India!

We've spent the last two weeks talking about India and ways to support our ministries there. So, to start out the new year, we wrote letters to the oldest of our unsponsored students. You guys wrote some awesome letters, and I know the India travelers are really excited to have a personal letter to present to each of them. Way to help make the love of Christ real in a tangible way!

Our 5 minutes of God Time song for the start of the year was an acoustic version of "Live Like That" by Sidewalk Prophets.



And then last week, we talked about our blessings, our relative wealth, and how that plays into our role as Christians- all before we brainstormed ways to support our India ministry. When talking about money and wealth, the vast majority of people in our country will say that they're "middle class"- even if their income level indicates that they're upper-, upper-middle-, or even lower-middle class. Which means that we tend to think of ourselves as averagely wealthy- though our language often tends toward us thinking that we're "broke" or "poor." There's always something else that we could purchase, if we just had enough money. So the glut of options leaves us feeling like we're missing out, that everyone else has more stuff, more money, more _____ than us. The reality is this:

• If you have food in your fridge, clothes on your back, a roof over your head, and a place to sleep- you are richer than 75% of the world.
• If you have money in the bank, your wallet, and some spare change- you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy.
• If you woke up this morning with more health than illness you are better off than the million people who will not survive this week.
• If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the agony of imprisonment or torture, or the horrible pangs of starvation- you are luckier than 500 million people alive and suffering.
• If you can read this message- you are more fortunate than 3 billion people in the world who cannot read it at all.

And then I gave you some even more sobering statistics:

•  If you took a shower this morning, washed your hands after using the bathroom, or drank water out of your tap (or a bottle), you're better off than the 2.5 billion people in the world who are without sufficient water sanitation and access.
• If you ate breakfast today (or had dinner last night, or are planning for lunch after youth group), your stomach is fuller than the 925 million people who are hungry and/or malnourished. In fact, 15 million children will dies this year of malnourishment.
• If you've never had to worry that your parents might sell you to pay a debt or because they couldn't afford to keep you (and you've never been so desperate for money that you were forced to consider selling yourself), your life is a wonderful dream compared to the estimated 29 million people who are modern-day slaves. 75% of those slaves are female, and 50% of them are children. At least 2 million of those children (some even younger than 5 years old) are sex slaves, working in brothels.
•  If you are able to go to the doctor when you feel ill, or you've ever had stitches, crutches, or a cast for a broken bone, you have access to medical care that 1 billion people in our world lack. Millions die each year from diseases and health care issues that are preventable.
• If you're receiving an education (at home, online, or at public/private school), you've been given an opportunity that 72 million children don't have; that's how many children in our world could be, should be in school but aren't. 57% of those children are female.

We are so incredibly blessed in our country- and in our comfort, we often forget what our lives could be. We complain because we don't have our favorite foods, though we've never lived through a famine in which we had to eat dirt just to quiet our stomachs. We're upset about our level of homework and how busy we are with extracurriculars, without stopping to consider what our opportunities in life would be if we didn't have any chance of going to school or learning a trade. And we gripe about our chores or the annoying attention of a sibling, all the while forgetting that we are so blessed to have a family to love us and care for us.

So I asked you to take your 5 Minutes of God Time (Give Thanks) and simply thank your Lord for all of your blessings. And I hope that you'll continue to give thanks throughout the week.

After that, we talked about what the value of $15 is. We all know that $15 is the cost to sponsor a child in our school, giving them education (and access to jobs in the future), food (for the lunch bunch kids), access to medical care and clean water, a school uniform, and someone who is watching out for them and cares about them. And if they can't get to school, Novahu will do something crazy like ask our church for a bus (thank you again to all of you who helped with the India Gala!)! And since we've already established that we're in the top 8% of the world's wealthy, and many of us are even higher up the scale than that, and we all have at least some discretionary spending money, we looked at what we would and do spend $15 on. I'm not asking you to give up any of the $15 items we listed (or the $15 units for larger items)- just that you need to keep in mind what the value of $15 is for us (you know, in case you want ammunition to encourage someone else to use 15 of their bucks to sponsor a child).

