REJECT APATHY | Issue 02

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to reject lurks within our very DNA and the DNA of our culture—we are consumers. From infancy, culture has told us we are deserving, advertisers have told us what we want and our friends (Christian or not) have confirmed these messages with their purchases and lifestyles.

Living a life characterized by compassion, mercy and the pursuit of justice is sacrificial. It takes sacrifices every single day, in every purchase we make, in every human interaction, in every prayer we utter. And sacrifice is the absolute opposite of consumption.

Almost 90 percent of American adults claim personal involvement in the charity industry.

Yet Americans generally give less than 1 percent of their income to anti-poverty work.

Twenty percent of all American Christians don’t give at all. Total giving, to churches and charities, among American Christians is 2.9 percent. And have you ever seen a charity that wasn’t short on committed volunteers?

This generation of Christians wants to make a difference—but that desire has to translate to more than buying a T-shirt. For the desire to go beyond mere lip service, we must daily seek the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. Only God can give us a true and lasting commitment to the least of these—a commitment that can withstand the barrage of temptations from a consumer culture.

Rejecting apathy is not a once-a-year thing; it’s not a two-week mission trip or even a once-a-month volunteer gig at a local food shelter. Rejecting apathy is a daily posture of humility, empathy and compassion. Such a posture insists we change how we think, how we buy, how we walk down the street.

Rejecting apathy compels a sacrifice greater than any of us are capable of giving on our own. But we are promised the power of the Holy Spirit, and we follow in the footsteps of One whose compassion and love drove Him to give His very life for all those in need.

Apathy is certainly not an easy thing to reject—but to do so is our divine inheritance, and we must persevere.

affecting the least of these globally and locally. In this coverage, Reject Apathy focuses on five key areas: loss of innocents, creation care, preventable disease, poverty and violence. Each represents a part of our “whole-life ethic”—an ethic that believes every life is created by God, has a purpose and should be given an opportunity to live fully.

Beyond covering the news, Reject Apathy is committed to seeing justice done well. We want to highlight the organizations and practices that are effective, so we can all get involved and be part of the solution. It’s easy to become cynical when we hear news that 85 percent of aid money to Africa never reaches the targeted areas of need (World Bank), or that U.S. missions teams spent an average hen we first started working on Reject of $30,000 to rebuild homes destroyed Apathy back in 2008, we knew we by Hurricane Mitch in Honduras when locals could have built the homes for wanted to offer a voice to a generation anxious to make a difference. At RELEVANT, we $3,000 (Toxic Charity). We know our help felt it ourselves, this strong ache to help bring can sometimes hurt, but that awareness can keep us from taking action—for fear it God’s Kingdom to earth. Three years later, that desire hasn’t changed. But we’ve also learned a will be the wrong action. After inundation, this fear is perhaps the second greatest few things along the way—chief among them reason rejecting apathy is so difficult. that apathy isn’t an easy thing to reject.

In order to combat this fear, Reject There are reasons for this, of course—and they rarely have anything to do with indifference. Apathy has adopted five values to guide Apathy is often an effect of inundation. There’s our content and help us choose what we no end to the wrongs in this world. Turn on the spotlight: sustainability, local involvement news, open your newspaper, step outside your and leadership, a faith focus, financial transparency and a long-term view. own front door and you’ll see injustices, pain Inundation and fear are powerful and suffering the world over. Such overwhelming need awakens our compassion and tugs at our factors that keep us apathetic and paralyzed. But perhaps the most insidious heartstrings—but it can also overwhelm us.

The amount of tragedy in the news can paralyze and subtle reason apathy is so difficult us. We want to help, but we don’t know where to go, what to do or even which issue to tackle.

Be sure to check out our website, RejectApathy.com. It’s updated every Battling the paralyzing effects of inundation week with new articles on social justice issues, spotlights on nonprofit continues to be a cornerstone of Reject Apathy. organizations and ways to get involved both locally and globally.

In the magazine and online at RejectApathy.com, we work to highlight the issues, stories and news

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Sustainable change.

Sacrificial living. Spiritual revolution.

Reject Apathy magazine Winter 2012, Issue 02 PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER PUBLISHER & CEO Cameron Strang > cameron@relevantmediagroup.com Editorial Director | Roxanne Wieman > roxanne@relevantmediagroup.com Managing Editor | Ashley Emert > ashley@relevantmediagroup.com Contributing Editor | Ryan Hamm > ryan@relevantmediagroup.com Associate Editor | Alyce Gilligan > alyce@relevantmediagroup.com Editorial Assistant | Heather Meikle > heather@relevantmediagroup.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Maggie Canty-Shafer, Tyler Charles, Curt Devine, Nathan George, Chrissy Jeske, John Murdock, Shannon Sutherland Smith, Kelli Trujillo Senior Designer | Chaz Russo > chaz@relevantmediagroup.com Senior Web Designer | Tanya Elshahawi > tanya@relevantmediagroup.com Graphic Designer | Jonathan Griswold > jonathan@relevantmediagroup.com Production Designer | Christina Cooper > christina@relevantmediagroup.com Audio/Video Producer | Chad Michael Snavely > chad@relevantmediagroup.com Photographer | Julia Cox > julia@relevantmediagroup.com CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER: Thierry Falise Web Developer | David Barratt > david@relevantmediagroup.com Web Production Assistant | Lin Jackson > lin@relevantmediagroup.com Chief Revenue Officer | Josh Babyar > josh@relevantmediagroup.com Account Director | Michael Romero > michael@relevantmediagroup.com Account Director | Philip Self > philip@relevantmediagroup.com Marketing Manager | Calvin Cearley > calvin@relevantmediagroup.com Circulation Manager | Stephanie Fry > stephanie@relevantmediagroup.com Customer Service Coordinator | Sarah Heyl > sarah@relevantmediagroup.com Fulfillment Coordinator | Tyler Legacy > tyler@relevantmediagroup.com Chief Operations Officer | Chris Miyata > chris@relevantmediagroup.com Communications Manager | Theresa Dobritch > theresa@relevantmediagroup.com Project Manager | Austin Sailsbury > austin@relevantmediagroup.com Finance Manager | Maya Strang > mstrang@relevantmediagroup.com Systems Administrator | Josh Strohm > joshs@relevantmediagroup.com

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Another important fact to remember is the grass is always greener on the other side. When my team did ministry in Iringa, Tanzania, we partnered with a young teacher named Peter who was a little overexcited about America.

He told us: “I’m so happy to be with a team from the U.S.A. I love American churches. One day I will go to America and learn so much about God!” I stared at him in disbelief, thinking, Does he really think America has more of God than Africa? I told him most of my friends couldn’t wait to come to Africa to experience more of God’s potentially insidious post-mission tendencies is to presence. He didn’t understand.

The truth is, we are all guilty of this way become a bitter, America-hating cynic.

My first day home, I went to the grocery store and of thinking. The misconception most of us found myself overwhelmed in the cereal aisle with buy into says community, miracles and true its endless array of General Mills cartoons. We can passion only exist in the Third World. On the choose from more than 50 types of deodorant, 115 other hand, much of the Third World believes effective ministry only happens with lots of kinds of toothpaste and 1,000 channels on TV. The conflict between excess at home and scarcity money and high-tech resources. Jesus says abroad is a lot to handle. The temptation can be to something completely different. In Luke 17, hate America’s abundance, or forget the poverty He teaches His disciples not to listen to people overseas and go back to life the way it was before. The who say, “Here it is” or, “There it is,” referring key is living within the tension. As Christy Vidrine to the Kingdom of heaven. Rather, He says,

BY CURT DEVINE says in her book Unearth, “There is a balance between “The Kingdom of God is in your midst.”

Experiencing God’s presence has nothing to the humility of scarcity and the peace within excess.”

James, the brother of Jesus, writes that do with where you are and everything to do every good gift and every perfect gift with how you live with those around you.

I step into the church, bass booms Every country poses its unique problems comes down from above. Therefore, the against my chest. Neon lights reflect off the worship leader’s guitar as he sings, first response we should have to the excess for those seeking God. In Ukraine, alcoholism around us is thankfulness. God has given is rampant. In Thailand, the sex industry “There is no one like our God”—with Auto-Tune.

As the song builds, my friend turns to me and us food, water, shopping malls and Venti plagues hundreds of thousands. In Tanzania, Mocha Frappuccinos, even though we theft and crime create serious problems. Every says: “Doesn’t this sound amazing? They just country uniquely needs God’s grace, but the don’t deserve them. spent $300,000 on a new sound system.”

Our second response should be wise good news is He faithfully pours it out on those I’m in an American megachurch, yet I can’t stewardship. I once heard a friend say she who seek Him, no matter the place or time. help but think about the Third World churches Whether you’ve experienced extreme I visited this year—the ones with one Bible, no has a closet overflowing with clothes, yet electricity and a lot of passion. Even though I she complains she has nothing to wear. This poverty or you simply want a change in your reminded me of Jesus’ parable in which a life, here are a few questions to ask yourself: want to worship, I only feel bitterness.

If you had all the time and resources to This past year, I went on the World Race, an ruler gives varying amounts of money to his servants. Some make wise investments make an impact, what would you do?

11-month missions trip to 11 countries in Asia, Now, with the limited resources you do and use the money well, while one hides Africa and Eastern Europe. While I love being his share in the ground. The master have, what impact can you have on your local home with hot showers and cold air-conditioning, community? What small steps returns and reprimands the the transition has been rough. I can’t help but can you take toward making a servant for doing nothing. judge friends who drop $100 on a night out, CURT DEVINE global change?

If we have full closets, thinking, “That could feed the homeless boy I is a freelance writer and private America is not your enemy; stocked refrigerators or fat met in Tanzania for a year,” or think I’m better tutor living in it’s another opportunity. You than the Lexus driver because my Grand Am is bank accounts, we should West Palm Beach, don’t have to wait for a missions look for wise opportunities barely worth $1,000.

FL. He blogs on matters of social trip to experience God and share to give to others and Coming off the missions field can bring on all justice, faith and His love. The adventure isn’t over sorts of emotions from culture shock to loneliness encourage friends and relationships at CurtDevine.com and just because you’re home. family to do the same. to helplessness. But one of the most common and

POSTMISSIONS CYNICISM AS

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can be followed on twitter @CurtDevine.

4,500 kids will die today from water-related diseases. HelP. $20 can provide one person with access to clean water. start BY helpinG one.

loving our neighbor as much as we love ourselves could be revolutionary. It could have profound effects on how every company in the country behaves and sources its products.

