World Evangelical Church leaders lend their voice to the MDGs

Hi there, my name is Adam Phillips. I recently joined the team at ONE as Faith Relations Manager. From time to time I’ll let you know what’s going on with our faith partners in The ONE Campaign. Before I joined the team in DC I have posted here in the past as a local pastor in Chicago and as co-chair of ONE’s partner, Micah Challenge USA .

I wanted to let you know about some significant commitments that were made on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) at the recent World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) general assembly in Pattaya, Thailand. 500 evangelical church leaders, representing some 128 national evangelical alliance groups from the US and around the world, passed major resolutions, on such issues as HIV/AIDS, poverty, the environment, and the global financial crisis.

Recognizing that the MDGs “echoed the mind” of teaching in their own tradition, the WEA called on government leaders in both the Global North and Global South to “significantly scale up their efforts to achieve the MDGs” – seeing the on-going crisis of global poverty as a critical threat to peace and security. Beyond calling their elected national leaders to act, though, the church leaders called on their own faith groups, congregations, pastors and laity to join and collaborate with The Micah Challenge. This was a major conclusion of the assembly as they saw it as a response “ to Love and Justice” in a time where economic challenges abound.

This moment in Thailand by a diverse group of global church leaders is just one of many that show how, working together as ONE, we all have a role to play in making poverty history.

-Adam Phillips

International UN Day in Seattle

After a week of meetings in Rome last week, Mark Brinkmoeller could have packed up and headed back home to DC. Instead, ONE’s Senior Director of US NGO Partnerships and Faith Relations spent a 24-hour travel day crossing the heartland to Seattle. We set a full schedule of events for him here, including meetings with faith groups, partner organizations, and even a concert. Still he never complained and the jetlag never showed. That is grace!

This year, International UN Day fell on Friday, October 24, and Mark was our keynote speaker. We wanted to hear how to engage the next administration, the next congress, and each other in order to lift the profile of the Millennium Development Goals. These are increasingly trying economic times and we feel far behind the curve. Mark embarked on a theme of hope. His interaction with the audience pointed the way. Measurements of progress are encouraging, and they open the doors to greater involvement. US funding has had a massive impact across Africa including TB/Malaria funding, antiretroviral treatment for AIDS, bed nets, and putting children in school. Through the grassroots activism of organizations that have made this a priority, millions of lives are saved and federal aid dollars over the course of this administration have morphed from Millions of dollars to Billions of dollars.

Saturday’s meetings included a relation-building coffee with leaders in the Seattle Islamic community. Mark’s knowledge and experience with Islamic organizations were extremely helpful. A new Islamic Faith-In-Action forum here in Seattle this winter will likely include the ONE Islamic Faith/ONE Sadaqa materials, and we shared the ONE multi-faith videos with them to use as well.

That night, the folk group “Real Folk” put on a benefit concert for ONE and RESULTS. Mark’s message of hope again resounded loud-and-clear encouraging us in our efforts to keep up the good fight in the north county. It’s gratifying to know that we are being heard and making a difference.

These events were also opportunities for the communities to take a photo with the traveling Jubilee USA Drop the Debt banner and sign up to ask the next administration to cancel the odious debts of highly-indebted poor countries.

Up here in Seattle, the group “Puget Sound Millennium Goals Project” couldn’t appreciate Mark’s support and encouragement more. Thank you Mark for an amazing week here, for promoting the great work of ONE and ONE Faith in the pacific northwest, and for helping Washington DC and this “other” Washington, um, “stay close!”

-Sammi Fredenburg

Announcing ONE Sabbath

“Imagine: there are 300,000 houses of worship. Imagine if they all got involved in ONE Sabbath, if 300,000 houses of worship with 140 million members all pool their attention, their resources to really make a difference in poverty. What an impact that can have!”- Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism

Your congregation, your faith community, your place of worship can make a huge difference in the mission to end extreme global poverty and eliminate global diseases. Of course, you know this already. That’s why you are reading this post.

You also know that the coming months are a crucial time to make a difference. We’ll be electing a president and new members of Congress. After the election, priorities and policies will be set from among all the campaign commitments that have been made. ONE Sabbath helps your congregation engage effectively in the coming months by providing resources for worship services, youth groups, religious ed classes and small group discussions.

The ONE Sabbath effort includes Jewish and Christian congregations and encompasses ONE Sadaqa in the Muslim community and ONE Seva in the Hindu community. Congregations across the U.S. have been creative in incorporating ONE Sabbath into their services and events. We invite you to add your creativity to the cause.

The ONE Sabbath page links it all together. You can sign up, watch the latest faith videos, get the materials, and tell others. Please join in.

-Mark Brinkmoeller

Minnesota’s New Friend in Zambia

This week a very special guest came to visit Minnesota from the other side of the globe. Pastor Lawrence Temfwe, the Executive Director of Jubilee Centre in Zambia, along with Jason Filleta of Micah Challenge came to Minnesota to speak out for those who are struggling against global poverty and preventable disease.

The trip started with a meeting, along with 5 other local ONE members, at Congressman Jim Ramstad’s office with Heather Renner, the Director of Communications and Relations. We had lunch with some local members in Minneapolis to answer questions and encourage action. We then had a meeting with Rev. Nancy Maeker of the Minnesota Council of Churches and Acting Director of A Minnesota Without Poverty. Following, a meeting with Kathy Stinchfield, Development Director, Mike Llyod, Executive Director, and Richard Proudfit, Founder, of Kids Against Hunger in New Hope. He also attended a prayer supper in Saint Paul with local faith leaders educate and motivate attendees to practice what they preach, as he has said with local church leaders in Zambia. Jason Filleta talked about Micah Challenge and the resources that they and ONE have including ONE Sunday material, to use to engage their congregation to participate.

