Darfur Awareness Week

The Save Darfur Coalition has declared this week "Global Days for Darfur," a week to raise awareness of the humanitarian crisis in Sudan. This post is my little way of participating. Despite international pressure, the government of Sudan has been performing and supporting ethnic and religious cleansing in the southern province of Darfur. Over 400,000 people have been killed in the last three years. We read so many statistics that it's easy to gloss over them, so I'll say it again: over 400,000 people have been murdered in the last three years! Millions more have lost their homes and are completely reliant on foreign humanitarian aid. Thousands of women have been raped. A peace agreement was reached last winter that was supposed to help. But the government of Sudan is not keeping up its end of the deal, and conditions are getting very dangerous for humanitarian groups.

There are a lot of things you can do. If you have a blog, you can post like me and help to raise awareness. You can join the Save Darfur Coalition and help with advocacy. This effort incorporates regular people from across the political and religious spectrum who just don't want to stand by any more. Their TV ad may have made you cry and their petitions have been getting the attention of Congress. You can support the humanitarian work of Mercy Corps for free via The Hunger Site. Or if you'd like to aid the persecuted Christian Church, you can support The Voice of the Martyrs. Last, but certainly not least, you can pray. It's going to take a God-sized solution to deal with such a huge, evil problem.

Goose, Anyone?

The good old Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is at it again. This is the music industry lobby group that is boldly continuing it's crusade to kill the goose that laid the golden egg. Their latest target: they've co-opted Congress to pass a law requiring new, higher royalties be paid by internet radio stations. I'm all for artists being paid for their work, but this is a clear-cut case of blind greed. If they were just applying the standards for regular radio stations to internet radio, I might consider it foolish, but understandable. But the new rules would have web stations paying more than terrestrial broadcasters, and the rates are so high that many analysts are predicting it will bankrupt most, if not all, streaming services. This goes well beyond stupid into just plain wrong. Think about it: with the system the way it is, millions of people can listen online and discover new music. Under current regulations, industry gets paid a little bit for the broadcasts, but they get tons of free advertising. When the new rates drive Pandora, Live 365, and others out of business, the industry gets paid nothing. Period. Since I've started listening to internet radio, I've bought three CDs purely because I heard them online and nowhere else. I bought about he same number of CDs because I heard the artists on the regular radio. If RIAA wants to cash in on the internet radio phenomenon via gouging, their only going to end up killing half of their promotional pipeline. You'd think that a group so interested in golden eggs would like to keep the goose around.

Any Volunteers???

So my second post on this brand new blog is going to be little more than a rant. Hopefully, I won't come across a very angry person. Here goes nothing . . . Where the heck are all the volunteers???

Ok, so I signed up to maybe assist in a Spanish class and somehow I find myself in charge and being the only teacher. "How did this happen?" you may ask. Well I'll tell you . . . I don't know.

One minute I'm getting contacted to take part in an initial volunteer meeting about the possibility of maybe having a beginner Spanish class at church, and the next thing I know, I'm putting together a bulletin announcement with my name and home phone number as the sole contact. And I find myself asking the question in vain, "Any volunteers?". And I wait, and wait.

A single, solitary email. I answer, eagerly. No response. A phone call. A call back to him. Good, good, he's interested in helping. Not teaching the class, mind you, but helping. Well, it's a start . . . And then . . . it all goes to pot. You see, the one person who was interested in helping is unable to attend any of the meetings.

Meanwhile, the pastor is holding onto me (and Dear Hubby, who also got sucked into this--it's a wonderful opportunity to minister as a couple, you know) for dear life.

You see, I am his lifeline. Apparently in this church of nearly 5000 regular attenders, this lack of volunteerism is a common occurrence. What?!??! Oh yes, he frequently only has one or two volunteers rise to the occasion.

See people in our church (as is the case, I'm told, in most churches, regardless of size) don't like to "step up". When it comes right down to it, they want to sit back, hear a sermon once a week, maybe do a good deed once in awhile outside of church, and show up for whatever sort of helpful class or seminar may be held. They don't seem to want to volunteer. No rolling up the sleeves and getting dirty, metaphorically. When it comes to literal dirtying of the person, as in construction or cleanup, they actually are quite good. We always have a huge turnout for those sorts of outreaches. Those are the easy ones. Take one Saturday afternoon, score a few points for heaven, store up a little treasure and all that. But when it comes to investing long term, there is a woeful lacking.

Every few months or so, there is a desperate cry for help from the Children's ministry that they need more volunteers. They are having to turn people away. The youth ministry, also, frequently looks for leaders to step up. Covenant Groups are open and remain unfilled because a large part of the church isn't involved in a small group.

Now I completely understand the desire for anonymity. I myself was not involved in a small group or other ministry for several years. I totally get that. There's the whole time factor, everyone's busy, blah blah blah. I get it. What I don't get is how people don't understand the whole lots-of-little-ants-working-together-can-carry-a-big-log thing. It shouldn't be like pulling teeth to get people to use their gifts. It shouldn't be up to a few people who are giving their time and energy to serve the vast mass of people who are always taking and never giving back.

How did I find myself in charge of a 10 week Spanish class that I never intended to do more than assist with? What's the point of all this? Not much more than a rant, but thanks for listening.

So be motivated. Come on, ants . . . we've got a log to move!