This weekend, I spent some time at Ichthus. For those of you who don't know, it is the Christian Music Festival out in Wilmore. I have been the last three years, and this year, the line up was weak, but I was very excited about the Afters, who are actually mainstream, and brilliant. Check them out (http://www.theafters.com). Anyhow, en route to listen to The Afters, first, we met some really great people, listened to some really great teaching...and I got a wicked farmers tan on my legs.
The woman we met, she sent her husband to get us homemade peanut butter fudge. I mean...really? And she chats with us and shares with us....she is from Ashland, and was incredible.
Then, there were two girls behind us, Anna and Annie...from Louisville. They were camping at the Ichthus Farm and were so filled with Joy. It turns out they had been following the blog of Tom Davis and had all sorts of great things to say about him. Not only that but they were super sweet, and we got to chat with them again at the Artists Tent while waiting to have our books signed by Tom. They are doing big things for God, and I think they are incredible.
Then...Tom Davis. This guy is a rock star. He is doing some amazing work in Africa for the orphans...We ran across him at his table...first we were talking to his sales people, but then he came over to talk to us about some of his experiences in Africa with the orphans...I'm not going to say I rarely think about this, but, it doesn't get the "mind time" it should. He shared with us how many people are dying due to Malaria, which is a completely preventable disease. $5 a day is enough to provide mosquito netting and malaria shots to the orphans he works with...Later, as he was talking in front of the large group, we watched a video....profiling two girls in Uganda. One was an orphan and raising her 4 other brothers and sisters. They live in a disease ridden shack...one that wouldn't be suitable for any life...they eat rotten food that people give them, because they have no other choice...the other girl it followed had lost her mother to AIDS and her father is dying of AIDS...he is also an alcoholic and does not work. During the day she is left to raise her brothers and sisters, and then their father comes home and forces the youngest daughter to sleep with him...she is now infected with HIV....
As we sat and processed this...it came back to me, this line from a documentary I watched earlier in the week. There was a Catholic priest who was being questioned about how he could let trans-gendered people participate in church activities. His answer has stuck with me: "It is not our position to judge. Sometimes we, as Christians, get so caught up in who is right and who is wrong that we forget our most important job as a Christian--to Love. To love regardless, in spite of, even though." If this is true, how can we just turn "a blind eye" at what is happening in Africa? How could we not do something? And that doesn't just go for the orphans, malaria, AIDS/HIV...it goes for things that happen right here...children are sold into child slavery and prostitution right here in the United States...(by the way, they are the same orphans that we were just talking about a minute ago). It's haunting...what is happening...but, I don't feel saddened by it...rather, I wonder...how can I help? Where can I help? Who can I help? How can WE help? Where can WE help? Who can WE help?
I bought Tom Davis' book "Red Letters". It talks about what would happen if we all lived in the "red letters". You know...like from those bibles that have the words straight from Christ highlighted in red? I am reading this and I am inspired...to live more in the red and less in the black...to DO something where I can...for orphans, for the hungry, to end senseless malaria deaths...
But for now...if you want some extra information:
Children's Hope Chest
5 for Fifty
Tom Davis Blog
Red Letters Campaign
I hope you will take a look at these sites...I don't pretend to live in a utopia where this can all easily be wrapped up and all these wrongs eradicated. But I do live in a world with incredible people who can make a difference...and I'm going to start being one of them. And to think, the only cost was a farmers tan.
aformerblonde.
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That is a beautiful quote you included - that essentially sums it all up. I just wish people would quit worrying about the little things that have no consequence in the world and instead focus on the things they can change, that will make the world a better place and more filled with love. Good post. :)
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