I tried to use that one once on my current small group to see what they would do. They just stared at me and rolled their eyes. Then they laughed because they knew I was joking.

Maybe teenagers in 1995 were a lot more corny than teenagers in 2013. Or maybe it was just me.

There are things our daughters (and sons, too!) need to hear us say. And even though the clichés may encourage some of them and may look cute on a poster, they will most likely fall flat on young ears. Here is my best attempt to come up with 12 non-cliché things our daughters need to hear us say.

1. I have hope.

I could tell her "Have hope." But, I speak as a daughter here, it means more to me to see my parents have hope than for them to tell me to have hope. My hope (or lack thereof) speaks louder to her than my words about hope.

Show her you have hope - you trust God with your family, you have hope for her future, you see light in dark places. Continue reading

Source

• Emily in Chatting at the Sky
• Image: More4Kids

Brendan Gormley, chief execution of the British Disasters Emergency Committee said: "To raise NZ$80 million in just over three weeks is a wonderful demonstration of public concern for those in need."

"We can't lose sight of the fact however, that this is an escalating crisis."

The UN's food arm, the Food and Agriculture Organisation said the famine is likely to spread across all regions of Somalia's south in the next four to six weeks, with famine conditions likely to last until December.

Despite the peoples' generosity the UN says the response so far has not been at a level required to match the humanitarian need.

"The current humanitarian response remains inadequate, due in part to ongoing access restrictions and difficulties in scaling‐up emergency assistance programmes, as well as funding gaps," said the UN's famine early warning system network. As a result, famine is expected to spread across all regions of the south in the coming four to six weeks and is likely to persist until at least December 2011. Continued efforts to implement an immediate, large scale, and comprehensive response are needed."

The UN assessment is that NZ$3 billion is needed and so far the world has not yet raised half of that amount.

Islamist insurgents who have refused access to western relief agencies have not helped the situation.

The drought and famine which has affected more than 11.8 million people has Pope Benedict repeating his calls for the world to not forget the Somali people.

Spreaking from his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo where he has been paying great attention to horror of the Somali peope, the Pope invited the faithful "to think of the many brothers and sisters who in these days in the Horn of Africa, are suffering the dramatic consequences of famine, aggravated by war and the absence of solid institutions."

Women and daughters are in particular need of institutional help.

Kenyan refugee camps built to house 90,000 people are overcrowded and cannot cope with the 1,400 refugees arriving each day and as a result the UN is reporting a 420% increase in reported rape of women and girls.

Many more rapes go unreported.

Sources

• The Telegraph
• Belfast Telegraph
• The Guardian
• Voice of America
• Image: Washington Post