Love in Action is a story of hope: how one ordinary neighbourhood in the corner of the world - Manly, in Sydney, Australia - formed a relationship with the people of Manado, Indonesia, to take action against poverty. From its small beginnings with only a handful of residents, this grassroots movement has captured the imagination of Manly's wider community. It now includes support of local council, local businesses, schools and churches, and over 13,000 residents. With over 100 stunning photographs shot by photographer Stuart Harris and words by Jim Collins, Love in Action captures the inspiring story of a community taking action against poverty. Thousands of lives have now been transformed as opportunity, dignity, freedom and hope flow from the relationship between the people of Manly and Manado. Discover some of the treasures that can be unearthed through the efforts of a community partnership and learn how you too can play your part in making our world a better place. Love in Action, the book, is available now. You can read the blog below and participate by leaving comments. You can purchase the book online today. See the Buy Book button above. Profits raised from the sale of this book will be donated to benefit the communities that we visited in Manado.
Micah 2010 is an opportunity to encourage our leaders to remember their promise to bring half a billion people out of extreme poverty in our generation.
Politicians need to hear that we care and that we will hold them to account. They cannot push
aside the Millennium Development Goals agreed in 2000 as “too hard” and we cannot let the promise fail because of apathy or corruption.
Read more about this initiative here.
The Democratic Republic of Congo is the most dangerous place in the world to be a woman. It’s a place where rape has become a weapon of war. Now a BBC film crew follows Judith Wanga as she meets the survivors of the conflict. She talks to women, children, and child soldiers who’ve been forced to kill so that they themselves will not be killed. To her horror, she discovers that the violence is fuelled, in part, by the need to mine the minerals that go into the manufacture of mobile phones and laptops.
Twenty-three-year-old Judith Wanga grew up in London and is proud to be British. But Judith was born thousands of miles away in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Twenty years ago, with the country in turmoil and fearing for their daughter’s safety, her parents sent her to live with relatives in Britain.
Now Judith is going back to Congo for the first time. She wants to understand the childhood she missed and find the missing piece in the jigsaw puzzle of her life.
Judith quickly discovers two things: despite the fact the civil war in Congo has officially ended, in the east of the country a bitter conflict between Congolese troops and rebels continues. She also discovers that women across Congo have a very different status to women in Western countries.
After the reunion with her parents, Judith visits eastern Congo, an area that has been devastated by conflict. There she learns that rape is an epidemic. Judith meets a radio journalist who conducts a one person campaign to expose the extent of the violence directed at women. She hears the stories of those who have been attacked and meets the children who are born as a result of the rapes.
As well as meeting the victims of this conflict, Judith also talks to some of the perpetrators. She meets a young woman who was forced to join the military to survive. The woman reveals how she was forced to kill and how she fled the armed forces only to find herself without money to support her child. Now she supports herself by working as a prostitute.
Amidst all the horror, Judith also glimpses a few signs of hope. She visits a centre that has been built to provide a sanctuary for women who have been assaulted, called ‘City of Joy’. In another part of Congo she meets the young men and women who carry out dramatic performances exposing the brutality they have seen and experienced.
On discovering the harsh realities of her homeland, Judith begins to understand why her parents sent her away as a child. Her experience also makes her determined to return home to Britain and encourage awareness of the plight of her country, and the women forced to endure unimaginable suffering.
If you live in Australia you can watch it now on iView following this link.
If you want to support change in the Congo may I recommend following this link and reading about the work of HEAL Africa.
I’m continually moved and challenged by the wonderful work that people do with their time to help the poor and disadvantaged around the world. CNEC are one the partner organisations that manage and support Bridge of Hope (we wrote about in Love in Action) in Australia. CNEC operate in countries all over the world including Indonesia, Uganda, China and Congo. They’ve recently launched a daily prayer diary which is great way of keeping in touch with some of the needs of others. Need someone to pray for? Then read on, pray, and put love into action by loving your neighbour in prayer today.
Friends are heading down to Canberra this coming weekend to be part of Micah Challenge’s big advocacy campaign – ‘Voices for Justice’. There are about 300 people attending from all over the nation. As part of the weekend, they’ll be meeting with politicians and discussing the need for Australia to address global inequalities and keep its commitment to meeting the Millennium Development Goals.
Please pray for the weekend, all the meetings that will take place with politicians (there’s over 100) and for those that they are advocating on behalf of. There is also a great petition that will be rolled out on the floor of Parliament House.
If you’d like to add your name for the list of Jesus followers who are deeply concerned about the plight of the World’s poor, you can go to http://www.micahchallenge.org.au/micah-call
Please pass on the petition to friends.
