Last night I attended the first taping session for what will become an on-line course offered by Vineyard College of Missions. Wow! What an opportunity this is!
Each module will focus on one of the seven world crises which the ministry of i-61.org (Isaiah 61) seeks to address, locally and globally. Those seven areas of crises are:
- World hunger
- Environmental decline
- Poor health & disease
- Educational inequalities
- Human injustice
- Spiritual confusion
- Undeveloped leadership
Last night and tonight, the lectures are addressing educational inequalities around the world. I became involved with illiteracy issues when I was on the RWA board of directors, and it has remained a passion of mine. The lecture last night opened my eyes to even more than I’d known before.
I scribbled notes like crazy for two hours, and I’m looking forward to returning tonight for another two hours with this instructor. One point he made which I think is so important was that lack of education is something that flows downstream into all of the other world crises.
For instance, he shared about the mosquito nets that get taken over to countries to help fight malaria (which falls under the poor health & disease crisis). You know about them. You may even have contributed to one organization or another who raised money for this cause. American Idol did it several years ago. But instead of being used to protect from mosquito bites, the nets are sometimes used as fishing nets instead. And while the nets do catch fish that can be eaten, the fine netting also catches and kills the teeny tiny baby fish which destroys future fishing opportunities. So not only aren’t they protected from malaria, these peoples source of food vanishes. The lack of education is at the root of the problem.
We are eyewitnesses to the atrocities in the world. We cannot deny it. It’s all over the news. God is calling His people to do something, to take action, to care for the weak and the poor, to bless others and show God’s compassionate character to all people groups.
[Tweet “We are eyewitnesses to the atrocities in the world. God is calling His people to take action.”]
I believe strongly in the work of i-61, and someday I hope to find the right story idea so that I can share the vision of this ministry. I think what so often stops us from taking action is how overwhelming it all is, and we wonder what possible difference one person can make. But if enough of us step up and step out, we will make a difference, one step at a time.
~ robin
