ERDO BLOG...

How long does it take you to spend $1?
By the time I drive to the office in the morning, I have managed to do this many times over. A cup of coffee, some breakfast food, and certainly the gas I use for the trip all reveal how quickly a dollar can be spent.

While a dollar may pass by easily for us, it has incredible power to impact change in the lives of millions of people around the world. Give Every Day is a new campaign designed to challenge us to think about what it really means to be Christian stewards. ERDO, in partnership with the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, is asking what we could accomplish with a lifestyle of generous giving.

The goal is ambitious - if every adult member of the PAOC committed to giving just $1 a day, we would raise $60 million a year. I don’t need to tell you the kind of difference that money could make in the lives of the children, women and men that ERDO works with in the world’s poorest regions. What’s important is not whether or not we can spare a dollar, but rather what our responsibility is to care for those in need.

Please take a few minutes and visit the Give Every Day site, or donate now. I believe you will be as encouraged and inspired as I am as to what we could accomplish with such a simple act.

When you wake up tomorrow, why not reflect on your daily activities and consider how quickly you are able to spend a dollar. Then think of how that same dollar could provide a child with wholesome food, a solid education and hope for their future.

With that in mind, can we really afford not to give?

As the G8/G20 summit rapidly approaches, I find myself considering the state of the world today. Many of you will have seen the horrific sink hole in downtown Guatemala. Many others are following the ongoing HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa or the political unrest in Thailand. Haiti, while slipping from the front page news, continues to struggle to recover from the recent earthquake.

When I think of all of the crisis occurring around the world today, I wonder - how should the Church respond to global suffering?

At ERDO, we simplify our mission as this - Wherever there is poverty, hunger, disaster and injustice, ERDO is there, working with you to do good.

For me, this leads to another question - what does it mean to “do good”? Note that it does not say “hope for good” or “believe that good will prevail.” To do good implies action. As the Scriptures remind us in James, “Those who listen to the word and do not do what it says are like people who look at their faces in a mirror and, after looking at themselves, go away and immediately forget what they look like” (James 1:23-24).

ERDO is called by the belief that to follow Christ means to be active in the world. But the sheer volume of suffering around the world can be overwhelming. It is easy to feel powerless to do anything in the face of injustice, hunger and poverty. The good news is that we do not act alone. We make it a priority at ERDO to partner with those on the ground in areas of crisis. Not only this, but as in every area of our lives, the Lord is our true source of strength. Together, we can do much.

Over the next several weeks, I will be sharing my thoughts on ERDO’s commitment to the areas of Food Relief, Crisis Response, Child Sponsorship and Development. With your help, we are confronting global suffering through these key areas. I invite you to join the conversation and partner with us as we strive to do good in the world.

I leave you with a final thought from James - “I will show you my faith by what I do” (James 2:18b). How are you showing your faith to a world in need?

In the upcoming June issue of testimony magazine, I share my thoughts on the core teaching of Jesus that we as his followers are to be caring for children in need. This is illustrated powerfully in the parable of the sheep and the goats where Jesus says that when we serve “the least of these,” we are in fact serving him.

What then is our response to the fact that millions of children today live without access to food, clothing and education? Can we truly say that we are caring for the “least of these” when in the time it has taken you to read this, four children have died from malnutrition?

The good news in this midst of this grim reality is that there is hope for children who suffer under such extreme poverty. ERDO’s ChildCare Plus provides the opportunity to care for a vulnerable child for just $34 a month! A sponsorship gives a child the chance for an education, not to mention the consistency of having healthy food to eat. Proper nutrition alone can save the lives of over half of the 11 million children who will die this year without relief from a life of extreme poverty.

What makes ChildCare Plus so unique is that each child is cared for by a representative from the community of your sponsored child, someone who knows the child well and ensures that your money goes directly to their benefit. In a world marked by so much corruption and greed, it is reassuring to know that our donations will make it to those who will truly benefit from them. The ChildCare Plus program is as unique as the children it helps – each case is assessed based on what the child needs most.

Given the number of natural disasters across the world in the last few months and the continued presence of violence and famine in the areas of extreme poverty, the need for support is greater now than ever. The reality of the situation is that children are dying every minute, and that we have the chance to save lives.

Jesus ended the parable I mentioned earlier with the powerful statement that to those who chose not to help the hungry, naked and oppressed, he would say: “Depart from me” (Matt. 25:41). Our Lord loves children and asks us to care for them when they are in need. What will be our answer?

Find out more about ERDO’s ChildCare Plus program today.

Visit our Haiti project page to donate.

We have just completed four days of in-country assessment of the crisis in Haiti. We spent considerable time with PAOC’s global workers, Michel and Louise and Bob and Tammy. Michel drove us through the heart of downtown Haiti. We were left reeling by the complete destruction. CNN images only supply a small slice of the reality. Through the busyness of our documenting, observing and evaluation we stopped in the realization that people lived here, died here and still remain under the concrete.

We paused for a moment.

A child’s photograph lies on top of the rubble outside of a broken prison wall. A Christmas tree, white with dust, lay wedged under the weight of two floors collapse. People pick up the pieces and move on. Street vendors sit outside of what were once shops and businesses. They are dazed and overwhelmed by loss and yet forced by the urgencies of hunger, thirst and shelter to continue moving.

