Do you care enough to Act?

“If a man, woman or child 100 miles away was suffering at the hands of torture and murder would you not run to help? Why then, do you not help when men, women and children are suffering at the hands of torture and murder, 3,000 miles away?” –Raphael Lemkin, the father of the word, “genocide,” who narrowely escaped death during the Jewish Holocaust.

I attended an informational meeting at my school today about the horrors currently being experienced in North Darfur. I was challenged to amp up my efforts to care for these issues by creating awareness and aiding advocacy efforts.  I may even consider running another marathon to raise money for the cause.  Would anyone be interested in joining me?

Anyway, the suffering of the people there is tremendous. Some say up to 400,000 have been brutally murdered. Over 2.5 million have been displaced. Many hundreds of thousands of women & young girls have been savagely raped –multiple times.  There is no sight in end.  We as a world community cannot watch another genocide occur.  We must not!  And those of us who proclaim faith in Judaism, Christianity or Islam need to be ashamed of ourselves if we ignore another day of this catastrophe.  God himself tells us we are our brothers keeper!

Regardless of your religious or Atheists beliefs, join me in doing some of the following…

1. Go to www.savedarfur.org and learn more about it.

2. Go to youtube do a search for “Darfur” & watch the advocacy videos until you cry. Literally, find a way to get yourself heartbroken about it if it is just too far away for you to make yourself care.  May our heart break as God’s does for the suffering of the poor and the oppressed.  (The books Habakkuk & Amos in the Bible also explain a little bit more of God’s concerns in these ways).

3. Donate money to World Vision, SaveDarfur.org or the InterNational Justice Mission who does good work to care for these suffering people.

4. Go to www.solarcookerproject.org to find out how you can help.

5.     If you believe God changes things through prayer. Pray this way… (& pray often):

Lord, in the matter of Darfur, help me to be

concerned without cynicism

involved without fear

speak without rancor

pray without ceasing

live without complicity

so that with my brothers and sisters in Darfur we may

live with hope

act with confidence

speak truth with strength

and become your loving presence on this earth.

Deliver us from evil.

Amen

-a prayer from the Covenant Community Church

“Genocide does not belong to one Nation, it belongs to all Nations”. – Anonymous

“Indifference is the essence of inhumanity.” – George Bernard Shaw

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.