Painting Umbrellas: Inspire Social Change

Take a look at this opportunity on Thursday:

"Lamb Umbrellas for Peace Project is a global art project involving painting and decorating umbrellas by children and adults. The individual will artistically design umbrellas that represent their personal values of world peace. A subsequent parade happens throughout their neighborhoods or campus. This is a manifestation of the individual bringing peace throughout their world that they live in."

One of the residents in Seybert [Rose Gabler] is the granddaughter of the man who founded the organization. Her family is opening a Museum in Chicago. Part of the grand opening celebration is having 50 painted umbrellas on display. 

Thursday at 9PM, in the basement lounge of Kimmel, we'll be painting umbrellas. No artistic skill is required.

Should anyone be interested, they may call the RA on duty for North End to let them in. The number is on the door [630. 631.3736].

NCC Invisible Children - 25

 The Invisible Children Program is hosting its nation wide "25" event on Sunday from 7 PM until 8 pm Monday night. The program asks participants to take an oath of silence for 25 hours straight, to represent the 25-year war between the Lord's Resistance Army and Central Africa...a war that has seen the abduction of over 40,000 children.

As part of the "25" program, anyone is encouraged to donate money that funds the necessary technology that will help get these kids out of the LRA. Here is more info on the event and the IC program.

http://www2.invisiblechildren.com/25

Here is the account we ask North Central College students to donate to.

http://ic.stayclassy.org/member/ic-fundraising?fcid=11895

I know many of us are poor college students that can't afford to give up a little change, but maybe while you see your relatives over this Easter weekend, you can get them to give a little.

To give, you just click on her account and click "donate" and they will ask for the usual credit/card info.

Thanks!

IJM Conference: Hannah Zimmerman

Last weekend four of us from our campus chapter of International Justice Mission had the opportunity to go to IJM’s Global Prayer Gathering just outside of Washington, D.C., and it was such an amazing experience!  Erica McCauley, Michael Tworek, Grant Swanson, and I left campus at 4:30am to get to O’Hare in time for our 6am flight. Needless to say, we all slept on the plane! Thursday and Friday was a Conference of Student Learning and Global Justice, so we were with about 100 students from all over the United States. We learned about justice and issues surrounding it from people like Nick Wolterstorff, a Philosophy professor at Yale who talked about the deep ties between justice and righteousness, and IJM field office directors from all over the world, who talked about what God has been doing in their city or area. We also learned about “Advocacy and the Creation of Social Demand” from Holly Burkhalter, IJM’s Vice President of Government Relations. 

The student learning sessions wrapped up on Friday afternoon just in time for registration for the Global Prayer Gathering. This started out with a banquet, at which Gary Haugen, President and CEO of IJM, talked about our views of God and justice and prayer. His emphasized that God is the Lord, God will not be mocked by evil, God loves justice, and God will act. He stressed how God is moved by the pleas of His children, and this is why we raise our voices in “active, passionate, vigorous, forceful, and steady” prayer, like “patient fighters.” 

This is exactly what we did all day on Saturday as we moved from room to room, learning specifics about IJM operations all over the world and then praying that God would move there and bring justice to the oppressed. I went to the prayer rooms for Kigali (Rwanda), Kampala (Uganda), Guatemala City (Guatemala), Guayaquil (Ecuador), Chiang Mai (Thailand), and Global Partnerships (IJM offices in UK, Netherlands, Germany, and Canada). 

It was so refreshing to hear stories of God’s work all over the world! Our flight left D.C. at 6am Sunday morning and we were back in Naperville by late morning, but I think we all left some of our hearts back in Virginia with the people we met and those we prayed for.  The Student Learning Conference and the Global Prayer Gathering were so helpful and encouraging for all of us and I hope we get to go back next year and hear all the stories of how God is bringing more justice and healing to victims of violent oppression!

Psalm 103:6 –  “The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed.”

Words of Encouragement

Listen to this encouraging story from Katie Brouch! Wear your buttons and raise awareness! Thanks everyone!

WEAR YOUR BUTTONS!!!

Tomorrow is our big BUTTON WEARING DAY! Be sure to wear your 'VIOLATED' button and tell everyone you know about the realities of 'sex-trafficking!'

Here is an encouraging message from Gracie Hollister:

News from 'NCC for Africa'

'NCC for Africa' is a new student group on campus dedicated to raising awareness about the injustice and international apathy toward Africa today.

To start out, 'NCC for Africa' is focusing on the '25' campaign through Invisible Children. Follow this link to learn more.

'NCC for Africa' will partner with the International Justice Mission as part of the Invisible Children Program's "25" event. On April 25th, participants will take an oath of silence to raise of awareness of the children fighting in the Congo. We will try to raise money for the IC program before. For more info, feel free to check this out.

We also discussed the potential of conducing a clothing drive to benefit the Rwandan group "Ubuntu in Action" and group in Kenya, hosting a screening of a local film maker's documentary on Kenyan slums to name a few, and partnering with a group in Decatur that sells items from the area...just to name a few.

To lead up to the 25th, 'NCC for Africa' will be conducting a bake sale on Thursday (April 13) at 5:30 PM and also at noon on Friday (April 14) in the lobby of  WAC. If you have anything you would like to bake and sell, let me know. You will be refunded. We are also looking for a few great people to sell baked goods.

There will be a meeting in the Kiekoffer gathering room on Tuesday (April 19) at 4:15 PM. At the meeting will knock the final details and what everyone will do at the event.

For more information, please contact Ryan Piers at rjpiers@noctrl.edu

Reactions

Hear what senior Weien Wang has to say about Project Liberation!

'Violated' Button

It is here: the third and final installment of the Project Liberation button series: 'Violated.'

Throughout the entirety of 3rd week, we will be passing out the 'Violated' button to raise awareness about the specific topic of sex trafficking.

You will be able to find us in new locations this week: Kaufman, Monday, Wednesday and Friday (12-2) and the Cage, Tuesday and Thursday (12-2).

Stop by at this locations anytime during this week (April 11-15) and pick up a button!

And stay tuned for the huge event planned for the weekend of 6th week (May 6-7). We are looking for volunteers to help out on the 7th (that is Saturday, May 7). It will be during the day.

If you are interested in helping out during this exciting event that will change the way North Central students look at human slavery, please respond to gtswanson@noctrl.edu and I will contact you individually with details.

Give Obama a Call!

Take out this initiative from the ONE organization:

We continue to wait on a 2011 budget vote from Congress—and this means two important things:

• Poverty-fighting programs—which make up less than 1% of the budget—still stand to get badly cut.

• Time is running out to protect funding for the world’s poor.

ONE members made thousands of calls to the Senate two weeks ago, urging them to protect our commitment to fight extreme poverty. Now it’s time to tell the president we need his help, too.

Call the White House and tell President Obama to defend funding for the world’s poor in this year’s budget: 

President Obama: 202-456-1111 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            202-456-1111      end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Michigan Cracks Down

This article discusses recent legislation passed in Michigan to crack down on human trafficking issues. The officials who pushed this legislation through discuss how more states need to get on the ball and start dealing with these issues because they are very real. South Dakota has already passed such legislation and Texas is on its way.