well.
  3. Power of Prayer – A group of Christians traveled to Jerusalem to see the temple mount.  It was guarded by Arabs who prevented people from having bibles in the area or even praying there.  This blogger shares her experiences there, as well as what happened and why she feels that these guards feared the power of prayer.
  4. Prayer Groups/The Healing Power of Love – Ever wish you could get some divine help dealing with issues at work?  This blogger details a group that met for an hour each week and only prayed for love for themselves and others, but while they were praying they had their hands on lists of prayer concerns.  Find out what happened with this group and those they prayed for by reading this post.  You can also find out what his idea is.
  5. Starting a Prayer Group – If you’d like to start your own prayer group, this blogger lays out a plan for you to do so.  Tips from how to run the meetings to how to be a leader and much more are covered in this blog post.

Healing Prayer

Many people believe in the power of prayer to heal people.  Some religions believe that spiritual leaders can heal people by touch.  Other groups believe in lying hands on someone, whereby everyone prays for a person while touching them.  Read through these five blog posts and see if any of them resonate with you.

  1. Warrior’s Prayer Card – Stuart Wilde is a man who is into the metaphysical and believes that you should rely on yourself to grow and prosper.  He encourages a lot of prayer, but he also believes in reaching out to something bigger.  His beliefs are very interesting and worth taking a look at.  These warrior cards are used to help heal your ailments with prayer.
  2. Alternative Healing: Prayer Healing Still Engrained in Swiss Culture – Apparently Swiss doctors have been known to recommend prayer or other alternative healing practices to their patients.  The culture supports ancient methods of healing.  This story describes these experiences.
  3. How to Pray for Healing – This blog details a method of praying for those who need healing.  The steps are spelled out and surprisingly he doesn’t want you to use the word prayer, but instead wants you to command the healing.  This blog is Christian based.
  4. Here’s a Good Christian Prayer for Healing That Shouldn’t Freak You Out Too Much – Eric Foley is a reverend who wrote this very well-written post about healing prayer.  He makes a point of saying that many Christians get freaked out by some references to healing, and explains why this shouldn’t freak you out.
  5. Food Allergies Healed with Prayer – This video is from a woman whose child was cured of food allergies by prayer and she explains what happened.

Prayer Journals

Many people pray, but often it’s hard to know if your prayers are being heard.  Some people will tell you that their prayer was answered and that now, after years of trying, they were able to have a baby or gain some other much prayed for result.  If you want to track your prayers to see if and how they have been answered, a prayer journal may be the answer.  These five blog articles will explain how easy it is to create and use one.

  1. Tutorial: How to Make a Prayer Journal – Not only does this blogger explain why she felt the need to have a prayer journal, but she is very insightful as to why others might need one too.  The directions for making the prayer journal are easy to follow.
  2. Creating a Prayer Journal that Works – This blogger struggled with keeping a prayer journal for years.  She could never stay with it until she happened upon something called a ‘Prayer Notebook’ instead of journal. It was here that she felt like she found her answer.  She tells you how to create a 3-ring binder for prayers.
  3. How to Make a Prayer Journal – Free printables are available on this blog post that will help you in creating a prayer journal.  She explains why she needed a journal and then explains about tracking prayers.
  4. Keeping a Prayer Journal – Confused about what to write in your prayer journal?  This blogger spells out what she did and how it worked for her.
  5. My Prayer Journal App  For those of you who would rather type than write, here is an app to keep your prayer journal right on your phone or tablet.

10 Kens That Have Made Your Life Better

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kenneththompsonTo count the people throughout history who have changed your life for the better would be impossible. Every discovery and every innovation sends ripples across the tides of time, inspiring others to build on those discoveries and make life on Earth a little bit easier. Some people create vaccines that save millions of lives, others are innovators and inventors of labor saving devices, and others still discover the mechanisms that drive life and give humankind a better understanding of itself. These people have all made your life better, whether you know it or not, and at least ten of them share the name Ken.

