Be The Change
Written by: Zach Hunter
Publisher: Invert/Youth Specialties/Zondervan
Themes:Anti-Slavery, World-Changing, Inspiration, Young Writers

Slavery is not something you think of as part of modern-day society. But chew on this: 27 million people are in modern-day slavery around the world (according to the UN and other sources). That’s more in slavery at one time then during the entire transatlantic slave trade combined. Astounding, isn’t it? But that’s the theme of Be the Change. Written by 15 year old abolitionist Zach Hunter, this book not only focuses on changing the world by eliminating slavery, but also by changing the world immediately around us. The book is absolutely full of quotes and facts about slavery and world-changing that I could spend hours talking about, but I won’t take time for that here.

I knew modern-day slavery existed before I read the book, but my eyes were opened to the atrocities still committed today. This book is not only great for you to read and be inspired, but for your middle school kids too. Each chapter includes discussion questions for both group and personal settings, as well as a chapter-by-chapter challenge. You could easily use it as a middle school summer curriculum in a discussion group setting.

So you may think, “Great, but how can I change things?” Zach presents two ways in the book:
1. Support free trade products. Choose not to buy products you may suspect are made in sweatshops or under unfair conditions. There is only so much you can do in this area, but it’s a good start.
2. Start a Loose Change to Loosen Change project. This simple project collects the loose change of kids, parents, and friends, and donates it to Anti-slavery organizations. To learn more, visit http://www.lc2lc.com.

I would highly encourage you to read this book, even if you just need an “encouragement boost”. I know it lit a fire under me to think that someone my age was doing something so big. To only think what we could all do together in this area.

Buy “Be the Change” at Amazon.com

To see some heart-wrenching statistics on slavery, click the “Continue Reading” link below.
Continue Reading…

One thing all of us here at The Way We See It share in common is a love for reading. We’d all love to share the great books we read with you. So we’ve decided to create something totally super-ultra-amazing. It’s called:
The Super-Ultra-Amazing-Must-Read Book List

Creative, huh? But besides that, the list will have its own special page, available from the “Categories” list on the side of the homepage, as well as being part of our regular blog postings. As we read these books, we’ll write up short reviews and ways they’ve touched our lives with you, so you can enjoy them too. You’ll see some reviews coming up soon.

To make sure you’ve always got the latest posts, you can do one of two things:
1. Use our email subscriptions. On the right hand side of the blog homepage, enter your email address in the “Email Notification” box and press Subscribe.
2. Use an RSS feed (advanced users). At the bottom of the blog homepage, click then click this link, and save it in your RSS reader of choice. Want to learn how to use an RSS feed? Check out this page.

P.S. Don’t like reading books? Buy the Cliff’s Notes. It’s just as good, in half the time. But reading is good for your brain. And in the words of a great man, “If it wusn’t fur [books], all my sintinces wud look lyke this!”

It’s relationships, not programs that change children. A great program simply creates the environment for healthy relationships to form between adults and children. Young people thrive when adults care about them on a one-to-one level, and when they also have a sense of belonging to a caring community.

-Bill Milliken, founder of Communities in Schools
The Way I See It #237 off a Starbucks Cup

Tonight I was coming home and had the local Christian radio station playing. I just caught the end of yesterdays’s Adventures in Odyssey episode by Focus on the Family. I would normally just change the channel to another Christian station, but a couple of quotes from the episode roped me in. They were:
“The problem is what is exciting and trendy now probably won’t be tomorrow. What I saw…was timeless, going past the trends and the fads, to reach kids where they are.”

“We work hard, and we do our best, but we don’t feel like it’s enough. Then we begin to second guess what God wants us to do. We wonder if we should make changes, or do things the same way. The answers aren’t always easy, and can only be found through prayer and God’s Word.”

Many ministries have been dumped by many local churches as “irrelevant”, though they still hold amazing power with kids. There are many things in the church like this. While it is important to keep up with times and not simply ignore them, it is also important to not forget the timeless things that kids always enjoy. For kids it’s not always the latest and greatest, but relationships and things that may seem trivial to you that are most important.

I like to put major ministry initiatives that I see through my “timeless” filter: In 5 years, will this initiative be relevant barring unforseen circumstances? In 10 years, will the kids still be standing up for Christ? In 20 years, will anyone remember it?

So how do your initiatives stand up?

Every night I have a quiet time which consists of a short devotional (in the ESV) and that day’s “Bible in a Year” assigned reading (in the Message paraphrase). Last night’s reading was the book of Malachi (I start in September). I had read this passage before, and many other translations carry the same meaning, but the Message’s paraphrase of Malachi 1:12-14 especially stood out to me:
“Instead of honoring me, you profane me. You profane me when you say, ‘Worship is not important, and what we bring to worship is of no account,’ and when you say, ‘I’m bored—this doesn’t do anything for me.’ You act so superior, sticking your noses in the air—act superior to me, God-of-the-Angel-Armies! And when you do offer something to me, it’s a hand-me-down, or broken, or useless. Do you think I’m going to accept it? This is God speaking to you!
A curse on the person who makes a big show of doing something great for me—an expensive sacrifice, say—and then at the last minute brings in something puny and worthless! I’m a great king, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, honored far and wide, and I’ll not put up with it!”

My initial response to this was, “Great! A good way to guilt people into donating new items to the Children’s Ministry!”. But then in thinking about it some more, I realized that this could be applied to our personal lives as well.

Often when we are burned out, we stop giving our best to God. We may or may not attend worship, but whether we do or not, we may not feel like giving God our worship or may feel like prayer is ineffective. However, our God is amazing and deserving of our best! And many times, you will find that if you give your best, God gives his best back.

Check out God’s word for encouragement constantly, and connect with other ministers in your area. Encouragement can come from the strangest places sometimes. Don’t be terribly showy. Just give God you, and nothing more, and that will make him more than pleased.