And then, keeping in mind what our ministry and our school does, we then brainstormed ways to help support our India ministry- both individually and as a group, and financially and in ways that require no monetary support. I'm so proud of your creativity, and I look forward to putting many of those ideas into practice! I'm not listing either set of brainstormed ideas on the blog, since that would make this long post into a novel- but they are posted on the walls in the youth room, and I encourage you to add to them, modify them, and put them into practice.

So that's the India summary! Our next two weeks are going to be mini-lessons. "Fruit of the Spirit" this Sunday (1/20/13) and Baptism/John the Baptist next Sunday. And then February is our month to help out with JAM Time! See you all tomorrow!

 

What comes next?

Before we get to the good stuff, we have to talk a bit more about the bad. So far, we've talked about why we as Christians should be talking about consumption, where our personal consumption level falls and we've talked about where we get our influences. Now we get to talk about the impact of our choices and our lifestyles, and where to go from here.

We started out discussing the Great Pacific Garbage Patch- a swirling vortex of plastic pieces and goo that is twice the size of Texas and is continually growing. If you'd like to get a bit more insight on this topic, check out some of the information on the side links. Or just search "Great Pacific Garbage Patch." There's a lot out there to find that we couldn't cover in an hour.

We discussed e-waste (electronic waste) and why it's so bad for the planet. There are soo many videos out there about it, but we watched a clip from this one. The summary of the e-waste problem is this: anything that's created will need to go somewhere at the end of it's life. Whenever you purchase a shiny new gadget, you need to think about the fact that it will eventually wear out or break, become obsolete (when have any of you ever seen an 8-track?), or you'll simply decide that it no longer fits your needs (or more likely, wants) and you'll want to replace it with something new. But because technology doesn't decompose or break down, that waste has to go somewhere (and if you sell it to someone else, that waste still has to go somewhere, you've simply added another step to the chain- which is good, but not the final answer). Currently, our world doesn't have the recycling capabilities to deal with our waste, and even in the places that do, most of the waste ends up in third world countries because it's cheaper ($2 vs. $30 for India vs. USA disposal facilities) to dispose of an e-waste item in a place that deals with it poorly. Many poor people with no other job prospects will dismantle electronics to resell the parts at a very low cost- and will release toxic gases and particles by melting the metals over an open flame (without proper protection) or dissolving the plastic coating in vats of acid (which are then dumped in local fields and rivers). There's so much more to it than that incredibly brief recap, and I encourage you to do more research to see why e-waste is an environmental, consumption -level, and social justice  problem.

Those two areas of external (affecting more than just us) consumption impact are just a small sampling of what we could have covered. We as Christians are doing a lot of damage to our world and our fellow humans without even realizing it. But the good news is that you guys now have at least an idea of what kind of consequences our lifestyles are creating. And realizing and acknowledging that are the first steps toward recovery! Part 1.a of the good news is that after you realize that things aren't right, making them better is really not that hard! And you, as teens and as soon-to-be-adults, can make changes right now to reduce your contribution to some of these very real problems.

So what can you do? I gave you a list of tips and tricks from zerowastehome.blogspot.com which is a great place to start. And then I asked you guys to commit to one change. Just start with one. When you've got that one down, you can try another! One at a time isn't so overwhelming. Don't get yourself depressed with where you're at right now- up until this point, you didn't know. But now you do! Maybe you decide you want to avoid (or completely refuse to buy) things that have plastic packaging. Maybe you want to bring your own bags to the grocery store (or the mall). Maybe you decide you're going to reduce your time in the car and try to do all your errands or visiting on one day. Maybe you make it a point to shut off your electronics (computer, TV, ipod, etc.) for one day a week. Maybe you decide to make your own personal care product. Or maybe you decide that you want to do all of these or none of these and try something else instead. The point is, one change is the start. And you might just find that it's a lot easier than you ever thought. And if we're all committing to making some sort of change at once, you've got yourself a ready-made supportive friend and accountibilibuddy somewhere within our group. :)

And since this post is being published almost a month after our original discussion, I'd love to hear how this is going for you in the comments!

P.S.- Our 5 minutes of God Time song was an instrumental version of "Be Thou My Vision"