And it’s LAUNCHED! Check this out!

This summer, we’re planning to begin building the first medical village of its kind in Central Uganda.

Sevenly has teamed up with us to make this happen!

Here’s the basic plan (better image coming tomorrow)

If you buy a shirt from HERE: http://sevenly.org/safeworld, you help us build the medical village! (They even ship internationally!)

This would be a dream come true…

Please buy…share…tell EVERYONE you know…we wanna make this happen!

I’ll keep you posted…if you buy, please let me know and post it on Facebook or Twitter.

Thanks!
M

At 1pm ET TODAY, something amazing is happening…

Hey guys ok…so, my organization, SafeWorld, is teaming up with some cool new friends from Los Angeles.

They’re called Sevenly, and they want to help us build the FIRST solar-powered, community-based health clinic in Bulyaake Parish, Central Uganda!

They’ve designed 6 incredible, creative, custom, limited-edition shirts/hoodies to help us fund the project.

As soon as the campaign goes live, I’ll let everyone know. A bunch of my friends have already agreed to help us get the word out by buying shirts and sharing it on their Facebook/Twitter/Blog, etc…

Will you help us too?

The shirts are $22 each, and $7 from every shirt purchase goes STRAIGHT TO OUR CLINIC FUND!

Sevenly will keep this project live from Monday, May 28-Monday-June 4…so there’s PLENTY of time!

If you know me, you know I love attempting things that have never been done before…sometimes it’s scary, it’s ALWAYS risky, but the end results are worth it every time. We’re just hours away from the launch…

READY? Let’s go!

(Thanks in advance for your help and support…can’t wait to see this dream become reality!)

- M

ps – if you wanna read up on the project before it launches…click HERE

You should only help the poor in other places…leave locals to someone else

Seriously. Let someone else deal else deal with the local issues. Besides, the poor and needy in the developing world are different than in the first world. There are many more services available to them, and it’s a completely different type of poverty. It creates a dependency system that they never break out of, and they really just need to learn how to take care of themselves.

In fact, if you aren’t willing to travel 8,000 miles to help someone, you have a problem.

Ok, so, hopefully you know me well enough to know I’m not serious.

But, the statements I wrote above are statements I’ve actually heard multiple times…from what I thought were well-meaning people who just didn’t get it.

I’m sure you’ve had these kinds of conversations as well…

“You need to care for your own people first before traveling somewhere else…” (What?!)

“Why buy a $2,000 plane ticket?! That money could do so much more good in your own city…” (I hear this all the time…)

“The poor in America have so much more available to them than people in the 3rd world. It’s silly to spend so much time here when the needs are much greater elsewhere.” (Worst. Argument. Ever.)

Sometimes the conversations have even turned ugly, territorial, or particularly negative toward a nation, people group, or faith.

But when I step back from the conversation, I have to shake my head and wonder, “Are we really arguing about why certain struggling people are more important than others?!”

When it comes to helping people who have a need…just begin.

Locally, globally…wherever. Don’t just rush in naively, but don’t spend so much time analyzing that you never end up actually doing anything.

Just begin.

If you have a bigger passion for people in your particular nation or community…fantastic, go do good and do it well!

If you have a bigger passion for people somewhere else…fantastic, go do good and do it well.

If we’re going to have a conversation about anything, let’s talk about how to do good..how to do it more…how to do it better…

Arguments about nuance will never accomplish anything simply because each of us have different skill-sets, bents, drives and desires.

Each of us are broken, which means we’ll never help perfectly, but we must always do our best when it comes to doing good. Much of the time you’ll discover that the most valuable gift you can give anyone is showing a person their worth and value. Earn their trust, listen to them, and the rest will come with time.

It’s not magic, there’s no formula, and it’ll never be predictable…but it’s always worth it.

—–

Wondering where/how to start? I’d love to interact with you…email me: matt@iamsafeworld.org…let’s chat.

Ready? Let’s go!

Hello friends -

So…over the past six months, we’ve been refining my organization, SafeWorld, to be focused completely on community health initiatives.

