During the holiday season, we're often reminded to count our blessings. That's good....but I invite us to go deeper. Don't just count your blessings...share your blessings. Bless others with our blessings - especially the vulnerable.
Today is Giving Tuesday - a day set aside to intentionally support organizations seeking to pursue the common good. As you consider other orgs, I sincerely hope you'll also joyfully give to @onedayswages. Our work is unique in that we don't re-invent the wheel. We don't do the work on the ground but we exist to support and elevate others - Including and especially local, indigenous leaders. We want to highlight them, support them, and help build their capacity.
And because of some anonymous donors, the first $25,000 will be matched today
Thanks for partnering with us. (Link in bio.)
On this Veterans Day, it's a special and unexpected gift to be in Washington DC. In addition to soaking in various events I made sure to stop by a memorial that personally means much to me and my family: The Korean War Memorial.
I hate war. I hate violence. I have no desire to romanticize war. I long for peace and want to devote my life to pursuing peace and fighting for the vulnerable. But I also acknowledge the broken world we live in - where we have conflict, violence, and war. As my father once emotionally said to me years ago when I took him to soak in this memorial, "We're here because of these soldiers and veterans. They didn't know us. They came to a foreign country and helped us. We are indebted to them. Never forget_.
Thank you to each and every person that has served in some way or another. As we honor our veterans, may we do so in both remembrance AND as we contend for peace.
30 years. And the importance of planting seeds.
Recently, I had the chance to go to my 30 year high school reunion at Lowell High School in San Francisco! It was the first time I set foot back at the school since graduation.
So emotional. So nostalgic. Lots of memories of some good, some bad, and lots of struggle with identity.
Over the years, I've never been able to go to any of the HS reunions because of church responsibilities. And even with this one, I wasn't planning on going but shout out to Curtis and Trisha for reaching out and encouraging me to come.
Honestly, I haven't kept in touch with hardly anyone.in part, because I wrestled with many things during that time - and even throughout college. For years, I wrestled with shame for hurting people along the way but as I look back now,, I'm filled with gratitude and I wanted to take the opportunity to thank people in person. While I didn't become a believer until after high school, I'm especially grateful for people like Curtis, Roland, and Tammy for inviting me to church and planting seeds about Jesus in my life. I often said no to their invitations but I know those seeds were not planted in vain. And shout out to human beings for not yet having invented the internet because, well, I would have no chance today. Lol.
And to my HS friends: Thank you so much. Thinking of Duckie, Terra, Helen, Jason M., Curtis, Roland, Andy,, Linda, and so many more. And of course, I think of the teachers and coaches who invested in me. Shout out to Coach Lloyd, the toughest, meanest, cruelest, greatest coach who believed in what I could be. Thank you so much.
Keep planting seeds, y'all. They matter. Every word, invitation conversation, smiles, meal, prayers, act of kindness...they all matter.
And for SF and Bay Area folks, I'm finally coming back to preach in the Bay! I'll be at Reality SF this coming Sunday and then at Menlo Church on June 7. God is so gracious!
We don’t need men that JUST do Christian comedy, Christian music, Christian sermons, or Christian leadership. We need men that live out what they say, sing, preach, and teach.
To be about the former without the latter makes us mere salespeople who peddle the “gospel” for selfish gain and to feed our narcissism. To be one without the other fuels dissonance and hypocrisy. We become an empty gong, a stumbling block, and the duplicitousness that is wreaking havoc in the lives of other human beings created in the image of God and also in our credibility and witness - to both the Church and the larger world.
We need imperfect men who are self-aware of their imperfections but nevertheless, remain committed to integrity and character; to steward with humility and generosity any influence and power we hold; To encourage one another; to love our families, to honor women which means we do not degrade, manipulate, intimidate, or abuse. To mentor and empower youth. To protect and advocate for the vulnerable. To love mercy, seek justice, and walk humbly.
Lord, may this begin with me.
In Jesus’ name.
Amen.
Well, I'm too emotional to write anything long.
First, I'm sorry for my naked toes but isn't that picture crazy?! Second and most importantly, our eldest turns 21 years old today. It just seemed like last year that we dropped her off at preschool. And now, she's 21. Double majoring in college. Kicking butt as a designer. Has her own college radio show under her alias DJ Noona, and also works as a dormitory Resident Advisor. Passionate about people, justice, and sticking up for others.
Jubilee: We love you so much. Mom and I are so proud of you. You've gone through a lot in your short life already but we're filled with gratitude for your life, health, passion, and faith. As you pour out for others, please take time to care for yourself. Happy Birthday!
is that really a complete sentence? it reads weird.
Perhaps a rather simplistic presentation, one that some viewers might dismiss for not discussing a wide array of other factors. My first reaction was, “Yeah right.” If I hadn’t already done some research on it, I probably wouldn’t have thought twice about it.
But it’s actually true. The correlation between opportunities for women and economic stability is huge. One stat from the Girl Effect website: Women invest 90% of their income into their families, as opposed to 30-40% for men.
I stumbled upon another organization earlier this morning actually, called Kiva (www.kiva.org). They facilitate microlending opportunities in developing nations. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of individuals seeking loans were women.
