I attended the I Heart Revolution “We’re All in this Together” documentary with my family earlier this week. Hillsong has done an incredible job with this movement demonstrating that globally there is a generation of people who’s hearts together are turned toward Jesus and then connecting the potential impact of this unified heart if put into practice by showing the love of God to others. I was overwhelmed at times during the film as I tried to take in the massive amounts of suffering happening every day throughout the world. It quickly reminded me of how easy it is to feel supremely inadequate and completely powerless to do anything that might actually change something. The documentary, however, forces us to confront some important questions of ourselves, like.... Is that really an acceptable answer for followers of Jesus? And, if instead of only preaching the good news, we actually joined together to be the good news, do we really believe that we can’t change things?
The documentary was shown in 500 theaters across the country and Canada and clearly demonstrated the power of individuals reaching out to help one another. My daughter who will turn 15 in January experienced one of those pivotal life moments. Eliie has traveled to Ecuador and Kenya on short term mission trips and participated in urban ministry projects here in Atlanta focused on at risk children. She has great compassion for children and gets excited about the prospect of helping to make a difference in their lives. But as we listened to the stories in the film of the little girls sold into the cruel and abusive world of sex slavery, it became personal to Ellie. She began contemplating in her mind what if that happened to Sengenoia or Grace, two young orphan girls from different parts of Kenya who Ellie developed a special relationship with. It isn’t that she wouldn’t have cared or that she would have ignored the stories on sex slavery if she didn’t have a personal relationship with 2 young orphans who could easily have fallen prey to such evil, but it did create a sense of urgency to respond..... now. Not tomorrow, next week, next month or even next year.... but to respond now.
There are 143 million orphans in the world.... children.... completely powerless. Project 82 recognizes that we can’t rescue all of them but we CAN rescue some of them. I am returning to Kenya on December 1st for the specific purpose of visiting several different orphan populations that Project 82 has been asked to help. We covet your prayers as we seek the perfect will of God to lead us where He desires for us to minister to His children.
