A month ago, we heard about children being beheaded in the Middle East for proclaiming the Christian faith. Today, we tally scores of people dying from Ebola in Africa. And while we work to quarantine individuals to keep this disease from infecting our first world country, some of us quietly (occasionally) wonder:
What can I do to help?
This we ask while we order our lattes, get our flu immunization shots, and make our way home in our SUV’s and Priuses. At least some of us are doing our part. (Now I’ve gone and made myself feel guilty for driving a Rav.)
If you are like me, most of the time with these big worldwide problems you pray, try not to think about it, and hope God is doing something to fix it. But as I write my second book on perspective, I realize God may just want to fix it by using me.
But (gulp) how?
Well I know all the things I can’t do. But a voice inside offers: How about thinking of something you can?
And wouldn’t you know it, God made it easy because right in the middle of all the things I’m doing in my important first world day, I got a message from my friend Dennis.
Dennis is the kind of guy who actually thinks he can do something to make a difference. And no matter how many people try to tell him that he’s only one person and he can’t (after all) really make a dent, he just keeps doing it. Just like Mother Theresa did.
And we hardly remember her.
Dennis is currently living in Africa- loving kids in an area where violence is threatening to take all the educational opportunities he’s created away. I would have probably left by now. Especially with the threat of Ebola just a small couple of country borders away.
Dennis is still there.
Still thinking and dreaming of ways to make a difference. Right where he is.
He decided that in today’s social media age, he could use a bit of a megaphone that Mother Theresa never had. And that if more people could join in and also do small things, together we could actually do something really big. So he started (among many other things) a little ministry to raise money called “Buck 4 Good.”
The theory is, if everyone contributes $1 or $5 or even $10, together we might actually be able to DO something to help in some of these big causes. This week he is helping a ministry in Africa that is working tirelessly in and around the devastating Ebola disease.
He Facebook messaged me and asked me to join him and contribute $10. And to spread the word.
Which is where you come in.
Here’s the link- it’s super simple and will take you 3 minutes: http://buck4good.com/project/young-lifes-ministry-to-kids-in-the-ebola-crisis/
Yes, the ministry is verified. It’s Young Life Africa. (http://africa.younglife.org) And YOU will be helping them as they are on the front lines of this terrible disease, offering faith, compassion and hope.
Don’t let the big things keep you from doing the little things. Because little things become big things when they unite together. Mother Theresa once said “We can do no great things. Only small things with great love.“
Sounds a little bit like the way Jesus started the church.
But all these years later, we in the church can get distracted and disillusioned and caught up in all our choices and questions about whether our resources are really being used right, whether something is worth our money, whether our help is really hurting, and all the other things that make us feel okay about putting that uncomfortable nudge off.
Maybe that uncomfortable nudge is there for a reason.
I’m in for $10. How about you?