Life and Justice Conference

What Can One Person Do?

As people are reading about resurgence of attacks and slave raids in Darfur—3,000 Janjaweed invaded Abyei on the fourth of July—many are asking me, “What can I do?”

For people aflame with God’s love, compassion, and righteous indignation at the mass rape, slavery and massacres that comprises daily life in Sudan, we simply cannot do nothing. Oppression and injustice of the least of these demands a response from God’s people.

Still, if you’re not only aflame, but also employed in the fulltime business of a daily job and raising a family, discovering your own personal response may be a challenge. Let me encourage you; there is one.

I want to introduce you to a few people who have allowed God to show them how to be responsible to their daily demands, and still effectively rage against oppression – finding their personal role in ushering in God’s Kingdom.

Meet Pam, from Australia:

Pam is a children’s pastor for her church along with many demands at home. Yet, a few years ago she met several Sudanese Lost Boys who had immigrated to Australia, and she just could not forget their stories.

When Pam discovered Make Way Partners, she started going to Sudan on mission trips with us. But Pam has never let her mission trip end at the airport. Instead, when Pam returns home, she tells everyone she meets about what she learned, hoping they will feel—and respond–to God’s tears, too.  She finds grant opportunities, and submits requests to them for funding for our orphans. Once or twice a year she hosts a fun awareness event and challenges others to open their hearts to those who suffer.

This one woman let her broken heart transform her life in such a way that she has become an integral part of saving and caring for orphans who much of the world seems to have forgotten – all while she keeps her “day job”.

Meet the Floyds:

Several years ago I was standing in front of a counter at a local guitar haunt. When my turn came, I asked for a dozen packets of guitar strings. The owner of the store said, “You must be headed back to Sudan.”

A young mother standing beside me with her teenage children said, “Sudan! I just read an article in the Birmingham News about a woman who…oh my gosh! You’re that woman, aren’t you?” The mother’s name is Gini. God had already broken Gini’s heart for the broken women and children of Sudan, but she hadn’t known what to do about it. God led her to Make Way Partners, and Gini began seeking ways to involve her husband, children, parents, friends, and church.

Sometimes it’s as simple as helping to field questions or hand out brochures at a conference, but Gini is up for whatever door God opens that allows her to charge—with her family—to the forefront of justice for the forgotten children of this world.

Then, of course, there’s Matt:

Matt had a very fulfilling “day job” but after going to Sudan, God just gripped his heart so tightly Matt wanted to spend his whole life serving the oppressed.

After a long process of discernment, Matt became the Make Way Partners Mission Team Leader. Now, he not only serves the oppressed, but when stateside, helps to mobilize the Body of Christ in the same way. Sonda, his wife, is going with him to Romania next month, and their two little girls (both under five) are being formed daily by an ever expanding radical Kingdom vision flowing through their parents. His life, his family, his church, his community, and those he helps in Sudan, Romania, and the Congo will never be the same.

Whether you’re struggling with a fulltime call to missions, want to cull a few hours a week or month to volunteer, or host a one-time dinner to pray and encourage others to get involved, you can get started and mobilized.

Together, we can save a life, protect a child, usher in the Kingdom of God.

Love, your sister along the journey,

Kimberly Smith

Make Way Partners