UPFRONT February 11, 2008 Issue

Reasons to care

WARREN BOLON, SENIOR WRITER

Thank you, Betty, Jeremy, Daniel, and Judith. Thank you for caring beyond your own borders. But even more, your contributions in this week's issue show why praying for those in danger is instinctive, needful, effective. I think something deep within human nature impels even those with no connection to events on the other side of the world to respond with spiritual and humanitarian aid.

In writing about her son, who is a journalist currently reporting from Kenya, Judith Mojon quotes the prophet Jeremiah, who heard God say, "I will put my law in their inward parts." She reminds me that no one's inner places are untouched by the laws of divine Love—those still little-understood laws that connect all beings to the one Supreme Being, that hold everyone in right relationship with each other, that awaken humanity to the underlying order and calm of Immanuel or "God with us" all.

Betty Jenks reminds me that peace isn't the occasional absence of conflict; it's an element of God's nature and belongs to His universal creation. Betty has traveled extensively in equatorial Africa, and stays in close touch with people there. Jeremy Carper worked and lived in countries lying south and north of Kenya, and as you'll read, he knows what it's like to pray on your feet when social unrest strikes a country. And as a Kenyan who runs a school in Suna-Migori, Daniel Okello witnessed some of the post-election violence. He's convinced, though, that "spiritual thinking is the only impetus in healing nations during a crisis."

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