In the fall of 2002…A group of students began to dream of doing something big to change the world and to change our campus…responding to unprecedented need and the strong likelihood not to do so as people of evangelical faith…over 40 million people infected, over 6000 people dying every day, and 15 million orphans just on one continent and we were some of the most likely people on the planet to care and get personally involved…AIDS wasn’t nearby, socially or spiritually acceptable, familiar to us, easy to talk about, something people initially wanted to do something about, or a short term deal…
*Our little campus of just over 500 high school kids began to understand that they could and eventually had to respond… you see, it was simply the right thing to do… One student wrote, “For if we don't do something I believe that we will be held accountable for the lives that we could have saved but instead stared blindly at”...the very God who had given us life wanted that for every person in the world…and this world was not supposed to look like it looked in sub-Saharan Africa…we had an opportunity to be part of bringing health and hope and a future to a community where many if not most people lived on less than $1 per day and 1 out of every 4 people was living with a horrible disease that was wiping out an entire generation before they reached 40 years of age…and we even heard and were moved by the words of a rock star prophet named BONO who blew into our world and our conservative Midwest city, saying things like this…
“Beating AIDS and extreme poverty, this is our moon shot. This is our generation's civil rights struggle, our anti-apartheid movement. This is what the history books will remember our generation for--or blame us for, if we fail. We can't afford to fail. We've come quite a way, but we've got a long way to go. We can’t say our generation didn’t know how to do it. We can’t say our generation couldn’t afford to do it. And we can’t say our generation didn’t have reason to do it. It’s up to us. We can choose to shift the responsibility, or we can choose to shift the paradigm. Now let's get started.”
And here we are almost 5 years later tonight in Dallas…and a little high school in the suburbs of Chicago has given almost half a million dollars to fight AIDS in the nation of Zambia…something pretty special has happened as we have given students permission and freedom to do something outside of themselves…we unleashed their remarkable creativity and passion…and the creation of well over a hundred student led fundraisers on our campus and in our community have enabled a new schoolhouse, long-term food supplies and security, homes, clean water wells, outstanding medical facilities, caregiver kits for AIDS community workers, thousands of soccer balls, church community centers for spiritual care and needs, and the sponsorship of many children in Kakolo Village to become the answer to the prayers of a community with whom we have a relationship where we care deeply for each other despite being thousands of miles and worlds apart…
And perhaps most significant is the impact on the lives of Zambians and our own lives…kids like Maggie, Lloyd, Ganye who will live a life so different than the one lived by their parents, pregnant girls and moms won’t repeat Mavis’ story…and we are seeing a generation of students committed to serving the needs of the poor around the world rise up and make a difference…young leaders who have discovered that there’s more to life than ipods and mtv and Abercrombie and the AMC theater…
And after being involved for several years with this pandemic and getting to see what AIDS is doing first hand in Africa, our vision for the future isn’t getting tired or stale, but rather expanding…we desperately want 1000 schools to join us in responding specifically to the AIDS pandemic and all the issues connected to it in Africa…it seems like an impossible dream, just as raising $53,000 to build a three room schoolhouse once did…and yet we can’t stop thinking what an explosive impact that would create as little campus projects pop up across the country…We’ve stopped asking God to bless what we're doing…Instead, we’ve decided to get involved in what God is doing—because it's already blessed…and our faith and the need compels us to be philanthropists who help bring good and beauty and grace to those in the most desperate need like our Savior did over 2000 years ago…
FINAL QUOTE FROM A STUDENT WHO IS HERE TONIGHT…
“There are hurting faces all over the world; so many people living in such dire need. I have looked into their eyes, and heard their cries for help. And as those voices echo in the shadows of my mind, there is nothing I want to do more than reach out and help. I look around at my life, and I know I have been blessed. However, I have not been blessed to make my own life more comfortable. I have been given so much so that I can give away much. We have been blessed so we might bless others. There is an indescribable joy in sacrificing your blessings to help others. It is not until you dive headfirst into this ocean of opportunity that you will completely experience this kind of amazing joy.” LAUREN TOMASIK
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