November 12, 2007
I heard about Kiva a few months ago - my friends Chris and Kelly support them. Just in case you haven’t heard of it, Kiva is basically a micro-loans clearinghouse. You sign up to give entrepreneurs in the developing world small loans - everyone from Bill Clinton to Oprah has been talking about and supporting them. I’ve been meaning to check it out for a while, and today I finally sat down and started reading. It’s a great organization, helping people from places like Samoa, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Peru. It’s pretty crazy, too, how successful it is. I signed up to help someone from Ecuador; I was the first one to help him, and in a couple of hours, he had raised the full amount ($550) that he needed. The cool thing is that you’ll eventually get your money repaid back into your Kiva account, so you can pull out your money if you want, or keep re-loaning it (which is better).
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Posted by klnussbaum
August 26, 2007
The Rev. Ted Haggard, who left the megachurch he founded after admitting to “sexual immorality,” has asked supporters for financial assistance while he and his wife pursue their studies.
The former New Life Church pastor plans to seek a master’s degree in counseling at the University of Phoenix while his wife studies psychology, he said in an e-mail sent this week to KRDO-TV in Colorado Springs.
My Way News - Fallen Pastor Seeks Financial Support
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Posted by klnussbaum
July 31, 2007
Back in February, I mentioned my old quasi-boss Tom’s new project, 5 For 50. According to him:
In trying to figure out what I can do to provide justice to the weak,
here’s what I’ve come up with. My heart is to mobilize others to help
the widow, the orphan and the poor. In an attempt to do that, I’m
starting a foundation tied in with my book, Red Letters called Five for
50. It’s about 5 simple steps any of us can do to stand in solidarity
with the 50 million people in the world infected with HIV. Here’s how
it works:
- Give 5 minutes a day to pray for those suffering from HIV/AIDS.
- Give 5 hours a week to fast for those suffering from HIV/AIDS.
- Give 5 dollars a month to the Five for 50 Fund and support worthy causes.
- Give 5 days a year to travel overseas and help alleviate poverty and suffering.
- Give 5 people an opportunity to join you on your journey.
The site is up and running and has a link for you to donate enough to feed, educate, and clothe one, 5, 10, or more childern. The cost? $5 a month (per child). That’s it. Let me put it in terms we’ll all understand. That’s merely one grande iced mocha and a muffin. A month.
Click here to head to the site, and go here to request a sample chapter of Tom’s new book, Red Letters.
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Posted by klnussbaum
June 12, 2007
Time had a great photo essay about eating habits from fifteen families around the world. The families are photographed with their food, and Time lists what they spend on food, with the amounts ranging from $1.23 per week to over $500. It’s both fascinating and tragic, and it makes me want to eat a bit less.
thanks: 2+2=5
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Posted by klnussbaum
April 16, 2007
Mike DeVries (_awakening) has a great post about a conversation he had with a friend of his regarding evangelism. The entire thing is great, but my favorite part was this:
Between the phone call and posting this, I shared this conversation
with my wife. Both of us came to a new realization. Perhaps
"evangelism" is not something you do to people, nor an event. [I really
struggle with that term and so many of the connotations that word
conjures up for me.] The better question is who you are doing life
with, who you are taking with you on your faith journey.
Jamie mentioned some other really good friends of ours and said
this, "You know, we’ve spent almost six years with these friends and
we’re just now getting into some of the most amazing conversations
about God. Maybe people just want to see it before they hear about it.
We didn’t enter into a friendship with an agenda. They’re just our
friends, you know."
There’s always the line that we have to walk between having an agenda and having a friend . . . I wonder what side we should err on?
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Posted by klnussbaum
March 13, 2007
The majority of this post can now be viewed at Releventmagazine.com
To do so, especially for the sake of clinging to our last grasps of American naivety is to do an incredible disservice to the reality that Africa is facing. Despite the attempts of people like my friends Steven in South Africa and Tom Davis and Children’s HopeChest in Swaziland, as well as the work of the people behind Invisible Children, it has still been hard to personalize the struggles of a land and people so foreign to myself. The combination of reading A Long Way Gone, as well as hearing Ishmael Beah in person, got my attention the way nothing else has, and I can only hope that I can remain motivated to do something about it.
Here’s a link to a clip from Ishmael’s appearance on The Daily Show. It’s a testimony to the book to hear Jon Stewart say, "It made my heart hurt."
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Posted by klnussbaum
