Did Anyone Else Watch . . .

Okay, so I'm an idealist. I readily admit that. So, when I hear other people speak in idealistic tones it resonates with me. That's what happened to me last night as I sat with my wife and watched ABC News Primetime's interview with Brad Pitt.

ABC had been heavily promoting the interview all week as a way to hear straight from the mouth of Brad Pitt about his relationship with Angelina Jolie. But, Pitt only agreed to be interviewed if the majority of the show would be dedicated to the plight of millions of people in the continent of Africa. Poverty, the AIDS pandemic, and the lack of opportunity for education has ravaged this continent for far too long. Pitt spoke often about the fact that $16, the price of one American CD, is all that it takes to provide an education for a child for a year in Africa. (After watching the show I calculated that if our family would forgo a year of education at the private Christian school that our children attend, and send all of that money to Africa for children to be educated we could send 500 children to school.)

Wooddale Church has been on the forefront of ministry to victims of AIDS in Africa for the past several years. Just this Saturday we'll be sending another team for two weeks of ministry alongside of World Relief. Our team will work in the areas of abstience education, orphanage support, and church leader development.

Most of you will never have the opportunity to go to Africa. But, you can get involved in the solution. The One Campaign has brought the church and Hollywood together for the common cause of ridding the world of poverty in the next twenty years. The ONE Declaration reads as follows: "WE BELIEVE that in the best American tradition of helping others help themselves, now is the time to join with other countries in a historic pact for compassion and justice to help the poorest people of the world overcome AIDS and extreme poverty. WE RECOGNIZE that a pact including such measures as fair trade, debt relief, fighting corruption and directing additional resources for basic needs – education, health, clean water, food, and care for orphans – would transform the futures and hopes of an entire generation in the poorest countries, at a cost equal to just one percent more of the US budget. WE COMMIT ourselves - one person, one voice, one vote at a time - to make a better, safer world for all.”

I encourage you to visit The One Campaign website at www.one.org, and make your voice heard. You can make a difference.

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

James 1:27