From the Salmon

I’ll definitely be posting more about global poverty issues in the future. I’m realizing now that there’s really no good way to segue from talking about global poverty back to music reviews and the rest of my usual silliness. I guess before I do, I’ve got one more thing to share. It’s a point that has been driven home to me as I’ve clicked around the web to do research for my previous posts....

These internets is fantastic.

Through the comments on this site and links on other sites, I’ve found a number of other authors who have devoted quite a bit of time to covering the same issues that I’ve only started to raise. I’ve also discovered sites written by people who are not just writing about poverty, they’re hard at work doing something about it. It only now occurs to me that, technology and political climate permitting, this is a perfect medium for people doing this kind of work to give regular updates to friends, family, and prayer supporters. 

I’ll limit myself to two for now, but I hope to share others in the future.

I noticed this morning that a UCC church in Maine had linked to one of my posts. I’m always honored that anybody might find my writing worthy of linkage, but to have a church recommend my writing to their congregation was a new one. Anyhow, I spent a little time on the church’s blog and discovered a wonderful site.

So What Can I Do?

I don’t know how many times I’ve read about something gone awry in our world and thought to myself “So what can I do?” You know what I’m talking about. Well, it should come as no surprise that someone has created a website for the specific purpose of answering that question: sowhatcanido.blogspot.com.

Karama has post after post of interesting ideas to educate yourself and become more engaged in work and causes that make you passionate. I’ll be visiting this site a lot.

I was going to post a smattering of her recent suggestions, but really, it’s all good. Go read for yourself.

Vessel of Mercy

Jenni, who is working as a literacy educator in Liberia with Mercy Ships, uses her site Vessel of Mercy to post updates and photos from her past few months in West Africa. Liberia has only recently begun to put itself back together after a decade and a half of brutal civil war. Jenni writes:

It is too difficult for me to write about all the things going on in my head right now about this country. So I will attempt to make short posts as I go along. So much of it seems unreal until I go out into the streets and see all the bullet holes in lightposts, signs, and buildings, until I meet people and hear their stories.

The war has ended but so much more needs to be done.

From the decks of an aging, recommissioned cruise ship, Jenni and her shipmates are working to bring healing, renewal, and new life to the hurting people of a devastated country. When you think about it, it’s an unlikely way for God to work. But Jenni quotes a Mercy Ships release in one of her posts:

Maybe lasting peace in Liberia is unlikely; maybe permanent stability and security in West Africa is unlikely. Then again, light is unlikely in the depths of darkness. Hope is unlikely in the midst of despair. Life is unlikely in a body hanging limp on a wooden cross. Thankfully, our God has a taste for the unlikely.

A taste for the unlikely. I like that. I like that a lot.

Thanks for sharing, Jenni.