I was having a conversation this week with a friend about the situation in Africa when she said what I’ve often thought myself, “It’s hard to know what to do. The world’s problems are so many and I’m just one person.”
And yet, I recently heard the results of a study on remittances (money sent home by immigrant workers to help support their families) that surprised the experts discussing it. Remittances had not been tracked until recently and what they discovered is that when you combine the money of essentially poor people sending money home to their poorer families at a meager $100 or $200 it was more than any official government aid package, even the U.N.’s, totaling over $300 billion annually. Even in a European country like Russia, the remittances totaled 13% of the country’s GDP. So, it’s actually amazing what one person can do if we could only see it from a bigger viewpoint, where the efforts of many individuals combine to accomplish something significant.
It would be impossible, though, for us to carry all the world’s problems individually. If you find yourself asking this same question, “what can I do about AIDS”, or malaria, or global warming, or the lack of clean water, or child soldiers, or hunger, or slavery, I would encourage you to do a few things:
1. Ask God to put one specific world need on your heart
2. Get educated about the situation
3. Join with others in finding the solution
The story of the Good Samaritan, found in Luke 10: 25-37, contains an example of how Jesus said we were to love our “neighbor”, and in it the Samaritan who stumbled upon the man who had been beaten and robbed took notice, got involved, trusted the actual caretaking to a local person who was equipped to look after him, and expected a report when he returned on how his money had been used. I think we can actually do all those things ourselves. We can take notice (indeed how can we not?), we can find a partner who is on the spot and already doing something, and we can help carry the burden, either with our money and our prayers, or our time as well if we feel drawn to be a hands-on part of the solution.
If you find yourself wanting to take action but aren’t sure where God’s calling you, consider attending the Social Justice group that meets monthly, listen to the news with a prayerful heart, check out one of the many wonderful books that Stephenie Carr has recommended for our library (Fiction & Biographies from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Central & Eastern Europe, and even the US as well as many books on Social Justice and Missions that will stir your heart and mind), consider joining one of the short-term missions groups from Oak Hills – nothing beats looking into the eyes of someone, living along side them for a time, to plant them and their needs firmly in your heart - and I’m sure you’ll find yourself drawn into God’s plan for justice and mercy and peace in the world.
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I think its pretty cool that we were thinking about the same thing (kind of) last month, and didn't know it! Recently I've been thinking about child prostitution in South East Asia. I don't speak any of the languages of that region, I don't really know anyone over there, and I don't know what I can do to help, either. I mean, what I'd LIKE to do is raid the area and shut down all the brothel districts and give the children a place where they can BE children. But 1) I think that might be against the law in those countries, and 2) I think that's a bit too big for me to take on... I hadn't thought of actually researching it more, though. As they say, "Knowing is half the battle." I always thought that was stupid (and in the context of drugs I'm not too sure it holds up), but knowing more about current situations in the world today probably CAN lead to ways to change them... Thanks for making me think, Mom! :)
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