Blog #2: Service

Today in church I got a great insight into why we serve. Oftentimes we think that we serve in order to help other people physically, which is true, but is not the entire reason. There is also a very spiritual side to service. We tend to recognize the two aspects of service individually, but until today I failed to connect them. We serve people to fulfill their physical needs and desires so they can be prepared for the spirit to enter their hearts. People whose physical demands are greatly lacking are not in the right mindset to feel of the Spirit. The hierarchy of needs places physical needs in a place of greater demand than the emotional and the spiritual. When we take care of physical needs we allow people to move on to add more to their lives. That addition may very well be the Spirit. By serving others we are able to enrich their lives in multiple ways, because we take care of basic needs and allow them to partake of what they once could not even consider. Once those essentials are provided, people are able to more fully complete their lives by adding the spiritual to the physical.

Blog #1: Invisible Children

Many people have heard of the Invisible Children organization. The story has been repeated multiple times of children being kidnapped and forced to fight in Northern Uganda. Unfortunately, to many people these are just stories of nameless, faceless children in a far away place. The reality never seems to sink. Tonight I watched again the documentary of these children. They are real, they have names, faces, families, friends. They are human beings in every sense, no different from us. And yet they are forced to live in conditions which I am sure would make hell on earth seem comfortable. Not only are the living conditions abominable, the sanitation disgusting, and the health risks enormous, but they must live in constant fear of rebel soldiers. The Lord's Resistance Army, or the LRA, is under the direction of a man named Joseph Koney. An evil man at best, he is responsible for the thousands of kidnappings and deaths that have spanned nearly two decades of war. Because of him and his army, children are in constant danger of being kidnapped, beaten, raped, tortured, and killed. These children are invisible to the world. People are uncomfortable discussing such atrocities, so they cast them aside. That is the wrong response. We must do more. We must take action to end such criminal atrocities. The Invisible Children organization is dedicated to ending the war in Uganda and returning child soldiers to their homes, providing education, work, healthcare, and a better life to those who currently are fighting or living in displacement camps. Such a cause must not go unnoticed. There is no partisanship, no true enemy to such a cause. Yet support is not strong enough because people lack the empathy to stand up. All that is required is time, communication, money, talents, whatever one is willing to give of. We must do our part to end the war in Uganda and save the lives of thousands who will otherwise perish. We are the last resort. It is our task, our duty, our responsibility to make sure these children are no longer overlooked. We must stand strong. I feel very strongly about this cause, because I cannot bear to look in the face of a child and see such pain, such terror, as I saw in the faces of these African children. The innocence of youth is fading, and for many Ugandan children, it will be lost forever if we do not act now.