  • Ken Ishii – In the world of vaccines, Ken Ishii’s name is synonymous with a dedication to research and development of life saving medicine. He spent seven years as a Visiting Scientist and IND reviewer at the Office of Vaccine Research and Review before returning to his home of Japan. Ken is currently serving at the Laboratory of Adjuvant Innovation at the National Institute for Biomedical Innovation.
  • Kenneth Lane Thompson – This pioneer of the Unix operating system was instrumental in designing and creating many of the computer operations you use today. He is also credited with creating regular expressions, text editors QED and ed, and defining UTF-8 encoding.  Without these innovations, computer science as we know it would not have advanced as rapidly as it did. Lane was well ahead of his time, and is still regarded as one of the most ingenious pioneers in computer science to this day.
  • Dr. Ken Hsu, MD – As the co-inventor of the X-STOP device, Dr. Hsu has brought hope to sufferers of symptomatic lumbar spinal stenosis all over the world. X-STOP is the least invasive surgery used to treat the condition, and is the first Interspinous Decompression Device in the world. With Dr. Hsu’s expertise in the field, it is certain that the X-STOP is only the first of future innovations.
  • Kenneth Clark – Kenneth and Mamie Clark, while most known for their work involving the psychological behaviors of children, changed the world with their expert testimony in the civil rights case of Briggs v. Elliott. The testimony led to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that de jure racial segregation in public education was unconstitutional. It was because of civil rights victories such as these that American attitudes began to change.
  • Kenneth Arnold – Although the Roswell, New Mexico incident in 1947 is credited with creating the modern fascination with UFOs, it was preceded by the account of a sighting by Kenneth Arnold. The pilot claimed he witnessed nine flying objects in the vicinity of Mount Rainier. He gave detailed descriptions of the crafts, stating they were shiny and moving at supersonic speeds. After Arnold reported the sighting, the media ran with it and the public was hungry for more. Next came Roswell and the rest, as they say, is history.
  • Kenneth W. Rendell – As an expert in detecting forged documents, Rendell is rewriting history in a good way. Much of what is known of the past is dependent on the accuracy of the available written documents. Kenneth Rendell’s sophisticated methodology and scientific techniques, along with his extensive knowledge of history, are helping ensure that what you are told happened actually did happen.
  • Elliot “Ken” Volkin – Cited as the most vital find in molecular biology, the categorization of Messenger RNA won François Jacob and Jacques Monod the Noble Prize. However, it is important to note that in 1956 Elliot “Ken” Volkin and Lazarus Astrachan had already discovered the form of RNA, although they had not accurately identified its mechanisms. Without the pair’s initial discovery, Jacob and Monod would not have gone on to complete their own important work in the field.
  • Dr. Kenneth Blum – Mapping genes is how Dr. Kenneth Blum spends his time, which for everyone else means new understanding of both physical and neurological illnesses and treatments. Blum is most noted for the discovery of the alcoholic and happiness genes, as well as the effects of dopamine and the DRD2 gene on social interactions and political affiliations.
  • Ken Street – If you’ve ever had to memorize the periodic table, you can thank Ken Street for adding Berkelium, one of the transuranic radioactive chemical elements, to the list. BK for short, this element was discovered in 1949 and has an atomic number of 97. Street co-discovered the element along with Glenn T. Seaborg, Albert Ghiorso and Stanley G. Thompson.
  • Ken Kennedy – If you’re a fan of the Internet, Ken Kennedy is one of the people who helped to shape it. His work with domain languages, software systems and parallel computer programming earned him a place with the National Academy of Engineering and several honors along the way. Sadly, he passed away in 2007 of pancreatic cancer.

Family Road Trip Crushing

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suv

Packing up the SUV
Heading out on the road
With a family of five
It’s quite the carload

Mom packs and Dad loads
Big bags first of course
He crams it all in and
Shuts the door with force

Mom grades Dad on his work
It’s never better than a C
Because the way Dad loads
The driver can never see

As we are pulling out
We notice there is no gas
So we hit the local station
and then on the road at last

The kids load up a movie
In the built-in DVR
Then play with their iPads
As they prepare to go far

Before too long Dad can see
Everyone is silent, he is alone
As each and every one of them
Now has on their head phones

Family road trips nowadays
Fly by with relative ease
Because with games like
Candy Crush it’s a breeze
Send us all a life please???

