Today is the first day of Lent and many Christians are giving up some luxury as a way of preparing for Easter and focusing their thoughts and prayers on Christ's sacrifice for us. If you are giving up something for Lent this year, and if that something costs money, consider donating your savings to a worthy local, national, or international service organization.
* If you're giving up pop for Lent, you could save and donate $30 to help a family use agriculture more self sufficient by supporting Heifer International (where I got this idea).
* If you're giving up desserts for Lent, you could save and donate $100 to help women and babies worldwide live through pregnancy and birth by supporting CARE.
* If you're giving up eating out for Lent, you can save $250 to help a family increase their income through microenterprise through supporting Microplace or Kiva.
Any amount helps your neighbors, your community, and our world. Search the archives of So What Can I Do for more giving ideas. Your sacrifice can not only strengthen your relationship with God, but also be a means of serving God's children.
Blessings to all!
Showing posts with label faith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label faith. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Choose Eco-Palms.
For Christians, this Sunday, March 16, marks the beginning of Holy Week. It will be Palm Sunday, my friend Mawunyo's favorite Sunday. When I was growing up, my church, St. Andrew AME, always had palms for all the parishioners on Palm Sunday (Thanks Rev. Lamb!). I remember those spring days now at Mt. Zion AME where I'll wave my palm high this Sunday (Thanks Pastor Cox!) Unfortunately, those palms were not likely grown or harvested in socially and environmentally sustainable ways. Thankfully, now there are Eco-Palms!
Usually people who cut the palms are paid by volume, so harvesters gather as much at possible without paying much attention to quality. Consequently over 50% of the fronds are discarded, which is bad for the forests and the people and animals that depend on them. Eco-Palms are harvested in a more sustainable way. "Harvesters are paid on the quality of the palms they harvest rather than the quantity, which helps to limit the amount of palms taken from the forest. These communities have taken upon themselves to learn about harvesting practices that minimize impact on the natural forest where the palm grows, and ways to protect this wild species of palm." Using Eco-Palm methods only only 5-7% of the harvested palms have to be discarded. The program also eliminates middlemen for sorting and packing. Instead, community member do the work themselves ensuring a higher wage, and improving their standard of living.
Ready to order? Here's the info you need:
University of MN, Eco-Palms
Attn: RaeLynn Jones Loss
1530 Cleveland Ave N
115 Green Hall
St. Paul, MN 55108
Tel: 612-624-7418
Fax: 612-625-5212
ecopalms@umn.edu
Your church can even order now for Palm Sunday 2009. Just download the 2009 Eco-Palms Order Form and email or fax it in. The 2008 cost is $47.50 for 200 fronds compared to $21 to $23 for common palms.
Each year 300 million palm fronds are harvested each year just for the U.S. consumption, most of them for Palm Sunday. Make sure your congregation chooses palms that reflect your faith. And of course, Eco-Palms are are great for florists too. Check out these articles for more.
Happy Easter to those who celebrate it, and happy Spring to everyone!
"Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' Vanity asks the question, 'Is it popular?' But, conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right." -Martin Luther King, Jr.
Usually people who cut the palms are paid by volume, so harvesters gather as much at possible without paying much attention to quality. Consequently over 50% of the fronds are discarded, which is bad for the forests and the people and animals that depend on them. Eco-Palms are harvested in a more sustainable way. "Harvesters are paid on the quality of the palms they harvest rather than the quantity, which helps to limit the amount of palms taken from the forest. These communities have taken upon themselves to learn about harvesting practices that minimize impact on the natural forest where the palm grows, and ways to protect this wild species of palm." Using Eco-Palm methods only only 5-7% of the harvested palms have to be discarded. The program also eliminates middlemen for sorting and packing. Instead, community member do the work themselves ensuring a higher wage, and improving their standard of living.
Ready to order? Here's the info you need:
University of MN, Eco-Palms
Attn: RaeLynn Jones Loss
1530 Cleveland Ave N
115 Green Hall
St. Paul, MN 55108
Tel: 612-624-7418
Fax: 612-625-5212
ecopalms@umn.edu
Your church can even order now for Palm Sunday 2009. Just download the 2009 Eco-Palms Order Form and email or fax it in. The 2008 cost is $47.50 for 200 fronds compared to $21 to $23 for common palms.
