News from Southern Sudan

Earlier this year, the people of southern Sudan voted to secede from the north and became it's own sovereign nation.  Although many aid agencies feared violence, the vote was a peaceful process.  The new country will become the Republic of South Sudan on July 9, 2011.  Please pray for a peaceful transition and for all the people of North and South Sudan.

Catholic Relief Services is all over it: Sudan is Knocking. Will You Answer?

and see this short video.

Children living in extreme poverty

I just got a chance to watch the film Slumdog Millionaire this weekend, and if you haven't seen it yet, you should.  It's very well done, but the beginning was extremely difficult to watch - thank goodness it has a happy ending.  We watched the first part, when the main characters are young children, on Saturday night and had to stop it.  At that point, I didn't think I could bring myself to watch the rest - the extreme poverty that those fictional kids lived in is what millions of children are dealing with in the real world.  To see that children are living that way, in trash dumps, searching for food, and being taken advantage of by evil adults, was heartbreaking.  I forced myself to watch the second half of the movie, which wasn't nearly as hard to watch - like I said, it has a good ending - because I didn't want to turn away from the ugliness of poverty.

Anyway, that night as I prayed I was crying, feeling guilty about my rich, western lifestyle but desperate to help and completely lost as to how to go about doing it.  What can be done, I pleaded with God?  Well, I still don't know - but I feel the Lord calling me to do something, anything to help.  I will be researching existing charities and people that are working on this vast problem - it doesn't seem possible, but I think Africa is suffering even more than India. Jesus left us with the task of doing His work here on Earth - we must not allow this to happen any more.  There really is no excuse great enough to exempt us from helping these people. 

I will keep you posted the more I find out.  In the mean time, please pray - for more Christians to hear the cry of the poor, for the children living in complete squalor, for the strength to persevere, for Peace.

A Call to Action

You've all seen those infomercials on TV that tug at your heartstrings, right? You know, the ones that show starving children in Africa, or children in Bangladesh digging in giant trash heaps for food, or the children living in cardboard boxes in Haiti. I cry every time I see one of those and I think "I should send them some money" or "I wonder if we should 'sponsor' one of those children?". The problem is that as soon as I turn off the TV, the tragic scenes I just viewed get filed comfortably away in the back of my brain somewhere and I get on with my busy, but relatively cozy, life. The greatest problem is not that my inaction does absolutely nothing to stop the evil of global poverty, of course - but that it actually makes things worse.

I came to this conclusion very recently as I was doing some research on atheism (specifically, how to ask the right questions that might at least make an atheist pause to re-consider their point of view). I ran across a website that had the picture below. I was instantly saddened and still can barely look at the image of that sweet child. But it made me realize that I can no longer turn away. The website was obviously using this to mock Christians' belief that God is all-loving and all-powerful. Why would God answer such mundane prayers for finding keys or helping a QB to score a touchdown and not help the most innocent of His children? They clearly don't understand how God operates. The problem of global poverty is not God's fault, but ours.



We as Christians are called to care for our less fortunate brothers and sisters. Now, before you say that you have done something - I know, so have I. I have given money to international organizations like Feed the Children, Food for the Poor, Heifer International, and Catholic Charities. I have also helped out with local charities by providing food, clothes, household items and financial assistance. I hope you've done more than I have, but clearly,whatever we have done collectively, it's not enough.


I realized that I must do more. We have been blessed by God many, many times over and it's time we really started to give something back. My family and I can do more - not just financially, but in prayer and in how we live our lives. Here are some examples of what we are going to do starting today:

• Pray every day for the impoverished and victims of violence
  

• Try very hard not to waste food - eat those leftovers!
  
• Talk to others about what can be done
  
• Sponsor a child

Global Poverty is an extremely complex problem - even Jesus said that we would always have the poor. What can one person or one family do? If you are Catholic, please prayerfully consider joining Catholics Confront Global Poverty - they are trying to encourage one million Catholics in the US to do something about global poverty by doing four simple tasks - pray, learn, advocate, educate. I think most of us can at the very least do the first two. If your are of a different denomination or faith, please look into your organizations to see where you might be able to help.

Here are some links to other good organizations which have high ratings on Charity Navigator:

Food For the Poor
Compassion International
AmeriCares
Catholic Medical Mission Board
Doctors Without Borders, USA

**Please note that I have not included Feed the Children because there is a "Donor Warning" on Charity Navigator.


I also encourage everyone to sign up to receive updates to this blog to find more ways you can help. I also want to hear from you, comments are always welcome!