Much about fair trade has yet to be done, thought through, debated and implemented. But the good news is much has already been done. Fair trade as a movement was started by Christians who had a passion for justice and fairness—and a vision of a world where the workers in the field no longer cry out to the Lord Almighty.

I started Trade as One five years ago And God does not have to figure at all. For all intents with the specific objective of using it as a tool and purposes, Christians spend in ways that are no to awaken the Church to this enormously different from people who do not believe in God at under-used resource of consumer spending to proclaim the Kingdom. all.

Charity does not fix poverty—jobs do.

Of course, of that 97 percent we have to budget for not just spending but also accommodation, pensions, There is an old African proverb that says: tax and, if we are lucky, savings. But still, for every “The hand that gives is uppermost. The hand dollar given to the Church, approximately $10 are that shakes is an equal.” The poor want the spent in the shopping mall or supermarket. And our dignity of a meaningful job so they can take faith seemingly has nothing to say about it. Nothing responsibility for their own future.

God created this world with the vision of to say about whether we should be buying something

BY NATHAN GEORGE or not, whether what we buy reflects biblical values of mankind working in it. The absence of work, justice to the land, the people who made the product particularly among the poorest of the poor, is or whether the merchant we purchase a missions issue. And thanks to the wonders here are 138 million people who from is behaving despicably behind the of international trade, you don’t have to be a missionary on the other side of the world regularly attend church in the United scenes to get us the lowest price possible.

Can you imagine what would happen to live and act missionally to someone there.

States. They collectively earn $2.5 trillion.

If they were a nation, they would be the seventh if the Church in America began seeing The rice you buy could keep families in richest in the world. Just under 3 percent of their itself as the conscience of the free market? rural Thailand together without the need to If every person who attended church in migrate to the urban slums. The T-shirt you income is given to the Church. Of that, only 4 percent ends up outside of the church walls. That America made one average fair trade wear could prevent an Indian cotton farmer purchase in a year, 1 million families would from slipping into the despair of suicide. means about 0.12 percent of that annual income Those earrings you are wearing could be an be lifted out of poverty for one whole year. could potentially be available for missional My heart aches not because of the expression of a new life that a woman rescued work. Plenty of data for hand-wringing perhaps.

When we talk about money in our churches, precarious existence of so many living on from commercial sex work now experiences.

In case it seems changing corporate and we only ever talk about giving—trying to get less than $2 a day, but for the crushing lack of imagination in the use of resources consumer culture is too ambitious, consider people to be bolder with it, to trust God as they that are represented in the pews of our the temptations to apathy and despair that give generously. These talks are usually given as churches all over the country. We could those within the historical church may have churches get closer to their annual budgetary be achieving so much together. We could felt as they sought to change the slave trade, white-knuckle ride. Churches would love even proclaim Good News to the poor and apartheid and reform of debt for the Heavily Old Testament standards to be achieved where Indebted Poor Countries.

10 percent of income is “given back” to God. freedom to the captive by God is waiting for us in buying products we need There should be more giving, but it is not only a NATHAN GEORGE humility to turn around and not failure of our imagination but a gross distortion that they make for us. co-founded Trade as One, an just offer Him percentages of our Perhaps more importantly in our theology that has no practical framework online fair trade income but to lay it all out there for considering how the other 97 percent could than that, 138 million company, with in front of Him. To ask Him to be a Kingdom, a missions, a discipleship issue. people deciding to exercise his wife, Cath, in 2006. They help us live more simply, give Churches abdicate their influence in that space their spending power in advocate practical more generously and consume line with biblical principles to the marketers, the fear- and greed-mongers action through the use of consumer more consciously. who shape how we think we should spend it. of stewardship, justice and

FAIR TRADE CHURCHES T

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spending on behalf of the global poor. It is based in Santa Cruz, CA.

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The CREDO study, conducted by Stanford economist Margaret Raymond, measured progress in mathematics at 2,500 charter schools (half of all such schools in the U.S.) and found that only 17 percent were superior to a similar public school; 37 percent were worse than a similar public school. Forty-six percent of charter schools registered academic progress similar to public schools.

This year, more states have passed (or are considering) legislation to broaden the availability of school choice (state income tax breaks for private school education in Louisiana, three times as many educational vouchers in Ohio and a voucher program in Indiana that makes vouchers available to nearly half the state, to list a few developments).

Evan Nielsen, a former high school teacher and a survey specialist currently doing research on educational public policy, expresses concerns about the proliferation of charter schools.

“Obviously the documentaries [Waiting for “Superman” and The Lottery] want you to see that there is more demand than supply, and

they want you to think this is part of the problem,” Nielsen says. “But the fact is that, in order to get into the charter school, somebody has to take action—whether it’s the parent or the child.”

Nielsen says this raises a large philosophical question in regards to the nature of public education.

“Charter schools fly in the face of the ‘neighborhood school’ situation where every child within certain attendance boundaries has a place at a certain school,” Nielsen says. “The whole issue of charter schools and ‘school choice’ gives the appearance of giving students options, but I think what’s talked about less is that it gives the school options.”

Charter schools may not be allowed to choose students based on criteria, but even by requiring students or their parents to sign up for a lottery for a chance to attend a charter school, over time, it could allow for the smarter, more ambitious students to separate themselves from their peers who don’t take the initiative to apply.

“THE WAYS WE SEEK TO EVALUATE THINGS HAVE BECOME INCREASINGLY QUANTITATIVE INSTEAD OF QUALITATIVE.” —EVAN NIELSON

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“I think this will increasingly have ramifications for a lot of what our country has stood for in terms of providing education to every student,” Nielsen says.

“The spectrum of schools—both charter schools and regular— would suggest that the charter isn’t automatically going to be better, but the Davis Guggenheims of the world are painting an image of what public education should look like, and that could lead to a situation where the charter schools are better than regular public schools.

“Taking that argument— that charter schools provide a better education—to its logical conclusion, then we should continue to proliferate charter schools, and eventually the logical conclusion is that every public school should be a charter school,” he continues. “But if a kid doesn’t get into any of the schools, where does he go? Will there still be some school that has to take the kid? If we don’t have that, then public education in the United States has been fundamentally changed.”

GRADING TEACHERS Many are convinced teachers are the problem—or, more precisely, that bad teachers are the problem. But the powerful teachers’ union and tenure system—not to mention the difficulty in determining who the bad teachers are—make it difficult to clean house.

“I think everybody recognizes the tenure system can provide an opportunity for bad teachers to hide behind that protection, and I think unions need to be the ones to propose a serious alternative to that,” Nielsen says. “I’m not going to demonize teachers’ unions; I think they serve a function, but I do think they need to [take the lead] in finding a way to weed out the bad teachers.”

Currently an increasing number of people are calling for the overhaul of the tenure system for teachers— eradicating the “last in, first out” (or LIFO) model that, in the event of a workforce reduction, eliminates the newest teachers and protects those with the most seniority. More people are calling for a performance-based model that recognizes and rewards teachers for effective teaching.

In Florida, where Rizzo teaches, a new bill (Senate Bill 6) will make teachers’ salaries dependent upon their performance.

“Under the new plan, our pay will be merit-based—with 50 percent being based on our evaluations and 50 percent based on student performance on standardized tests,” Rizzo says. “This will go into effect in 2014, and everyone is up in arms about the governor signing it, but the thing is, I can see how someone might look at that bill and think: ‘OK, that makes sense. If the teachers are doing their job, then test scores should be going up.’ But anyone who has ever spent time teaching in a classroom understands that test scores don’t necessarily tell the whole story.”

The adoption of a performance-based model for teacher evaluations is useless unless there’s a way to police the teachers and school districts to make sure they aren’t altering test results to bolster their own evaluations (and paychecks). Reports are surfacing about school districts doing that very thing.

A recent investigation into the test results for public schools in Atlanta revealed systematic cheating. Eightytwo educators admitted to cheating (including correcting answers on students’ multiple choice tests) and another 178 teachers pled the Fifth Amendment.

As long as there are incentives for performance, Nielsen says we shouldn’t be surprised by these types of stories.

“When teachers are told, ‘Your performance rating or value is going to be based at least in part on how your students do on these tests,’ or if there’s a bonus that depends on [students’ performance], the incentive is there for the teachers to make it look like they did well—and [altering test scores] is one way to do it,” Nielsen says.

Ultimately, Nielsen believes too much emphasis is being placed on teachers.

“There’s only so much a teacher can do,” Nielsen says.

“Great teachers can motivate students, but at the end of the day, the student is still the one who has to do the work, read the book or write the paper. I do think good teachers make a difference, but I don’t think the results of the students’ standardized tests should fall at the teachers’ feet.”

Nielsen believes better administrators could be the key to improving the education system.

“The ways we seek to evaluate things have become increasingly quantitative instead of qualitative,” Nielsen says. “Standardized tests are quantifiable—either right or wrong—and you can compare the results to a student across the state or across the country, so all of that lends itself to talking about things in big-picture terms, but it doesn’t really lend itself to talking about one individual teacher and saying, ‘Did that teacher really teach that student something about this subject?’

“I think principals need to spend more time observing their teachers,” he continues. “This would give them a better sense of what each teacher does. But even if we did it that way, the results wouldn’t be comparable, and that doesn’t jibe with how we assess things in the information age.”

WAITING FOR THE WRONG SUPERMAN While most will agree the education system needs reform, every proposed solution seems to have its contradictory equivalent.

The government needs to do more; the government is too involved. Schools need more federal funds; the government spends too much on education.

Standardized tests help gauge teachers’ effectiveness; standardized tests limit teachers’ ability to teach effectively. We need to save teachers’ jobs; we

need to remove bad teachers. We need to close “failing” schools; we need to offer incentives so good teachers will go into those schools.

Within these contradictory arguments, there is a consensus: The widespread concern for the future of the American education system reflects a unified desire for quality education.

But rather than pointing to all the things that are wrong—instead of focusing on what’s broken and waiting for others to fix it—why aren’t more people asking this question: “What can I do to help?”

Instead of picketing to protest legislative changes, instead of holding rallies on the steps of City Hall, why aren’t parents establishing study groups for students? Why aren’t churches offering free tutoring services at public libraries? Why aren’t volunteers offering to serve as teachers’ aides? Why aren’t communities trying to raise funds the old-fashioned way (bake sales and car washes, for example) to help reestablish programs that are being cut (arts, theater, choir)?

Do we really have faith that the solutions will come from Washington? From new legislation or more standardized tests?

From contests that force states to alter their standards to conform with a template—all in the hopes of earning federal funding? From charter schools run as for-profit enterprises?

Maybe it’s time for everyone to stop waiting—to stop complaining—and start figuring out how to put on their own cape.

