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

Win a copy of “Love Does” by Bob Goff!

A couple years years ago, I phone myself on the phone with a guy named Bob Goff. I can’t even remember how the heck we ended up on the phone, but there we were. I was throwing out crazy ideas of stuff I wanted to do and things I wanted to try…every time I’d share a thought, he’d say, “Awesome – that’s a great idea…you should go do it!”…most people told me I was nuts…Bob told me there was no reason not to try.

Last year, I finally met Bob in person for the first time in Southern California. I sat next to Jon Acuff at a table beside a babbling brook (no lie), and we listened to Bob pretty much blow our minds for about two hours. He went on so many adventures (or capers as he calls them), he was whimsical (but strategic)…he did the stuff everyone else was afraid to do.

He did the stuff I wanted to do.

In fact, for a while after that, any time we’d have some kind of caper, Jon and I would text each other “that was very Goff of you”.

A few months ago, my good friend, Blake and I got to hang out with him for a bit while he was meeting with witch doctors in Uganda (no big deal…right?)

At last, Bob has written his book, Love Does…and it’s an absolute MUST READ (we’re even reading it with our 9 and 7 year old sons…and they love it).

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Today, I’m giving away THREE copies of Love Does…and here’s how you can win (follow the full instructions to qualify):

1. Subscribe to my blog

2. Share this blog on your social media (FB, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc)

3. Leave a comment on this post and share either the craziest thing you’ve EVER done, or the craziest thing you’d like to do, place you want to go..and WHY.

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In the end, I’ll have my adorable 2-year-old daughter, Eden (pictured above), draw three names, I’ll contact you, and we’ll ship the book to you ASAP! (Actually, I talked to Bob yesterday and he’s going to ship it to you himself!)

Cool? Cool…ready….GO!

Adventures in missing the point

Apparently working for good in the world is a messy game. So far, that’s what I’ve observed from my distant vantage point to the Invisible Children KONY2012 campaign launch.

I have friends that have worked on some of the intimate details of this campaign, and I have friends that are deeply invested in the entire IC movement, so in the next few paragraphs I’m attempting to give balance between my personal thoughts and my knowledge of their passion for impacting the world.

So…here we go…I’ll make a few simple points, then offer a simple conclusion. I hope this response is different than all the others you’ve read.

1. Everyone is broken.

Profound, isn’t it? Maybe not, but this reality is so easily breezed past in our quest to draw conclusions. As long we all exist together upon the earth in its current state, everything we do will be flawed, and it’s simply irresponsible to expect a group of broken, imperfect people to come up with the perfect solution.

2. Everyone has expectations.

And somewhere along the line, someone’s expectations won’t be met. Maybe a lot of someone’s expectations won’t be met. But as Anne Lamott says, “Expectations are resentments under construction.”

When surprising moments like the KONY2012 film happen, suddenly the landscape of conversation and opinion becomes littered with so many (often unfairly projected) expectations it’s difficult to wade through them back to the point.

The point is: people are broken…and some broken people hurt/kill other broken people…which awakens a desire in more broken people to step in and do something about it. But, in the end, it’ll never quite meet expectations…and then again, broken expectations should never be a litmus test for how much value should be placed on a person’s life.

3. Everyone disappoints.

I can only imagine right now that Ben, Jason and other influencers at IC must have thousands of thoughts swirling in their minds and hearts about things they should have thought of, situations they should have handled differently, words they should/shouldn’t have said. After all, getting 75 million hits on YouTube isn’t their end game.

Passion is a powerful, beautiful gift, and sometimes it can cloud even the most sound of judgement.

There’s always room for course correction/revision. If they’ve disappointed you, be honest, but be careful not to block the invaluable flow of conversation. Our goal should be to help each other improve in our work and calling, not find ways to undercut in a crucial moment.

4. Everyone counts.

This is especially true for the people of Northern Uganda, South Sudan, and portions of DR Congo and CAR. Just as they haven’t let the murderous legacy of Joseph Kony stop them, we cannot let a 30-minute YouTube film that’s not completely agreeable to some stop us. In the West, we’re notorious for a) jumping on bandwagons, and b) drawing conclusions and voicing polarizing opinions too hastily.

For those with strong opinions for or against (or even of indifference toward) the movement: what are you doing to impact the world? And by world, I don’t necessarily mean Africa. Are you investing your life in the people around you? Your community?

It’s difficult to take people seriously when I hear them voicing strong opinions but come to find out they aren’t actively giving of themselves in any way.