That’s a pretty effective video. Davo is right to say it’s no surprise. One of the largest case studies of this of course is Muhammad Yunus’ work in Bangladesh with the Grameen Bank. I got to hear him speak the UW several years ago and the impact on Bangladesh through women becoming business and landowners was pretty striking. One interesting note from here: http://www.grameen-info.org/dialogue/dialogue37/action.html
is that the loan repayment rate for women given micro-loans was 99.4% in this study. Pretty impressive.
@Eugene: are you thinking about micro-credit as part of your new org?
Wow – moving video.
I did a research project in university studying the effects of literacy and education among women on their villages/society. Mostly in Northern Africa and having a lot to do with FGM (female circumcision). It’s amazing what a seemingly small difference to a handful of girls can do to a whole village, region.
I have heard of Kiva, but not Girl Effect.
@tyler: not sure. i was just c/p a short description on youtube.
@davo: kiva is fairly well known now. they even made it on oprah and supposedly the servers got knocked out with the response. i very much enjoy what they’re doing because they’re somehow able to connect the giver to the recipient, empower the individual, and lastly, you’re not really GIVING money but rather, LENDING, money and on their website, they reportedly have an a fairly incredible “success” rate in terms of money being returned.
@beattieblog: not really. its something that we’ll do but probably can’t afford to build the infrastructure do that. as you can imagine, d. richards is a big fan of microlending and sees that as one of the proven ways to systemically change the environment for global poverty. we might engage in microlending as a participant. what we’re envisioning really is granting funds to small NGOs that have a proven or growing effect on poverty in their local context. small NGOs that most people have not even heard of. that’s not necessarily new but how we hope to raise funds is new in the sense that we’re trying to use this thing call the global web 2.0 community. i’ll send you our vision letter and you can mail us a check for a million.
I confess to not being as well educated on this topic as those of you who have responded so far, but from my time in Africa, the thing that touched me and broke my heart was talking to the mothers that we met. They desperately wanted to see their children be whole and healthy. Ulitimately, to do this, their community must be healthly and stable. While there can be no doubt that men want this for their children, speaking as a mother, it is the the very core of of most mothers’ hearts. We are all fallen, men and women alike, but I believe that empowering women with the tools and support they need will make a world of difference (I know it’s cliche, but it’s true).
Very interesting topic.
I don’t have a vast knowledge on how the credit scheme works, but I think it would surely help women get more involved on politics.
In Brazil, there is a program for microbusiness funding, but, as far as I know, most investors are men. I suppose it would encourage more women to get involved if a specific program were developed for them… but that’s the kind of discussion that is not spread, focused or even wanted in society.
Pardon my poor English. 8- |
Shalom.
Tyler,
I think the quote is the definition of “the girl effect”, not intended to be a sentence.
I.e., The girl effect: (n) The powerful social and economic change brought about when girls have the opportunity to participate in their society.
the “educate the girls” campaign that our denomination (Evangelical Covenant) supports for girls in Congo is a similar attempt to address this very important injustice. thank you for sharing this video Eugene…i continue to read your blog and am excited to hear more about the development of your organization…
altough its a c/p from youtube, but i think its true an really great statement. just imagine there’s no girl, it would be not complete society. girl makes difference 🙂
just check my blog and see the difference.
http://1worldlove.blogspot.com
I think there’s a direct corrolation between how people are treated (i.e. women in this case) and how healthy an environment is.
Perhaps…you see some revolutionizing historical incidents have women’s names wirtten in golden below…for eg:Cleopatra,Mother Teresa,Marie Curie,Florence Nightingale,George Eliot,Princess Diana,Indira Gandhi,Sirimavo Bandarinayike,Hillary Clinton,Condolezza Rice,Aung San Suu Kyi…to name a few.
http://www.adherents.com/people/100_women.html#Influential
You may examine history for solid proofs in support of your claims,if you wish.
http://nirveda.wordpress.com
I don’t understand… Wouldn’t doing this for both boys and girls in developing countries have the same (if not greater) effect? Why can’t we do it for all children, regardless of gender? I feel like there are more problems than solutions in this video…
@Brad
You said, “Wouldn’t doing this for both boys and girls in developing countries have the same (if not greater) effect?” This is a great question, and I’m glad you brought it up. The question to assume that women have equal opportunities when it comes to education and economics in developing countries. However, this simply is not the case. Educational and economic opportunities for men far outweigh opportunities for women in many developing nations. So focusing on empowering women (as this organization promotes) would, at best, raise opportunities for women to the same level of men.
The reality is that harmful societal structures in a lot of countries (including the US) perpetuate gender inequality. This inequality causes instability. Empowering women wouldn’t put them above men (which assumes that women are already on equal grounds with men), rather it would raise women to the same level as men.
There are volumes of statistics showing a direct correlation between investing in/empowering women and increasing economic stability. If you’re interested in learning more, I know that http://www.care.org and http://www.oxfam.org have some good resources.
I’m not sure what I think about this, though I don’t doubt its veracity. In the US among Black communities, women actually have far greater educational opportunity than men and it has not led to stability at all. Rather, it has perpetuated a system wherein men can continue to be radically irresponsible and women can continue to shoulder more and more share of the burden.
hmm.. thank you very much. usefull information