TAKE ACTION CALL A NEARBY SCHOOL AND FIND OUT HOW YOU CAN HELP WITH AFTER-SCHOOL OR TUTORING PROGRAMS. YOUR CHURCH OR LOCAL COMMUNITY CENTER MAY ALSO HAVE AFTERAND BEFORE-SCHOOL ACTIVITIES FOR STUDENTS WHERE YOU COULD VOLUNTEER.

TYLER CHARLES is a campus minister with the CCO at Ohio Wesleyan University.

REJECTAPATHY.COM

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THIERRY FALISE

BY ASHLEY EMERT

FRESH PERSPECTIVE ON 5 COMPLICATED SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES Child soldiers in Africa. Sex slaves in Asia. Children with flies in their eyes and tears on their cheeks. Impoverished people making poor decisions with their resources. Emaciated AIDS patients lying in hospital beds.

These are the images so often associated with “social justice.” But the issues behind these images are much more nuanced and complicated than the narrow portrayal usually presented.

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We spoke to leaders from five different nonprofits, each focusing on a different area of need, to get a fuller picture of the problems affecting both our local and global neighbors. They all hope to educate, inspire and broaden the definitions of some of today’s biggest issues.

The bottom line for all of them, though, is that there is hope, and these seemingly insurmountable problems can be overcome or made smaller in our lifetime.

are, and as you can imagine, the specifics of what those programs are [like] vary from culture to culture, and country to country and need to need. So, we will always say a Christian child development program has four pillars you can count on. One will be a spiritual pillar—it will always be the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Then there’s an economic [one]—and that’s often an educational pillar—in that the program is supporting, somehow, economically or educationally, the child that’s being sponsored. Then there’s the social-emotional aspect of our program, in every curriculum we have worldwide.

Then there’s a physical aspect, which is typical: immunizations, nutrition, clothing.”

FAITH PLAYS AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN SPONSORSHIP

“Jesus said, ‘What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, but lose his soul?’ So from that perspective, even if we addressed all the other aspects of poverty, if we left out the spiritual and the faith element, we would be leaving out a key and critical element. Many, many children give their lives to Christ through Compassion’s program. Now, we don’t require the children to do that.

They’re not even required to attend the church that is hosting this project. We tell the project leadership: ‘Pick the poorest of the poor in your neighborhood and invite them to be part of the project.

Be very clear they’re part of a Christian holistic program.’ But many children do.

So our child development program turns, then, into a child discipleship program from a Christ-centered perspective.”

CHILD SPONSORSHIP PROGRAMS DO MORE THAN FEED AND CLOTHE CHILDREN

“Compassion’s sponsorship program is completely built around what we call a Christian holistic child development program. Basically, we work with over 1.2 million children around the world in Latin America, Asia, Africa and in over 5,500 different projects where children

THE CHILDREN ARE PICKED BY LOCAL LEADERS—AND IT VARIES FROM COUNTRY TO COUNTRY

“Since this is a partnership with the local church, we give some general guidelines to the local church to make sure there is no nepotistic selection, or one particular family gets undue consideration over other families. But we do leave it to the project staff to basically select the poorest of their poor that can attend the project regularly. Some projects allow more than one child per family to be sponsored; other projects allow up to three children in a family. It really just depends on the situation and the context of that project. Urban projects are different than

rural projects. Projects in Africa have different needs than projects in Asia. So, we try to allow for some flexibility in the contextualization of the selection in the program. But our goal is [to include] the poorest of the poor in that community, regardless of whether they are attending that church or are Christians. We have a great deal of children who are Muslim and Hindu and Buddhist.”

RECORDS ARE KEPT SO NO CHILDREN SLIP THROUGH THE CRACKS OF THE SYSTEM

“Our average project size is about 250 children. We limit that on purpose. We know that since this is a child development program, they need to be in touch and in tune with the children very specifically. If a child misses a couple days, or even if they’re not there on a particular day, they’ll do some checking around, and because they’re right there in the neighborhood, they can often go check on that child if there’s any concern at all. Certainly if the child misses two or three times in a row, there’s a huge yellow flag. If things are going well and the child is attending on a regular basis and gets that regular check-in, their homes are being visited by the project folks, which is staffed by the church volunteers. We monitor how much the children write—in fact we ask them as part of their program to write to their sponsor three times a year. We have a lot of different ways to check that the child is engaged in the program, and stays engaged.”

IF A CHILD STAYS IN SCHOOL LONGER, THERE’S A GREATER CHANCE THEIR SIBLINGS WILL, TOO

“A [sponsored] child has a greater propensity to go longer in school. They are anywhere from 20 and 60 percent more likely to be employed at a steady salary, and somewhere between 40 and 90 percent to be employed in a white-collar job such as a teacher or an office worker. There’s kind of this spillover effect to where a sibling may or may not be registered in the Compassion program, and those that are not, some of this spillover effect happens from their siblings. So, it is important that the family environment changes. What we often find is this: The child will come back, and the parents—or parent, it’s often a singlefamily home—will say: ‘Wow, there has been this dramatic change in Brian. He’s a better REJECTAPATHY.COM

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student, he’s more helpful around the house,’ and it opens up the door and the opportunity for the church to become a part of that family if they’re not already.”

KEEPING CHILDREN IN SCHOOL PAST AGE 12 IS AN IMPORTANT HURDLE

“It’s a huge temptation, especially after a child gets through primary school. The family will say: ‘Well, my son knows how to read and write. He’s already more literate than I am, so we should get him into the workforce.’ It’s especially challenging for the girl child in that situation, because in so many cultures, girls are encouraged to marry at a very early age, because then they become the responsibility of the husband’s family.

Compassion-sponsored girls marry at a later age and have children at a later age. We encourage families to get their kids to complete secondary school. One of the things we ask each child to do is put together their personal plan for the future, helping them to understand they’re not going to be sponsored forever, and what are they putting together for the future? So that way they start building some hope and some dreams.

Unfortunately, some parents still take their children out, but it’s not something we just allow to happen without some strong encouragement from the church.”

THE GOAL IS LIFELONG RESULTS— THAT GO ON FOR GENERATIONS

“We have over 400 children a day give their lives to Christ. So we have hundreds of thousands who have been through our program who are professionals, and God-honoring mothers and fathers.

Even just day-laborers, but they’ve been enabled to be responsible and fulfilled Christian adults. There’s a family right now where the young man has become a tailor. He’s married, and has kids, and his kids are not in need of a sponsorship program. His children are not sponsored, and he’s able to say, ‘Poverty stopped with me.’ We have a saying that [goes], ‘The opposite of poverty isn’t wealth—the opposite of poverty is enough.’ So, while our graduates may not be wealthy, they have what it takes to stop poverty.”

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COURTESY OF LIVING WATER INTL.

PLANTING

CHANGE COURTESY OF WORLD VISION

HOW SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IS TRANSFORMING IMPOVERISHED COMMUNITIES— ONE FARM AT A TIME

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BY SHANNON SUTHERLAND SMITH

AS THE KHAKI-CLAD TONY RINAUDO KNEELS DOWN AND BEGINS TO AGGRESSIVELY RIP AND TEAR AT THE TENDER TREE SHOOTS SPROUTING OUT OF THE SUN-BAKED SOIL IN HUMBO, ETHIOPIA, HE LOOKS MORE LIKE AN UNRULY GRADE-SCHOOLER BENT ON DESTRUCTION THAN A NATURAL RESOURCES ADVISOR AND FORESTRY EXPERT WITH A MAJOR INTERNATIONAL NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION (NGO).

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ut Rinaudo is no destroyer. He is a restorer—and a very authoritative pruner. “It’s too easy.” That’s what he likes to say as the Ethiopian farmers gather around whatever stump it is he happens to be passionately pruning with nothing but his hands and some unbridled enthusiasm for his work. Indeed, it seems to be “too easy,” and his frantic work begs the question of what could possibly come from teaching African farmers to fuss over some tree stumps and sad-looking seedlings.

It’s called farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR), and in terms of supporting community development, the World Vision program is accomplishing some remarkable results by teaching farmers to prune and protect stumps and seedlings so they can grow back into healthy, productive trees. Trees improve soil productivity, prevent erosion and are a source of shade and food for livestock and people.

“When my family and I moved to Niger in 1980, the people’s living conditions were unimaginable,” Rinaudo says. “There were practically no trees as far as one could travel, air temperatures were regularly above 40 C [104 F] and wind speeds could pass 60 kph [37 mph], bringing with them dust and illness. Millet, the staple crop, regularly failed due to drought, insects or disease, and livestock struggled to survive and often didn’t. Women walked for long distances—10 to 15 km [six to nine miles] in order to find wood. Millet stalks and manure, which should have been left on the field to protect the soil and fertilize it, were used as fuel substitutes. Not surprisingly, even in ‘good’ years, people went hungry and in bad years they simply starved.”

This situation might seem to scream for food aid, and aid is definitely a need in an emergency situation. But aid isn’t sustainable, and in many cases, it isn’t even a solution at all—food aid doesn’t reach the most vulnerable due to civil unrest, the remote locations of those in need or, frankly, the human tendency of the strong to steal from the weak. Sometimes problems, especially problems with many sources, have to be traced back to their origins. In this case, deforestation was negatively impacting the food supply in many African countries. So Rinaudo looked to the stump. And he taught others how to do the same. Soon farmers were teaching neighbors, neighbors were teaching visiting uncles and uncles were taking the techniques back to their communities.

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Over just 20 years in Niger, 5 million hectares (12 million acres) have been reforested through FMNR, and Niger is the only African country experiencing net afforestation.

“The significant positive impact of this one simple activity was totally unimaginable in Niger,” Rinaudo says. “There is now shade and protection from strong wind—in fact, the incidence of severe dust storms is greatly reduced. Crops growing in, trees no longer get buried or sand-blasted by strong winds. Millet yields have generally doubled, and livestock have fodder—tree leaves and pods—even in the height of the eight-month-long dry season. Incomes have doubled. In the Maradi district alone, one assessment put the total figure at $17 to $23 million. My estimate is far higher. Resilience has increased, thus when drought or locust plague come, farmers do not starve because their animals are healthy, they have wood and non-timber forest products to sell and their chances of getting at least something from their millet crops is far greater than for crops growing in the open.”

Rinaudo says “good stories” are now coming from other countries as well, such as Ethiopia and Ghana where wildlife is returning, children have access to wild fruits, erosion has been greatly reduced, water tables recharged and fodder now grows where before animals had to walk long distances to find grass.

