Category: Poverty

A Black Toe-nail

9/21/2012

This Saturday, I will go on the longest run in my life. My one and only big toe-nail is black. Most of my body is sore and I walk funny, especially up steps.
Why?
To help children in Africa on streets I jogged three years ago.

In 2009, I traveled to Kivuruga, Rwanda with three other community leaders from Cambridge, Minnesota. "Our Response" is a community to community movement that began the same year partnering with World Vision.

This Saturday, I am running a half-marathon with Team World Vision to help change lives in Rwanda, Africa. The needs are great, but this is something I can do. World Vision works with communities in desperate need to help provide things like clean water, nutritious food, education, medical care, and economic opportunity.

The run is for water. Every $50 donated provides clean water for one person in Rwanda for an entire generation. I am also running 13.1 miles for a young girl name Joselyn who lives in Kivuruga. I met her three years ago and our family supports her through World Vision. Again, it is something I can do.

1 John 3:17
If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?

What can you do regarding world poverty?

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Why 4 Deaths Got the Worlds Attention on Tuesday, but 19,000 Children Died on Tuesday Unnoticed

9/14/2012

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Four Americans working in the US embassy in Libya were killed on Tuesday in an apparent response to an obscure film made in the US depicting the prophet Mohammad and followers in a derogatory manner. This has sparked further protests in the dominantly Muslim countries of Egypt and Yemen. The US military is on alert, President Obama has denounced the actions, the UN Secretary General has condemned the film and the violence. This morning I read articles by BBC editors. The death of four men and the protests on both sides has caught the attention of the world.

What if the headlines read that 19,000 Americans died of preventable causes in a particular country? The outcry would be profound. Experts would address what had happened, how it could have been averted, and why the preventable deaths were not prevented.

Now imagine that it was 19,000 children under the age of five that died of preventable causes such as lack of clean water, food, vaccinations, and medicine. This is what happened around the world yesterday and it did not make the news. It happened the day before and will happen again tomorrow. There is one child dying every 5 seconds every day. Why are we not hearing about this and where is the strong outcry to prevent such unnecessary deaths?

It is too many deaths and it appears too big an issue to resolve.
It is too far away and too easily tuned out.

The truth is that the numbers used to be 26,500 preventable deaths of children under the age of five occurring every day. That number has been lowered significantly over the past ten years. Relief agencies such as World Vision, Compassion International, Salvation Army, the Red Cross and many others are making a difference.

What can you do?
>Raise awareness in your community.
>Donate to organizations that are making a difference.
>Sponsor a child with monthly giving through an organization.
>Give a $25 micro-loan through an organization.
>Pray that your heart would break with the things that break the Lord's heart.

1 Timothy 6:18-19 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

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A Black Toe-nail

Why 4 Deaths Got the Worlds Attention on Tuesday, but 19,000 Children Died on Tuesday Unnoticed

Mark Radeke

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