2010 is upon us and LIA is ready for the upcoming year! The growth experienced in 2009 was humbling and we want to thank all of our faithful and dedicated supporters and partners for playing a huge role.

Be on the lookout for upcoming events, LIA promotional opportunities, and new ways to further engage in the work of LIA.

Check it out:

Documentary Advertisement: We are promoting our documentary in an e-magazine called “Greater Than”. This progressive magazine shares with its readers a scope of articles pertaining to music, art, and God. Can you find us?

Hear about Sudan - Sunday, January 10th: One of our staff members from South Sudan will be in Louisville, KY speaking at Cloverleaf Baptist Church (main sanctuary at 1 pm). This is a great opportunity to hear from Elijah about the work being done and transformation taking place within the communities he serves in Sudan. If you are around the Louisville area you don’t want to miss it! Place: Cloverleaf Baptist Church Main Sanctuary 4401 Manslick Road Louisville, KY

Benefit Dinner - Saturday, February 20th: LIA will be visiting Kansas City by hosting another benefit dinner.  We would love to see you there!

The evening will consist of President and Founder Florence Muindi sharing her vision and hope for Africa, as well as a screening of our documentary, “This Is My Home”.

More details and how to register for this special evening can be found here.

Help Needed - Are you looking to support the benefit dinner in a greater way? Make a comment to inquire about being a table host or sponsor for the event!

We are so excited for what God has in store for LIA this year and want to thank you for being apart of this journey.

Here’s to serving to empower Africa’s poorest and most beautiful people and communities, together.

Highlighted in one of the  “Reject Apathy” sections in the September/October issue of RELEVANT Magazine you will find a full page dedicated to spreading the word about LIA!

Check it out on pg. 29!

This brief overview of the organization and our work in northeast Africa is both exciting and encouraging! The stories of transformation taking place throughout the LIA partnered communities are powerful and inspirational. We are thrilled to be given the opportunity to share a little bit about the LIA Vision with RELEVANT readers.

Dedicated to feeding the masses with topics surrounding issues of life, God, and progressive culture, RELEVANT Magazine is a great source when seeking to expand your worldview; as well as your musical interests.  Embracing the culture in which we find ourselves engulfed in, RELEVANT Magazine offers a refreshing yet challenging perspective as to what it means to be a follower of Christ in today’s world and provides stimulating articles aiding in the journey for a deeper spiritual quest.

Pick up the magazine.

Check out the LIA article.

And stay connected with LIA! The fall months are bringing about some very exciting events and opportunities to further serve the poor and marginalized in Africa.

Upon reading and processing through the book “Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger” by Ronald J. Sider, an interesting point is presented that demands reflection. Throughout part two of this book Sider continually references the lacking distinction between the act of being an active participant in the exploitation of others in comparison to those that remain static and apathetic to the suffering in the world.

Using the biblical example of the poor beggar Lazarus in Luke 16, the story tells of a rich man that would pass by Lazarus everyday never seeking to help, yet never intentionally abusing.  His lack of concern for Lazarus and his situation however was judged just as harshly as if he were to have been the cause for Lazarus’s impoverished and hopeless state.

How are we to feel about the proclamation of Christ as our Savior yet living in a complacent state remaining static and unmoved by the most desperate needs of others around the world?  We may not be physically fighting the innocent, exploiting the poor, or consciously hording resources from those with nothing, however what are we doing to stop it?

Sider brings this concept of exploitation and apathy full circle regarding the presence and abundance of possessions that tend to fill our lives.  Consuming our time and energy we must not let our worldly goods become the center of our daily lives; clouding our desire to serve others.  We must also seek to be educated consumers, making a conscious decision to be weary of perpetuating the cycle of exploitation from our investments and purchases.

Ignorance to the issues and needs of the world only goes so far.  As Christians we must let our passions drive us to fight social injustices actively, not merely by not directly participating.  It is a bold call to action and requires a great deal of effort and giving of oneself.

Knowing the needs of the poorest and most marginalized communities in Africa, what are we doing to help, transform and empower?  Check out LIA’s programs and learn more about how you can get involved giving yourself and taking an active stand against injustice and suffering throughout Eastern Africa.

If you want to learn more about Sider’s view on living as a Christian in a wealthy society check out his book; “Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger” and challenge yourself to empower others with your resources.

