ACT:S MOBILIZERS

ACTS + CALLING is here! We’ve put together a FREE, six-week exploration of what it would look like for our generation to create a modern-day Book of Acts with our lives. This is a great resource for continuing your journey in small groups after organizing a Day of Prayer and Action (during the week of October 1 – or at a date most convenient for your group). Each of the six studies walks through stories in the Book of Acts and then dives into how our generation can live out the biblical call for justice – socially, spiritually, economically, and politically.

Check out the intro below – or just sign up and you can download the whole study immediately! Then, be email your insights and experiences so we can share them on the website.

Join us in Orlando – ACT:S + Relevant Magazine = FREE Concert and Launch Event with Josh Garrels

Can you be in Orlando on Friday, September 17? Join the ACT:S and RELEVANT teams for an intimate free concert with one of our favorite artists, Josh Garrels, at the new RELEVANT studios. We’ll also be launching our new ACT:S TO END MALARIA campaign and premiering our new campaign video by RELEVANT.

Email us if you can make it – we’ll be planning a special gathering among ACT:S leaders. Invite your friends and make plans to join us!

When: Friday, September 17, 7-10pm
Where: RELEVANT @ 1220 Alden Rd, Orlando, FL 32803 (here's a link to get directions)

JOIN THE FACEBOOK EVENT AND INVITE OTHERS!

Check out this music video of Josh Garrels and teaser to upcoming RELEVANT video for ACT:S TO END MALARIA:  

By Beth Douglass, Seattle Pacific University, ACT:S Contributor

A coworker of mine recently Twittered this quote by Christian author and pastor Tim Keller: “Karl, you were right. Religion is the opiate of the people, but the Gospel is the smelling salts.”

As a Christian, I’d always been bothered by philosopher Karl Marx’s assertion that religion is the opiate of the masses, lulling us into a zombie-like state of complacency with our lives and the world around us. Religion is a crutch, Marx said; it keeps us from seeing and challenging the problems of our world.

Many people, like I once did, might find this assertion a little offensive. But what if Karl Marx was actually right?

Photo www.nnekaworld.com
By Lauren Seibert, ACT:S Advocacy & Campaigns Fellow

In the car the other day, I was casually listening to a friend’s mixed CD—a fairly predictable blend of top chart hits from Usher, Drake, Lil Wayne, etc.—when an unexpected beat suddenly jolted through the speakers. It had been a Drake song, but what…?

I whipped my head around to look at my friend, confused. “Play that again!” I commanded. “Was that Nneka? No way. On one of Drake’s tracks?”

By James Addis, World Vision Magazine

One of the drawbacks of working for World Vision magazine is you sometimes get to edit a ton of bad news. Here’s some of the stuff that has passed across my desk in the last few weeks: millions made homeless by floods in Pakistan and China, more massive flooding in Romania, devastating tropical storms in Central America, an outbreak of cholera in Mozambique, and millions starving in Niger. In short, the sort of material that can make you want to jump off the nearest tall building without a parachute.

The trouble with this kind of news is that it can narrowly focus your attention on the big headaches of the moment. But take a look at longer-term global trends, and you might be surprised to learn that they present a more optimistic picture. That’s why I find reporting on the Millennium Development Goals a healthy antidote.

Can you be in Orlando on September 17th? World Vision ACT:S is partnering with RELEVANT Magazine to launch our newest creative activism – ACT:S TO END MALARIA.

This special activism event will feature a performance by our friend Josh Garrels, an experiential art show, and the premier of our new video by RELEVANT.

We’ll also be launching the ACT:S TO END MALARIA website – but you can check out a preview now to learn more about the plan to end malaria deaths by 2015 and get started by ordering a FREE creative activism box (NOTE: these are still being built… but sign up now and you’ll be first in line).

Here's a teaser for the new video premiering on September 17 in Orlando:

Ryan Hamm from Relevant Magazine with Phyllis Freeman from World Vision

On the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, we look at how far we've come—and how much more there is to do. It’s hard to believe it’s been five years since the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. It seems like such a short time ago that we were watching the horrifying footage of suffering, destruction, looting and the disaster-within-a-disaster at the Super Dome. Because such huge catastrophes often have multi-year (or multi-decade) effects, we wanted to find out how the recovery efforts are going on the fifth anniversary of Katrina.

We talked with Phyllis Freeman, the domestic disaster director for World Vision, U.S. programs. Here’s what she had to say about New Orleans then and now, how a community rebuilds and how both government agencies and non-governmental organizations are better prepared for future disasters.

By Jonathan Lo, World Vision ACT:S Faith and Justice Fellow

"I knelt on the dirty black carpet, blood dripping profusely from my nose. Already with a crimson pool full in my hands, I attempted to minimize the mess. My friend, Jess, rushed out of her car and ran to me as soon as she saw and heard the incident. Guilt invaded her own blood as she thought, “If only I hadn’t been selfish and stayed in the car…”

By Sarah Brubaker, Lindenwood University

I have a confession to make: I used to change the channel during child sponsorship commercials. The need was simply too overwhelming. As a high school and then college student, I didn’t have the means to support every one of them. I had heard the statistics that there were millions of starving people and millions of children without parents and millions of people dying of AIDS… and I didn’t have that many hands or dollars. I knew I could not help all of them and didn’t know where to start.

That began to change the summer I went to India.