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Announcing the “Knit One, Save One” Campaign

In 2006, Save the Children, in partnership with Warm Up America Foundation launched a campaign called Caps to the Capital where almost 25,000 knitters and crocheters made caps for newborns in developing countries and wrote letters to the President to call for greater leadership and funding for newborn and child health.

Due to the overwhelming success of this campaign, Save the Children and Warm Up America are re-launching this effort in a campaign called Knit One, Save One. This campaign is a grassroots initiative asking knitters and crocheters to make a cap to help warm newborn babies around the world. In 2008, we are hoping to double our previous impact by engaging 50,000 knitters and crocheters to make 500,000 caps!

As part of the previous campaign, I traveled to Bangladesh with Save the Children to provide babies with knit caps and simple basic care such as vitamin A drops. From this experience, I was reminded that despite the technological advances of modern medicine, simple interventions can often save a young life.

Those babies that we assisted were fortunate. They escaped the unthinkable fate of the 2 million children each year who die the day they are born. In total, over 9 million children — one every three seconds — die annually from preventable causes. Ninety-nine percent of these deaths take place in the developing world. One in every six children in sub-Saharan Africa still fails to reach his or her fifth birthday. Many parents even resist naming a baby during the first six weeks of life because they fear the child will not survive a reality utterly unthinkable in the United States.

Knit One, Save One offers an opportunity for citizens (more…)

Huckabee at Church in Rwanda

Senators Daschle and Frist, Mike Huckabee, John Podesta, John Kasich, Susan McCue, David Lane and Cindy McCain attended the Saint John the Baptist Cathedral in Rwanda yesterday during their ongoing trip to see life-saving U.S. aid at work.

Below, a short video clip from Mike Huckabee talking about the role of faith in the fight against global poverty.

Catholic Bishops Weigh in on the G8

On Thursday, bishops from all of the G8 countries released a letter urging the G8 country leaders to honor their commitments to reduce global poverty and address climate change at their July summit in Toyako, Japan.

From the CNS:

“Chicago Cardinal Francis E. George, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, was joined by the presidents of bishops’ conferences in other G-8 countries in reminding the leaders of their promise to spend $50 billion annually on development assistance — with half going to Africa — by 2010. “This commitment must be met and additional commitments should be made in the areas of health care, education and humanitarian aid,” the bishops wrote.

ONE Sunday at Zoar Lutheran Church

Ed Streitelmeier opened the sermon at Zoar Lutheran Church’s “ONE Sunday” with “Bambelela,” a South African term for encouragement. Throughout the month of February, the congregation held two Bible Studies and devoted a sermon to educating their congregation about extreme poverty, its reality, and Christianity’s role in fighting extreme poverty.

The Bible Studies included a Hunger-Awareness Sunday for first grade and pre-school children. The children were given cheerios, crackers and donuts to represent the different amounts of food given at different economic levels, from the most minimal to the overstuffed and over-glazed. Using treats may have been the best way of grabbing their attention, and it assured every little attendee was involved in the event.

For the older students (those probably less impressed with dry cheerios and donuts) the studies included a run through of the bind that holds Christianity to the duty of social justice by adding a biblical application to each MDG:

8. Create a Global Partnership for Development
Biblical Application: “If you lend money to my people, to the poor around you, you shall not deal with them as a creditor; you shall not exact interest from them. If you take your neighbor’s cloak in pawn, you shall restore it before the sun goes down; for it may be your neighbor’s only clothing to use as cover; in what else should that person sleep? And if your neighbor cries out to me, I will listen, for I am compassionate.” Exodus 22:25-27.

Adults were able to contribute to the “Noisy Bucket” and throw loose change, bills and checks. Those attending generated almost $3500 in donations for the ELCA World Hunger Appeal!

- Betsy Avila

“Winterim” students inspire

I have a lot of volunteers, all of whom are dedicated and amazing people because they give up their free time to helping the world’s poor, but every once in awhile, I meet a group that leaves me slack-jawed. Chip Huber and his students at Wheaton Academy are one such group. As a school, WA has worked with ONE-partner, World Vision, over the last six years to build a medical clinic and school in Zambia. I have always thought this was “cool”, so when Chip contacted me to come speak to his class two-week intensive “Winterim” course on poverty and social justice, I thought it would be great to meet these “kids” in person.

We talked about the Millennium Development Goals and the upcoming congressional and presidential races and how the class could make an impact. I left the school excited about helping them make their first advocacy project a reality, but when Chip sent me a link to the blogs the students had been writing I was speechless. I couldn’t possibly pick a favorite of the ten, but I found this line to be particularly powerful and in line with ONE’s mission:

I considered the possibility of presenting some perfect way to tell the world about AIDS, poverty, injustice, hunger, and water issues, but I don’t think there is one. The only way to spread this in a lasting way is one person or community at a time. I really believe it’s important (though not necessary) to have a relationship with someone in order for them to be influenced by your ideas and passions. As I’ve been writing this, I’ve realized that I’m contributing to the problem of ignorance that bugs me so much, and after being saturated with information over the past two weeks, that needs to change. –Josh Ellis

I encourage you all, especially if you are a person of faith, to read all ten student blogs – and while you’re doing so, think about the lives that will likely be saved because these inspiring students chose to take a “Winterim” on poverty and social justice and not bowling.