MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Everyday we are confronted by horrific events in our media, especially our TV. It is such a daily occurrence that we become somewhat desensitized to it which is an incredible shame.

Often though, it isn't apathy that stops us from doing something but an overwhelming sense of hopelessness... surely the problems are so HUGE that we are really limited in what we can do??

But are we?? Really??

Let's have a look at some of the problems I am talking about.

Wars, famines, genocide, murder, rape, drugs, child abuse, child and adult sex slaves in EVERY country in the world (remember the father in Germany and the cases in the USA.

Everyday in the world, children are dying of hunger, sickness and disease…

Everyday - somewhere in the world, women and children are beaten and murdered by their husbands, partners, fathers, brothers or another family member and sometimes by strangers.

In parts of the world, acid attacks against women happen for no logical reason. In many case, the women have done absolutely nothing but a male member of their extended family may have done something or be thought to have done something, so the women are targeted.

Don't believe me? Just google 'acid attack' or 'child sex slaves', or 'women beaten' and take a look at some of the images available on the web... it will make you sick to your stomach.

But on the other end of the spectrum there ARE people who are working to help. Most started on a one-to-one basis, working with what they had. Then people heard what they were doing and came and joined them. Quite often, the only incentive people need to stop being the silent majority, is to find a leader who inspires them and whom they can work alongside.


Let me mention just a few:

Christina Noble came from an horrific background of rape and abuse. She became haunted by that picture of a little Vietnamese girl running down the road with her skin melting from a napalm attack. When her children were grown, she went to Vietnam and discovered the children who had no one to care for them. She worked with them and eventually her work became the Christine Noble Children's Foundation which operates in Vietnam and Mongolia - her story is told in one of several books she has written, and it is such and uplifting and motivating book that I recommend you get a copy.
Bridge Across My Sorrows: The Christina Noble Story.
Christina's organization really makes a difference in the lives of children and families in Vietnam and Mongolia.

Another woman I greatly admire is Somaly Mam. Sold by her grandfather as a sex slave when she was only 12 years of age she has overcome a life of vicious abuse to now lead a life dedicated to human rights and liberating women, girls and babies from being used as sex slaves and in prostitution.The Road of Lost Innocence: The True Story of a Cambodian Heroine

Somaly really makes a difference.

A third woman I greatly admired was Mother Teresa. She came from a background of poverty and ended up running an organization to aid those in abject poverty in the city of Calcutta in India. She and the sisters in her order, Missionaries of Charity, lived and worked amongst the desperately poor and destitute in India. Her story is also truly remarkable. Read her story in No Greater Love. Mother Teresa really made a difference.

These women are all extraordinary people and are formidable and a little intimidating and if you were looking at helping in some way, then looking at what they are accomplishing makes them a hard act to follow and, well,  where do you begin??

Begin small. Take a look at these two women for inspiration. One is only 11 and the other just an ordinary American woman touched by the horror of the lives of others.

One day in May 2004, 11 year old Hallie Geier decided to take the family dog for a walk and stepped into the road in front of a car. Hallie died but her legacy lives on. For the previous year, Hallie had been touched by compassion for the plight of children with Aids in sub-saharan Africa and she had been saving her lunch money to donate. In her memory, her parents made a donation of $10,000 to Oprah's Angel Fund and there is  now an organization called Love, Hallie. Hallie's Angels, the youth action division of Love, Hallie, encourages kids to find a cause they care about and act on it. Do things such as teach kids to read or to help homeless people. This organization helps people make a difference.

Just as I was going to bed last night, I saw this article about a woman in America called Lisa Shannon. On her website are the following words. "How a life’s mission can come to you, not in contemplation, but sprawled out on the couch, watching TV. I had a great life - a successful business, a fiancé, a home, and security. But in the wake of my Dad’s death, and soon-to-be thirty years old, I found myself depressed, stretched out on the couch, watching Oprah.

It was there that I learned about Congo, widely called the worst place on earth to be a woman. Awakened to the atrocities - millions dead, women being raped and tortured, children starving and dying in shocking numbers - I had to do something…" A Thousand Sisters: My Journey into the Worst Place on Earth to Be a Woman.

Just two ordinary people who decided to make a difference.

SO WHAT CAN I DO TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

Begin where you are. No one is asking you to do great things to begin with. Just one small act of random kindness, then another, and another. If just one person makes another person smile, laugh, or feel loved then this world has grown in joy.

If just one person sponsors a child, visits a nursing home, or cheers up a sick person in a hospital then this world has increased in compassion.

If just one person acts out of integrity and respect for another person’s humanity, this world has developed in love.

If just one person plants a tree, picks up some rubbish off the ground, takes in a stray pet or recycles their household rubbish then this world has become a better place. If just one person feeds someone who is hungry, clothes one person who has no clothes... or..

If just one person helps at a homeless shelter or mission, or gives money to an aid organization…

Then this world has increased in love, in compassion and in strength.

God doesn't expect us to change the world alone.   He only asks us to brighten our own small corner of it…

We don’t have to be a Somaly Mam, or a Christina Noble or Mother Teresa. Nor can we be Hallie Geier or Lisa Shannon. We just have to be ourselves and effect a difference in our small corner of this world.

And we do this - whenever we choose  love, compassion, respect and integrity and share  it with everyone we meet –

One person at a time.

One step at a time, one act at a time…


You CAN change your world. You can make a difference.

When we do this THEN this world will be changed.

But it will only be changed one heart, one soul, one life at a time.

I ask you now - what are you going to do in your little corner of the world

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Cyndee

A Thousand Sisters: My Journey into the Worst Place on Earth to Be a Woman
No Greater Love
Bridge Across My Sorrows: The Christina Noble Story.
The Road of Lost Innocence: The True Story of a Cambodian Heroine