The Unsung Tragedy of the Boston Bombing

So, last week was a crazy week! Explosions, bombings, shootings, earthquakes, tons of people hurt, lots of people dead/missing. It was a tragic week for us in America, but America wasn't the only place where tragic things happened, they happened all over the world, and last week wasn't the only week that tragic things happened, they happen every day. If you really watch the news and monitor world events constantly it would be pretty depressing because there is tragedy/violence/loss of life/insanity every day, all over. Sadly, a lot of these tragedies go completely unnoticed except for those directly involved in them.

Felix Kusi, Ghana

Yesterday Manda and I got a packet in the mail. It was our Sponsor packet from Compassion International. This packet contained all the info about the little boy, Felix Kusi, that we recently sponsored. This little guy lives in Ghana, and is about to turn 5 on April 30. He is super cute, as you can see in the picture, and we are so happy to be sponsoring him!
It's amazing the dual heartache and joy that comes in sponsoring a kid across the globe. As we initially searched for a kid to sponsor, it was almost overwhelming, the sheer number of kids who live in poverty and sickness, who need help and support. It was impossible to pick a kid. I mean, how can you pick one over another? So we just basically sponsored the kid who had been waiting the longest, and that was Kusi. Now after that heartache, there is an incredible joy in knowing that we are going to be contributing to helping this little boy, to providing education, food, clothing, shelter, and the love of Christ.

This is something that we have been talking about for a long time, but always put off for various reasons, usually something along the lines of "we can't afford it right now," but really, we can absolutely afford it, as can a lot of people in the world, and almost everyone in the US, and secondly, if God is telling us to do something we need to do it, regardless of whether or not we think we can.

I am looking forward to getting letters from Kusi and getting to know more about him, and looking forward to writing to him and letting him know about Manda, Mallory and I! Since his birthday is coming up soon here, if anyone wants to leave a short birthday message for him we will try and send those in a special birthday note to him as well. :)

I encourage you, if you are not already, go sponsor a child! It's extremely rewarding, and you are giving hope and needed supplies to kids around the world.

Two organizations that I know are good are:

Compassion International
Website: http://www.compassion.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/compassionintl
Twitter: http://twitter.com/compassion
Google+: https://plus.google.com/107104884705564139268#107104884705564139268/posts
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/CompassionIntl
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/compassioninternational

World Vision
Website: http://www.worldvision.org
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/worldvision?lpos=bot_img_facebook
Twitter: http://twitter.com/WorldVisionUSA
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/worldvisionusa

"Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world." - James 1:27 HCSB

"Isn’t the fast I choose:
To break the chains of wickedness,
to untie the ropes of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free,
and to tear off every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
to bring the poor and homeless into your house,
to clothe the naked when you see him,
and not to ignore your own flesh and blood?
Then your light will appear like the dawn,
and your recovery will come quickly.
Your righteousness will go before you,
and the LORD’s glory will be your rear guard." - Isaiah 58:6-8 HCSB

Child Soldiers & Sex Slaves -- Stop at Nothing

Last night I attended a screen filming, at which I learned about a man who has been abducting children out of their homes and villages for the past 26 years and forcing the boys to become child soldiers, killing their own parents and mutilating the faces of other people/children, and the girls to become sex slaves. In the past 26 years he has abducted over 30,000 children and forced them to join his army, an army that is not fighting for any real goal or purpose.

This man's name is Joseph Kony. He is the #1 indicted war criminal for the International Criminal Court, and he was indicted 7 years ago, yet, a lot of people do not know who he is. The purpose of the film last night was to bring awareness of who this man is and the atrocities that he has committed. The organization behind this film is Invisible Children, seeking to make the plight of these "Invisible" Children in Africa "Visible" to the entire world so that something will finally be done to stop Joseph Kony.

The film, entitled Kony 2012, makes the plea that this year, 2012, needs to be the year to finally arrest Kony. There has been momentum in getting the US Government/military to assist the Ugandan government/military in finding Kony and bringing him to justice, but it needs to happen soon, this year, before interest and concern wanes, because when that happens, when people stop caring, the US Government/military will pull out, and w/o their help, the Ugandan government/military will have a very difficult time finding Kony.

Invisible Children has done a ton of good to help these children, to warn families when the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army), Joseph Kony's army is coming, to let people in the LRA know that they can leave, and now they are reaching out to the world. They are reaching out to politicians, celebrities, athletes, talk show hosts, and every one of you, the general public, to band together and stand against the terror that is happening every day in Africa, to demand that governments do something, stop Kony.

