28 Too Many

I went along to the very wonderful New Wine Women's Day on Saturday. Occasionally these things can seem somewhat introspective and me-centred, depending on my frame of mind as much as the content of the programme. It is valid and helpful to go along expecting to receive, but if we cannot translate what we receive into doing what Jesus said - protecting the poor and the marginalised - then I fear that what we have received may be too shallow.

On this day, I was challenged and inspired by all the speakers, but one of the information slots disturbed me to the extent I wanted to blog about it. Anne-Marie Wilson is a campaigner and founder of the charity 28 Too Many which was 'created to help eradicate Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in the twenty-eight countries within Africa where it is still practised.'.

140 million African women have undergone this awful practise and it affects women across the world, inluding in the UK. I find it incredibly difficult to understand how a mother could inflict this suffering upon her daughter, having gone through it herself, yet know these things are deeply instilled in certain cultures and accepted as the norm and as a good thing. To me it's another example of our sad and fallen world. If we don't stand up against such practises they will be allowed to carry on into countless further generations.

I'm not going to go into the details here, you can read more on the website, but I wanted to share my horror and sadness that this is happening. As Adventure Bloke is at the moment in a part of the world where this is at times practised it is all the more real to me. I wonder what we can do to help charities like 28 Too Many? I do know that if we never stand up for anything nothing ever gets done. I also know most of us are exhausted with the constant demands from many different types of charities, and there can easily be an apathy involved with such causes. Can we break through this and be different? Can I? I hope so.

The children have it right...

Watching Children in Need last night with the Adventurous Pair caused me to think upon how children have a natural sense of justice and fairness and a horror at what is blatantly wrong. All through the show I was heading off cries of 'pleeeeease mummy, please donate again, come on, how can you not' and various other emotional blackmail-ish types of statements ;)

Some might say that this is because children are easily influenced, but I think it's due to their God-given sense of fair play. Us adults have often become somewhat jaded and cynical and downright apathetic about these things, but there is nothing like a child in tears at a film of another child with a disability to help one regain some perspective on the world. Maybe we need to listen to the children more.

This was reinforced to me the other day when watching one of Adventurous Girl's literacy lessons. The children were challenged in groups to research somebody involved in civil rights. All the groups approached the task with great interest and you could sense the outrage rising as they found out facts about people such as Martin Luther King and Ghandi. Adventurous Girl's scathing and unbelieving remarks about apartheid would match any passionate politician and doubtless come from a purer agenda. I wonder if this is closer to what God's heart is like; the innocence of a child facing harsh realities and responding with tears and stark unbelief. Maybe we should listen to the children more and allow ourselves to feel it again the way we once did. Maybe then we might get up and do something more. Who knows.