There are a couple of elements that make the ministry of LIA unique. As a result, I end up talking a lot about local leadership and ownership, empowerment, community-centric development, and breaking the cycle of dependency that continues to plague development in Africa.

Some might call these buzz words (or topics) but they are much more than that to us - they are part of our DNA. Everything we do is intentionally designed to ensure that we are equipping the local church and its surrounding community to be empowered by their own ideas and resources, so that they don’t rely on LIA indefinitely. In essence, we are working ourselves out of a job, one community at a time!

I just read the article Africa’s New Path by Fareed Zakaria in this week’s edition of Newsweek which highlighted a lot of these same elements, but focused on Rwanda. One of my highlights from the article was the ‘unique’ way in which the Rwandan President ushered reconciliation into the country, “So [Paul] Kagame arrived at the idea of using an indigenous system - gacaca coutrs, essentially local village councils where people confess and are punished but are mostly forgiven and reintegrated into the communities from where they came”

The article doesn’t idolize Kagame, but rather points to his creative and indigenous bias that may run many of the typical AID and development organizations right out of town! As Zakaria rightly points out, there is much hope in Africa and it comes in the form of a new generation of African leaders.

Our President, Dr. Florence Muindi, is another such a leader. To learn more about the birth of LIA and to read the story of her journey, please purchase your very own copy of The Pursuit of His Calling.

A hot topic more recently circulating in American society has been the current situation of the faltering economy.  The state of the United States economy has been characterized by the term unemployment, with many fearful about holding onto their jobs due to major cutbacks within all areas of work.  The US government assures the people that this economic downturn will soon change, and encourages us not to lose hope for the future with the promise that our economic prosperity will prevail.

With media attention typically focusing on the developed nations economic hardships, we may be led to overlook those that are suffering at a much greater level; a devastation that will have greater consequences for a much longer period of time.  In the article; “The Toxins Trickle Downward”, found off the Economist.com, we are presented with a global understanding of the effects that the economic recession has had on those living in developing and impoverished countries.

Playing no part in this economic crisis the poor and developing countries are suffering major blows to their economy.  Millions that have been trying to survive in this globalizing world are now being thrown back under the poverty line.  Those amongst the poorest of the poor are left without options and are forced to handle the economic mess at a much greater decree.  This “global meltdown”, as it is referred to in the article, affects these poor counties in three distinct ways; through capital, the fall in commodity prices, and lastly its labor and loss of jobs.

With the amount of exports and inflow of capital diminishing in these poorer countries they are looking at a massive debt amounting to upwards of $2.5-3 trillion.  This enormous debt is not just an abstract number however, remember, this number translates to very real and suffering people that are forced to deal with the consequences of an incidence in which they had no part.  With the World Bank estimating that upwards of 200,000 to 400,000 more children will die between now and 2015 due to the current economic situation we are challenged to think outside of our local hardships and realize that others are suffering just as much if not more.  Let us not let our brothers and sisters carry this burden alone.  We must continually respond to the needs of the world even in the midst of localized hardships.

In uncertain economic times, we are incredibly honored to be partners with people who continue to support those who are less fortunate. We do not take for granted those who sacrifice on a regular basis to bring life in abundance to those in Africa who live in poverty. In these challenging times, we daily get to see the best in people.

We are excited to announce that one of our partners, O’Neil Printing, was honored by the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce for their commitment to serving others. In the May edition of their magazine, the Chamber lists O’Neil printing and President Tony Narducci as one of their ten finalists for the IMPACT Awards, given annual to companies identified as having significantly impacted their community.

Tony Narducci says that he and his business find meaning through community involvement with organizations such as Life in Abundance, Alice Cooper’s Solid Rock and The Grove Bible Church. “It keeps me connected to those in need, and I strive each day to make a difference in the lives of the marginalized among us,” he says.

We love O’Neil Printing and have been blessed by their desire to serve Africa by helping with all our printing needs.

I like to learn. Structured or not, it doesn’t really matter. I just want to have my worldview expanded. My understanding of God, Jesus, and the Church - refined. I don’t believe that theology can be static. As we grow in our understanding of what God’s heart for the world is, and we discover the needs of the world, a renewed direction for each of our lives will emerge.

