Crossinator

This was a busy weekend!

Saturday was an Acting on AIDS Regional Conference hosted by Anderson University and conducted by World Vision. Sunday was a Rally for Darfur at the Indiana State House.

Acting on AIDS

Acting on AIDS is a program started by Christian college students to create awareness and activism of the global AIDS pandemic at colleges and universities across the nation. With the support of World Vision, Christian college students have formed a network of Acting on AIDS chapters which seek to change hearts on campuses, create awareness in communities, and advocate for those impacted by the global AIDS pandemic.

Steve Haas, VP of Church Relations at World Vision was the main speaker. He used a lot of Scripture to make his points. Some of the things that I found impactful are:

• Women are 12x's as likely as men to contract HIV/AIDS through HETEROSEXUAL activities.
  
• Luke 4's madate to evangelize by caring for the poor
• We have Kingdom Assignments that include Justice and Peacemaking
• We need to give more than a % of our $ but also a % of our time, heart, and mind!
  

They also showed this powerful video. Finally we ate a Broken-Bread meal. During the meal they invite you to Identify, Intercede, and Interact.
Identify by eating a corn-soy blend porridge which is the exact porridge used by WV and other relief organizations around the world during a crisis situation. Not the worst porridge, but not like a good oatmeal or grits. They also ask you to sit on the floor and remain silent during the meal. You are also given an "identity card" on which is a story about a child and their desperate situation.
Intercede by reflecting quietly and asking for God to intervene and to continue to raise up faithful people to help meet the needs of His people.
Interact by talking in small groups about the meal, your identity (child), and whatever else.

This was a powerful way to experience even a snippet of what is happening.

I would also encourage you to check out Bound4Freedom

Rally for Darfur

Check out these past posts for a reminder about the situation in Darfur:
April 5, 2007 March 30, 2007 January 23, 2007 January 11, 2007 December 19, 2006 December 15, 2006 December 7, 2006 November 28, 2006

Indiana currently has legislation pending for Divestment from Sudan.

Harkening back to the days of Apartheid South Africa, fiduciaries have explored the option of divesting from companies that either do business in Sudan or with the government of Sudan. Indeed, numerous states, cities, and universities have already divested while dozens of others are currently considering this option. Building on this momentum, the Sudan Divestment Task Force has developed a unique model of divestment that maximizes divestment's impact on the government of Sudan while minimizing unintended harmful effects on innocent Sudanese citizens and on the health of institutional investments.

Organizations that helped sponsor Sunday's Rally include:

Save Darfur
Citizens for Global Solutions
ENOUGH
Sudan Divestment Taskforce (which is a project of the Genocide Intervention Network)
Darfur Peace & Development Organization
Campus Progress
Fidelity Out of Sudan

A few things that really struck me and please if nothing else take these actions:

1. Visit the Save Darfur Coalition website and click through some of their simple action steps.
2. Sign the Petition to Fidelity. They said today that if everyone in the US divested their money from Sudan (with surgical precision) almost $1 Billion could be taken away from the Sudanese Genocide Machine.
   
3. Darfur, Rwanda, Kosovo, Khmer Rouge, Nazi Germany. These were all modern-day genocides and we said we'd never let it happen again after the Holocaust.