FMNR and programs like it are built on a model of community development and are meant to offer sustainable, long-term solutions that continuous food aid just can’t. The United Nations defines community development as a process of social action where people get organized, clarify needs, execute a plan and develop economically and socially viable communities that improve the quality of life for residents. The FMNR is a grassroots community development initiative based on

to disseminate information. In other cases, each person works on their own land, and when the benefits become evident, word spreads quicker than a savannah grass fire. This, Corbett says, is the role foreign workers and those who want to support international community development need to be taking instead of simply winging in for a week or two to drop off aid, build houses or schools and run summer camps.

Corbett, who is an assistant professor of community development at Covenant College in Georgia, says students often spend spring break in Peru feeding the hungry, fly off to Haiti to care for the orphans at Christmas and plant trees in Tanzania over the summer. And they spend thousands of dollars to do so. Corbett is careful not to talk disparagingly about the people who participate in the plethora of short-term missions because he knows motives, for the most part, are pure. But he is quick to point out that short-term missions are supply-driven rather than demand-driven. “Let’s just tell the truth,” he says. “You’re not going to change the world, and not even a community, in a twoweek mission.”

Corbett wants people to consider the impact on the local father who watches the youth group from Virginia parade out on to the local school ground in Guatemala and dump a dozen

“EMPOWERING LOCALS IS THE MOST SUSTAINABLE APPROACH TO FIGHTING POVERTY.” — BARRY SLAUENWHITE an approach Steve Corbett, co-author of When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor … and Yourself, identifies as “asset-based community development.” Corbett describes this approach as one that focuses on what the poor have available to them and how it can be developed for their advantage. In this case, what the poor had were trees—well, tree stumps at least. And they had people—eager, able-bodied people who wanted to transform their land.

Rinaudo doesn’t travel the countryside of Ethiopia pruning all by his lonesome. He and staff conduct meetings for men, women, herders, farmers, youth, government agencies and NGOs, telling the Niger story and showing what might be possible in their region. In some cases, cooperatives are formed or chiefs are enlisted 30

soccer balls, which he could not buy for his own son, on to the field. And he wants people to understand putting a laptop into the hands of every Nepalese fifth-grader is not going to create a wealthy and employable generation. He says supporting true community development may come at a cost. “We have to preach dying to self,” Corbett says. “And part of that might mean dying to the feeling you get when you go to these places.

Instead, maybe we need to be

investing in our brothers and sisters who are there and who know what the needs are and who are committed to being there for the long term.”

This is precisely the reason Compassion International uses expatriates very little in its field operations, says Barry Slauenwhite, president and CEO of Compassion Canada. “Compassion’s policy is to invest locally,” Slauenwhite says. “We are a completely nationalized NGO. All our staff—some 30,000—are nationals serving their own people in their own context. It would be very rare to encounter an expatriate Compassion worker anywhere we work. Investing in and empowering locals is the most sustainable approach to fighting poverty.”

Slauenwhite insists paternalism is the enemy of development. “We are wrong to assume we know best what the needs of a developing community are and the best solutions,” Slauenwhite says. “It is arrogant to think we Westerners have all the answers.

Compassion has learned God has created intelligent people in and of all races.”

The West may have some answers and should be willing to share them—which the model of FMNR demonstrates—but community development led by, managed by and run by the community itself is simply more sustainable. Corbett says this is why he believes the most successful form of microfinance is the savings and credit association that does not require donor money. This is the type of model employed by what are called “people’s institutions” in Bangladesh in a program supported by the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC). Group members in Bangladesh contribute a set amount each week at their community meeting.

As the savings pool grows, group members are permitted to take out small loans they can then invest in their businesses. They repay the loans at a low interest rate back to

the group. “The groups all have savings funds, which they use for income generation and their projects,” says Kohima Daring, country team leader for CRWRC in Bangladesh and India. “They also have health funds so they can give out interest-free loans for emergency health needs. Because the savings are generated by them and managed by them, they gain capacity to have bank accounts and manage their money. The money doesn’t come from outside. It is also not kept outside, and their money grows by their own savings.”

One young woman in Bangladesh, Parul Aktar, was married at the age of 15 and soon after, her new husband’s rickshaws were stolen and they had no way to earn a living. Thanks to the group’s savings fund, the couple was able to take out a loan, rebuild the business, and they now have four employees and sons who are attending school.

Community development doesn’t often provide instant gratification, although it just might produce infinite gratification. Those carefully tended tree stumps may take a few months or even years to stand up like real, bona fide trees. And a father who has lived his entire life immersed in extreme poverty who at long last earns rather than receives will often stand a little taller in a few short months or years as well.

A short two-week trip to Costa Rica will help you see the needs of a community and learn about a culture. But to really invest in the work of long-term community development, it takes years of partnership, prayer, empowerment and patience.

TAKE ACTION LEARN MORE ABOUT AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT BY VISITING ECHO (ECHONET.ORG), WHERE YOU CAN DONATE TO THEIR EFFORTS AS WELL AS VOLUNTEER, BECOME AN AMBASSADOR FOR ECHO OR GET YOUR CHURCH INVOLVED. YOU CAN ALSO GIVE TO THE CHALMERS CENTER FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (CHALMERS.ORG), AN INSTITUTE THAT CONDUCTS TRAINING FOR NATIONALS IN THEIR HOME NATION.

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UNTOUCHABLE WHAT WILL IT TAKE FOR INDIA TO ABANDON ITS OPPRESSIVE CASTE SYSTEM?

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people by their worth and purpose, the caste system drastically stratifies the nation, and has been used as a tool to systematically oppress lower castes for more than 3,000 years.

As a member of the Dalits—the lowest caste—Kamlesh is seen as less than human, unclean and only fit for society’s dirtiest jobs. The Dalits make up the gravediggers, the street sweepers, the toilet cleaners— the jobs beneath the rest of society.

They are the least recorded, the least counted, the least defended and therefore the most vulnerable to trafficking and violence.

To her assailants, Kamlesh’s very presence near their home was offensive and deserving of punishment. An example had to be made of her.

BY MAGGIE CANTY-SHAFER The belief in the caste system is one so deeply entrenched in Indian society that efforts to reverse its effects have been largely ineffective. It is a system WHEN ONE FIRST LOOKS AT KAMLESH, IT’S HARD TO TELL SHE IS A that is both familiar and WOMAN. FOR SOME, IT’S HARD TO TELL SHE’S EVEN HUMAN. TO MANY comfortable to those IN HER COUNTRY, SHE ISN’T CONSIDERED EITHER. who benefit from it— those who have been When Kamlesh was 6 years old, her family lived in a rural Indian village where they worked lowly given wealth and power jobs and survived, by most standards, on very little. But it had always been like that. Kamlesh not based on merit but didn’t know any different. caste. Sociologists cite the system as the largest obstacle to social mobility and Early one morning, on her way to the field India’s advancement as a nation—an her people used as a toilet (the town was ancient weight tied to the feet of a largely without running water) Kamlesh progressing people. took a shortcut in front of a neighbor’s house.

Before she made it through the yard, THE CREATION OF CASTE several men seized her, bound her and Several theories of the caste system’s threw her into a bonfire—punishment for origination exist, but most at least trespassing. As she screamed in agony, her partially attribute it to the ancient mother was held in front of the fire, forced law of Manu—a tenet of the Hindu to watch Kamlesh’s tiny body be consumed Scriptures. According to the law, the in flame. By the time the villagers allowed God Brahma created man from the her mother to retrieve her, the child was different parts of his body, intending burned beyond recognition and on the brink each part for a different purpose. of death.

Those created from Brahma’s The scars that now cover Kamlesh may head were to be the priests, called disguise her identity to some, but to her, they Brahmins. Those from his shoulders serve as a constant reminder. She is a Dalit. were the Kshatriyas, made especially An untouchable. Trash. to rule and fight. His trunk and The violence Kamlesh suffered is the result thighs created the businessmen and of a social hierarchy known in India as the traders, called Vaishyas, and those RACHEL ROBICHAUX caste system. Designed to separate groups of REJECTAPATHY.COM

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“ THIS IS A VERY BLATANT EXPLOITATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS GOING ON HERE.” — DR. BERYL D’SOUZA

from his feet, he deemed the Sudras for serving.

These castes—also called Varnas—were then divided into several sub-castes, based upon various regions and labor needs.

The lowest castes—including the Dalit—were formed outside the body of the god, marking them as impure and unfit to be integrated into the rest of society. Their filth was seen as a contagion, and extreme measures were taken to isolate them.

Dalits—also called untouchables—were kept out of schools, politics and temples, and banned from participation in Hindu social life.

“The India I live in is a country built on inequalities,” says Dr. Beryl D’Souza, the founder and director of an anti-human trafficking initiative based in Hyderabad. “This has made the common man hopeless and yet adjusted to his situation. It is very difficult for a man to strive for more when he is living in desperate poverty and need.”

However cruel, the caste system was not without purpose.

In India’s early stages, dividing society into the various necessary labors ensured their completion and allowed for greater specialization. It also kept the peace. Within one’s caste there was little hierarchy—among your own, you were an equal.

But the social divisions also produced a deeply rooted discrimination and hatred for lower castes, leaving India behind countries advancing toward equality and revealing the brokenness of a system built on birthright.

The caste system has been challenged numerous times in the last thousand years, perhaps most famously by Gandhi. The practice of untouchability was outlawed by the constitution in 1950, but many Indians,

especially those living in rural areas like Kamlesh, have yet to feel the effects of reform.

MODERN INDIA, ANCIENT HATE Today, a visitor to Delhi, Mumbai or any other progressive Indian city may believe the apartheidlike system abolished. Few outward signs of the social hierarchy are visible to the unassuming eye. This newfound subtlety is what some believe has made the caste system even more dangerous.

“The caste system’s effectivity and intensity have hardly

mellowed down,” says Dr. Udit Raj, the National President of the Justice Party and Dalit activist. “The so-called upper castes are not tired of boasting that the system is a phenomenon of the past, but the essence of the caste is more or less the same.”

Newspaper personals and job offers request same-caste applicants.

The professional and political arenas are dominated by upper castes, and many lower castes have little or no access to education, keeping them cemented in the lowest income bracket. Worse than the social discrimination is the violence.

In her career as a medical professional, D’Souza has cared for thousands of lower caste members suffering from afflictions brought on by their status. Rape, murder, beatings, hunger and environmentrelated disease are all too familiar to the young doctor.

“Atrocities against Dalits and caste-based violence is a part of everyday life,” D’Souza says. “They’re struggling to even receive the most basic preventative health care. This is a very blatant exploitation of human rights going on here.”

