Today is the last day of The 40 Day Fast over at InspiredToAction.com.  These logos represent all the organizations talked about.  

It’s been a pretty amazing thing to see so many different organizations represented in such amazing ways.  To me the most amazing part of watching this thing happen, for the second year in a row, is to see so many people working with so many different causes.  

There is a massive need in this world, and it’s great to see the competition for the “best charity” disappear, and everyone involved work together for something bigger than themselves. 

Today over at InspiredToAction.com everyone has the opportunity to participate in adding to the day by posting about something big or small that you personally are doing to help change the world.  Write something on your blog and then head over there to participate.  

For those of you here that read, what post inspired you the most?

Tonight I had the privilege to attend a screening of a film due to release later this year called Call+Response.  The screening was held in inside the Country Music Hall Of Fame in Downtown Nashville, so obviously it was an honor to be invited.  Call+Response deals directly with human trafficking and slave trading including children sex slaves.  I had heard quite a bit about the horrific things that go on but this documentary does an unbelievable job of bringing some of these tragedies to light.

CALL+RESPONSE is a first of its kind feature documentary film that reveals the world’s 27 million dirtiest secrets: there are more slaves today than ever before in human history. CALL+RESPONSE goes deep undercover where slavery is thriving from the child brothels of Cambodia to the slave brick kilns of rural India to reveal that in 2007, Slave Traders made more money than Google, Nike and Starbucks combined.

Director/Producer Justin Dillon hosted the night and said some pretty amazing things.  One of the things that he said that really stood out to me was simple and clever, but I thought was brilliant.  While talking about the need for us all to get involved in the abolishing of these thing, he said this, “It’s not called Awarenessism it’s called Activism”.  Simple and brilliant.  

My mind is still processing the images of a seven year old girl being sold to grown men looking for a good time.  This is a very real and very local thing.  I have questions like, why is it that the government can find out if I download a record illegally, but little girls are bought and sold for sex for less than an iPod?  And this is happening right here in America.  And it’s happening all over the world.  Questions like, how far has the human race fallen when we are treating children with less value than cattle and making billions of dollars in the process?  And questions like, where do I even start?

I could go on and on about how the night went, and all the terrible things that I learned, but right now I’d encourage you to go check out the trailer and at the very least find out when this film is released in your city, then bring as many people as you can.  There’s all sorts of amazing music mixed into it and some great artists that are also involved.  I have already sent an email to the director asking him how I can possibly help with some stuff online.  I know that there are plenty of organizations out there dealing with everything from water to kids to shoes, but if this is something that you don’t know about or haven’t heard, it’s time to get educated and get involved.

Has anyone else really studied this?  The numbers seem too staggering to ignore.

Today is Kristin’s day to blog for the 40 Day Fast. Today she has blogged about Fair Trade, and the amazing things that simply buying Fair Trade products is doing. There’s also a video on the post that is full of information on what Fair Trade is doing.

One of the many amazing things about Kristin is that she really digs in when she is doing something. She never does anything half-way. Recently I have noticed things around the house with the Fair Trade Logo on them and I have noticed very conscious decisions made by Kristin over the last few months to change the way we do things as a household. Ever since we have been married we have tried to be environmentally and globally focussed, and in a consumerist America that can be a hard thing. The awesome thing about Kristin, is her persistence to make a difference in the world in spite of what others think, feel or say.

Check out Kristin’s blog on Fair Trade today and also check out Alex’s blog about focussing locally on community resource centers in your own neighborhood.

Here’s a project today. In your outings today, whether it’s the grocery store or the coffee shop, find something today to purchase that is labeled “Fair Trade”. Then head to Kristin’s blog and comment what is is that you found with the Fair Trade logo on it. Sounds easy right?

Today is day twenty-two of the 40 Day Fast at InspiredToAction.com.  I was able to be a part of this amazing movement last year and wrote about Compassion International.  Since there are so many other folks out there talking about Compassion, I wanted to take the time to focus on another organization who’s primary focus is children.  