5 Reasons I Am Into Step Cycling And You Should Be Too

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So yesterday as I was on a ride when I heard some young kids scream from across the road, “NICE BIKE!”.  Okay, I can count on one finger how many times that has happened to me in my lifetime (not that I didn’t always have fine bikes, I just don’t remember this ever happening).  The point is step cycles are unique, different, and dare I say… COOL!  At first they may look a little dorky or awkward just because people aren’t used to seeing them but as soon as they and you wrap your mind around the concept it transcends the normal cycling experience.  Let me start by showing you a recent vine that I made after getting my step cycle and tweaking it a bit with my tools:

https://vine.co/v/bYqzPlp27wz

Now, bear in mind that I did NOT say that I WAS COOL, clearly that is not the case and this video is now documented proof of that.  But my step cycle is undeniably cool and here are 5 reasons why I am into step cycling and why I think you should be too:

  1. Gym Quality Equipment – If you purchase a solid step cycle like the WingFlyer you are essentially getting a gym quality piece of equipment that you know is built to last.  The bike is not heavy but it is clearly well put together and feels solid the moment you step onto it for your first ride.  I’m sure there are other alternatives and I hope to give more a try in the near future (when and if I do, I’ll be sure to write a review for you).
  2. Gym Quality Exercise (on the road) – The best part of the step cycle is that you get the same cardio workout that you would get on a elliptical machine or stair stepper in the gym but you have the advantage of being outside and actually going somewhere instead of just exercising in place.  There is simply something about physically covering a distance that makes it more pleasurable (at least for me).
  3. Natural Incline & Resistance – Since you are on the road you get a natural variation of inclines & resistance that comes from going up and down hills (even if the hills are just sidewalks in the local park).  If your step cycle has multiple speeds like mine you can actually make it even more difficult and get a workout in a fairly short amount of time (20-30 minutes).
  4. Natural Conversation Starter – So I haven’t spent a ton of time getting to know people in my extended neighborhood but you would be surprised how many people notice you on a step cycle and come up to you to at least ask about it.  So it’s actually a nice conversation starter and lets people at least know that you are in to fitness (which may very well be something you have in common with them).
  5. IT IS FUN! – I have to admit that I enjoy riding my step cycle.  You get to speed up and then enjoy some solid coasting with a nice breeze blowing in your face.  It’s like the best bicycle ride you ever remember being on as a kid but you get that feeling every time you ride your step cycle.  I think every fitness consultant or trainer worth a darn will tell you that finding exercise you enjoy is the secret to successfully reaching your fitness goals.  I would encourage everyone to find multiple exercises you enjoy jogging, lifting weights, and now step cycling happen to be mine.

Let me round out this conversation on step cycling with an obvious point missing from above.  Most good bicycles have seats (incredibly uncomfortable ones at that).  The beauty behind the step cycle is there is no uncomfortable seat to deal with but it does also mean that you are less likely to go on long rides than you would be on traditional bicycle.  Personally, I don’t miss the tiny uncomfortable seat (and I am reasonably skinny so that is not the problem).  Also, I generally only have about 30 minutes to exercise between work, supper, and the rest of our nightly activities so step cycling is perfect for me and my routine too.  If you are curious, take a trip to a local store that has one and give it a test ride.  You never know, you may find you love step cycling as much as I do!

How to Raise Money for Your Mission Trip

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bake-saleMission trips are an exciting way to learn about other cultures, offer aid to those in need and share the message of Christ. Even if your trip is a domestic one, you’re sure to encounter people from all walks of life, some of which are far different from your own. Unfortunately, these missions of goodwill and assistance do cost money. From travel and daily expenses to funding the assistance programs you’re planning to organize, there are a variety of expenditures that your group will be faced with covering over the course of your mission trip. To help raise money for these expenses, consider the following ideas.

