The frontier of community leadership

As part of the famine village in Blackwood SA we have local businesses supporting our 40 hour famine fundraising this weekend. Each business runs their own expression of a party with a purpose from having staff gatherings to getting their customers involved. The most consistent and creative business for the 3rd year running has been Bank SA Blackwood. Read the pervious post or related tags to find out why we started the famine village and party with a purpose.

Branch manager, Irena was the first to get on board when I floated the concept with her in 2009. Her heart and passion for being involved in a community event and raising money and awareness for a good cause has positively infected her staff and customers. In the first year I helped her with some ideas and to set up a 40 hour famine display. This year the Bank SA staff have gone all out and I didn’t have to provide anything except encouragement.

Verity, Daniel & I with Irena and Sarah from Bank SA Blackwood at their 40 hour famine party with a purpose

My wife Verity and I dropped in this morning with our son Daniel to support Bank SA’s morning tea party (which runs all day) I was amazed at the atmosphere Irena and her staff had created. She made sure one staff member was at the door greeting people as they came in and directed them to the 40 hour famine display, the morning tea, offered them a tea or coffee and invited them to sit down, learn about the 40 hour famine and make a donation.

The atmosphere was fantastic with lots of food the staff had made laid out on a table surrounded by couches. Verity and I sat and talked with people but not just about the 40 hour famine. It was a fantastic opportunity for community pastoral care as people shared their stories and struggles. We felt like the community chaplains.

Bank SA had 40 hour famine donation boxes on the table and at the tellers. They had a fantastic display board talking about the global food crisis and how money from the 40 hour famine will help. Next to that board they had set up another display for Verity’s CD ‘Advocate’ that she launched last year. They had a CD player playing her CD in the branch throughout the day because they are songs of justice and awareness. They were even selling her CD!

This is a corporate business who has gone above and beyond the call. Some other corporates I visit in Blackwood shrug me off saying that as a corporation they are already committed to a charity. Bank SA, are also committed to other things, but the Blackwood branch, to their credit, have made room to be part of a community initiative. They have caught the vision that it’s not just about ticking the box and not just about charity, it’s about community and participating in something together.

Other corporate businesses in Blackwood supporting the 40 hour famine are Bendigo Bank, Flight Centre, Raine & Horne &  Commonwealth Bank. Some smaller businesses in Blackwood supporting the 40 hour famine this weekend are Foods from the Edge, Blackwood Fitness Centre, Belair Hotel & Blackwood landscaping. There have also been a number of schools and churches hosting events, running education programs and fundraising initiatives. Our community target is $100,000 and from what I’ve heard so far we are well on the way.

Tune into 891 ABC Radio at 6:50 tomorrow morning to hear me speak more about the famine village concept.

Shalom Mark

P.S. If you click on the link above for Verity Skye’s CD we’ll be donating some money from CD’s sold this weekend to the 40 hour famine

A silent tsunami we can stop

A couple of weeks ago a friend and colleague posted a facebook note responding to the growing crisis in East Africa. Adam challenged his 632 facebook friends to respond by giving at least $20 each. He figured if people used social media and the resources they have available in a simple way such as this he could raise over $12,500. I was the only one to respond to Adam’s note suggesting I would call on my 786 facebook friends to do the same. I gave my $20 to a ‘Horn of Africa’ appeal that Sunday.

It’s this kind of optimism that caused Adam and I to start the ‘Blackwood famine village’ back in 2009 and then ‘party with a purpose‘ in 2010 to support the 40 hour famine. Our aim was to educate and recruit. Both concepts took off well in their pilot year but this year both are struggling for momentum. We went from raising $63K in 2009 to $78K in 2010 as a community helping to feed hundreds of starving children for an entire year. I worry this year that we won’t get close to our previous targets.

We have some valid concerns in our communities in Australia, so many I can’t count. Yet to put it in perspective we are still incredibly blessed in Australia. We have seen our fair share of tragedies and when we do, we respond. I was a chaplain in the aftermath of the Vic bushfires and I saw how Australia rallied around affected communities. My sister and her family are living in Toowoomba experiencing the same Aussie spirit helping their neighbours recover from floods.

In the case of East Africa we haven’t seen images of a wave washing cities away or rumble from an earthquake but I have been hearing reports of more than 13 million people displaced. Directly affected countries include Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, Sudan. We know how hard the 10 year drought was in Australia, they’re experiencing a 60 year drought! It’s the tsunami we don’t see.