While we encounter and respond to any medical need, several of our main objectives currently center around health education, malaria, maternal health / women’s issues, and special needs.

Beyond that, we’re beginning a whole new set of international trips focused on specific communities and relationships. Right now we have revolving trips to Uganda, are developing plans for trips to Haiti and a few other locations soon.

For these trips we need medical professions of all levels, focuses and specializations.

We ALSO need lay people…who really really love people.

Refining isn’t easy, but it’s worth it…when you refine you really get to know who you are and aren’t, what you’re good at (and terrible at), and who you’re called to be.

All that to say, I’d LOVE to take you with me on a trip…no matter who you are or where you live…let’s make it happen.

Registrations for our January and June 2012 trips to Uganda and officially open.

If you’re interested…curious…whatever…email me, and I’ll shoot you some more info.

My email is matt@safeworldnexus.org

It’s time to go…you ready?

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Here's one of my favorite little ladies in Uganda...Caroline...

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“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” // Mark Twain

Finding a cure and forgetting to care

**This was supposed to be part 2 of a 2 part series. But…I think I’ll keep fleshing some of these things out. I’d love to keep the dialogue going. Many of you have emailed and commented, so let’s keep it rolling.**

“How do we do good in Africa?”

I wasn’t ready for the question. I stopped stirring my tea and looked across the cafe table.

The man on the other side was Dr. Bruce Baker, professor of African Security at Coventry University.

He adjusted the collar of his tweed coat and continued, “I’ve been studying this for 30 years, and I’m still not quite sure. I have some theories, but I’m not convinced the best thing for Africa is more Western influence. That doesn’t mean we stop trying, it simply means we stop forcing.”

As the sun began to set behind the cathedral ruins leftover from WWII, Dr. Baker looked at me and said, “Don’t be afraid. You’re going to be fine. Just take care of people and you’ll do just fine.”

The train ride back to London was very quiet for me.

It seemed simple enough…“just take care of people.”

I could do that.

After all, isn’t the call to care and community a huge part of following Jesus?

Loving your enemies…bearing burdens…forgiveness…grace…the poor, weak, sick, abandoned, lonely, orphaned…

It’s all there – no loopholes. At least not on paper. The loopholes only appear when we begin taking what’s on paper and transfer it into real life.

There we see the loopholes of personal preference…pet peeves…style…tradition…methodology…theology…

People don’t think you’re making the gospel clear enough. People don’t think you’re helping with physical needs enough.

But as I’ve studied and wrestled and poured myself into the question of “how exactly do we do this?”, I keep coming back to one thought over and over:

Our primary job isn’t to keep people out of hell, it’s to carry the broken to Jesus.

The challenge is that when we see the word “broken”, each of us already has a definition in our minds of who that is. And furthermore, all of the definitions we think of are correct.

Darkness isn’t darker for for certain people. And the hope of the Cross doesn’t come with more perks for some than for others.

Our ability to understand those things doesn’t change them. The point is – what do we do about it?

The temptation for me is to be cure focused. To fix it. As if the goal is all about solutions.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about finding great solutions to glaring issues. Especially with 1.3 billion people without proper water and sanitation, millions of mothers and infants dying as a result of poor maternal healthcare…genocide, racism, abject poverty, orphan care…these are heart-wrenching realities we must be engaged in.

When it comes to the needs of people, finding a cure does little good when not accompanied by care. Cure might be the end, but care is the journey.

I suck at math. But sometimes I would luck out and end up with the right answer after working the problem wrong. Deep down I always hoped whoever checked my paper would simply be satisfied that I arrived at the right conclusion, and not harp on the fact that I didn’t do the work.

A lot of getting the work right comes back to listening. Valuing people who know more than you. Spending time with people who may see things differently than you.

I promise you will never look back and wish you hadn’t. Because we are also the broken. We are also the ones who need Jesus.

Our work lasts (for better or worse). Let’s do it well. Let’s do stuff people would miss if we stopped.

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Would love your thoughts.

How do you think we can find cures while not neglecting the call to care?