Thus far, government action has been inadequate. Through a system called “reservation,” which is closely related to Western affirmative action, the government requires a percentage of representation from Dalits and other repressed castes in parliament, educational institutions and other “nation-building activities.”

Wary upper caste members see the introduction of lower castes into these arenas as a challenge to their natural born status. Changing the system without changing the heart of the people has led to another set of tragedies.

EVERYDAY INEQUALITY

Most recently, the rise of suicide among Dalit students in higher education facilities has come to light. Many blame harassment and rejection from upper-caste students and professors for their isolation and hopelessness.

Earlier this year, Anoop Kumar, a Dalit advocate based in New Delhi, released a list of suicides documented since 2007 among Dalit students in India. The record included 18 names from many of India’s top institutions, and has continued to grow since its release.

These names serve as testament to the corruption and ineptitude of the reservation system. Many have realized laying sole responsibility on the government to topple this ancient social hierarchy is ineffective. If true lasting change is going to be made, it must come from somewhere much deeper.

YET THERE IS HOPE Raj, a former practitioner of Hinduism, believes the religion is largely to blame for impeding real change. Because Hinduism has theoretically and institutionally justified the stratification of society, its followers—80 percent of India—have no real impetus or moral obligation to reform.

“It will take a generation of courageous, self-aware individuals to bring about change,” D’Souza says. “Change will not happen on its own. It has to be ushered in.”

Under the caste system, D’Souza, a child of mixed caste parentage, is considered an outcast, below even a Dalit. Raised in a Christian home, she attributes her own self-worth and belief in human equality to her faith in the God of the Bible. The same God she believes will one day restore India.

“Faith is primary to my strength and my belief society will change,” she says. “Faith is beyond what is obvious and seen. God is a God of justice, and He hears the cry of His people.”

DALITS MAKE UP ABOUT 16 PERCENT OF THE POPULATION IN INDIA, BUT IT’S ESTIMATED THEY ONLY CONTROL 5 PERCENT OF THE COUNTRY’S RESOURCES. ACCORDING TO A 2007 STUDY

BY HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, 64 PERCENT OF VILLAGES FORBID DALITS FROM ENTERING TEMPLES, 70 PERCENT OF VILLAGES DO NOT ALLOW DALITS TO EAT WITH NON-DALITS AND 37 PERCENT OF SCHOOLS FORCE DALIT CHILDREN TO SIT SEPARATELY FROM NONDALIT CHILDREN.

TAKE ACTION EVEN IF YOU’VE NEVER BEEN TO INDIA, YOU CAN STILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE BY CONTRIBUTING YOUR VOICE AND FINANCIAL SUPPORT TO ORGANIZATIONS WORKING FOR DALIT EQUALITY. GO TO DALITNETWORK.ORG TO SPONSOR A CHILD, SIGN PETITIONS, DONATE FUNDS OR LEARN MORE ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL EFFORTS TO STOP THE DISCRIMINATION AND TRAFFICKING OF DALITS.

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T H E R I G H T — A N D W R O N G — W A Y S TO HELP WHAT SHOULD WE DO WHEN NATURAL DISASTERS STRIKE?

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1. PRAY Ask God what He wants you to do in response to the disaster. His answer may be for you to give, to go or perhaps, instead, to focus on the needs in your local community that are not receiving national attention. Every day, in every community in America, there are people facing crises who need to know someone cares.

In the critical hours following a major disaster, pray that search and rescue crews will quickly locate survivors who are injured or trapped under debris.

Pray also that survivors will be drawn to God by the compassionate actions and attitudes of Christians with whom they interact in the disaster zone.

When a region’s infrastructure has been destroyed by a large-scale disaster, logistical challenges abound. Pray that rapid-response organizations would be connected with the tangible resources they need to provide timely assistance to survivors.

After Hurricane Katrina destroyed much of the Gulf Coast of the United States in 2005, Convoy of Hope disaster responders set up their first distribution site in Picayune, Miss. Thousands of people per day were coming to the site for help. Unfortunately, the fuel in Convoy of Hope’s refrigerated tractor-trailers began to run low, threatening to spoil vital emergency relief supplies. The line at the only open gas station in town was two miles long. Convoy of Hope workers and volunteers began to pray. Soon, a man drove onto the site and donated all of the fuel in his tanker truck to Convoy of Hope—more than 1,000 gallons. Prayer is not a passive way of helping—it works and it’s needed.

“WE MUST BE DRIVEN BY 2. GIVE Financial gifts to reputable organizations are always welcome. CharityNavigator.org OF THE PEOPLE, NOT THE is a good source to learn which organizations have the highest ratings in fiscal responsibility and accountability.

THE ADVENTURE.” Because disasters strike suddenly and without notice, the fastest way to help survivors is to support a rapid-response organization on an ongoing basis. After a major disaster, when your organization deploys, you can know you are already helping victims.

3. CALCULATE Many rapid-response organizations have relationships with corporate donors that allow them to leverage financial gifts to supply much more than an individual could when purchasing items at retail. For instance, if 15 friends each purchase $100 worth of products at a discount store, they will have enough supplies to fill a pickup. And then they’ll spend more money transporting these supplies to the disaster zone.

However, if these 15 friends donate $1,500 to a relief organization with corporate donors, their buying power multiplies and more goods get to people in need.

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4. CONNECT When volunteering, always connect with an experienced response organization working in the disaster area. They will know where volunteers are most needed. If additional volunteers are not needed when you first call, be patient.

There is a long recovery period ahead when the lack of media coverage will cause volunteerism to diminish.

“When you learn that an organization can use your team, report directly to their command center,” says Nick Wiersma, community services director for Convoy of Hope. “After the Joplin tornado, traffic became gridlocked

Such was the case around Birmingham and Tuscaloosa, Ala., in April when roads leading to badly damaged neighborhoods were blocked to everyone except those with valid identification.

Recognized response organizations give volunteers the credentials they need to gain access to restricted areas.

THE NEEDS THRILL OF —NICK WIERSMA as emergency vehicles, disaster responders, residents, volunteers and spectators tried to make their way around the city. This can impede the process of getting help to the people who need it most.”

After large-scale disasters, authorities often block access to disaster zones to minimize confusion and prevent looting.

5. LISTEN No matter how well intentioned, volunteers risk consuming the time of emergency personnel through minor traffic accidents or worksite injuries. Experienced responders are best suited to determine if the work your team will accomplish outweighs these risks.

When you travel to a disaster zone and stay in a hotel, eat in restaurants or fill your vehicle with gas, you may be supporting a recovering economy that needs a boost.

Or you may be depleting scarce resources available to residents who live in the area.

Jerry Carnes and his wife, Shirley, live just outside of Joplin and had been working long days in sweltering heat to remove storm debris from their hayfield. Carnes is a rancher who depends on the harvest to feed his cattle through the winter.

“After days of labor, we were exhausted,” Carnes says.

“In the midst of these trying times [we found] a page from someone’s Bible lying in the grass that read, ‘Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.’ ” That same day, because Convoy of Hope was listening to the needs of residents, more than 60 Convoy of Hope volunteers were dispatched to Carnes’ ranch to help with the cleanup, enabling him to bale enough hay to retain all of his cattle.

Volunteers willing to wait for the perfect time to respond can make a positive impact that will long be remembered.

6. COMMIT When you volunteer, commit to doing whatever tasks need to be done. The volunteers who helped Carnes worked in over 100-degree heat picking up debris, much of it housing insulation.

“Many volunteers want to be in the heart of the disaster zone,” Wiersma says, “when maybe what is needed most is someone to clean the bathrooms or answer the phone at the church housing volunteers several miles out of town.

We must be driven by the needs of the people, not the thrill of the adventure.”

In the aftermath of the Joplin tornado, relief organizations utilized hundreds of volunteers to unload supplies from trucks, then organize and distribute them.

It may not have been glamorous work, but it was the work most needed at the time and it went a long way toward making relief efforts smooth and effective.

In the critical days and hours following a disaster, organizations are most looking for volunteers trained in

rapid response who they have an established relationship with. Most organizations will have a detailed list of qualifications on their website—and the types of volunteers they most need following a disaster.

7. SMILE Be aware that disaster survivors are experiencing emotional trauma and grief.

Within two weeks of the Joplin tornado, dozens of memorial services took place.

Every person responds to tragedy in his or her own way. Volunteers are not expected to be counselors, but training in critical incident stress management can help them identify someone who may be experiencing an emotional crisis in the wake of a disaster.

Search online for “critical incident stress management” to find available training opportunities near you.

“If you volunteer in a disaster zone, give residents who have lost friends and family members time and space to grieve,” Wiersma says. “When you interact with survivors, don’t act somber. Smile, offer assistance and be a good listener if they want to talk about their experience.”

If every volunteer keeps these suggestions in focus, survivors like Gillette will receive the most compassionate help in the most efficient manner possible.

TAKE ACTION THERE ARE ALWAYS MULTIPLE DISASTERS HAPPENING AT ANY ONE TIME AROUND THE WORLD. USING THE STEPS SUGGESTED IN THIS ARTICLE, FIND WAYS YOU (OR YOU AND A GROUP OF FRIENDS) CAN REALLY MAKE A DIFFERENCE—EITHER

BY VOLUNTEERING LOCALLY, PRAYING OR TEAMING UP WITH WORLDWIDE ORGANIZATIONS.

LINDA COROLEUSKI works with Convoy of Hope as their reporting coordinator.

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WHERE DOES YOUR

MONEY GO?

THE DIFFICULT PROCESS OF TRACKING NONPROFIT DONATIONS

IF YOU STOOD IN AN ENTIRE FOOTBALL STADIUM FILLED KNEE-DEEP WITH DIRT AND HELD A TINY ELECTRIC VACUUM TO CLEAN UP THE MESS, WHERE WOULD YOU START? YOU WOULD START BY THE POWER OUTLET.

BY CHRISSY JESKE

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art Campolo, Walnut Hills Fellowship leader and director of the Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education (EAPE), uses this question and answer when suggesting how to spend time and money. This world is knee-deep in important work. The United States alone has more than 1 million registered nonprofits, each ready with convincing appeals and promises to make a difference. You, however, are just one person, with only so much to give. So where do you start? When it comes to donating your hard-earned money and your all-too-rare time, you want to work with an organization that’s reliable and effective—one While these services can be helpful in sifting through information, a high or low ranking from one evaluation that’s plugged into a power source.

