Too Excited To Sleep

Have you ever been so excited about something you couldn't get to sleep? That's where I'm at tonight. I learned that our assignment for the Dale Carnegie class next week is to give a speech on something we have a strong conviction about, but it has to be in a particular format and can only be two minutes. I'm thinking about this:

She's 16 years old. But sitting on the floor across form her, in her home in this remote village, I can't help but wonder that she isn't only 11 or 12. Maybe it was the sickness. She's fighting typhoid for the second time in her young life and is weak with a fever. But even this can not veil her radiant smile. Across the room from her is a 17 year old boy. His demeanor is different, and he has all the stoic toughness you might expect of a man that age. His threats are different too. Will he listen to the voices of violence that just a few weeks earlier forced the US embassy to close, that months earlier burned the businesses and homes of Chinese and Westerners and that a year earlier bombed a crowded nightclub in a city nearby? Or would he use the education he was receiving to provide for his future to the benefit of everyone in his community?

He faced some tough questions. So do we. Why not us? Why not here? Why not now? Why can't we be the ones that look into the face of poverty, that look into the face of sickness, that look into the face of violence, and say you will not take these lives from us! We will connect our greatest love with their greatest need.

And you know what? I see it in you. I hear it in your words of encouragement and the way you celebrate each other and rally behind each other and care for one another. And just a few weeks ago we were all strangers. But we're not the only ones who need this love and respect. So do they.

There are a thousand ways you can show it. I want to share just two. First, when you get home tonight, go to Compassion.com. For what you pay now each month for cable, you can provide a young child with all the food, clean water, clothing, shelter, education and most importantly, the hope and respect they need. Secondly, I want you to go to Kiva.org. There, for what you paid to fill up you car with gas this week, you can provide a business loan, not even a charitable donation but a business loan, to an entrepreneur in a developing nation. Recently I had the opportunity to help a dairy farmer in Azerbaijan to purchase an additional cow for his business, and it was as easy as buying a book from Amazon. Who wants to go into the agricultural industry with me?

We can do this. The need is great. But your love is even greater.