Each year 300 million palm fronds are harvested each year just for the U.S. consumption, most of them for Palm Sunday. Make sure your congregation chooses palms that reflect your faith. And of course, Eco-Palms are are great for florists too. Check out these articles for more.
Happy Easter to those who celebrate it, and happy Spring to everyone!
"Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' Vanity asks the question, 'Is it popular?' But, conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right." -Martin Luther King, Jr.
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Read. SWCID reviews "The Revolution: A Field Manual for Changing Your World."
Readers of So what can I do know that this site is committed to helping each of us do all we can to make a positive difference in our world. That focus comes, in part, from my Christian faith. So it is fitting that I was asked to review The Revolution: A Field Manual for Changing Your World.
The Revolution" consists of twelve chapters, each written by a different Christian author on a different social justice issue. Topics include hunger, torture, gang violence, and human trafficking, among others. Contributers come from a variety of Christian traditions and work in the areas they write about. The essays are not only meant to inform, but also to motivate, and they do just that. The writers offer personal experiences, physical and spiritual, that help clarify the reasons for and value of their work. These essays, along with the accompanying motivational quotes and scriptural references provide a valuable resource for those who are thinking and praying about how best to do the work we are put here to do.
Since the book is aimed at Christians who are interested in living the commandment to 'love thy neighbor', the writers aren't out to convert anyone. That may make reading and using it possible for those who are committed to social change and are not Christian. I appreciate that since we're all God's children.
Each chapter has sidebars entitled Donate, Educate, Activate and Pray, which give short practical steps to alleviating the social problem discussed in the chapter. Three appendices list additional ways to act, scriptural references, and organizational resources. These are great but more information should be provided. For example, the appendix listing "More ways to take action" is a list of simple imperative sentences with no other details. The "Scriptures on Justice and Mercy" list only the chapter and verse, but don't quote the Biblical text. That said, one could argue that that encourages the reader to pick up the Bible and read the translation of her choice.
While I generally enjoyed The Revolution and will refer to it for new resources to profile in So what can I do, I do have one major concern. Each chapter opens with a colonial-era map of a country or region that is referenced in the text. I find it difficult to understand why out-of-date political maps were used, particularly since they allude to horrific activities that occurred world wide, often in the name of Christ. Many countries are identified by colonial names (for example, "Rhodesia" instead of Zimbabwe) and a Eurocentric perspective is strongly implied. This is unfortunate, since growing numbers of the world's Christians are not European or of European descent. Given the unjust and decidedly un-Christian roles of many Christians and Christian missionaries in imperialism and colonialism, the use of maps that reference these acts is troubling.
Whether or not you are motivated by faith, The Revolution is a valuable resource, especially for those who know that there is more we all can do to improve our world and are ready to get started in that work.
Heather Zydek's The Revolution: A Field Manual for Changing Your World is published by Relevant Books and is available for $8.99. (Thanks Susan!)
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace." -Jimi Hendrix, musician, singer, and songwriter (1942-1970)
The Revolution" consists of twelve chapters, each written by a different Christian author on a different social justice issue. Topics include hunger, torture, gang violence, and human trafficking, among others. Contributers come from a variety of Christian traditions and work in the areas they write about. The essays are not only meant to inform, but also to motivate, and they do just that. The writers offer personal experiences, physical and spiritual, that help clarify the reasons for and value of their work. These essays, along with the accompanying motivational quotes and scriptural references provide a valuable resource for those who are thinking and praying about how best to do the work we are put here to do.
Since the book is aimed at Christians who are interested in living the commandment to 'love thy neighbor', the writers aren't out to convert anyone. That may make reading and using it possible for those who are committed to social change and are not Christian. I appreciate that since we're all God's children.
Each chapter has sidebars entitled Donate, Educate, Activate and Pray, which give short practical steps to alleviating the social problem discussed in the chapter. Three appendices list additional ways to act, scriptural references, and organizational resources. These are great but more information should be provided. For example, the appendix listing "More ways to take action" is a list of simple imperative sentences with no other details. The "Scriptures on Justice and Mercy" list only the chapter and verse, but don't quote the Biblical text. That said, one could argue that that encourages the reader to pick up the Bible and read the translation of her choice.
