Vol. 4 Issue 9: Be the friend you are looking for...

All too often, our news, social media feeds, and even our conversations with friends and family are centered around anxiety-filling and rage-inducing content. It can be so difficult to believe good things happen every day when the things reported or shared are examples of the worst humanity has to offer.

That’s why we started Real Positive Vibes. We wanted to create a haven inside your inbox to share some good news with you. We hope that while you read our newsletter, you can recharge and feel refreshed.

In His service,

Chaplain Michelle

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About Us

The mission of Real Positive Vibes, RPV, is to help society move toward goodness, finding it within themselves by seeing it in others. RPV is a service of Church Builders Bible Training Center whose mission is to help each person discover their vision for life, find their passion, and focus their purpose. Our beliefs are interdenominational. We are unapologetic about our non-religious Christ-centeredness. Find out more: bibletc.com/vision

Start with the friend in the mirror...

Forgive the riff on an old classic but I have been thinking a lot about ways to boost and improve my sense and perception of myself. We have talked before about being kind to ourselves and being willing to give ourselves the same amount of grace and support we give to our loved ones.

I have been thinking a lot about what that means in more practical steps. How do I become a good friend to myself? What came to mind was some advice I was given when I was a child, 'be the kind of friend you want.' So thinking about that, I started to try and treat myself as I treat my friends.

I think we have all made self-deprecating comments about ourselves from time to time, but when I caught myself doing it most recently, I stopped and responded to myself with the same aggressive positivity that I use when I hear a friend talking down to themselves. It felt a little weird to interrupt that negative pattern all on my own but I realized something. I talk down to myself more than I realized. It felt too natural to criticize and belittle myself. Moreover, it felt like it took me a little too long to come up with the counter wait. I keep compliments ready for friends, and coworkers because I know how nice it is to hear one, especially on a bad day or in a stressful moment. So why was it so hard to find similar words for myself?

Honestly, I am still working through those questions, but what I know is that I have the potential to be a better friend to myself. I encourage you to do the same. I think that when we learn to be better friends to ourselves we become better friends to others. Not just because we have more to give but also because we can better articulate our needs. I treasure my friends and I hope that one day I can treasure myself as one of them.

Email us and let us know how you bring a little positivity to your life. We would love to hear it and we may feature you in a future issue.

Outreach

Missions Trip

I am very excited to share this news with all of you. This March, I have the opportunity to travel abroad and teach at Covenant College South Africa. I am looking forward to sharing my experiences and insights during this journey with all of you! For more information on the trip or if you want to help support me, click here

My Sister's Closet

My Sister’s Closet of West Michigan, is a service of Church Builders Bible Training Center to survivors of domestic violence, former incarceration, or other devastating tragedy to meet the need of one of the three basic needs of survival, clothing. Find out more and how to volunteer here.

Author looking for an illustrator finds her thanks to a kitchen renovation

Ana Impellizeri and Nora Raikh have construction work to thank for their new creative partnership.

Impellizeri is the capital projects manager for 2Life Communities, an organization that provides affordable housing for seniors in the Boston area. Raikh lives at 2Life's Ulin House in Brighton, and when she was hesitant to let construction workers into her unit to renovate her kitchen, Impellizeri came to try to ease her concerns.

They started chatting, and Raikh shared that during the pandemic, she began writing children's stories about characters from Russian literature called Brownies. It was hard for Raikh to be isolated, and she "did this creative thing that kept her alive, that kept her afloat," Impellizeri said. Raikh had a manuscript for a book called Small Secrets of a Big House, and just needed an illustrator. It turns out that Impellizeri also enjoys writing children's stories and is an artist, and volunteered to draw the pictures.

Man receives kidney donation from Uber driver taking him to dialysis appointment

Bill Sumiel needed a kidney.

And because his center needed to pick him up at his Salem, N.J. home, he also needed an Uber ride.

On the car ride to the dialysis center, he and his driver struck up a conversation about the problems Sumiel was having.

By the end of the car ride, Uber driver Tim Letts, told him that "God put him in his car that day" and offered him his kidney.

They ended up being a match.

Woman Raises $120K to Help 82-Year-Old Walmart Worker Pay Off Medical Debt

When Elizabeth Rizzo first saw an 82-year-old woman holding a cane and working at an Arizona Walmart, she wondered why she was still working at her age. She didn’t know that days later, she would help change that employee’s life forever.

After learning that the Walmart employee, Carman Kelly, was working to pay off about $10,000 in medical debt and only had $50 in her bank account at the time, Rizzo made a TikTok video about her situation.

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