Doing something for someone else

As I'm preparing for my trip I can't help but wonder why and how Africa is the way it is. It is an absolutely beautiful country and the culture is unbelievable but what happened along the way to bring the country to poverty, orphans, AIDS and war? I'm taking an International Environmental class and I've been reading about how we as humans destroy the environment due to technology, overpopulation, over use age of our natural resources...the list can go on and on. It wasn't until I was reading Collapse by Jared Diamond and in talking with my friend Katie that I realized maybe it is the other way around. Maybe the environment influences human behavior. I think about Liberia and how the country has been torn apart by civil war and how that left the country with an unemployment rate of 85% (and that is generous) and that left Liberia as the third poorest country in the world. The people of Liberia do not trust anyone...not even their own people. What country would want to invest in a Liberia when it is unstable? The only reason another country would invest in Liberia honestly is for its natural resources. Then once those are depleted then they will pull out and Liberia will be back at square one.

I have spent many hours thinking and talking with my dad about what needs to happen to bring hope and life back into Liberia. Most of us would think - structured government, education, health care....that's what I thought until last week when I went to church with my dad. The pastor just got back from Liberia as he adopted 2 beautiful twin girls he was saying how he was thinking about what needs to be done in Liberia and he thought the same ideas..government, education, health care, etc. however all of those ideas were previously done. Liberia's government was modeled after the United State's government, a university was built and modeled after the schools in the US....so what needs to happen how? What Liberia needs now is prayer. He said how when you hear the cry of others how we need to respond. Does that mean that you have to go adopt or travel over there? No you don't need to do that but we as a nation need to do something....support a child, send supplies that are needed, pray for those who live in Liberia or support people going on mission trips. I encourage you to help out in any way possible. We are all in this together....look outside yourself and do something for someone else.

I heard this quote and it says "You will be blessed when you give to one knowing that will never be able to repay you".