Hold a Bake Sale

There’s a reason why bake sales are an old standby in the world of fundraising: they work! In addition to raising money, pooling your resources, time and effort to churn out baked goods for a bake sale is a great team-building exercise, and can help you to foster a sense of teamwork amongst participants in your mission group before you ever leave home. If there are skilled bakers within your congregation, they may also be willing to donate time or food items to support your cause.

Consider Crowd-Sourcing

Everything from albums to novels are funded through crowd-sourcing sites like Kickstarter these days, which can be of great use to mission trip organizers. Drafting a thorough proposal and sharing the link to your chosen crowd-sourcing collections site through social media, blogs and email can even help your cause to go viral, getting the attention and donations of people that would ordinarily be far out of your reach. Be sure that you carefully read the terms of use and all the fine print, though, since every crowd-sourcing site works differently.

Send Out Fundraising Letters

Writing professional letters of solicitation to be sent out to members of your congregation or faith group can garner donations from those who would love to help, but aren’t quite tech-savvy enough to manage crowd-sourcing sites or navigate social media. Your own church directory is a great source for mailing list information, especially if you’re part of a very large congregation. While you can print out address labels that will make the work of preparing snail-mail much less time-consuming, hosting an envelope-stuffing party where every member of your mission trip pitches in to stamp, stuff and address mailers is another way of working team-building exercises into the fundraising process. Remember, it’s never too early to start building the bonds of teamwork and partnership.

Look for Business Sponsorships

Some businesses, especially those that proudly advertise their faith-based approach to business, may be willing to sponsor your mission trip for advertising or tax purposes. Don’t be afraid to send polite letters of inquiry to local business owners that share your faith, as business sponsorships can be quite hefty and can make all the difference in your fundraising efforts.

Make Inquiries Regarding Church Support

If your mission trip is officially sanctioned by the clergy and elders of your church, they’ll almost certainly be willing to either provide donations or hold a special collections ceremony to help fund the trip. Speaking with your pastor about the options available to you may open more doors than you ever realized, and could help you expand your mission trip far beyond your original intentions. Working closely with church leadership is essential if you’ll be representing your congregation to the rest of the world, especially if there’s any chance of media attention.

Hold a Car Wash

There’s something about a car wash that tends to pull in even those that aren’t affiliated with your church. You will need to look into obtaining any necessary permits before setting up shop on a busy street corner, but high-traffic areas can yield big results. Unless you live in an area that’s warm year-round, however, car wash fundraising efforts are really only effective in the spring and summer months.

In addition to these ideas, there’s also something to be said for good, old-fashioned brainstorming sessions. Gather your missions group together to discuss everyone’s ideas for raising money. When you make a collective effort to think outside the box, there’s no telling what you’ll come up with!

15 Blogs Showing the Pros and Cons of Consuming Artificial Sweetener

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sugarsubWhen it comes to consuming artificial sweeteners, what’s the truth and what’s propaganda? Before you reach for your next packet of artificial sweetener, check out these 15 blog entries.

Pros

While you can find tons of articles about the evils of artificial sweeteners, you can also, amazingly enough, find some that are positive. According to some, there has been no hard evidence that artificial sweeteners cause health problems. All of the artificial sweeteners on the market have been approved by the FDA as safe for human consumption.  Read these five blog articles to learn the proposed positives of consuming artificial sweeteners.

Cons

It’s often hard to know what to believe about artificial sweeteners.  The fact that they are artificial and created in a lab may give one pause, but is it true that some may cause intestinal problems and cancer?  Check out these five blog posts to learn more about the negative reports on artificial sweeteners.        

Ways to Sweeten Food Naturally

If you can’t decide which side to take in the war on artificial sweeteners, you might just want to jump out of the argument altogether and sweeten your foods naturally.  Honey is one of the best ways to sweeten your food, and raw, local honey has the added benefit of giving you a natural protection against allergens.  To learn more ways to sweeten up your foods the natural way, check out these five blog entries.