From Lake Chad to Iraq, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) provide relief around the globe, and their scope is growing every year. Policy makers and activists often assume that humanitarian aid is best provided by these organizations, which are generally seen as impartial and neutral. In Above the Fray, Shai M. Dromi investigates why the international community overwhelmingly trusts humanitarian NGOs by looking at the historical development of their culture. With a particular focus on the Red Cross, Dromi reveals that NGOs arose because of the efforts of orthodox Calvinists, demonstrating for the first time the origins of the unusual moral culture that has supported NGOs for the past 150 years. Drawing on archival research, Dromi traces the genesis of the Red Cross to a Calvinist movement working in mid-nineteenth-century Geneva. He shows how global humanitarian policies emerged from the Red Cross founding members’ faith that an international volunteer program not beholden to the state was the only ethical way to provide relief to victims of armed conflict. By illustrating how Calvinism shaped the humanitarian field, Dromi argues for the key role belief systems play in establishing social fields and institutions. Ultimately, Dromi shows the immeasurable social good that NGOs have achieved, but also points to their limitations and suggests that alternative models of humanitarian relief need to be considered.

There is no question that strong foundational skills are essential to successful, joyful reading. In this book, Julia Lindsey focuses on strategies for decoding and chunking words--and ways to teach them efficiently to help children read more deeply during whole-class, small-group and one-on-one instruction. You'll find: 1) need-to-know essentials of how reading works and develops; 2) principles of high-quality foundational skills instruction--including connections to content learning, culturally responsive practices, and engaged reading; and 3) clear-cut, teacher-approved, research-based "instructional swaps" to improve your early reading instruction.

The premise of "Above the Fray" is that the Information Age is creating a turbulence most business owners fail to acknowledge or take steps to profitably manage. "Above the Fray" offers a method of creating a vision that produces clarity. It teaches how to create plans with a bias toward action and speed of implementation. It suggests a systems approach to hiring the right team members who can handle today’s fast-paced environment. Readers will discover how to create a management methodology that ensures alignment and commitment to their vision. Revealed are marketing systems and strategies that set their companies apart from competition along with metrics that measure real-time performance. Collectively, these concepts create more effective business leaders, all better prepared to thrive in today’s turbulent business word.

From Lake Chad to Iraq, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) provide relief around the globe, and their scope is growing every year. Policy makers and activists often assume that humanitarian aid is best provided by these organizations, which are generally seen as impartial and neutral. In Above the Fray, Shai M. Dromi investigates why the international community overwhelmingly trusts humanitarian NGOs by looking at the historical development of their culture. With a particular focus on the Red Cross, Dromi reveals that NGOs arose because of the efforts of orthodox Calvinists, demonstrating for the first time the origins of the unusual moral culture that has supported NGOs for the past 150 years. Drawing on archival research, Dromi traces the genesis of the Red Cross to a Calvinist movement working in mid-nineteenth-century Geneva. He shows how global humanitarian policies emerged from the Red Cross founding members’ faith that an international volunteer program not beholden to the state was the only ethical way to provide relief to victims of armed conflict. By illustrating how Calvinism shaped the humanitarian field, Dromi argues for the key role belief systems play in establishing social fields and institutions. Ultimately, Dromi shows the immeasurable social good that NGOs have achieved, but also points to their limitations and suggests that alternative models of humanitarian relief need to be considered.

Life is an ever changing and often unpredictable sequence of events that rarely fulfills our expectations or desires. And yet in the long run, if we can be objective in our assessment, we find that unpredictable and challenging events invariably contribute to our growth and maturity. Could it be that adversity is a message and a gift from Infinite Wisdom? Is it possible to perceive perfection in all things simply by changing our point of view? Is there some body of secret knowledge that when applied can allow us to find meaning and clarity in all events? Yes, yes, and triple yes. By increasing our level of awareness, we can render all concerns, obstacles, misfortunes, and mistakes as utterly irrelevant. This is a powerful statement that may take some radical examination of our present approach to life on planet earth, but perhaps up until the present moment, we have missed something that in retrospect would seem very obvious. It would be very beneficial if we could accept as perfect even the harshest of lifes difficulties. Oh, looking back over the past ten years of ones life experience, one might finally admit that the lesson learned was necessary and even desired; however it required too many years of suffering to finally reach such a conclusion. Increasing ones level of awareness, and applying concepts that have been taught throughout the ages, coupled with a sprinkling of new scientific breakthroughs, potentially could lessen or even eliminate this suffering. The illusions of insanity that seemingly permeate our lives will become important tools in the ascent of our journey into Awareness.

This volume engages the work of Walter Brueggemann, most of which has been published by Fortress Press. The volume centers on the character of God in the text of the Old Testament as a site of theological tension and even ambivalence. Biblical faith never experiences God as entirely above the fray but rather as entangled in history, astonishingly transformative, and impinged upon by the voices of the suffering. Brueggemann's monumental Theology of the Old Testament addresses this fact with great theological insight and rigor, and the internationally renowned biblical scholars writing here engage and extend his insights into the "unsettled Character . . . at the center of the text."

This book unlocks the meaning of more than 5,000 idioms used in American English today.