Igneous Quill

Valentino Achak managed to escape from southern Sudan while he saw other boys killed by soldiers and wild animals.  After relocating to the United States as a refugee he could have simply started over and left the horrors he had seen behind him.  After all, his homeland has suffered from civil war for around 5 decades.  What is there for him in Sudan?  Instead, he threw all the profits from a book about his life story into building a school in the area that had been his home.

The school discussed in the video above is now built and in operation.  In recent weeks he made known a desire to dramatically increase the number of girls in the high school to over 50%.  Right now there are only 14.  Early marriage and the demands of helping out at home tend to reduce female enrollment.  Instrumental in his strategy is building dorms for girls.  Nick Kristof got word out and they've raised thousands of dollars in only a couple of weeks, realizing yet another victory in the peaceful fight to retake Sudan through education and hope.

Read Kristof's article here, as well as the follow-up here.

The Valentino Achak Foundation.

The other night I received an e-mail from an address I did not recognize, appealing for me to at least read before deleting.  It was from Africa and had to do with a ministry.  Rather than do as usual and delete, I left it in my inbox, returning to it later.

As it turns out, it was an e-mail from a Church of Christ missionary in South Africa.  In the letter only prayers are requested.  Going to the website of the U.S. church referenced in the letter I found the above video.  Click here to read the newsletter they sent me.

It isn't easy to do this sort of mission work.  Probably a shoestring budget and seemingly insurmountable odds.  Worse still is struggling to catch the attention, prayer and financial support of Western churches that are already trying to deal with a cacophony of voices pleading for help.  I really don't believe it's indifference.  It's just that there is so much need in the world and so many distractions close to home, keeping our focus off.

Many nations of Africa have know the pain of civil war.  Have any of them not suffered through this at least once?  Earlier this year I read the gut-wrenching autobiographical tale of a boy made into a drug-addicted killing machine during Sierra Leone's civil war.  Another African nation struggling to put itself back together in the aftermath of internal conflict is Liberia, a west African nation with a historic connection to the United States.  One of many institutions that was devastated by the war is the Gbarnga School of Theology in Monrovia. 

The theological school, affiliated with the United Methodist Churches, serves a student body composed of believers from multiple traditions, including United Methodists, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Pentecostals and others.  In other words, this is a denominational seminary with a strong ecumenical commitment.  The university of which it is a part was occupied during the war.  Items of any utility or value were stolen or destroyed, and the physical structure of some buildings on campus was apparently compromised.

There is reportedly only one computer on campus, no Internet connection and a severe scarcity of books that limits what students can do.  The heart and soul of this nation can be nurtured to health if well-prepared Christian workers are sent out to face the task, but how will they be made ready without resources?

From one of the articles about this need:
Donations of books, computers, or other specific items can be sent to: the Rev. Yatta Roslyn Young, DEAN, Gbarnga School of Theology/United Methodist University, Liberia Annual Conference, The United Methodist Church, 13th Street, Sinkor, PO Box 1010, 1000 Monroviq 10 Liberia.

As for me, I have set of history books and maybe some other theology texts I could pack up and ship off.  How about you?

The video above is a clip from a brief documentary that is to come out shortly. It shows a prosperity gospel preacher in Africa. The prosperity gospel, the unholy spawn of certain covetous American preachers, has spread to the developing world. This really isn't news, but it makes me sad. Poor people's misplaced faith being exploited by greedy liars who promise them health and wealth in exchange for money should raise the ire of all thinking people. In Brazil this evil is institutionalized in such powerful neo-pentecostal denominations as the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG). When I was in Brazil I heard story after story of families ruined financially and marriages destroyed by the UCKG and others.

Before someone points out that the church I attend passes a collection plate, allow me to say that the money taken in is counted, the church informed about how much there is and how it is spent, and no one is currently on the payroll. We take up an offering to pay the legitimate bills of the congregation (electricity, water, etc) and to fund missions and day-to-day ministry. There is honesty and transparency in what we do, in contrast to what we see in prosperity preachers.

The above video is the trailer for a new documentary.  Madonna and her "Raising Malawi" charity are behind it.  The focus appears to be on the damage HIV/AIDS is doing in Africa in general, and Malawi in particular.  It's hard, heartbreaking stuff.

"Ubuntu" is a term that comes up in the video, and is part of the phrase translated as "I Am Because We Are."  Normally when I use this word, I'm talking about the GNU/Linux operating system of the same name (click here for that).  If you think about it, there's a truth to this statement.  I would not be who I am, were it not for other people.  In a deeper sense, there is a connectedness about the human family.  Indeed, I am to be my brother and sister's keeper.

Many people and organizations representing diverse ideologies and motivations are working to end poverty, alleviate suffering and bring hope to millions around the world.  If you haven't already, why don't you join one of them now in whatever way you can? 

See Also:
Aid Gives Alternative to African Orphanages (NYTimes)