This weekend is a national weekend of prayer for the western region of Darfur, Sudan. The region has been in the midst of genecide for the past few years. Over 400,000 people have died and over 2 million people have been displaced and are now without food and water. If you saw Hotel Rwanda then you can just imagine that same story except in a different African country. The government sponsered genecide must stop and we can do something to make it end. Please go to www.savedarfur.org and read and learn about how to contact your local representatives and our President urging them to stop this awful thing from continueing.
I am not sure if you guys kept up with the G8 and what happened. There was some amazing things that resulted from the conference. America has pledged to double aid to Africa by 2010. How much do you think America spends on foreign aid? I was watching an interview with Diane Sawyer and Brad Bitt and that question was asked to people on the street. Most people either said they didn't know or said things like 40% or 30%. The truth is we spend less than 1%. Less than a penny for every dollar goes to help those in need around the world. So may say, well we have so much need here in America...and i agree this is true, however we have no idea the amount of suffering and the extreme need in placed like Africa and India. We also have just pledged to spend $400 BILLION dollars on the war. We can get into the war conversation later on... UBC is starting to look into ways to help and I would love some ideas. I keep struggling with the thought of "should we take a trip to Africa" or should we just "raise money" and send over to Africa? Which is going to make the biggest impact. So please pray for UBC as we decide the best way to reach out to help our fellow brothers and sisters.
2 comments:
the question of whether "we should go" or should just send money is one worth wrestling with.
I apologize if I say nothing new, but what if one were to use 'vacation money' one year to do mission work in africa. Then use charity money and time and energy to help encourage others to send money.
Short term trips have been getting mixed reviews in my circles, but they do bring about a tremendous amount of change.
Usually they have a greater impact on the traveler than the recipient of the work.
But, by using vacation time and money to work, we may more faithfully use the tremendous resources we americans have, but allow our eyes to open to other things. we also can honest about the toursim aspect of foreign missions. No body cares about rich people going on safari in africa or filming animal planet show there. if we can go as tourists that can make a small difference in a myriad of ways, this might be what faithfulness looks like for the church.
really great thoughts Chris. the few mission trips that I have ever planned I have made no apoloigies that it was going to have a "tourist" aspect to it. Because it doesn't make since to spend all that money to go some where and not experience the culture and see the sights. so are you suggesting that we take our "family vacations" and turn them into "mission vacations"? So we spend the extra money that we Americans have to blow at the end of the year on self indulgence and pour that money into missions? this is pretty radical Chris. Last night we talked about Self-Denial (from Renovation of the heart- Dallas Willard) and this might fall under that category...
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