June 8, 2010

Learn more about Injustice

Posted by Will

This summer, Summit will be sending several teams to countries that desperately need help, starting with an intern team that will be spending 2 months in Malawi.

Sending people to afflicted countries is one way we can begin to address the deep injustices that occur in the world, but there are several other ways God has gifted us to have an impact on the world around us.

In his book Good News About Injustice, Gary Haugen talks about some of the ways we as Christians in North America can have such an impact. It also lays out a framework for how injustices occur in the first place so that we can better understand and fight them.

Many of the conditions Haugen describes that perpetuate deep injustice, such as extreme poverty, exist in countries like Malawi, Sierra Leone, and the Dominican Republic – which all are countries that Summit regularly sends teams to.

In Africa specifically, extreme poverty leads to illegal seizure of property from widows who have no means to defend themselves, and to a lack of treatment for and education about epidemics like AIDS that have ravaged the population and left entire villages of orphans.

Haugen chronicles his own journey of being educated about such injustices and how it ultimately led him to form the International Justice Mission in 1994.

Educating yourself with books like this one and others that are available in the Resource Center (The Fate of Africa, Too Small to Ignore) is a great next step in partnering with God on His call to combat injustice wherever we find it.

November 12, 2009

Skeptics Guide to the Global AIDS Crisis

Posted by Will

I didn’t consider myself a skeptic when I started reading The Skeptic’s Guide to the Global AIDS Crisis. I didn’t doubt the seriousness of the AIDS epidemic or the devastating effect it is having on the world, particularly in undeveloped and developing countries. Yet, I would not say that I was very educated about the AIDS crisis. I knew enough about the virus itself: how it is contracted and spread, and what it does to the body. But I had never taken it upon myself to learn how devastating AIDS can be on a country, or the injustice that fuels the spread of this disease around the world. I didn’t know what types of drugs and treatments are available to fight it, or more importantly, what impact I could have.

After reading this book, I can say that I have learned more about what I didn’t know, that I took a step towards getting educated. With that newfound knowledge I am able to see that there are options available for me to have an impact on this crisis. I am praying about those options so that I can determine the best way I can get involved. It has also increased my conviction that this is something God cares about, and that he is working through the church to curb the spread of AIDS and its negative effects around the world.