Talk is easy…but don’t talk unless you also do.

Perhaps the most important thing we should do at this moment is stop talking and listen.

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Honestly, I, too, have concerns about all of this.

I’m concerned that it’ll become “just another hyped up thing”. (Because we’re pretty good at that in America.)

I’m concerned that a NGO is participating in assisting a military operation. (However nuanced their participation might be.)

I’m concerned that the people at the very center of this story (in the African nations affected) will be ultimately left out.

I’m concerned too much time and attention and resources might be spent on the wrong things.

I’m concerned about a renewed “saviour” mentality. (i.e., here we come to fix all your problems because we’ve decided you can’t fix them yourselves.)

But…

I’m hopeful that the KONY2012 campaign has awakened an incredibly healthy conversation about how we can work together for genuine good in the world. Warlords like Joseph Kony simply must understand that these kinds of brutal legacies will not go unnoticed any longer.

I’m hopeful this will lead to healing and restoration of thousands affected by brutal injustice in the focal region.

I’m hopeful we can take what IC has started and make it better with time. Just like companies produce better / updated versions of their products, so we must produce better versions of our humanitarian efforts as well.

I’m hopeful, and I pray you are as well.

Working for good is messy, and we get it wrong…often. But snuffing out the flame of injustice is always a worthy cause, as long as our personal pride or ideology doesn’t overshadow the ones we’re investing in along the way.

Human trafficking, child soldiers, and sex slavery are three abhorrent practices that cannot ever become acceptable. I believe Invisible Children at the very least has raised that point well.

Thanks for letting me share my thoughts (they’ll probably get edited along the way)…I’d love to hear yours…

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“Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.” // 1 Peter 4:8

When fighting for the sanctity of life becomes lazy

This morning I read an article about how doctors are still split into different camps when it comes to nailing down exactly when pregnancy begins. Some say it begins when the egg is fertilized, and still others are convinced it begins with implantation.

After that paragraph, and before your mind goes all jumbly (yes, I realize that’s not a word) with thoughts of birds and bees, let me get to the point…

This week our team experienced several very painful moments of death and near-death while working at the clinic in Bugobero, Uganda.

The vast majority were infants.

Days old.

Some of them didn’t even have names yet.

Most of the people around didn’t notice. It happens all the time. Pre-term labor…underdeveloped lungs…complications during delivery…issue after issue arises.

A few breaths later…they’re gone before anyone even knew them.

It’s gut-wrenching.

No one is ever fully ready to experience it.

When I step back and compare the disparity between my life and the lives of those in the areas we serve, I’m struck by something quite powerful:

The fact that we are able to even argue about when life begins is a first world luxury.

The women that step into these remote clinics and put themselves in the (many times grossly inadequate) hands of whoever happens to be there, they’ve never given one thought to implantation or fertilization.

All they know is, after a certain time, they will become a mother.

Usually they’re young…scared…and completely uneducated about everything to do with caring for their child.

In the States, people scream at each other about being pro-life or pro-choice, sometimes even stooping to violence in an attempt to get their message across, but in the third world, they’re just hoping to survive.

As I watch these women and precious children fight to see the next day, somehow it seems silly to me that we spend so much time, money, and energy squabbling over mere moments in the womb when there are literally millions of mothers around the world that would give anything for even a fraction of our time, money, and energy to be invested in them.

Don’t read me wrong…I’m all for rescuing life in all stages. Seriously…I have five children, including one with special needs…I despise war…the death penalty makes my stomach turn. I’m about as pro-life as they come…

But…

I believe with all my heart that it’s easier to focus on arguments like “when does life begin?” because it doesn’t require us to sacrifice. We don’t have to interact with anyone…we just choose our position and that’s that.

Maybe we’ll vote for the politician who uses the same verbiage we do…

Maybe we’ll stand on a street corner with a sign…

Maybe we’ll drop some used baby stuff off at a crisis pregnancy center…

I don’t think there’s necessarily anything wrong with any of those things, but if we never actually sacrifice anything in our lives to back up our words…then we haven’t actually done anything.

Words are cheap and easy.

(And we talk far more than we actually do.)

However, Jesus didn’t give His life for us so we could say all the right things. He gave us His life so we might in-turn do the same for others.

His life is our life…so now we live to give our lives away.

Maybe, just maybe we should spend less time arguing about when life begins, and more time pouring ourselves into the lives around us who have been treated as worthless for far too long.