Here's what you can do:

1. Sign a pledge of support to arrest Kony and disarm the LRA: http://www.kony2012.com/
2. Share the video Kony 2012, which goes live to everyone on March 5
3. Message the specific Culturemakers that Invisible Children has targeted. Ask them to get involved.
4. Message the specific Policy Makers that Invisible Children has targeted. Ask them to get involved.
5. Post posters and stickers, post Status updates and Twitter updates, talk to people, do whatever you can to make Joseph Kony famous, or infamous as the case may be. Make sure that there is no one who doesn't know who Joseph Kony is and what he has done! 

I had heard about Invisible Children in passing, kinda knew what they stood for, but didn't really have any idea what was going on until last night, when I saw the film and I heard a woman speak, a woman from Uganda, who grew up in the midst of these horrors, whose family and friends have been taken by Joseph Kony, some to escape and others never to be heard from again.

So, I urge you to get involved, make your voice loud so that those who have the power to capture this man know that the people demand it, and so that Joseph Kony is finally arrested and brought to justice this year, 2012.

For more info check out http://invisiblechildren.com/; http://www.kony2012.com; Follow Invisible Children on Twitter: @Invisible and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/invisiblechildren

Also, check out my cousin, Danny Porter's Facebook page, as he is the one who brought this to my knowledge, and he is dedicated to helping. https://www.facebook.com/sylvesterstallone

Sacrifice

We have been going through the book Radical at church, and we are now in the last chapter, which is a challenge. The challenge is a one year challenge and includes:

1. Pray specifically for the entire world. There is a great website: http://www.operationworld.org/, where you can get daily prayer guides for specific countries around the world. It includes specific information and prayer needs for that country, and is a great way to pray for the entire world.
• Today's country is Poland http://www.operationworld.org/pola
2. Read through the entire Bible, cover to cover, every verse. http://www.youversion.com/ has a lot of great reading plans to help with this. You can choose to read straight through, Genesis to Revelation, a historical reading, topical, Chronological, or any of several other plans.
3. Sacrifice your money for a specific purpose. The whole idea here is to SACRIFICE, not just give the leftovers, but make a real sacrifice to help others. Figure out what you need to live on and donate the rest to a very specific purpose.
4. Spend your time in another context. In other words, the challenge is to spend at least 2% of your time serving, going somewhere you are not used to or comfortable in to serve others. This may mean volunteering at the local homeless shelter or it may mean traveling across the globe, or both.
5. Be invloved with an active church, with people dedicated to living life as Christ has told us to live it.

This is the challenge that Manda and I are committing to for the next year, and I must say that my initial reaction to it is that it will be fairly easy. Praying, reading the Bible, being involved with a church, those won't be that hard, and it won't be that bad to donate time and money, right?

Well, turns out it's gonna be harder than I thought because, as I was thinking about what I could sacrifice to donate money to a specific purpose I realized that what I would need to sacrifice is not something I want to get rid of. My phone.

I spend money every month for a data plan on my phone that I use constantly, but in no way, shape, or form need to have. I also realized that I have wanted to sponsor a child through World Vision for quite some time now, but have always said we don't have enough money. The money I spend every month on my data plan will cover most of the cost to sponsor a child every month. So, even though I absolutely do not want to get rid of my smartphone, when I compare having the luxury of immediate internet, social media, and app access to helping provide a child, their family, and their community with basic needs, food, shelter, health, etc... I cannot say that I would rather spend my money on my phone than another human being. So I am giving up my smartphone for a simple, basic phone and will be sponsoring a child.

We have also talked about other ways to sacrifice, including cutting back our Netflix service, cutting back our cable/DVR service, cutting back our eating out, among other things, and we have other things that we would like to do with that money, but we haven't really decided on anything else.

It's pretty crazy though how difficult it is to cut back my service. I went in to T-Mobile yesterday to change out my phone, but I was met with very odd looks when I said I wanted to downgrade my phone, and then I was told I couldn't get a simple basic phone without using my upgrade and paying $50 at the cheapest. It seems strange that I would need to spend almost 3 months of my data plan just to get a simple phone, but I am looking into other options to get a phone right now. I'm pretty sure we are going to sponsor a child soon even if I don't get my phone figured out.

Anyways, this is really long so I'm gonna wrap things up. I'm nervous and excited for how these changes will affect our lives over the next year, but primarily just excited to see how God will work in our lives and the lives of those around us when we choose to live as He has instructed us to live!