On Saturday Love in Action was featured as part of a Fair Trade event held at St Stephen’s Church in Belrose, NSW. Many people attended and purchased goods from local artists and producers, and in the evening people came to watch Amazing Grace – the wonderful film about William Wilberforce and his lifetime effort to see slavery abolished.
During the afternoon Love in Action raised $600 that will all be donated to Bridge of Hope to help give additional micro-loans to families living in Northern Sulawesi, Indonesia. You can read about how micro-loans can transform the life of the poor in the book, but hurry copies are extremely limited and available online Compassion and in person at Humphries newsagents in Manly.
Each year Christian radio stations across Australia including Sydney’s Hope 103.2, support the promotion of Compassion Day. Each year a new country is chosen to be the focus of this event, and this year it is Kenya in Africa. Their aim during the day is to drive a sponsorship target of 1600 children in 16 hours. Child sponsorship is one of the many mechanisms Compassion promotes in its efforts to drive out extreme poverty. It is a wonderful way to support the needs of one child and make a real difference. Sponsors receive regular updates including a photograph of the sponsor child and letters.
You can change the life of a child and make an impact in a whole family by sponsoring a child today, visit www.compassionday.com.au
On Sunday 25 April Jim Goddard, founder of Manly-Manado Inc. announced the cessation of the formal incorporated body of the movement, and called for Manly to “go global” with what we have learnt and seek the needs of others.
Love in Action is both an historical account of the relationship that will continue between the residents of Manly and Manado, and a demonstration of the mutual transformation that can result from one community meeting the needs of another community. Few copies of Love in Action remain. It can be purchased online via Compassion and in person at Humphreys in Manly, on the Corso. Profits from the sale of the book go to supporting people living in Manado.
A plug for an amazing organisation based in Long Beach, California called The Freedom Writers Foundation. Their story is so inspiring Hollywood even made a movie about them – a must see.
The Freedom Writers offer real hope to school students that may have otherwise been ignored in class and left to fail. Illiteracy is a big problem in the US. Not all students are given the same opportunities. The Freedom Writers encourages underprivileged students to tell their story. Here is an excerpt from the Freedom Writers website that gives an insight into what they stand for:
Following the Rodney King Riots and the O.J. Simpson trial, the mood in our city was unsettling, and on our first day of high school, we had only three things in common: we hated school, we hated our teacher, and we hated each other.
Whether it was official or not, we all knew that we had been written off. Low test scores, juvenile hall, alienation, and racial hostility helped us fit the labels the educational system placed on us: “unteachable,” “below average,” and “delinquents.” Somehow, Ms. G recognized our similarities, and used them to unite us. She gave us books written by teenagers that we could relate to, and it was through these books that we began to realize that if we could relate to a little girl who lived on the other side the world, fifty years before we did, we could certainly relate to each other.
We felt like Anne Frank, trapped in a cage, and identified with the violence in Zlata Filipovic’s life. We were so inspired by the stories of Anne and Zlata, that we wrote letters to Miep Gies, and to Zlata, in hopes that they would come to Long Beach and share their stories with us. When Miep visited us, she challenged us to keep Anne’s memory alive and “passed the baton” to us. It was then that we decided to begin chronicling our lives.
We began writing anonymous journal entries about the adversities that we faced in our every day lives. We wrote about gangs, immigration, drugs, violence, abuse, death, anorexia, dyslexia, teenage love, weight issues, divorce, suicide, and all the other issues we never had the chance to express before. We discovered that writing is a powerful form of self expression that could help us deal with our past and move forward. Room 203 was like Anne’s attic or Zlata’s basement, it was our safe haven, where we could cry, laugh, and share our stories without being judged.
We decided to call ourselves the Freedom Writers after learning about the Freedom Riders who fought against segregation during the Civil Rights Movement. When we began writing these entries as a simple English assignment, we had no idea that they would one day be collected and published in a book, The Freedom Writers Diary.
Since graduation, we have kept our promise of trying to change education. We are pursuing our undergraduate and graduate degrees, many of us at California State University, Long Beach, while continuing to share our story and mentor students across the country about what it’s like to receive a second chance.
We have created this website because we want to form a community like the one we formed in Room 203, where people feel safe, accepted, and understood. We hope that The Freedom Writers Diary will inspire you to succeed academically, change your community, and share your own story.
Putting love into action can come in all shapes an sizes. Sure, there are wonderful causes to give to, but sometimes it’s what we choose not to give that can make all the difference. What?
Practical tip #1 is: Say no to bottled drinking water. You’ll help the planet and love your neighbour at the same time. Follow this link and check out this great short video from the folks at The Story of Stuff.
by admin
no comments
add a comment link to this post email a friend