Imagine, for example, that you spend doesn’t necessarily mean you should start or stop giving. your own donated time or money for Agape What, then, does a wise donor need to ask, and what does Villages, an organization trying to find safe a wise nonprofit need to check and share? homes for children. Now imagine discovering that the organization is included on Charity LETTING SOMEONE EVALUATE FOR YOU Navigator’s “Ten Charities in Deep Financial Even for the optimist who will throw a few dollars toward Trouble” list, with a one-star ranking, and organizations still walking on shaky young legs, there owes $4 million more in debt than their total is wisdom in checking where money goes. Too many assets. Wouldn’t you rather start supporting organizations that start with “nice intentions” learn the an organization that can give those children hard way that without accountability, anyone can slip a truly safe home, rather than throwing your quietly into unethical practices.

In a report for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship on the pennies down the black hole of a doomed and importance of numerical measurement goals, Daniel J. dangerous organization?

Finding a better organization is another Denk wrote: “One common accusation that comes against story. How do you know an organization will nonprofits generally and against Christian ministries in accomplish what it promises? Will donated particular is that we don’t like accountability. We don’t like to be measured, and so money go toward effective programs, or toward more fundraising appeals and triple-digit salaries of top we set vague goals with fuzzy executives? How do you know the organization isn’t fudging its numbers and unclear outcomes. finances or approaching financial collapse?

Some Christians in the corporate Today you can find dozens of evaluating services that check nonprofit world wish we would learn a few organizations for accountability, financial stability and transparency. things from their world, such

ORGANIZATIONS THAT START WITH “NICE INTENTIONS” LEARN THE HARD WAY THAT WITHOUT ACCOUNTABILITY, ANYONE CAN SLIP INTO UNETHICAL PRACTICES.

as that accountability can be a good thing.

Constructive evaluation can be a liberating experience and a healthy corrective.”

That’s where outside evaluation comes in.

Evaluator organizations provide a service to donors wanting to sort through the details behind heart-gripping websites. They aim not only to help donors make informed choices but also to improve the overall quality of charity work by motivating nonprofits toward greater financial sustainability and accountability. Accountability protects and benefits all the stakeholders of nonprofits, particularly their beneficiaries, who are often the least able to speak up and demand accountability.

Evaluation services differ. Some evaluate as objectively and as broadly as possible, but that means limiting their criteria to easily obtained data, particularly from tax forms.

Others try to dig deeper into the “feel” and “effectiveness” of an organization, but that means depending on more subjective evaluation, personal stories and opinion. Evaluating companies provide their services to a wide range of donors, from average Joes with $50 donations, up through foundations and philanthropists

moving hundreds of thousands of corporate, family and personal dollars.

The nation’s largest evaluator, Charity Navigator, is free and easy to use. It uses a four-star rating system and shows reports of historical and current financials. It currently evaluates more than 5,500 charities and aims to expand to 10,000. With 3.3 million annual unique visitors to their website and 92 percent of those visitors claiming the site influenced their giving decisions, the organization sways billions of dollars of philanthropic giving decisions.

Charity Navigator bases its rankings on data available through Form 990, filed to the IRS annually by most 501(c)(3) nonprofits. When it began evaluating charities 10 years ago, Charity Navigator evaluated charities for financial responsibility and sustainability. It has since added a second level of evaluation, for accountability and transparency, which began affecting star rankings in September 2011. By 2015 it plans to add a third and more qualitative element to evaluations—a category evaluating REJECTAPATHY.COM

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results. Charity Navigator also creates more than a dozen Top (and Bottom) Ten lists in topics such as “Ten Super-Sized Charities,” “Ten Highly Rated Charities with Low-Paid CEOs” and “Ten Charities in Deep Financial Trouble.”

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) at Give.org also provides a free service, with similar financial and transparency qualifications. It has 20 Wise Giving Standards for Charity Accountability that include details of governance, spending of money, truthfulness of representations and willingness to disclose information to the public. Charities that meet all 20 standards receive their seal of accreditation. Those that do not meet all the standards still have a report published that describes the standards they did not meet and gives the organization a chance to respond to its missed marks.

Dan Busby, president of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA), points out that “rating groups attempt to determine whether a nonprofit is worthy of a donor’s contributions simply based on certain financial and other data—virtually an impossible challenge.”

The ECFA, with more than 30 years of history as an accreditation agency, attempts to dig deeper into the quality of specifically Christian charities by evaluating “Seven Standards of Responsible Stewardship.” These include high standards of board governance, financial transparency and integrity in fundraising, much like the BBB and Charity Navigator, but also an evangelical Christian doctrinal requirement for qualification.

Unlike a four-star rating system, Busby stresses, “ECFA members must comply with all the standards—all the time.” ECFA’s online ServantMatch helps more than 20,000 donors each month match their giving interests with ECFA-accredited projects.

Other evaluating and accreditation organizations are becoming more prevalent.

GuideStar, Ministry Watch, Intelligent Philanthropy, GreatNonprofits and GiveWell all offer credibility rankings, though several require a fee to access information, and donors are always wisest to give directly to the charity rather than through buttons on evaluator websites, which usually keep a percentage of donations. Nonprofits can also join numerous networks with accountability standards, including Humanitarian Accountability 42

Partnership (HAP), InterAction and Accord Network. Larger donors may benefit from services like Excellence in Giving that offer personal goal assessment consultation and philanthropy training.

Other organizations, including Philanthropedia and Root Cause, strive for excellence in humanitarian work by providing research on best practices.

BEYOND EARNING HIGH RANKINGS Start plugging your favorite organizations into evaluation websites and you’ll find you still walk away with unanswered questions.

Many religious organizations are exempt from filing IRS 990 forms, so Charity Navigator does not have data for many prominent organizations like Campus Crusade for Christ and the Salvation Army. Other

websites simply do not have the resources to evaluate broadly, or they use vague criteria like “any unexplained odd aspects of a ministry” (Ministry Watch).

Besides, not all evaluation criteria have universal best answers. Is paying a CEO a top salary bad if it means the organization can attract top talent into leadership? How much of an organization’s total assets should be held back for emergencies versus how much is in use in its current budget?

Not every nuance of an organization is explained in the minimal space allotted on evaluator websites. If an organization doesn’t appear or looks poorly ranked on an evaluating website, it’s worth asking the organization directly for their explanation. The good news is highquality organizations have cared about transparency and accountability long before websites came along.

InterVarsity Director of Development Josh Hall explains that regardless of rating websites, an organization needs to keep high standards of accountability. For InterVarsity, he says, “this starts with having a strong board and a clear board policy manual that carefully and legally delineates checks and balances.”

Duties are clearly separated between board and staff, and InterVarsity’s board policy manual includes around 75 pages of policies and procedures on succession of trustees, running meetings, ethical money use, whistle-

blower policies and more. InterVarsity also values external audits and is a charter member of the ECFA. World Vision is another star performer when it comes to donor accountability. Charity Navigator places World Vision second on its list of “Ten Super-Sized Charities.”

Between 1998 and 2010, World Vision United States nearly tripled its overall income from $358 million to $1.04 billion, while the amount of funds sent to programs helping children more than tripled. Richard Stearns, who became the president of World Vision U.S. in 1998, has become known for bringing corporate best practices to the nonprofit sector and inspiring a culture of outcomefocused management.

Julie Regnier, the senior vice president for human resources for World Vision U.S., says: “Rich brought clarity, focus, accountability and, most of all, leadership.

One of the first things he did was to help the organization crisply articulate its mission, strategy and goals. Then he added the scorecard process to bring focus, clarity and accountability.”

When it comes to the organization’s ability to uphold their transparency, World Vision U.S. Controller Doug Risser credits their compliance with best practices in financial accountability and watchdog agency standards.

“We listen to our donors,” he says, “who increasingly are demanding greater transparency.”

Charity: water, a fast-growing organization only five years old that has already provided safe drinking water for nearly 2 million people, uses a unique method of accountability in that 100 percent of public donations go to the field. “I truly believed one of the best ways to restore people’s faith in the process was to come up with a ‘pure’ way of giving,” founder Scott Harrison says. “Now, of course, there’s a cost to running any organization.

You need to pay your hardworking staff, you need to spend money on things like an office, computers and phones, and flights around the world to develop and monitor water projects.” For charity: water, these expenses are paid by just a few hundred private donors of $12,000 or more each. Harrison estimates he spends a third of his time “building and developing

relationships with the visionary small group of people that fund the incredibly important behind-the-scenes costs of the organization.”

NUMBERS AS A STARTING POINT Just as the best nonprofits go beyond evaluating service assessments, the best donors also dig deeper than rankings. Sandra Miniutti, the vice president of marketing and CFO of Charity Navigator, said that in 2002 when Charity Navigator opened, many nonprofits felt that evaluating nonprofits couldn’t be done effectively. Now the mindset has shifted and most charities want to be evaluated. Still, she sees Charity Navigator as a place to start, recommending that donors contact an organization directly or volunteer to uncover the more subjective aspects of an organization. Charity Navigator CEO Ken Berger recommends starting by asking for an organization’s outcomes.

Any organization should be willing to share where its money goes and who makes decisions. It should be able to articulate and provide evidence of what outcomes it intends, how it will reach and measure those, and make adjustments when it doesn’t meet outcomes. InterVarsity’s Josh Hall admits that organizations struggle to measure qualitative aspects of success. “How do you categorize the movement of the Holy Spirit, anyway?” he asks.

While measuring transparency, accountability and success is not easy, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.

TAKE ACTION VISIT ONE OF THE SITES MENTIONED IN THE STORY TO RESEARCH A CHARITY. AND THEN ACTUALLY COMMIT TO WORKING WITH A NONPROFIT, EITHER ON YOUR OWN OR WITH OTHERS.

CHRISSY JESKE is the author of Into the Mud (Moody). She and her husband, Adam, have lived around the world and in Wisconsin.

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THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME receives from the World Food Programme.

While an event may stay on the media radar for only a matter of days, its local impact likely lasts for years. There were 30 disasters in 2010 that displaced at least 100,000 people each: China’s CLIMATE ISSUES ARE Yangtze River flooded in the spring CAUSING MILLIONS and made almost 7 million people TO BECOME REFUGEES homeless; massive summer floods IN THEIR OWN in Pakistan displaced 11 million; COUNTRIES and later, fall floods in Nigeria uprooted another magine being told to grab what you half a million. Many could and leave your home behind with more, like Hawo, little hope of returning. For millions are displaced by every year, this is not a hypothetical droughts, but no idea. According to a recent report from the reliable numbers are Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre available for these (IDMC), approximately 42 million people slower building were displaced within their own country by tragedies. To put natural disasters in 2010 alone. That’s like the these figures in entire population of California having to go context, Hurricane somewhere else in the U.S. Katrina displaced The devastating drought currently wrecking approximately 1 the Horn of Africa is one of many sad episodes million Americans that annually produce waves of internally in 2005—many of displaced people (IDPs) and refugees, those whom are still feeling who flee across a national border. IDPs those effects. include people like Hawo, a 75-year-old Such disasters are Somali matriarch who once presided over not new, but human a herd of 500 goats and sheep that helped activity is increasing support her eight children and their families. the frequency As she relayed to World Vision, when drought with which these dried up the pastures and her way of life, she calamities occur. was forced to move to the northern part of More people than the country where she has been reduced to ever live in highbegging for water to go with the rations she risk areas like

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BY JOHN MURDOCK

floodplains, hillsides prone to fires and mudslides, or coastal areas vulnerable to hurricanes. Poor land use practices also play a big role in amplifying the magnitude of disasters, especially floods.

