Making a Difference

Last week, Carrie and I were honored to serve as the keynote speakers and share part of our passion/story with guests at a fundraiser hosted by Pepperdine students on World AIDS Day. It was exciting to see so many of our current and future leaders taking this issue seriously, and it was encouraging to know that together we are making a difference.

That being said, we have a lot of work to do.

Those of you who read this blog know that our adoption is tied to this issue; that the child that will join our family will more than likely come to us due to the impact of this pandemic.

Those of you who know me also know that I hold Bono's words very closely to my heart:

[This] is unarguably the central tenet of Christianity: that everybody is equal in God's eyes. So you cannot, as a Christian, walk away from Africa. America will be judged by God if, in its plenty, it crosses the road from 23 million people suffering from HIV, the leprosy of the day. What's up on trial here is Christianity itself. You cannot walk away from this and call yourself a Christian and sit in power. Distance does not decide who is your brother and who is not. The church is going to have to become the conscience of the free market if it's to have any meaning in this world--and stop being its apologist.

Because of these things, and because I belive that many others are looking for ways to make a difference, I want to point you to these two resources:

AHOPE is a sister organization to Adoption Advocates International (our adoption agency). AHOPE provides housing for children who are HIV positive; until recently, these were unable to be adopted due to Ethiopian government regulations.

A little more locally, Pepperdine students (in conjunction with World Vision) have created this "gift" catalog. What makes it a bit different is that in addition to the usual "gifts" (donations provide a well for a village, a goat for a family, etc.), there are specific gifts that our students will be delivering as a part of their partnerships with clinics in Tanzania. Another gift is a trust fund created by a Pepperdine senior and Ethiopian national that provides educational opportunities for the children of his home village. You can actually order online at this site: Order Form- Acting on AIDS

While this is an amazing opportunity on any date, at Christmas these gifts would be all the more precious. Please prayerfully consider how God would use you, either in educating friends and family about the African situation or by providing for those directly impacted through one of these or many other venues.