by Aaron Graham 02-26-2009

It’s 8 p.m. and I’m exhausted.

My six-month-old boy finally stopped crying and fell asleep …

I’ve been in meetings and on the phone all day trying to convince people they should come to the Mobilization to End Poverty.

I’m now on the phone again with a friend from West Virginia trying to communicate the urgency of the times and hoping he will bring a group with him in April.

I’m beginning to wonder, is all this organizing worth it? Is what I’m doing making a difference? Is it really worth it to keep working late?

As I doubt myself, I see police lights and cars begin to get detoured down our little street.

I grab my coat and stroll to the corner to see what’s happening.

My wife Amy had just received the following e-mail from the neighborhood police blog:

At about 1800 hours a group of males became involved in a fight at Georgia Avenue and Gresham Street, N.W. One of the subjects sustained wounds that needed urgent medical care. The victim was transported to an area hospital where he died as a result of his injuries.

I stand in the middle of a murder scene 30 steps from my house. Police tape is everywhere and few people are on the scene now. There is an eerie silence.

Tears start to fill my eyes as I begin to pray fervently. I didn’t know what to pray, but I felt that I was in the midst of a deep spiritual struggle.

I began to scream inside: Someone just got murdered! A life was just stolen prematurely. DOES ANYONE CARE??? Did anyone other than the cops notice?

I sit down on the curb as the police lights continue to flash around me. I’m living in the richest country in the world. I’m two miles north of the Capitol and two miles north of the White House … two of the most powerful institutions in the world. Our Sojourners offices are just down the road in the same neighborhood.

This murder happened in the midst of such wealth, power, and faith.

But nobody seems to care. This kind of stuff has become acceptable. It’s become normal for teenagers to get murdered and for no one to care.

There are so many institutions set up in D.C. whose mission is to help prevent kids like this from being murdered: the schools, the family, the courts, the police, the faith community, the president, the Congress, the mayor, and social services … yet somehow we all failed.

I’m convinced now more than ever that we won’t end poverty or end the violence on our streets unless and until we get a breakthrough from Heaven.

Yes, Congress and the new administration have important roles to play, and we will all press them hard come April at the Mobilization to fulfill their promises to cut poverty in half.

But even more so I believe we need to come to Washington this April to pray. As it says in 2 Chronicles 7:14:

“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Lord hear our prayers.

Aaron Graham is the National Field Organizer and Justice Revivals Coordinator for Sojourners.

by Teddy Warria 02-24-2009

I am the tenth of 17 children from a polygamous East African family. I hail from the village of Kamnwa in western Kenya, near the shores of Lake Victoria, and grew up in Nairobi City. I attended the elite Lenana School (formerly Duke of York School) where my spiritual formation took hold in the school’s Anglican Church tradition run chapel. While at Lenana School, I was an active member of the school chapel, first because it was a safe haven from bullies, than out of habit of a faithful Christian walk. While there, I was most fortunate to have two older boys, Simon Njoe and Charles Mirikau give us Bible studies and help us memorize numerous Bible verses. These hidden words became a treasure in times of family tragedy after losing my devoted dad at an early age, which was to be the first of many personal losses to follow.

After the loss of my dad 12 years ago, I began experiencing firsthand the financial and societal hardships single parent families encounter. My dad was our sole bread-winner, and his passing both interrupted our schooling and lifestyle. At these moments, my beloved mum would pray ceaselessly to God to protect, provide, and guide her children. The more she prayed the more I worked hard smiling. Regrettably, she passed away six years ago from a preventable and treatable disease in a region plagued by the burden of malaria and other neglected tropical diseases in a very poorly functioning public health system. I experienced this burden at a personal level after losing six family members and succumbing to a serious case of malaria myself. It is for these reasons that I created New Horizons Initiative whose vision is to empower, inspire, and enrich Kenyans, and to optimize their capacity to serve humanity through achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

In order for partnerships to function smoothly in a globalized world, it’s integral that we not only understand the cultures and histories of our cross-continental ancestors and neighbors, but encourage development on their behalf. It is through this collective fashion that we may rejoice in their success and build partnerships that aim at achieving human development. In order to do this I am helping create Common Vocabulary: Shared Understanding for Global Health with the collaboration of Drs. Jeffrey and Sonia Sachs and The Earth Institute at Columbia University. This project will create the language and tools to mobilize global citizens to end extreme poverty and environmental degradation. It will help people, especially students, begin to make sense of how interconnected our world systems are and help everyone begin to take responsibility. It includes a layperson’s guidebook to global health and workshops to deliver these ideas to students and community leaders.

In April, I will attend The Mobilization to End Poverty. I look forward to hearing Dr. Jeffrey Sachs share with attendees about how we can work collectively to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

Teddy Warria is founder of the New Horizons Initiative, Inc. and The Common Vocabulary project. He is the recipient of the Community Leaders Scholarship at The Mobilization to End Poverty.

by Lisa Sharon Harper 02-24-2009

Advocating for the poor is crucial in this time of recession, but maybe you’re a little nervous about actually walking into your member of Congress’ office, even after the great training you can get in preparation for the Mobilization to End Poverty’s Capitol Hill Day this April. But, as New York Faith and Justice director Lisa Sharon Harper told Sojourners in a recent phone interview, walking through that door can actually lead to a whole world of being welcomed and making a difference. -The Editors

New York Faith & Justice has been going for two years. And we started as four strangers who met on Capitol Hill, at a Sojourners conference, at Pentecost 2006, in Charles Rangel’s office. We were kind of thrown together that day to do lobby day — and we just were fascinated that our legislative representatives actually want to hear from us!

We were flabbergasted by that — none of us had ever done lobbying before. And we realized, “Wow, we’re a key part in the way things work, and if they don’t hear from us, then they’re left to their own devices to form policy that’s going to affect us!” When we left our senators’ office and our congressman’s office, again and again they just kept giving us their cards, [saying,] “Please contact us, we really want to hear from you, keep in touch.” The legislative director for Rep. Rangel remembered us the next year when we came back.

It was just so amazing to see how crucial hearing from the constituent is to the legislative process. That’s something that we — most of us had roots in the evangelical world — just didn’t know. So over lunch that day, we said, “You know, we really should keep this going, or start something like this in New York City; why just keep this in D.C.?” That’s actually how we began.

Lisa Sharon Harper is the executive director of New York Faith & Justice and author of Evangelical Does Not Equal Republican … or Democrat. Sojourners spoke with her recently by phone. Visit www.sojo.net/mobilization to learn more about and sign up for the Mobilization to End Poverty, which will happen April 26-29 in Washington, D.C. Immediately after the Mobilization, Lisa will be presenting a special bonus training on “organizing a city-wide faith and justice network.”