Increased urbanization brings with it more concrete, brick and asphalt and reduces the amount of run-off, slowing vegetation.

City streams become more floodprone even as shanty-towns grow along their banks. On a regional level, deforestation and eroding agricultural practices can increase the magnitude of floods and exacerbate droughts.

These natural causes are often magnified even more by the other major factor that produces IDPs— armed conflict. The most recent figures from IDMC estimate another 27.5 million people are currently displaced by violence.

Unfortunately, the environmental and human-made causes of displacement often combine in places like Somalia, where the drought that pushed Hawo from her pastoral homeland is compounded by years of civil war that have hindered development and aid.

Thousands of Somalis are on the move to try and survive.

Abdullahi Edin and his two daughters walked for nine days to a feeding center in Mogadishu.

Edin told Aljazeera that his wife of 25 years only made it to day four before she died. What is left of the family now lives in a makeshift hut made of sticks and scraps of fabric.

The lack of natural resources also leads to violence—and, in turn, violent conflict can set the table for natural disasters. Craig Sorley, who works with Care of Creation Kenya, reports that in a single day “eight women were killed … due to violence that erupted over conflicts for scarce pasture and water resources” in a drought-impacted area. Andrew

Briggs, founder of the group Freedom in Creation—which provides clean water and hope through the arts to former child soldiers and those displaced by war in Uganda— explains, “The desperation of IDPs often brings a survival mentality and shortsightedness that fosters long-term environmental and livelihood degradation.

“Long-term displacement,” Briggs continues, “as in the case of northern Uganda, erodes the fabric of the social structure and, where oral tradition abounds, quickly evaporates pragmatic agriculture and livelihood-based education vital for the preservation of identity, health and survival.”

The need for resources, like wood to make charcoal, often trumps the sustainability of an area that IDPs do not consider home, and so Briggs has seen deforestation that alters natural filtration systems crucial for clean water and leaves hillsides vulnerable to mudslides.

Lurking in the background is climate change. In an online report released in June, Scientific American confirms extreme weather events are becoming more common. And the data strongly suggests this rise in extreme weather is tied to the rise in greenhouse gases.

Climate change may not be the sole cause of any one disaster, but it “loads the dice.”

Sir John Houghton, a leading British atmospheric scientist and an evangelical Christian, has noted that up to 150 million people may be on the move because of climate change by 2050. This could be due to increased disasters and steadily rising sea levels that particularly threaten densely populated but low-lying countries like Bangladesh.

At times, the grim assessments can feel overwhelming. Certainly, Christians should always be there to stop the bleeding after disaster strikes, but taking steps that foster the healing and long-term resiliency of at-risk areas may be even more important. In other words, provide splints, not just Band-Aids.

Some organizations are already employing a more holistic approach. Plant with Purpose has worked in Haiti for years, seeking to reverse the country’s cycle of poverty and environmental degradation through treeplanting, erosion barriers, agricultural education and partnerships with local churches. Scott Sabin, the group’s executive director, says the efforts paid dividends in 2008 when multiple hurricanes hit the island. “It meant the difference between

crops surviving and entire farms washing away. As a result we had a huge surge in interest in what we were doing by those who had been skeptical.” After the 2010 earthquake devastated the urban core of the country, this work was tested again as the rural landscape was called upon to support a massive IDP influx. Haiti still has a long way to go, but every one of the 671,144 trees planted in the year after the quake has been a step toward restoration.

Craig Sorley is also planting seeds of hope in the Horn of Africa. Care of Creation Kenya’s “Farming God’s Way” program trains local people in a notill technique that increases productivity while reducing the need for chemical inputs. Sorley was recognized by Time magazine as one of its 2008 “Heroes of the Environment,” but he is probably happier to see the 2011 crop of beans in Farming God’s Way plots doing three times better than standard local practices.

As Ed Brown, executive director of Care of Creation, says: “Rather than send you a picture of a starving child, describing the tragedy that is, we would rather you look at the healthy plants … and think about what could be.”

TAKE ACTION GO TO RESCUE.ORG, WHERE YOU CAN LEARN HOW TO DO EVERYTHING FROM GOVERNMENT ADVOCACY TO FINDING OPPORTUNITIES TO TUTOR REFUGEES IN YOUR COMMUNITY. ALSO, VISIT PLANTWITHPURPOSE. ORG TO LEARN HOW YOU CAN HELP STOP ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTERS.

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PARTNER SPOTLIGHT

THO MAS NEL SON

NEXT-DOOR ...

MILES AWAY

JON WARREN/WORLD VISION

Dadaab, Kenya, is home to the world’s largest refugee camp—a tent-city housing more than 400,000 malnourished refugees, 85 percent of whom are children and teenagers.

World Vision has provided tents and emergency kits containing cooking implements, mosquito nets, soap and more in man once asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus’ answer, in Dadaab. Throughout the region, World the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), provided a Vision is supplying sanitation supplies, profound challenge: Your neighbor may not be who you think. clean water, food and more.

Could it be that my neighbor—the one I am to love just as I love Along with this emergency myself—is the kid bullied at the bus stop, or the teenager next door response, World Vision also has a who’s battling suicidal thoughts? Is my neighbor the woman in a long-term commitment to the region domestic violence shelter, or the homeless man huddled under a where they’ve worked for decades. downtown bridge? Are my neighbors a world away in the Horn of Every Thomas Nelson Bible Africa, struggling to keep their malnourished kids alive during the purchased from a Christian retailer region’s worst drought in 60 years? directly funds the emergency work Thomas Nelson Publishers is committed to inspiring and among refugee children in camps equipping Christians to tangibly love their neighbors, whether like Dadaab as well as World Vision’s they’re down the street or on the other side of the world. Through long-term development work in their God’s Word in Action campaign (SeeGodsWordInAction. impoverished and food-insecure com), Christians are banding together to take specific action communities like Turkana. against human trafficking, to prevent malaria infection, to stock low-income classrooms with school supplies and much more.

Drawing inspiration from the more than 2,000 verses of Scripture A HELPING HAND communicating God’s view on justice and poverty, Thomas Nelson “Jesus asks us to love our neighbor as is committed to helping Christians put God’s Word into action as ourselves,” says Mindy Mizell, World they live out an answer to the question, “Who is my neighbor?”

Vision’s emergency communications manager. “So how can we come alongside those suffering in the THOMAS NELSON + WORLD VISION Horn of Africa and see them—and God challenges His people to “stand up for the poor and the love them—as our neighbor?” In her orphan; advocate for the rights of the afflicted and those in need” work in the Horn of Africa, Mizell (Psalm 82:3, The Voice). One powerful and surprising way to do observes: “I encountered great just that and make a difference in the lives of those in need is to buy optimism, hope and determination a Thomas Nelson Bible. For every Thomas Nelson Bible purchased in the people there. Even though from a Christian retailer, Thomas Nelson will donate funds to World they’re dressed in rags, thirsty and Vision’s relief work addressing the drought impacting an estimated malnourished, they’re people, just 13.3 million people in the Horn of Africa.** like you and me. They have the will This region in Africa has had a 70 percent reduction in rainfall. and determination to survive, but In communities reliant upon raising livestock, nearly threethey need a helping hand.” quarters of the herds have died. Overwhelming poverty and The crisis in the Horn of Africa is starvation now abound. Conflict and violence in south-central severe—but there is hope. And when Somalia have worsened the already horrific situation, driving you purchase a Thomas Nelson malnourished Somalis to flee for their lives to refugee camps in Bible, you are part of that help.

Ethiopia and Kenya.

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TAKE ACTION

SEEGODSWORDINACTION.COM

• Find ways you can stand up for the oppressed at SeeGodsWordIn Action.com.

• Purchase a Bible from Thomas Nelson for yourself and several more to give away.

WATCH Learn more about how you can partner with Thomas Nelson and lend a helping hand:

SeeGodsWordInAction.com

THERE IS HOPE JOIN US

BUY A BIBLE, HELP A CHILD The Horn of Africa is experiencing their worst drought in decades. With water and food scarce, many young children don’t survive long. When you purchase a Thomas Nelson bible you are directly supporting World Vision’s call to give these children the nourishment and hope they so desperately need.

Visit SEEGODSWORDINACTION.COM to learn how you can help.

**Applies to sales at U.S. Christian retail stores only from April 1, 2011 – March 31, 2012. Thomas Nelson will donate 10% of its year-over-year net revenue growth achieved during that period to World Vision, with a minimum donation of $75,000. Just look for any Bible with the Thomas Nelson “house” logo. For more information about World Vision, visit www.WorldVision.org.

PARTNER SPOTLIGHT

ONE HOPE

TRUE HOPE

COURTESY OF TOY GUN FILMS

SHAKEN ... AND MOBILIZED

“We were lucky to distribute even 500,000 copies of God’s Word over several years in Japan. People were very any children around the world live in poverty and are in need of resistant to the Gospel,” Hoskins says. food and clean water, clothing and shoes, medicine and shelter.

“But since the tsunami [in March Other kids are surrounded by an exorbitant amount of food, 2011], Japan’s population has been have a closet full of brand-name clothes and shoes, and have never asking deep questions about life’s been without medicine or shelter. Yet they too suffer from poverty. meaning and the human condition.

Spiritual poverty.

The Church in Japan has mobilized Spiritual poverty is not bound by borders, measured by GDP or to respond, and Christians there are limited only to obvious, visible needs. energized to share the hope of Jesus.”

“Spiritual justice is the basic human right to have access to God’s The Japanese church is working Word,” says Rob Hoskins, president of OneHope. OneHope creates with OneHope to distribute more and distributes Scripture-based print, web, audio and film resources than 800,000 copies of a resource in partnership with indigenous churches across the globe. They they developed together called When have touched more than 760 million lives in 74 nations, such as the Foundations of Your Life Are Nepal, Russia, Haiti, India, Ghana, Colombia and China.

