Friends and Family,
The Sudan DVD is done. It turned out great, and you guys were an awesome support system in the middle of creating it. Thank you. If you would like to see the final results of this project you co-labored on with me, feel free to order a copy at:
The link to order the DVD is on the left side of the page (Resurrected Hope DVD – Order now!). Also, please consider making a donation to this work in Sudan. The DVD will come with information on how to make a donation, but you also can give online at that same www.efca.org/sudan page, or by sending a check to the following address:
EFCA Compassion Ministries
Attn: Sudanese Repatriation
901 E. 78th Street
Minneapolis, MN 55420
There’s no requirement that you give of course, but it would seriously mean the world to me if you did. I had an Aunt that donated to the work in Sudan a little while ago. She doesn’t go to an Evangelical Free Church or have an affiliation with EFCA (other than knowing me). But she was touched by my e-mails, and wanted to support this cause that I believed in so strongly. Those moments are the reason I send out these updates.
I just had another one of those moments earlier today while I was in the middle of writing this e-mail. I got a note from a friend at the Bible Camp where I used to work, and she told me that a bunch of junior high students at the camp raised over $500 for Sudan last week after they watched my video. They raised so much money, they got to pie the camp cook twice! I flipped out. Hearing this stuff is so exciting, because it’s not just knowing that money is being given to a great cause, but it’s knowing that people are being impacted and challenged TO give as well. It’s not only changing the lives of the receivers, but the givers too.
So yes, all this to say, if you choose to give to this cause, and if let me know about it, you will get a very excited e-mail back from me, and you’ll seriously make my day. I think a big part of the reason I get so excited about this stuff is because of what Scripture says about giving, and caring for the oppressed. Check out what God says in Isaiah 58:
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.”
When I read these verses and so many others in the Bible, I am just filled with an overwhelming sense of, “How can I not give?” And when I realize not only how right and good it is to give and how much it pleases God, but also the incredible impact it has on the giver… When I realize all that, it just makes me so much more excited when I hear about a bunch of junior highers at a Bible camp getting together to raise $500 for Sudan….or a 9-year-old out in Nebraska who gave away all her birthday money to tsunami relief last year after she watched my tsunami video…or a group of 5 college students down in California I’ve heard of who started an orphanage for 200 kids in Uganda…or the Christian lady I met out in Indonesia who literally sold all of her possessions, gave to the poor, and then moved to the coast to serve the tsunami survivors.
I could go on and on. This is right. This is fulfilling. This pleases God. And it’s exciting to me.
So yes, if you feel like pouring out some love on Sudan in the form of finances, please do. And love every moment of it – enjoy it. There’s nothing in the world like giving. And if you feel like letting me know you gave, I will be very excited. But if you feel like keeping it to yourself, that’s cool too.
Again, feel free to order a copy of the DVD and prayerfully consider how you might give at www.efca.org/sudan.
-Dave
P.S. If you think of it this next week, please pray for EFCA’s national leadership conference from Tuesday to Friday, June 27-30. Jackson Olega, the president of the Evangelical Free Church of Sudan (and one of the main characters in my video), will be at the conference, meeting and interacting with over 1,000 EFCA church leaders from around the country. His presence and the relationships he’ll build with people has the potential to motivate many, many more EFCA pastors, leaders, and churches to get on board with the work in Sudan. So pray that will happen.
