HOLD ON

Recently, my brother and I watched a PBS program on the AIDS pandemic in Africa. The special featured an all-star panel of figures from Bono to President Clinton, Franklin Graham, and Bill Gates. We sat astounded at the immensity of the problem, and moved to tears at different times by the heart breaking pictures
of an entire continient ravaged by disease.

Not too long before I saw the program I became aware of the crisis in the Darfur region of Africa. It's amazing how you can live your life in this present world of instant communication and information, and still not be aware of an incredible atrocity like the one occurring in Darfur. For those who may not be aware of the crisis, here is a brief history thanks to the people at savedarfur.org:

Open warfare erupted in Darfur in early 2003 when the two loosely allied rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), attacked military installations. This was followed closely by peace agreements brokered by the United States to end the twenty-year-old civil war in the south of Sudan which allocated government positions and oil revenue to the rebels in the south. At that time rebels in Darfur, seeking an end to the region's chronic economic and political marginalization, also took up arms to protect their communities against a twenty-year campaign by government-backed militias recruited among groups of Arab extraction in Darfur and Chad.


Nearly three years into the crisis, the western Sudanese region of Darfur is acknowledged to be a humanitarian and human rights tragedy of the first order. The humanitarian, security and political situation continue to deteriorate: atrocities continue, people are still dying in large numbers of malnutrition and disease, and a new famine is feared According to reports by the World Food Program, the United Nations and the Coalition for International Justice, 3.5 million people are now hungry, 2.5 million have been displaced due to violence, and 400,000 people have died in Darfur thus far. The international community is failing to protect civilians or to influence the Sudanese government to do so.


My thoughts lately have focused on what can we do. Is it possible for an individual in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to effect change in Africa? Can a church in another part of the world actually carry an influence around the world to the most desperate and hurting people? What am I going to do? What are you going to do? An entire continent is being ravaged by disease and genocide and what will the Church do about it? Is it possible for the individuals and families that make up the Church in the west to take the task on themselves and look to redeem those crying for help? "Hold On!" My hope is that we would lift a response that would say, "Hold on! We're coming. Help is on the way!" Millions of people are looking to the sky desperately crying out for something, someone to come and redeem them. To bring them peace and save them from their hell. Will we be there? Will you be there?

For us, the gospel is ultimate redemption. It's message brings not only spiritual health, but it carries with it a call for Christians to bring physical and social peace to those crying for help. In our charge to go to the ends of the earth and make disciples with the gospel, we also bring with that message physical, emotional, and social redemption to the world. The biblical scriptures tell us that all are created "in the image of God". If all are the image of God, than their are millions upon millions of "images", people created with the utmost dignity and worth given by God, suffering in ways we could never imagine no doubt all over the world, and horribly in Darfur. So what will we do? What am I going to do? What will you do? What is the gospel you believe in? Does it include the physical and social redemption of the marginalized? The gospel message of Jesus Christ calls his followers to a radical life of bringing the cultural, social, and spiritual renewal of the world ushering in the Kingdom of God on earth.

For more information on Darfur and how you can get involved see - www.savedarfur.org, www.unicefusa.org, and www.npr.org