What Can I do?

I've made some recent posts on the famine and food price situation in Ethiopia, but what can someone do to help?

Here are some suggestions:

1. Get informed. On issues like these we have a tendency to feel very far removed from the situation and we forget what is going on elsewhere in the world. We see this even in the version of the news which we get on TV. It is typically 20 minutes of American news (including human interest stories and fillers) and a 2 minute synopsis of what is happening in the rest of the world. I believe that it is irresponsible of us to hide our heads in the sand or to just say that suffering is something that happens in the rest of the world. It is important for us to become informed. We had a recent tragedy in our church and it is amazing how when all of a sudden something that happens everyday all around the world happens in your backyard there is a shaking that comes. Suffering and tragedy occurs somewhere every minute of every day - we can't hide from that. So, let's become educated on the situation that others find themselves in throughout the world.

2. Pray for these situations. These situations are huge. They really require God moving for them to be changed. There are complex environmental, political and social issues in which we can come to God and ask Him to move, to change hearts and to raise the responsibility level of others in the world, starting with you and I.

3. Choose to Take action. In The Bible we see very clear calls to action. A couple of examples in case you are wondering... James writes in James 1:27 "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James makes it clear how important widows and orphans (and our caring for them) is to God. How am I doing at that kind of following Jesus? I also wonder how am I doing at "[keeping myself]from being polluted by the world." Could the materialism that I engage in actually be contributing to my pollution by the world around me that in turn keeps me from being able to look after the orphans and widows?

Of course Jesus also writes, "Love your neighbor as yourself." We typically do not think of our neighbor as being on the other side of the world, but they are. We know that Jesus was not taking simply about proximity here, rather he is calling us to love humankind with His kind of love.

Choosing to take action starts with an assessment of my self and a desire to respond to a call of greater simplicity in the life I live in order that I might demonstrate Jesus love and His call to the orphans and widows with the resources I have.

4. Ask God for direction, then step out. Perhaps the hardest part in all of this is to know what to do except pray. There are so many practical ways we could respond through various organizations out there. This is an important place to come before The Lord and ask where He would have you give or how He would have you respond. Perhaps He leads you on a short term trip. Perhaps He calls you to an orphanage in Africa to hold babies. Perhaps He calls you to adopt. Perhaps He leads you back to school for training to take abroad. Perhaps He leads you to donate to an organization that is making a difference for individuals who face suffering throughout the world.

I would recommend to you 2 organizations that are doing an amazing job at caring for impoverished children throughout the world. They are Compassion and World Vision. You can find out more info on Compassion at www.compassion.com. For World Vision you can check in with my good friend Jeff Mclain at his World Vision page at http://connect.worldvision.org/siteapps/personalpage/ShowPage.aspx?c=luLVJaMSKpH&b=851285&sid=ffKQIQPsE9JHLUNtGkF. He is a Child Ambassador for World Vision and can fill you in.

I know at this time we all are feeling the pinch of higher prices and the uncertainty of economic issues, however lets be mindful that this crisis affects many throughout our world at much greater stakes than what it does you and I. And then lets act on it.