3 Causes For the Long Term

Posted on 02/25/2010 by Benji Zimmerman Posted in Honesty, Other | Leave a comment

On Tuesday I posted about the 3 causes I believe everyone should get involved in: community, church, passion. Yesterday I posted about 3 causes that need our help immediately: Village of Hope Uganda, A Home in Haiti, and Verve. But if you are anything like me, and I am guessing that a few of you are, the vast amount of organizations available out there to support leads me wondering if I am supporting the best thing for a particular injustice. I want the best bang for my buck. How do I figure out who is the best and how to partner with them?

Here are 3 simple things I try to do when evaluating a cause I want to support:

Does the cause meet a need in the world in line with my passion?
How long has the organization been around, who is running it and what is their track record?
Does it build up the local church?

Simple questions, but easy ones to find out. Research a cause! I am sick of religious organizations scamming people out of money and making financial profit rather than followers of Jesus. Take your time when diving into supporting a cause for the long term, make sure that they line up with what you believe and what you value. A few years ago I was getting ready to support a particular organization only to find out that they were not willing to partner with local churches in a particular country, they only wanted to make their organization more famous, for me that was enough to pull the plug on donating.

I, like many of you are swamp with things to do so I have compiled a short list of 3 organizations that I personally want to support. Currently my wife and I do not have the funds to do so, but as monies come available these will be the causes that get our financial support, because they already have our prayer support:

Compassion International. I can’t wait to sponsor a child through Compassion. I just know that initially I have the money to do so, but I want to make sure I have the money for the next few years so that we aren’t just one time givers but lifetime investors.

blood:water mission. What seems like a millennium ago, I worked in East Africa building a primary school. The workers and villagers would walk miles into town to get clean water. A few years later I went on a month long trip to Southern Africa and saw the devastation caused by HIV/AIDS. Deep inside my calloused heart there is a passion for people to have clean water and be saved from HIV/AIDS. I can’t wait to partner with blood:water mission to make a difference on the only other continent I called home.

Three Square. Locally I really want to start partnering with Three Square, an organization that works in the Las Vegas Valley to feed underprivileged families as well as the homeless of our community. I am making excuses, but I still haven’t found a time that works to regularly volunteer, but I really want to make this happen soon.

Simple. Intentional. Outreaching.

Changing the world takes a plan. What is yours?

Social Injustice

Posted on 02/22/2010 by Benji Zimmerman Posted in Honesty, Other | 1 Comment

Social injustice is more than the buzzword of the 21st century. Social injustice is more than just becoming a fan of a cause on Facebook. Social injustice is real and it is happening every single second of every single day. Millions are dying from HIV/Aids, millions are dying from a lack of clean water and millions more are being sold into sex-trafficking.

Every single second of every single day there is more pain and heartache around the world than we will experience in a whole lifetime. It is hard to understand, let alone comprehend the pain the world goes through every second of every day.

I was listening to a sermon recently by Tim Rotman a pastor in Vriesland Michigan. He was teaching from Richard Stearns book, A Hole in Our Gospel. During the sermon Pastor Tim mentioned that 25,000 children die everyday from preventable causes. Tim thought that number seemed really HIGH so he dug deeper. . . To be honest, I don’t like what he found. Every single day 25,000 thousand children UNDER THE AGE OF 5 die from PREVENTABLE causes.

Oh dang. Seems overwhelming doesn’t it?

A hundred thoughts race through my brain: “I can’t pay my own bills, feed my own family and survive in this (spoiled) economy we live in, how am I going to make a difference in the world?”

Truth be told I want to make a difference in the world. But how?

This week I am going to post about different causes that are worth your time and immediate investment. I am not talking about just becoming a friend on Facebook, but really getting involved, leading out and calling others to action. The posts will be set-up like this:

Tuesday: 3 causes worth supporting right now and I how I do that

Wednesday: 3 causes I want to support in the near future and what you can do to support them now

Thursday: 3 causes I hope to support in the long term and when I plan on doing that

Friday: Recap

What is my goal? My goal is to challenge, to inspire, to encourage and to maybe help you take a step towards making a difference in the world. Because no matter who we are or what we have been through there is always someone who needs our help, our time and our financial assistance. You can make a difference and it doesn’t require an empty bank account.

Broken Hearted

Posted on 07/12/2009 by Benji Zimmerman Posted in Other | Leave a comment

What does your heart break for?

A few days ago I posted this on Facebook and I gathered a few response . . .

Lack of tolerance
Human trafficking
People who don’t know Jesus as their savior
Thirsty people who can’t get clean water
Little kids born into terrible situations
Loss of a loved one
Others that are hurting
The elderly
Abused, neglected & starving children

I think that deep down inside of all of us there is something that stirs something in our soul that says, “That is just wrong!” I know at numerous times my heart have broken for the atrocities of this world. Hungry children, unclean water, sex-slavery, genocide, civil wars, human slavery, death, or disease; you name the injustice and there is someone out there whose heart breaks for that particular cause. So what does your heart break for?

But beyond that, I think the better question is: what are you doing about it?

The people that posted the previous list on my Facebook people that are doing something about the things that they care about. But the question is not whether they are moved to action, but whether you and I are? I hate apathy. But yet it bleeds out of me. I spend my time doing what I want: reading, blogging, running, working, and out with my wife. My actions represent my heart.

Over the years there have been plenty of things that have broken my heart, but my actions have done very little about it. I am tired of being apathetic. I desperately want to make a difference in the world.

My wife and I are venturing into the world of developing a non-profit that fights drunk driving by providing free rides home to bar patrons. Making a difference in the world requires small steps of action. This is my wife and I moving from apathy to action.

How about you? What breaks your heart? What are you doing about it?