According to Wikipedia:  The United Nations Children’s Fund (or UNICEF) was created by the United Nations General Assembly on December 11, 1946, to provide emergency food and healthcare to children in countries that had been devastated by World War II. In 1953, UNICEF became a permanent part of the United Nations System and its name was shortened from the original United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund but it has continued to be known by the popular acronym based on this old name. Headquartered in New York City, UNICEF provides long-term humanitarian and developmental assistance to children and mothers in developing countries.

UNICEF is currently focused on five primary priorities: Child Survival and Development, Basic Education and Gender Equality (including girls’ education), Child protection from violence, exploitation, and abuse, HIV/AIDS and children, and Policy advocacy and partnerships for children’s rights. Related areas of UNICEF action include early childhood development, adolescence development and participation, life skills based education and child rights all over the world.

In my opinion, there isn’t much more of a worthy cause than to focus on the children of this world.  I know we’ve all heard that children are our future, almost to the point of becoming a little cliche’, but the fact of the matter is, there are too many kids being forgotten by my generation and the generation before me.  There are too many problems in the world and many of them are simply falling on kids because of the laziness of the generation before them.  I see that as an issue that my generation has created and with that comes the responsibility to fix some things.

One of the things I love about UNICEF is it’s willingness to get involved in so many different aspects of the world.  From sanitation and clean water in East Timor, to malaria nets in Malawi, UNICEF isn’t afraid to get their hands dirty and ask the same from anyone willing to get involved.  In over one hundred and fifty countries and operating for over sixty years UNICEF has helped develop simple, affordable, and innovative solutions to complicated problems. A few examples: birthing kits to help women have safe deliveries; oral rehydration salts to treat diarrheal dehydration in children; portable School-in-a-Box kits to make classes possible almost anywhere; and solar-powered cold storage units to transport vaccines to remote villages. All of these are now in standard use by many humanitarian organizations, saving millions of children’s lives.

I know there are plenty of organizations out there that are helping children and I think it’s important to get aligned with something.  There’s no reason at all anyone with the ability to read this post wouldn’t be involved in the effort to save the lives of children.  UNICEF is one of the hundreds of ways to get involved.  The 40 Day Fast has been, and continues to be, an amazing venue for the Church as a whole to lay aside differences and get involved in things that really matter, and when that happens I believe lives are changed and a difference is made.  Thanks for letting me be a part.

Now make sure to check out Lori’s post today as the second part of this movement.

Today marks the beginning of something that is going to be pretty powerful for the next forty days.  The Forty Day Fast starts today with a post from Brant about the slums of Nairobi.  It’s a pretty powerful look at the understanding of Jesus from someone who lives there.  

Make sure to bookmark Inspired To Action for the next forty days and check in.  There are also plenty of badges to put in your sidebar to help get the word out.  

Anyone been to Nairobi? 

Last year Kristin and I were able to participate with a group of other bloggers in an event that, what I can only imagine, has made a difference in the lives of everyone involved as well as hundreds of people around the world.  The brain-child of Kat, the ”40 Day Fast” has gotten a lot of attention around the internet and even became the origin of a great site call “Inspired To Action“, of which Kristin is a writer and editor for.

Here’s how it works.  For 40 days, a different blogger fasts and writes about a specific organization or part of the world that is dear to them and they feel needs to be recognized.  Each day a new organization that is making a difference in the world is featured and supported.  As readers we are encouraged to link to each blogger fasting and help get the word out.  It’s a pretty amazing thing to watch happen over the span of the 40 days.

Registration is open today, so if you are even the slightest bit interested go to InspiredToAction.com and register to be one of the 40.  Seriously check it out.  It’s a pretty amazing thing to get involved in and it makes all this blogging stuff worth it.

Go here for all the info.

I know this is a little different “Positive Post Tuesday” but, I think what Kat, Kristin, Euphrony and Amy are doing is a pretty amazing thing and they can use all the support that we can give them.  Who’s with me?

Welcome to Tuesday again. For those of you just showing up here’s how it works. It’s pretty simple. (1) Write something nice about someone, building them up, encouraging them, you know.. being nice. (2) Fill out the box below. Have fun.

Kristin and I are still up in Michigan, but I wanted to remind everyone that tomorrow is the last day for our Blood Water Mission fund raiser here.  Remember three months ago when I asked what everyone thought about trying to raise some money to build wells in Africa for three months?  Well this is three months later and I am planning on sending the check to Blood Water Mission on Monday.  Honestly, we are nowhere near the amount to build three wells, but we are closer than we were before we started and that’s all that matters.

