Here's a piece I wrote last year...and it rings even more true for me with a couple hours to go before our soccer match begins here at CU...I shared this with our team yesterday...and here it is again on my blog...I write it with joy and gratitude in my heart...
I can’t wait to see friends in Zambia sometime soon again…and tell them a little story about how students over and over in Grand Rapids, MI have responded to Jesus’ call in an event called Night of Nets, and then watch them sing and dance and whoop with joy as they receive a net that ends malaria in their house…
Today we host my favorite event
in the Cornerstone campus calendar. We call it night of nets...and it combines
two of my greatest passions in life: the beautiful game called soccer or futbal
and the people and communities of a sub-Saharan African nation called Zambia...
This is the 5th year we've done
this event at CU and it is now one of our best attended and embraced student
activities...the event is designed to use the platform of athletics in our
culture to bring awareness and real change to one of the world’s greatest
global issues. We are trying to raise
funds to provide insecticide treated bed nets for families that face incredible
health dangers caused by the deadly disease malaria.
We've watched this event grow
quickly in the amount of money we've raised, the attention given to the issue
on our campus, the number of students involved, and now this year has been
exported to other university and high school sports and teams to expand the
impact of these truly life changing items...
To be honest, this little idea I
shared first with a few CU soccer players in an impoverished community in the
Dominican Republic has morphed into something I hoped and dreamed it could
be...and with that growth has demanded more of my time, my resources, my
thinking, and my skills as a leader and educator...
And this thing we dubbed night of
nets keeps perhaps most importantly grabbing a deeper and fuller grasp of my
heart...I am quite sure that many of my co-workers, friends, students, players,
and family members wonder at times why I tweet so often about malaria, create
& post a multitude of different visual pieces of promotion about NETS on
our campus walls and doors, and cast vision almost hourly in classrooms,
leadership trainings, staff meetings, soccer fields, and conversations in my
office about the chance we have right now to change lives forever on the other
side of the world...
So as we head into our final fall
night of nets match for this year on the CU campus, here's a little list and
explanation for why I am all in on this event, why I think it is one of the
most important things we will do as a Christian college during the 2014-15
school year, and why it causes my heart to jump and my voice to speak loud as I
join so many other people to try and end malaria in our generation...
1. I can't
think of anything more ready to be used to invite large numbers of people in my
world to do great good than the power of sport...soccer is our world’s global
game and there’s something so special to connect as people and friends through
a game we love to watch and play…and we have watched athletes, coaches, and
fans embrace with gusto their chance to make sports something beautiful and
brilliant as a tool to draw many together to both watch and do something
extraordinary on and off the field of play…
2. I love
the way God has given a ragamuffin group of young men a cause that unites them
and allows them to come together to do something that others would never expect
them to do...the driving force in night of nets has been a large crew of male
college soccer players who have thrown off their selfish and entitled mindsets
to be remarkable advocates for a people often forgotten and marginalized in our
world…and their involvement badgering and cajoling fellow students to buy a
Night of Nets shirt or fund a bed net has caused them to eventually end up in Africa
where God changes them into people they could have never imagined they would
become…
3. The scope
of the issue is so massive that it demands an immediate and real
response...malaria is an awful disease that affects hundreds of millions of
lives...and as Rick Warren has said the greatest issues in our world do indeed
respond the greatest responses...when you end malaria, you impact positively
economics, health care, education, families, and the churches of communities in
unprecedented ways…
4. Something
so cheap and so simple can produce transformational change. A bed net that
costs $6 can alter the life, the future, the ambitions of children and families
simply because they no longer have to worry about an insect bite ruining their
lives...I can’t even begin to describe the opportunity bed nets provide to prevent
sickness, death, orphans, and immense heartbreak and grief…a bed net is
something almost everyone I know can provide for another whose life hangs in
the balance without it…
5. I love
the sense of unity and connectivity that this event brings to my life and the
college community I love so much...Night of Nets might be one of the very few
things that can draw together students from all residence buildings, student
interests, and friend groups to be part of something at CU…I love seeing
hundreds and hundreds of students walking across campus to be part of something
transformational for them…and our Zambian friends…
6. It's
personal for me...I’ve taken hundreds of malaria pills to prevent being infected
while I travel to Africa and it’s something I’ve read about in all kinds of
books and journals and websites…and I am committed to trying to stop my African
friends from getting infected by malaria because I’ve seen friends lose their
children because a mosquito bit their son or daughter in the night as they
slept…and I refuse to accept the fact that anyone dying from a ridiculously
preventable disease is the way God wants our world to be in 2014…
7. I am
convinced that it is something that Jesus and the Scriptures call me to do as a
follower of Him and a person who is seeking to live by the words of the Bible
God has written to call me to live a different life...Jesus brought physical
healing, a call for justice, uplifting of the oppressed, and a love for those
the world had forgotten…and He invited His disciples then and His followers
even now to announce and help bring about the coming of His Kingdom…and I can’t
help but want to be like Him…
The Apostle
Paul in Romans 12 says it better than I could as I think about God’s call on my
life to be a person who tries to have God’s love for me to move me to action…
Love must be
sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another
in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but
keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient
in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in
need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and
do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live
in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate
with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for
evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. Do not
be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
So I am called by God’s voice and
moved by His Spirit to be all in…to be OK with being thought of as a little
overzealous, a little crazy, and a little too focused on one thing…
And being all in means I can’t
wait to invite people to share God’s blessings in their live with others in
great need through the gift of a bed net at Cornerstone University and many
other schools in the next few weeks, months, and years…
And being all
in means I can’t help but dream…dream of providing 10,000 more bed nets via
Night of Nets for families that are praying God will provide one for them
tonight on the other side of the world…dream that many more college and high
school soccer and volleyball teams will join us to bring Night of Nets to their
campuses in the near future…and dream that one day malaria will no longer be on
the minds of people in Zambia just like it is never thought about by people
living in my city, my state, and my country…I can’t wait to see friends in Zambia sometime soon again…and tell them a little story about how students over and over in Grand Rapids, MI have responded to Jesus’ call in an event called Night of Nets, and then watch them sing and dance and whoop with joy as they receive a net that ends malaria in their house…
That’s why I am
all in, why I love being part of Night of Nets, and why I invite you to be part
of a campaign to held end malaria…
You can check out more at: www.cunightofnets.com
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