Did you know? Me either. Now we do.

• every 1 second a woman dies from complications in child birth
• every 5 seconds a child dies from hunger related complications
• every 15 seconds a child dies as a result of unclean drinking water
• every 30 seconds a child dies of malaria

"Fifteen thousand Africans are dying each day of preventable, treatable diseases-AIDS, malaria, TB-for lack of drugs that we take for granted. This statistic alone makes a fool of the idea many of us hold on to very tightly: the idea of equality. What is happening in Africa mocks our pieties, doubts our concern and questions our commitment to the whole concept. Because if we're honest, there's no way we could conclude that such mass death day after day would ever be allowed to happen anywhere else. Certainly not North America, Europe or Japan. An entire continent bursting into flames? Deep down, if we really accept that their lives-African lives-are equal to ours, we would all be doing more to put the fire out. It's an uncomfortable truth." -taken from: The hole in our gospel.

This part of the book impacted me because a young couple in our church has a baby that has been diagnosed with a fatal disease and I have been so sick about it. I have woken up at night praying for them as my heart aches to consider their pain. It's so much easier to identify with one child as opposed to 26,000 children who die every day (every day?) in African countries.

"Don't fail to do something just because you can't do everything." Bob Pierce

Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless;
maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Psalm 82:3