This is why I try to learn using both hands.

Today, I had Design for the Other 90% in one hand and my NASB in the other. Often, you might run into me with The World is Flat and Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger banging against one another in my book bag. Other times, Divine Conspiracy and PRISM Magazine would fill that role. Right now, John Piper and Joel B. Green are on my nightstand. I visited with a friend working for Food for the Hungry a while back and noticed that they had World Magazine and the Economist Magazine sitting together on the table. Apparently, this isn’t a new idea.

My reasoning is this: if the Christian community is to engage with the world, then we should probably know what is going on in the world. Not just statistics and problems, but the structures and emerging frameworks creating the statistics and problems, for example. We have to be a thinking people, rooted in truth of God’s meta-narrative story for the redemption of humanity, engaged with the reality (globally and locally) we find ourselves living in.

This is how I learn. How do you learn?

I was trying to catch up on a few of the outstanding piles of ’stuff’ on my desk today. To my pleasant surprise, I came across two articles that I had ripped out of The Economist Magazine a few months back. Though this article that I’m recommending herein is now a few months old, I’m certain that it didn’t get too much circulation, so let me share a few of the high-points as a teaser for you to read the full article.

First things first - check out the graphic above, but really look at it.

The contrast between the developed western world, the emerging economies and those least developed nations are glaring. I’m not so much surprised by the most significant contributors of pollutants (USA, most of Europe, China). Rather, I’m surprised at how little the relative contribution coming from countries in Africa actually is. In fact, if you remove South Africa from the equation, there really isn’t much there.

Contributors to this article argue that it is the poor, developing, and in particular, rural sub-Sahara farmers who will reap some of the most devastating consequences from global warming, while contributing little its cause. As the Sahara creeps south, weather patterns become increasingly erratic, dry seasons become hotter and longer, the resulting impact on the already impoverished will be devastating.

Go read the article and then consider the following thoughts: who will be a voice for the subsistence farmer in Ethiopia suffering from the consequences of our very own pollution? Who will represent the grandmother in northern Kenya, caring for her daughter’s children, who now faces an even greater struggle to produce viable crops for market?

Lastly, do I care enough to, not only change my consumption behaviors, but to affect change on a broader scale, for those I don’t even know?

Grace and Peace to you in this journey.

I’m literally aghast that nobody has provided a review on this book on Amazon.com yet! More than a year ago, I wrote to Judith M. Dean (she likes to go by Judy - take note) to let her know that I was inspired by a piece of writing she put together for InterVarsity many years ago. Judy was kind enough to respond to me and ended up sending me a copy of Attacking Poverty as it just came off the press. I’m so glad that she did!

This book is a meaningful collection of essays from Christian practitioners and economists pertaining to program implementation and academic research challenges within the developing world. I found most of the essays to be extremely relevant to the challenges that our staff face throughout Africa. I found Chapter 7, Lessons for Rural Development Practitioners from Recent Agricultural Development Ecnomics Research, to be particularly meaningful.

Below are some highlights from the chapter:

“In contrast to the United States, where the median time in poverty is 4.5 months, the median time in poverty in rural Bangladesh, Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya or Madagascar is one or more lifetimes. The expectation of lifetime impoverishment often fosters hopelessness. Without hope, people find it hard to contemplate or effect change. With hope, many things become possible. The Gospel message and the practical challenges of reducing persistent poverty thus go hand-in-hand with helping the downtrodden to find hope” (pg 95).

See - that is pretty approachable language coming from academics! More below:

“The church functions as an important social network and source of social capital in many parts of the world (although we recognize that it is much more than this and this is not its primary role). In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), for example, there are few functioning institutions apart from those established by the Christian church. Were it not for the church, there would not be an educational or health care system in the DRC today” (pg 100).

This is so true of the communities where LIA is working throughout North and Eastern Africa. It may be hard to fathom, but the church in many of these communities is the sole source of education, sanitation and economic development for the entire community.

“Real development work that lasts in painfully slow and demands a lot of hard work; one needs to be in it for the long haul” (108).

Amen.

Thanks to Christopher B. Barrett and Douglas R. Brown from Cornell for this insightful chapter.

A bigger thanks to my new friend Judy Dean for sending me this excellent book!