Book website: www.misfitchristian.com

Book website (with downloads): www.misfitchristian.com
Or buy the paperback version at the CreateSpace eStore
or Amazon.com.
Buy the Kindle version here or the Nook version here.
Seen someone being a God-blessing in some previously-unblessed place? Let us know...write-ins welcome! email: jc (at) misfitchristian (dot) com

You can also follow this blog on Facebook and the Amazon author page.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Do it Yourself Ministry

Another excellent column, "The DIY Foreign-Aid Revolution," from Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times, this one from last fall on DIY doing-good-things. (What I call ministry, God showing up in the world doing good stuff with or without the crdit.)

If you see a cause that needs a champion, go do something. No one will stop you. (Some might try, many from good but misguided intentions.) If someone says, "What you're doing is too small to matter," tell them the starfish story.

***

A man was walking along the beach where thousands of starfish were stranded overnight. He'd walk a few steps, pick one up, toss it in the ocean, walk a few more steps, pick up another one, and so on. Along came another man, who watched this for a while. He said, "You must be crazy; there are a million starfish on this beach, and you can't make a difference here."

The first man stooped over, picked up another, tossed it into the surf, and replied, "Made a difference to that one."

***

Kristof followed it up with some practical details about setting up your own NGO, 501(c)(3), or whatever, on his blog, here.

Thank God for a NYT columnist with a heart! And for those people who just can't walk past one more starfish without acting.
.