Shaken. In addition, OneHope has “We believe that seeing the Kingdom of God come to Earth produced a Japanese-language short should result in change taking place—in redemption of individual film, Paper Flower, that’s sparking people, society and culture,” Hoskins asserts. This commitment profound discussion among young to make a real difference drives OneHope to do more than just people about some of the darkest pass out Bibles. They recognize just because someone owns a problems plaguing Japanese society.

Bible doesn’t mean it’s having any impact on their daily life. So, OneHope’s Bible-based resources rather than defining success by “outputs” (such as the number of are being used to bring about true resources distributed), OneHope uses rigorous research to zero in transformation in hearts and souls. on the outcomes—the resulting life transformation—in order to ensure their Scripture-based resources are truly impacting lives.

M

THY KINGDOM COME ... TO JAPAN

Young people in Japan live under immense cultural pressure to succeed and maintain status. This societal burden has already led to Japan having one of the highest suicide rates in the world. But a new form of “living suicide” has also developed among young men. Dubbed hikkikomori (“shut-ins”), scores of young men are disconnected from society, often living in the same room for years by themselves in loneliness and depression. This same pressure drives 13 percent of teen girls to participate in enjo kosai (“compensated dating”)—a practice in which they’re paid to date much older men.

In exchange for money to buy nice things and maintain their image, these young girls are often required to perform sexual favors.

“These are real, basic human needs that require justice to address them,” Hoskins says. “Every human has needs in their lives we need to address as Jesus would, through a holistic evangelism that touches the heart, mind, body and soul of a person.”

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NO MORE EITHER/OR

Young people across this planet face brutal realities: suicide, drug and alcohol addiction, abandonment, economic poverty, sex trafficking and more. “It should be as natural as breathing for us, as the Church, to meet both the physical and spiritual needs of people. It’s not an either/or proposition,” Hoskins says.

“We can’t answer these major, systemic issues facing the children and young people of the world without answering the most important questions of values and belief. Without those answers, there is no equity, there is no justice.”

SOUL-SEARCHING FILMS In partnership with Toy Gun Films, OneHope has created award-winning shorts.

En Tus Manos, winner of eight international film festival awards, explores gang life in Colombia.

Paper Flower, winner of nine festival awards so far, delves into difficult issues like suicide, compensated dating and family honor in Japan.

These films are being utilized by ministries across Latin America and Japan to introduce young people to the hope that can be found in Jesus.

ALSO CHECK OUT: EnTusManosTheMovie.com PaperFlowerTheMovie.com

BROWSE Learn more about God’s Truth Project and request the film here:

GodsTruthProject.com/ RejectApathy

Paper Flower is an award winning film that sheds light on how the traditions and academic pressures of Japan are cultivating a bleak generation of hopelessness. God’s Truth Project exists to promote the truth of spiritual healing and spiritual justice found in God’s Word. When you view or host a screening of the new film Paper Flower you are helping to grow awareness of Japan’s incredible need for this truth.

To request the film or host your own screening event visit godstruthproject.com/rejectapathy.

PARTNER SPOTLIGHT

DAVID C COOK

ORPHAN INITIATIVE—

COURTESY OF DAVID C COOK

THE CALL TO TRUE RELIGION

I

magine a little girl.

Her mother has brought her to the market and asked her to “stay here and wait”—she’ll be right back. The woman then hurries away ... and the little girl never sees her again.

In this little girl’s impoverished family, where meager amounts of food don’t stretch very far, it’s somehow been decided her brothers are more valuable.

She has been cast aside. She is now an orphan.

This heart-wrenching situation is common among the orphans of India. There are 25 to 30 million orphaned children in the country—roughly equivalent to the population of Canada—and the overwhelming majority of them have virtually zero chance of being adopted.

J-127

True religion, James 1:27 says, is to care for orphans in their distress.

This passage is clear: If we claim to follow Jesus, that little girl in the marketplace and the millions like her should matter to us. The J-127 Orphan Initiative, part of David C Cook Global Mission, is all about the call in James 1:27. J-127 believes this call isn’t just about orphans’ external needs for shelter or clothing or food, but it’s also a challenge to care about orphans’ distress—to minister to the damage done to their hearts by abandonment and trauma.

THE MISSING PIECE

There are 18,000 Christian orphanages in India, and they seek to care for many of the country’s orphans, but they can only do so much. “We have 280 children in our home,” says Dr. Alexander Philip, director of an orphanage in Bihar, India. “The price of food and utilities is increasing by the day. We need to hire teachers who can provide for the spiritual needs of our children, but we cannot.”

Orphanages have their hands full providing shelter, food and clothing ... yet the wounds of trauma and abandonment remain.

The J-127 Orphan Initiative is working to supply that missing piece: an ongoing small group ministry that provides orphans with mentoring, lay counseling and a spiritual refuge to begin healing.

Three times a week, Christian adults from local churches— often a husband and wife—come to the orphanage to lead children in games, discuss Scripture and help them form basic life skills like using money, practicing good hygiene, communication 52

skills and protecting themselves from bullying.

These “aunties and uncles” treat the children as friends rather than as students, establishing strong relationships that enable kids to talk through their pain. These lay counselors receive training, curriculum and compensation from David C Cook Global Mission to equip them for their long-term ministry among hurting kids.

TRUE REDEMPTION

“Every one of the kids in these orphanages is there because of horrific cycles in their family: prostitution, sex trafficking, bonded labor, overwhelming poverty, hopelessness and suicide,” says Eric Thurman, the president of David C Cook Global Mission. “But we believe Christ is our Redeemer. And part of what redemption means is consciously breaking those cycles of sin, of pain, of trauma.”

Through the J-127 program (dubbed “The Jesus Fun Club” by the kids) orphans are experiencing a deeper healing beyond food, clothing and shelter. They’re learning they are significant and valued.

And the little girl abandoned in the market? Decades ago she, too, lived in an orphanage. But today she is an “auntie.” She sings with orphans and reads to them; she asks questions and listens; she offers the beginnings of healing for their emotional and psychological wounds. And from her own experience of Christ’s redemption and healing in her painful life story, she brings to orphans the hope of Jesus.

YOU: HAND IN HAND WITH ORPHANS You can directly impact the lives of orphans. Together with your small group, church, friends or family, you can sponsor a J-127 program in an orphanage.

Your monthly donation will help pay the salary of the “aunties and uncles,” supply training and resources and assist the orphanage with important projects.

You’ll connect with the kids in your group as you exchange prayer requests and learn about their spiritual growth.

WATCH Visit GoDaveGo.org to learn more, and catch a glimpse of the J-127 ministry:

GoDaveGo.org

HAVE

A HAND IN THEIR HEALING Children who have been abused or abandoned end up in orphanages. They get food and clothing, but little help, if any, for their deep emotional wounds. Few are nurtured to follow Jesus. Find out how you can reach inside orphanages in developing countries and bring healing. You can personally impact dozens of kids.

Ask for the whole story: orphans@davidccook.org or call 1-719-502-3005. “True religion that God the Father accepts is to care for orphans in their distress� from James 1:27

orphan initiative

PARTNER SPOTLIGHT

58: FILMING

HOPE

COURTESY OF 58:

reasons to hope—to raise the expectations for the future of the world’s poor, to see and believe that ending extreme poverty is actually possible. And it compels viewers to respond not out of a knee-jerk e could have escaped—left his misery and his past behind. reaction of guilt, but rather through One of 16 children raised by a single mother who bootlegged embracing a deeper understanding liquor to get by, Joel grew up in squalor in a shack in Mathare— of God’s heart for the poor, the one of Nairobi’s largest and most dangerous slums. oppressed and the vulnerable.

Yet as a young man, Joel committed his life to Jesus—and he found hope. He studied construction engineering and soon became a successful professional. He had his ticket out.

ANSWER THE CALL But he stayed.

“As we read our Bibles and Now known as Pastor Joel, he works with his congregation to understand God loves the poor—as provide education, vocational training, health care, food and the we ask, ‘What is it that God is calling hope of the Gospel to those scraping out an existence in Mathare me to do with my life?’—Scripture Valley’s indescribably awful living conditions. clearly shows us the will of the Father Pastor Joel and his church are living out the true fast of Isaiah is for us to help the vulnerable,” co58: “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the director Tony Neeves says. “That’s chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the ultimately what Isaiah 58 is about— oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your it’s a call to care for the vulnerable, food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with from those living in extreme poverty shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to to the little old lady who lives down turn away from your own flesh and blood?” the street.”

58: The Film invites Christians to respond to that call. To find TRAVEL THE GLOBE inspiration from low-income In 58: The Film, you’ll walk with Pastor Joel along the alleyways of teenagers in Queens who choose to Mathare Valley, and you’ll see the Gospel changing lives. fast in order to feed others who are You’ll meet Christians in India breaking the cycle of modernpoorer than them. To follow the day slavery through their ministry to laborers in illegal quarries. example of Ethiopian Christians You’ll journey through gang territory in Recife, Brazil, as working to plant trees and restore Auri—a former gang leader—builds relationships with those their environment. To join people hardened by crime and violence. like Bo, an American coffee shop You’ll go undercover with courageous believers in Asia risking owner whose business fights poverty their lives to save teen girls from imprisonment in the sex trade. through a commitment to fair trade.

In the midst of the darkness of poverty, disease, drug addiction When Christians respond—when and slavery, you’ll see the vibrant light of the Church living the true their actions resonate with God’s fast of Isaiah 58. “These Christians in impoverished communities heart for the vulnerable—they are actively reaching out to the most vulnerable around them,” experience a new vibrancy in their says the film’s co-director, Tim Neeves. “They are living like Jesus.” spiritual lives. “As I personally get Shot on location in 15 different countries by father/son more engaged in issues of poverty directing team Tony and Tim Neeves and Prospect Arts, 58: and justice,” Tim Neeves says, “I feel The Film starkly portrays the very real struggles of the world’s that I come alive. This is what we, the impoverished and oppressed. But this captivating, narrativeChurch, are called to be.” driven documentary goes far beyond sad stories; it offers profound

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WHO’S BEHIND 58:?

• Christian Reformed World Relief Committee • Compassion International • ECHO—Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization • Food for the Hungry • Hope International • International Justice Mission • Living Water International • Micah Challenge • Plant with Purpose • World Relief

VISIT

Live58.org/thefilm

to order a DVD or download it for free.

SHARE THE MESSAGE Host a screening at church.

JOIN THE MOVEMENT Join global projects ministering to the poor.

WATCH View an extended clip from 58: The Film on RejectApathy.com/58film:

Live58.org

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