Reverend Adam Hamilton ~ Friday, 18 October 2013 ~ Dear Resurrection Family,

Reverend Adam Hamilton ~ Friday, 18 October 2013 ~ Dear Resurrection Family,

I've got several fun and interesting things to share with you in today's note. I hope you'll take the time to read it - I'll try to keep it short :)

This weekend my sermon is entitled Money and the Meaning of Life - a title taken from a book by philosopher Jacob Needleman. With humor and a look at biblical and real life examples, we'll consider the meaning of life and the intended significance of wealth. I believe you'll be inspired and encouraged as we share a great weekend of worship.

This is also commitment weekend in our annual stewardship effort. We'll be giving you the new 2014 Resurrection coffee mug as a thank you for returning your commitment card this weekend.

Why do we ask you to fill out a commitment card each year? First, it is meant to encourage each Resurrection member to stop for a moment and to evaluate their giving, what it means, and how much it should be for the coming year. I met one man who attended a church for ten years that did not have commitment cards. He noted that though his income had more than doubled during that decade, he had never thought to increase his giving. The second reason we ask you to make a commitment is so that we can have an accurate picture of what our members plan to give to God in the coming year, which allows us to set a ministry budget based not upon our guesswork, but upon what our members indicate are their plans. Thank you for taking the time to return your commitment. If you are planning on being out of town, plan to watch the message this weekend and we'll provide a link on the screen to make your commitment. There's a pic of the new mug to the right.

Last night Danielle, my oldest daughter, sent me an article called Sleep Cleanses the Brain of Toxins. If you or someone you love is a night owl running on very little sleep, you should read the article. It led me to commit to getting more sleep from now on. Click here to read the article.

Last weekend 338 Resurrection members from all of our campuses volunteered as a part of Kansas City's Christmas in October program to renovate homes for low income, mostly elderly people. Our members worked on 17 homes, painting, building wheel chair ramps, putting in new windows, doors, roofs and doing all kinds of other repairs. Thank you to all who served on this amazing project - you reflected the love of Christ in powerful ways. Click here to see pics and read the report of each team on our Resurrection Stories blog.

Have you been thinking about joining the Church of the Resurrection? To join you must attend a Coffee with the Pastors - an inspiring event where we share with you a bit of the church's story and what it means to be a member here. At the end of the Coffee we have a short joining ceremony. Typically, there are 100 or more who attend. Our next Coffee with the Pastors is a week from this Sunday, October 27, from 2 to 4 in our Student Center. Click here for more information or to make a reservation to attend.

Recently an article appeared in the United Methodist Reporter giving a report about our annual Leadership Institute. I thought you might enjoy reading it and reading about the impact your Leadership Institute has upon others. Click here to read the article.

On Saturday November 2 there will be a prayer retreat at Camp Timberlake (179th and 69 hwy) focused on different forms of prayer. Camp Timberlake is a beautiful place to spend time in prayer, and November 2 the leaves on the trees should be magnificent. Click here to register or for more information. Space is limited.

Heading to the Chiefs game? Join us this weekend on Saturday night or for any of the Sunday morning services before heading to the game. Wear your game day gear to church before heading out to Arrowhead.

I'm looking forward to seeing you in worship this weekend as we think about Money and the Meaning of Life.

Blessings!

Adam Hamilton

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“sleep ‘cleans’ the brain of toxins” by James Gallagher

The brain uses sleep to wash away the waste toxins built up during a hard day's thinking, researchers have shown.

The US team believe the "waste removal system" is one of the fundamental reasons for sleep.

Their study, in the journal Science, showed brain cells shrink during sleep to open up the gaps between neurons and allow fluid to wash the brain clean.

They also suggest that failing to clear away some toxic proteins may play a role in brain disorders.

One big question for sleep researchers is why do animals sleep at all when it leaves them vulnerable to predators?

It has been shown to have a big role in the fixing of memories in the brain and learning, but a team at the University of Rochester Medical Centre believe that "housework" may be one of the primary reasons for sleep.

"The brain only has limited energy at its disposal and it appears that it must choose between two different functional states - awake and aware or asleep and cleaning up," said researcher Dr Maiken Nedergaard.

"You can think of it like having a house party. You can either entertain the guests or clean up the house, but you can't really do both at the same time."

Plumbing

Their findings build on last year's discovery of the brain's own network of plumbing pipes - known as the glymphatic system - which carry waste material out of the brain.

Scientists, who imaged the brains of mice, showed that the glymphatic system became 10-times more active when the mice were asleep.

Cells in the brain, probably the glial cells which keep nerve cells alive, shrink during sleep. This increases the size of the interstitial space, the gaps between brain tissue, allowing more fluid to be pumped in and wash the toxins away.

Dr Nedergaard said this was a "vital" function for staying alive, but did not appear to be possible while the mind was awake.

She told the BBC: "This is purely speculation, but it looks like the brain is losing a lot of energy when pumping water across the brain and that is probably incompatible with processing information."

She added that the true significance of the findings would be known only after human studies, but doing similar experiments in an MRI machine would be relatively easy.

Commenting on the research Dr Neil Stanley, an independent sleep expert, said: "This is a very interesting study that shows sleep is essential downtime to do some housekeeping to flush out neurotoxins.

"There is good data on memory and learning, the psychological reason for sleep. But this is the actual physical and chemical reason for sleep, something is happening which is important."

Dr Raphaelle Winsky-Sommerer, a lecturer in sleep at Surrey University, said: "It's not surprising, our whole physiology is changing during sleep.

"The novelty is the role of the interstitial space, but I think it's an added piece of the puzzle not the whole mechanism.

"The significance is that, yet again, it shows sleep may contribute to the restoration of brain cell function and may have protective effects."

Many conditions which lead to the loss of brain cells such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease are characterised by the build-up of damaged proteins in the brain.

The researchers suggest that problems with the brain's cleaning mechanism may contribute to such diseases, but caution more research is needed.

The charity Alzheimer's Research UK said more research would be needed to see whether damage to the brain's waste clearance system could lead to diseases like dementia, but the findings offered a "potential new avenue for investigation".

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The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection

13720 Roe Avenue

Leawood, KS 66224 United States

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