If you haven’t been paying attention, or are new to this blog, there is a giant orange button over on the right where you can donate to Blood Water, or you can head to JesusGreaterThan.org and buy a “Jesus>Thirst” shirt.  All the proceeds from the shirt sales will also go into this account.  

So here’s the deal.  Let’s all dig deep today and tomorrow, click that orange button and give whatever you can.  I know there’s a bunch of stuff you can be giving to right now, but if at all possible this is something great to help with.  And thanks to everyone who has given already.  It’s going to be be great to pass that check along.

Well, here it is the end of April. Some of you may not remember, but I wanted to remind everyone about the Blood Water Mission well fund raiser we are doing here on this blog. Here are all the posts related to donating money to help build wells for people in need of clean water.  So far we are not even close to the original goal of “Two Wells in Three Months”, in fact I think we should change the name to “One Well In Three Months” and shoot for that instead.

There are a couple different ways you can give.  One is by clicking that giant orange box to the right of this post.  That will take you to a PayPal account where you can donate.  The other way is to head over to JesusGreaterThan.org and buy a Thirst Shirt.  Whatever money is made from the shirts will also be donated to Blood Water Mission as well.  

The plan is still to send BWM a check on the first of June.  Hopefully it will be enough to get them a well, but we’ve got a long way to go.  Seriously, thanks for all of you who have donated.  Tell as many people as you can today about this, and let’s get some people some clean water.  There’s really no reason this community here on this blog can’t spread the word like crazy about this.  

Let’s get a well this month.   What do you say?

Last Tuesday we tried something that seemed to work pretty well, and from what I can tell struck a cord with a lot of people, which I think is awesome. Several of you wrote amazing posts about your spouses, friends, and people in your church. Apparently there even was a youth group that talked about it, and someone was encouraged that way.

So I thought about it this morning and I think we should make this into a “thing”. What do you say? I think every Tuesday we should all write something encouraging about someone that we feel deserves to be “built up”.

This week I want to talk about my wife. She has been working for a week now, waking up to an alarm clock at an un-godly hour, on her feet all day, and still manages to come home and have energy to hang out with me and the boys. She hasn’t been the the “working world” for over five years, and somehow jumped in and taken the whole thing in stride. I know it’s hard, and I know she doesn’t feel like it doing it everyday, but somehow she does it and does it well.

On the other end of that, I have had the ability to mostly work from home, and so when she is gone I am taking care of the kids. Now, I love my kids to death, but there have been times this week where I wish the closet doors locked from the outside. I don’t know how Kristin does it. I don’t know how she gets anything done and still has time to feed these kids, nurture them and also step it up and teach them junk. I don’t get it. It’s all I can do to just get some food on the table and keep them from killing each other. I know this last few weeks has been particularly rough for her, and I think this week she deserves a little extra building up. I don’t know anyone like her and I couldn’t have married a more perfect woman.

So now it’s your turn. I have noticed this crazy Mr. Linky thing on every blog I read so I thought I would give it a try. Turns out there are rules that go along with this Mr. Linky thing, so here they are:
(a) Post on your blog.
(b) Fill out the widget on the bottom of this post linking to your post.
(c) Then link back to this post.

Sounds easy enough. Ready? Go.

Just wanted to remind everyone we are still trying to build some wells in Africa through the work of Blood Water Mission. So far the response has been great, but I know there are plenty of other folks out there that wanted to give.

Remember my piss-poor math? Ten bucks a month, or thirty bucks for three months because we are trying to give enough for two wells every three months. With the amount of readers here we should be able to get that done in no time. Obviously there is no penalty for giving more, so do that if you wish.

Click that giant, obvious orange box over there on the right and enter the amount you want to donate, or head over to Jesus>Thirst and get a shirt, where the proceeds will go into the pot. Remember, June 1st is the day that I am sending the check. It’s not too close right now, but I don’t see why it can’t be a lot closer by that date, so let’s get on it. Everyone here has some cash laying around that can go to help save some lives.

Ready? Go.