While I generally enjoyed The Revolution and will refer to it for new resources to profile in So what can I do, I do have one major concern. Each chapter opens with a colonial-era map of a country or region that is referenced in the text. I find it difficult to understand why out-of-date political maps were used, particularly since they allude to horrific activities that occurred world wide, often in the name of Christ. Many countries are identified by colonial names (for example, "Rhodesia" instead of Zimbabwe) and a Eurocentric perspective is strongly implied. This is unfortunate, since growing numbers of the world's Christians are not European or of European descent. Given the unjust and decidedly un-Christian roles of many Christians and Christian missionaries in imperialism and colonialism, the use of maps that reference these acts is troubling.
Whether or not you are motivated by faith, The Revolution is a valuable resource, especially for those who know that there is more we all can do to improve our world and are ready to get started in that work.
Heather Zydek's The Revolution: A Field Manual for Changing Your World is published by Relevant Books and is available for $8.99. (Thanks Susan!)
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace." -Jimi Hendrix, musician, singer, and songwriter (1942-1970)
Sunday, January 01, 2006
Celebrate Kwanzaa: Imani.
On this, the seventh and last day of Kwanzaa, we focus on imani (faith) and "believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle."
I spend a lot of time writing So what can I do posts about physical health and mental health, but it is just as important to cultivate spiritual health.
For me the spiritual health piece is most important, since give me peace and purpose, and informs how I develop and maintain my physical and mental health. FamilyDoctor.org suggests:
For me, spirituality and spiritual health comes through my personal relationship with God. Regardless of how you "find meaning, hope, comfort and inner peace in your life," make sure you do so. Be healthy, mind, body and soul.
As humans, we are all members of that first African Diaspora. And accordingly, the principles of Kwanzaa apply to us all. Manifest the Kwanzaa principles today, this week, and all year long.
What a way to start 2006! A blessed new year to you all!
"The future belongs to those who prepare for it today." - Malcolm X
I spend a lot of time writing So what can I do posts about physical health and mental health, but it is just as important to cultivate spiritual health.
For me the spiritual health piece is most important, since give me peace and purpose, and informs how I develop and maintain my physical and mental health. FamilyDoctor.org suggests:
Spirituality is the way you find meaning, hope, comfort and inner peace in your life. Many people find spirituality through religion. Some find it through music, art or a connection with nature. Others find it in their values and principles.
For me, spirituality and spiritual health comes through my personal relationship with God. Regardless of how you "find meaning, hope, comfort and inner peace in your life," make sure you do so. Be healthy, mind, body and soul.
As humans, we are all members of that first African Diaspora. And accordingly, the principles of Kwanzaa apply to us all. Manifest the Kwanzaa principles today, this week, and all year long.
What a way to start 2006! A blessed new year to you all!
"The future belongs to those who prepare for it today." - Malcolm X
Monday, August 15, 2005
Think globally, act locally.
Just the other day, a colleague and I were discussing the fact that large, global problems like war, hunger, racism, poverty, environmental degradation, and the like can seem so overwhelming and unmanageable that some folks give up trying to solve them. That's a shame. Especially since readers of So what can I do know that we all can make contributions to solving the worlds problems. Part of the key is to start small. Make micromovements by taking small steps in the right direction, focusing on your community, your network, yourself, realizing that your actions impact all of us and have ramifications for our world. Collectively, our small steps make a big difference. You choose whether that is a positive or negative impact.
Here are a few steps you can take locally to address and correct the big global problems we face:
--> Take steps against WAR:
* Wage peace. Remember, peace is not the absence of war.
* Hold your media and elected officials accountable. If you don't like what they're doing, TELL THEM!
* Live ethically even when it's unpopular, uncommon, unexpected or inconvenient. Consider not only what you do, but also what you don't do.
* Strive to behave justly. Remember, No justice, no peace.
--> Take steps against CLASSISM, SEXISM, HOMOPHOPIA, and other unjust forms of DISCRIMINATION:
* Teach and model tolerance of those who are different from (or the same as!) you.
* Consider the role of class in your society. If you don't like it, model something better.
* Make sure your actions reflect your beliefs.
