I am proud to help sponsor a motorcycle rally on Saturday, April 14 to benefit the children at the Murphy Harpst Children's Center in Cedartown. The kids there are the most abused and sexually traumatized kids in Georgia. They have rarely, if ever, known love and stability. And Murphy Harpst is usually the first place they find healing, help, and hope.

Our rally will have multiple starting points in metro Atlanta (Great South Harley Davidson in Newnan and Frazier's Harley Davidson in Buford) and we will all then funnel through to Harley Davidson of Atlanta on Thornton Road near Douglasville on I-20 to head to Cedartown. Once, there you will receive a tour of Murphy Harpst to meet some of the precious children there who are growing stronger each day, receive a gift bag with all kinds of gifts and cards from the kids, and eat a meal furnished by Chick-fil A. Plus you'll get to make new friends with other bikers across Georgia. A good day it will be!

The costs of this ride have all been underwritten, so every dollar from your gifts and registration will go to the benefit of children at Murphy Harpst. If you cannot ride, I invite you to make a generous gift instead. All the details and registration are here.

My friend, Randy, was eating dinner at the airport by himself when a lady sat down at the counter near him. A few minutes later, another woman and her young daughter sat across on the other side of the counter. The small girl's face was marred by a terrible scar. The woman seated near Randy stared intently at the girl as Randy looked down embarrassed for her. About a minute passed, with Randy growing more and more awkward with each second as the woman stared at the young girl. Finally the woman said, "How old are you, little girl?"

"I’m 8", came the reply.

"My, what beautiful eyes you have," said the woman.

My friend Randy went away sad. He had been able to focus only on the disfiguring scar. So much so that he had missed the opportunity to see those beautiful eyes. 

What a shame to hear of Whitney Houston's death and to focus only on her addictions and failures. My, what a beautiful voice she had.

FYI for you podcast fans. We recorded the show last night (2/12) but I am having difficulty uploading it and will need to recapture the audio from WSB's computer. Will get it on the site next weekend along with the 2/19 show. Thank you for listening to the Allen Hunt Show!

Peggy Noonan says it well. "If the church is forced to go against its conscience, religious liberty in America is not safe. If religious liberty is not safe, you are not safe."

My younger daughter, Little G, and her friends were robbed at Georgia Tech this past Sunday. Purses, laptops, wallets all taken. Fortunately, no one was physically hurt.

As they feverishly called to cancel credit cards, one of the girls called her boyfriend. I now call him King Geek. He quickly logged into her ICloud account, activated the GPS tracking on her cell phone, and located where the stolen phone was. Tech police officers immediately headed to that location, and sure enough, there were the two men, standing with bag loads of stolen goodies. Nearly everything (but not all) was recovered. Two men arrested. Case closed.

So, here's to the geeks who know how to use all the stuff that confounds pen and pad users like me in order to save the day for young damsels in distress. Well done!

Do me a favor. Hug a geek (or a police officer) today. 

I've been working on my next book this week. May call it The One Thing to Know Before You Die. Which reminded me of one of my favorite real life stories.

Aldred Pruden Wallace is an odd name for a man. His son, Peter, is my friend. Aldred lived his last 18 months in a nursing home, surviving on his small pension. He had no other possessions besides his wonderful, warm and generous spirit. 

The staff loved Aldred and would do anything for him. In his final few months, dementia set in, and Aldred created scenarios in his mind. For example, one day The President had consulted Aldred for advice on foreign policy. But most of the scenarios revolved around money. He thought he had $200MM left over from World War II and he really wanted to bless his caregivers and friends at the nursing home. 

So several times a day, Aldred would walk up to a caregiver, pull them aside and say quietly in their ear, ”I want to give you a million dollars because you’ve been so kind, so good to me.” The nursing home staff would chuckle when Peter came to visit, and say, “Your dad has been so generous with his money!”

But one day they found Aldred very quiet and withdrawn – out of character. He was like that for several days in a row. Then he died. Turned out he had had a stroke – and no one really knew it. The stroke had changed his personality.

The nurse said, “We knew something was wrong. When he quit giving, we knew something was clearly wrong.”

I hope that you and I become generous enough in life that when we stop giving, someone will say, "Surely something must be wrong!"

Most people desperately desire to believe that they are part of a great mystery, that Creation is a work of grace and glory, not merely the result of random forces colliding. Yet each time that they are given but one reason to doubt, a worm in the apple of the heart makes them turn away from a thousand proofs of the miraculous, whereupon they have a drunkard's thirst for cynicism, and they feed upon despair as a starving man upon a loaf of bread.

- Dean Koontz in Odd Thomas

Just read this suspense/thriller on the plane. It was a fascinating read.

My friend, Tom, is riding a bike from California to Boston to inspire people regarding the dignity of human life. Proud of you, dude!

My friend, Gary, and I had lunch with "Cathy" this week. We were blessed.

Cathy's mom lost custody of little 4 year old Cathy because her drug habit had spiralled out of control. Cathy's dad is nowhere to be found. Cathy has been in and out of more than 20 foster care homes and several adoptive family situations over the past 11 years. Her life has lacked stabiiity and unconditional love, and the 15 year old Cathy we shared lunch with has often found herself repeating her mother's cycle of drug abuse and treating the adults around her with anger and disrespect.

Eight months ago, Cathy came to live at the Murphy Harpst Center, which treats kids who have been sexually abused, traumatized, and rejected. This is likely the longest she has ever lived in the same place. Cathy has been clean now for 8 months, and her favorite part of Murphy Harpst is the library. She loves to read, and now for the first time is making good grades. Working with the horses in equine therapy there has taught her how to give and receive love, perhaps for the first time in her life. So much so that Cathy hopes one day to operate her own home for abused and abandoned animals.

While Gary and I listened to her talk about her challenges and her therapy, the words that struck me most came when Cathy said, "The turning point came when I learned to start looking toward the future rather than re-living everything in my past." My blue eyes filled with tears of grace as her gentle, brown eyes looked at Gary and me as she spoke those words that apply not only to her, but also to you and me.

I rarely have guests on the show. Too much that I want to say and I only have a 3 hour show once a week!

But when I heard that Dr. Miriam Grossman, M.D., was coming to town, I knew I had to have her be a part of the show. Her talks and books have been most helpful to me as a dad and as a person of faith. I only wish I had discovered her work sooner, like before my two daughters went off to college.

Check out this site that shares some of her work and the dates for her appearances and talks here in Atlanta in the coming week. I will be attending some of these and you should too.