Over the weekend I tweeted and updated my facebook status with the simple statement: Muslims killing Christians in Nigeria followed by a simple question: Will we respond like Christ or like humans? It’s always interesting what captures people’s imaginations and provokes response.

After a year of conversations on facebook, I was still amazed at the response the simple status update received. Feel free to check it out here: http://bit.ly/auO0bH

Reflecting on responses, the following points are worth of mentioning:

1) There is no emotion like religious emotion.

Wars over the centuries have demonstrated that religions are frequently front and center in every war. Religious emotion is a product of two things as I see it. First, it is an indicator that people genuinely care. If they didn’t care, they wouldn’t get so upset.

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Have you ever felt like you were too young or too inexperienced to make a real difference in the world? I just finished a book by a woman whose story is sure to change your mind.

Jacqueline Novogratz, author of The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World, got her start in the changing-the-world business at the ripe old age of 25. It was in the mid-1980s, long before eradicating extreme global poverty hit the mainstream consciousness in this country, that she left a lucrative job in international banking at Chase and set out on her own for Kigali, Rwanda with a heart for helping the poorest of the poor to help themselves.  

More than two decades (and a book full of frightening and inspirational experiences) later, she is now the founder and CEO of Acumen Fund, a nonprofit venture capital firm that invests in entrepreneurs bringing affordable and sustainable healthcare, water, energy and housing to people earning less than $4 a day. 

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Normally when I come across an article or news story regarding the conflict in eastern Congo, I submit it as a news link in the hopes that it will capture the attention of the reader and awareness of that hellish situation will spread. But I read an article today in the Times Online that I have to talk about. Please read it here.

 

The title of the article, “Yesterday a victim, today an oppressor, how aid funds war in Congo” is wrapped in intrigue and tied with a bow of truth. This is a powerful article exposing the raw and painful truth of the war in Congo.

 

A candle light service is being held in Rwanda tonight to commemorate the 800,000 victims of the 1994 genocide. Yet, there will not be a service held for the over 5 million Congolese killed in the aftermath of the genocide. What many don’t realize is that the conflict in eastern Congo is a direct result of Rwandan's rebels leaders invading Congo.

 

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As We Forgive: Stories of Reconciliation from Rwanda
By Catherine Claire Larson (Zondervan, Feb. 1, 2009)

It’s said that reality is stranger than fiction. In the case of Rwanda’s people, it’s also more gruesome. Catherine Claire Larson, a writer and editor with Chuck Colson’s Prison Fellowship, sets out to add to the litany of works about Rwanda’s genocide with As We Forgive.

Inspired by a documentary by the same name, Larson retells seven stories about the genocide and its aftermath (some of which are in the film). What’s even more amazing is the miraculous way some victims are working toward reconciliation by forgiving their perpetrators -- many of whom have been released from prison and are even helping victims rebuild their homes and lives.

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