Causes I Care About

"No, this is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people. Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help." Isaiah 58:6,7

I stumbled across some definitions recently that made me stop and think twice. Thought I'd share them with you in case you're due for some thinking.

• Stewardship is the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one's care.

• Compassion is not sentiment but is making justice and doing works of mercy.

I've never considered myself a very compassionate person, but this is a definition I can work with. Using this view of stewardship as a filter while making purchasing decisions can help us manage the resources God has blessed us with to contribute to justice and mercy. Here are a few of my favorites if you're looking for a great opportunity to be responsible with the resources entrusted to you:

SOZO International - Recently in a refugee camp in Barek Aub, Afghanistan inflation increased the cost of feeding the people from $30,000/month to $60,000. Consequently, many are currently starving. It costs only $94 to feed a a family of seven for a month.

Compassion International is well-known for its outstanding global child sponsorship program. But recently I learned of their AIDS Initiative through a heart-wrenching book called Red Letters. Every 14 seconds a child is orphaned by AIDS...

Christian Veterinary Missions - Nearest and dearest to my heart, this organization is empowering veterinarians to live out their Christian faith by serving others through their profession.

Samaritan's Purse is more than just Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes, a relief organization that is often first on the scene around the world in disaster situations.

"When a poor person dies of hunger, it has not happened because God did not take care of him or her. It has happened because neither you nor I wanted to give that person what he or she needed. We have refused to be instruments of love in the hands of God to give the poor a piece of bread, to offer them a dress with which to ward off cold. It has happened because we did not recognize Christ when, once more, he appeared under the guise of pain, identified with a man numb from the cold, dying of hunger, when he came in a lonely human being, in a lost child in search of a home." -Mother Teresa, Red Letters