Fighting for Freedom

At the prayer walk I mentioned in my post on Canada Day, we had a time of sharing and discussion. When I commented on the part about being thankful for living in a land that is free, my mother-in-law related how she'd seen a bumper sticker in the United States that said something to the effect of "Live free or die". I've likely misquoted that...but the essential idea was that the people of that state would rather die than live under someone else's boot.

We discussed how many people globally live under someone else's boot, do not live free. So I challenged the group assembled there that day to fight for someone else's freedom, seeing as we are currently lacking in freedoms to fight for in Canada (oh, I know, there's likely some marginalized group who wants more freedom, but let's get real - if you get fliers delivered to your home advertising food, you're in a wealthy nation). This challenge was to be done over the Gathering's sabbatical month, so when we reconvene in August it will be interesting to see what has been accomplished.

I thought I'd report on the ways I've been seeking to fight for others' freedoms; first, I started riding my bike to work (there's a delay on that due to a bent bike frame requiring a replacement bike) which is a way of fighting for better use of fossil fuels, which is linked to injustice in the world. Second, Jenica and I started sponsoring a child through Compassion International. His name is Ridel William Samuel Sampouw and he's from East Indonesia. He was born in 1997, so he's already 9 years old, which is a helluva long time to be without a sponsor. I was going to go the route of picking someone little and cute, but then I saw you can choose to have Compassion pick the person for you, which ultimately results in you getting someone on a waiting list.

There are a multitude of ways to fight for another person's freedom. I recommend you try one. Nearly every organization that seeks to make the world a better place can take your money online. So it's all just a click away. Here's a link to Compassion Canada or Compassion US to get you started. Then you can be just like Superman, and help save the world.