* Learn to communicate precisely so that you can avoid misinterpretation and say what you mean and mean what you say to whomever you want.
--> Take steps against HUNGER, FAMINE and HOMELESSNESS:
* Build a home for someone who needs one.
* Donate food from your pantry, party or garden to a shelter, food rescue agency or food bank near you.
* Make free donations to agencies working in these areas.
* Become a social entrepreneur and find creative ways to solve your community's problems.
--> Take steps against POVERTY:
* Insist on economic justice buy purchasing fair trade products.
* Invest responsibly in socially-conscious businesses.
* Support sustainable development which is one of many ways to actually END POVERTY.
* Fund microloans and help a family take care of itself in the long term.
--> Take steps against VIOLENCE:
* Report abuse and assault of all kinds.
* Consider how you may unknowingly support violence.
* Get the help you need to deal with being a survivor of violence.
* Support agencies that work to end violence.
--> Take steps against ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION:
* Reduce, reuse, recycle, restore everything, in that order.
* Insist on environmental justice. Whose neighborhoods are the dumps in?
* Conserve water and make sure it is clean, and physically and financially accessible to everyone.
* Choose heirloom or recycled jewelry to avoid the damage to earth and communities that mining can cause.
--> Take steps against SICKNESS:
* Donate platelets blood, organs or tissues to save or improve someone's life.
* Make good choices about your personal physical and mental health.
* Donate stethoscopes and other medical equipment to clinics and hospitals around the world.
* Support health initiatives at Carter Center and Clinton Center.
You'll find many more ideas in the archives of So what can I do (see sidebar). Now let's get started! Thanks, Pat, for this suggestion!
"I am only one, but still I am one; I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; And just because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do." - Helen Keller (1880-1968)
Here are a few steps you can take locally to address and correct the big global problems we face:
--> Take steps against WAR:
* Wage peace. Remember, peace is not the absence of war.
* Hold your media and elected officials accountable. If you don't like what they're doing, TELL THEM!
* Live ethically even when it's unpopular, uncommon, unexpected or inconvenient. Consider not only what you do, but also what you don't do.
* Strive to behave justly. Remember, No justice, no peace.
--> Take steps against CLASSISM, SEXISM, HOMOPHOPIA, and other unjust forms of DISCRIMINATION:
* Teach and model tolerance of those who are different from (or the same as!) you.
* Consider the role of class in your society. If you don't like it, model something better.
* Make sure your actions reflect your beliefs.
* Learn to communicate precisely so that you can avoid misinterpretation and say what you mean and mean what you say to whomever you want.
--> Take steps against HUNGER, FAMINE and HOMELESSNESS:
* Build a home for someone who needs one.
* Donate food from your pantry, party or garden to a shelter, food rescue agency or food bank near you.
* Make free donations to agencies working in these areas.
* Become a social entrepreneur and find creative ways to solve your community's problems.
--> Take steps against POVERTY:
* Insist on economic justice buy purchasing fair trade products.
* Invest responsibly in socially-conscious businesses.
* Support sustainable development which is one of many ways to actually END POVERTY.
* Fund microloans and help a family take care of itself in the long term.
--> Take steps against VIOLENCE:
* Report abuse and assault of all kinds.
* Consider how you may unknowingly support violence.
* Get the help you need to deal with being a survivor of violence.
* Support agencies that work to end violence.
--> Take steps against ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION:
* Reduce, reuse, recycle, restore everything, in that order.
* Insist on environmental justice. Whose neighborhoods are the dumps in?
* Conserve water and make sure it is clean, and physically and financially accessible to everyone.
* Choose heirloom or recycled jewelry to avoid the damage to earth and communities that mining can cause.
--> Take steps against SICKNESS:
* Donate platelets blood, organs or tissues to save or improve someone's life.
* Make good choices about your personal physical and mental health.
* Donate stethoscopes and other medical equipment to clinics and hospitals around the world.
* Support health initiatives at Carter Center and Clinton Center.
You'll find many more ideas in the archives of So what can I do (see sidebar). Now let's get started! Thanks, Pat, for this suggestion!
"I am only one, but still I am one; I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; And just because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do." - Helen Keller (1880-1968)
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