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I rise at 5:00 am to ensure I get pictures of the sunrise from a high rock promontory at Mbizi Lodge. Inspiring! Today we travel from Harare to Joburg to Lusaka, the long way to get there but the most reliable as South African Air is preferable to Air Zimbabwe.

In the arrivals area we are greeted by Al Wright and Cheryl Ann Johnson who are PAOC Missions personnel. Before travelling to the construction site of the Chongwe Village of Hope where Al is the Project Coordinator, we drop our luggage at the Mwiza guest house. We judge the value of accommodation by very simple standards: the state of toilets, air conditioner and internet. We rejoice at the discovery of wireless at this place. Of course there is the obligatory bed check for uninvited creatures. As we stood at the reception desk I heard a familiar melody on the radio. “The first noel the angels did say, to certain poor shepherds in fields where they lay… Noel, Noel… born is the King of Israel.”

This was the source of some humour as we wished each other a Merry Christmas. Furthest thing from my mind really. So far from home and the familiar. Preoccupied with situations of great need. But fitting somehow isn’t it? In the least likely places and to the least deserving, according to superficial judgment, the King shows up. Styled after the obscure and inglorious circumstances of his birth (born in a borrowed stable), he still chooses to appear among the hungry, the naked, the sick and the destitute. “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:40). He honours and dignifies our attempts to do the good that he has entrusted to us to do.

Waking up to Friday we plan to see two of the city schools and their respective neighbourhoods. More happy children. We are impressed with school leaders and volunteer teams that demonstrate care and conviction above the call of duty. They are creating places where children are safe, respected and nurtured. The church is at the centre of this activity with an omnipotent vision to influence and transform their community. Pastor Dixon and his team have a compelling expectation of good in the midst of the disadvantages. They have earned the trust of the community. And remarkably they have been favoured by civic leaders who have given them a strategic piece of land in the city that will soon be a community care centre.

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November 04 was a full day that took us to several garden projects nearby the schools. How encouraging to see the barren land in bloom! As ERDO thinks about life after the need for crisis feeding, we are sowing seeds of self-reliance, offering training and tools that build community capacity and provide more secure sources of food.

Two groups of people, with great pride, welcome us at separate locations. They are honoured that we would come and are eager to show us the fruit of their labours. One group has been formed by people whose need for food is surpassed by their need for understanding and mutual support as they deal with HIV/AIDS. They are finding both in good supply as they cultivate, tend and water a donated plot of land. As we walk with these people they describe what it means to them and their families to have a reliable source of food. And to know that they have done this for themselves. They are not content with hand outs. They are grateful for a hand up. And they are obviously grateful for each other as together they prepare, prophetically, for days of abundance: “The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones; you will be like a watered garden and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.” (Isaiah 58:11)

Early morning and an ample breakfast at Hornung Lodge is an oasis in the wasteland that Zimbabwe has become. Parched land waiting for rain, dusty roads punctuated by potholes, poor people scratching for morsels of food, unemployment as pervasive as the idle land that once fed all of Africa. What is worse is that hopes have been suppressed by a cruel political regime that feeds only its self-serving appetites. So that’s why ERDO is here, doing good and supporting the churches and communities of Zimbabwe as they respond to hunger.

The long drive to Tshlotsho is familiar from previous visits. One year ago I was here to visit some of the 16 schools that receive food to be served up by community volunteers. The numbers have grown to 20,000 hungry stomachs daily. I am apprehensive about what I might see. Our arrival is greeted enthusiastically. Smiling, young faces deserving a camera. Appreciative teachers who remember my name. I wonder if their year has passed as quickly as mine. They are the dedicated caregivers who have to endure the day by day realities, the slow motion film that is their assigned part on this forsaken set, waiting for a break, hoping for wages that seldom come, holding on for the sake of the children.

But there is a difference this year. I observe healthy faces. Bright eyes replacing vacant stares. Teachers report on students that are more attentive and able to learn. This emerging optimism and energy is captured in an arranged dance. Selected students accompanied by a marimba band depict the arrival of food and their gratitude as they partake. It is more than words can say and I am speechless. Deep emotions surface. I believe again in what we are doing. As much as a cup of cold water in Jesus’ name, the portion of food is what we must do, as unto Him, but because of them. These children are my own; I cannot choose to be different or distant. We must be here.

Most of all, I am aware of the power of community. Doing good is a limited act of charity if it does not result in transformation. But here the participants are nourished in and by community even as they serve up food. Children, families, volunteers, churches, partners who care, joining together to arrest the despair that stands at the gate.

Yesterday was World Food Day, a post-Thanksgiving opportunity to reflect on the abundance that we enjoy in our land of privilege, and conversely, the enormous struggle that many people face just finding their “daily bread”. Justice is as scarce as nourishment for too many children and their families. Inequity fills our plates and our stomachs! Never more timely the prophet’s urging to “share your food with the (800 million) hungry” - (Isaiah 58:7).

Life: Just Add Water Concert. What energy! What loud music!

I capped off the day with a hurried trip to St. Catherines, Ontario to attend the Life: Just Add Water concert, part of a two-week cross-Canada effort by Canadian youth to raise money for clean water. www.lifecampaign.org What energy! What loud music! Base thought: why are the only ones with ear plugs the same ones making all the noise?