Our friend and mentor for famine village, World Vision CEO Tim Costello, is with World Vision on the border of Kenya and Somalia at the moment. He has witnessed a refugee camp built for 90,000 people currently housing 400,000. He says there is at least 1000 more arriving everyday waiting outside the camp and they still don’t have access to food or clean water. Tim spoke at our party with a purpose launch event in Blackwood a couple of weeks ago and he spoke about Australians becoming inward looking because of the global financial crisis and other global external pressures that cause us to retreat, look inward and only look out for ourselves. He encouraged us that what we are doing in Blackwood is reminding our community that together we can make a difference. Our famine concept not only encourages us to give generously to save lives but we build one another up. Our community issues become a shared load, we rise above our own problems and we gain some perspective and realize that 13 million starving people is an unacceptable number.

What really blows me away is we actually do have the resources in our world to alleviate this crisis significantly. What I struggle with is we don’t all seem to have the will or the same optimism as my friend Adam. We need to transform our doubt into the belief that we can join with Tim and the World Vision team and many other fantastic organizations doing their bit to make a dramatic change. The UN are asking for $2.2 billion to alleviate the crisis. That’s about $2 from every facebook user. We may think the problem is too big but if everyone did their little bit we could send Africa a message about how compassionate the world really is toward their plight.

This year the 40 hour famine in Australia is focusing attention on East Timor being our closest neighbouring country. 1 million children face starvation there. However with the growing crisis in Africa I have just received word that 40 hour famine money will also be directed to places such as the refugee camp on the border of Kenya and Somalia.

Please, please help me raise money for the 40 hour famine and consider sponsoring me at Mark’s 40 hour famine donation page Let’s stop this tsunami!

Please also consider giving to organizations meeting the crisis head on in Africa. There are many so I am just going to name the ones I’ve been following and giving to.

World Vision Aus

Global Mission Partners

Shalom

Mark

Travelling to Africa

In a few days I leave for South Africa and will be visiting Swaziland and Zimbabwe during my travel to a very unfamiliar part of the world to me.

It’s been some time since I blogged regularly and I’m not about to change habbit although I would love to. I have been busy with so much it’s hard to find the time and the will to sit in front of the computer and reflect in a blog.

However I type this one in the hope that there will be some blogs to come in the near furture. I imagine that spending 12 days in 3 African countries will do something to me, it will stir me and cause me to want to respond in a number of ways. This blog may serve as a tool for reflection and interaction with others as I continue the journey.

I leave on Sunday June 7th for 12 days. I will be spending most of my time with World Vision. For the first 5 days myself and 5 other Aussies (Wolrd Vision delegation) will be attending a conference in Johannesberg where we will be challenged, confronted and inspired by people such as Desmond Tutu and brian McLaren to name a few. On Friday after the conference we travel with Swaziland WV staff to visit some of the poorest communities in Swaziland dealing with disease, malnutrition and HIV/AIDS. We return to South Africa on Monday and on that day I will be flying to Zimbabwe with one of my Church of Christ colleagues (Craig Brown who is part of the World Vision trip with me) for 3 days. In Zimbabwe we will be looked after by international Churches of Christ President, BJ Mpofu. We will have an opportunity to see first hand the development work our Australian Churches of christ are contributing to.

12 days later I’ll be flying home wondering what just hit me. The day after I arrive back I’ll be back behind the pulpit of my church wondering what on earth to say after being released by them for 12 days to have an opportunity to develop within myself spiritually & theologically among many other things, and having the opportunity to explore more direct partnerships between our church community and struggling communities in these areas.

So in about the 4th week of June keep your eyes peeled for some of my reflections. I don’t think I will be bogging before that as I don’t expect to have the time or accessability to the internet.

Also stay tuned for an event I am organizing with World Vision and members of local churches called the ‘Blackwood global village 40hr Famine challenge’. My trip will certianly contribute developing our focus for this event. In shotr we (local churches of Blackwood) are hoping to work with local business and government to make the Blackwood shopping precinct a 40hr Famine zone to impact 50,000 people in our community by raising awareness of the global food crisis and raise $100,000 for Wiorld Vision to help combat the crisis. We will have a range of activities happening on the weekend of August 21-23 including a concert on the Saturday night.

As you can see plenty to look forward to over the next couple of month in this blog.

See you in a few weeks

Shalom
Mark