Chad, Darfur and Me
The eyes of the child from Chad and the Darfur area of Africa stare at me from the Magazine cover. I can’t get the image out of my mind.
The article that goes with the front cover photo appears in the December 11th MacLeans Magazine… next week’s copy. The article tells of the horror of what is happening in Chad and the neighboring Darfur area of the Sudan. It mentions names and places that are strange to me. Words like “janjaweed” mean little to me and makes my spell checker click into actions with a red underline.
A few weeks ago these words meant nothing – in fact I had never read of them. They were people of a planet somewhere else – not people near me. Why should I care?
Today the eyes of the youngster stare into my soul. The question is rising – why should I care? The answer is simple… she or he is likely dead today. In fact each day more and more are dieing or being tortured. The article stated that 250,000 are already murdered and millions more are at risk of dieing.
The part that is shouted the loudest is our Western Leaders have said or done nothing to make this stop. It is an “Islamic problem” – how does it affect us? Why should anyone here in Canada get involved? We are already involved in an unending war of in Afghanistan that we can solve. How can we do more?
If there was ever a need for peace it is now. This will be the new generation’s peace focus I am sure. We have not heard the end of this one yet.
What has that got to do with my world?
Yesterday I met with and contacted three family situations that are all experiencing hatred and violence from within. It almost overwhelmed me with the amount of anger that they have mustered against each other. Today I will speak in an Anglican Church about violence against seniors.
We don’t have to travel far to read of hear of the results of anger.
For the love of God who will stand up and state that they know something about “Love”. I challenge my Islamic friends that read this Blog to do something. I challenge my Christian friends to do something too. With all of our deeply religious roots and feigned spirituality – do we even know anything about Love? From what I have witnessed – we don’t know much.
I am not a political being… at least I don’t perceive myself as such. But something must be done to curb what we see happening.
Something was done.
The Bible tells me that in the last days people will be looking for and shouting about peace. It is at that time that Jesus will come back. Then everything will change. I know that is heavier that most are ready to hear. But I said it and it is something that will change our world that we live in.
There is hope for people in Chad, Sudan and even Canada with this one important thought. Jesus can a will make a difference now – and when he comes back.
The struggle that every real Christian has in the present world is the one that deals with what Christians did in the past years with their brand of Love. After all look at what happened in the years of the Crusades in the mid east.
You needn’t look to history of long ago – just check out what happened in our community in the last few years. Christianity has some strange people that talk about Love too. They have hurt each other all in the name of “their god”.
It isn’t hopeless.
I have to remind myself that there is a God and that he does Love us deeply – but not just us – everyone everywhere. He is doing everything to draw people to himself.
My Prayer and Challenge…
To help you know better about the conflict in Chad is about check out….
Chad: Poisoned Arrows vs. Machine Guns
http://coalitionfordarfur.blogspot.com/2006/11/chad-poisoned-arrows-vs-machine-guns.html
Using “Chad vs Darfur Sudan” in a Google search will get you 179,000 hits immediately.
The article that goes with the front cover photo appears in the December 11th MacLeans Magazine… next week’s copy. The article tells of the horror of what is happening in Chad and the neighboring Darfur area of the Sudan. It mentions names and places that are strange to me. Words like “janjaweed” mean little to me and makes my spell checker click into actions with a red underline.
A few weeks ago these words meant nothing – in fact I had never read of them. They were people of a planet somewhere else – not people near me. Why should I care?
Today the eyes of the youngster stare into my soul. The question is rising – why should I care? The answer is simple… she or he is likely dead today. In fact each day more and more are dieing or being tortured. The article stated that 250,000 are already murdered and millions more are at risk of dieing.
The part that is shouted the loudest is our Western Leaders have said or done nothing to make this stop. It is an “Islamic problem” – how does it affect us? Why should anyone here in Canada get involved? We are already involved in an unending war of in Afghanistan that we can solve. How can we do more?
If there was ever a need for peace it is now. This will be the new generation’s peace focus I am sure. We have not heard the end of this one yet.
What has that got to do with my world?
Yesterday I met with and contacted three family situations that are all experiencing hatred and violence from within. It almost overwhelmed me with the amount of anger that they have mustered against each other. Today I will speak in an Anglican Church about violence against seniors.
We don’t have to travel far to read of hear of the results of anger.
For the love of God who will stand up and state that they know something about “Love”. I challenge my Islamic friends that read this Blog to do something. I challenge my Christian friends to do something too. With all of our deeply religious roots and feigned spirituality – do we even know anything about Love? From what I have witnessed – we don’t know much.
I am not a political being… at least I don’t perceive myself as such. But something must be done to curb what we see happening.
Something was done.
The Bible tells me that in the last days people will be looking for and shouting about peace. It is at that time that Jesus will come back. Then everything will change. I know that is heavier that most are ready to hear. But I said it and it is something that will change our world that we live in.
There is hope for people in Chad, Sudan and even Canada with this one important thought. Jesus can a will make a difference now – and when he comes back.
The struggle that every real Christian has in the present world is the one that deals with what Christians did in the past years with their brand of Love. After all look at what happened in the years of the Crusades in the mid east.
You needn’t look to history of long ago – just check out what happened in our community in the last few years. Christianity has some strange people that talk about Love too. They have hurt each other all in the name of “their god”.
It isn’t hopeless.
I have to remind myself that there is a God and that he does Love us deeply – but not just us – everyone everywhere. He is doing everything to draw people to himself.
My Prayer and Challenge…
- Pray for the people of Chad and Sudan.
- Pray that there will be help to settle this nightmare soon.
- Pray that our leaders will be willing to at least speak out on behalf of the down trodden.
- Pray for your own insight to be enlightened.
- Pray that the real Love that we talk about will start around you and your family.
- Do something.
- Pray.
To help you know better about the conflict in Chad is about check out….
Chad: Poisoned Arrows vs. Machine Guns
http://coalitionfordarfur.blogspot.com/2006/11/chad-poisoned-arrows-vs-machine-guns.html
Using “Chad vs Darfur Sudan” in a Google search will get you 179,000 hits immediately.
posted by Murray Lincoln at
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
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