The more you see of the world, the more likely you are to realize vast needs. That said, unlocking opportunities to change the world and help others can be daunting. Each of these recently launched books demonstrate tangible ways to be a global change agent. They span the gamut of starting a non profit, to simply loving and inviting the person in front of you.
Thirst: A Story of Redemption, Compassion, and a Mission to Bring Clean Water to the World
Summary
This book is not for the faint of heart. It is a real story, told well. It is the self-told story of Scott Harrison as he turns from life as a New York city night club promoter. Scott tells his story in a raw and open way that invites all to see that they too can change– and change the world at the same time.
Walking away from years of the party scene, he sells everything he owns. He somehow gets himself onto a Mercy Ship headed for Liberia as a photojournalist. In the process, he is changed. He returns to New York where he soon founds Charity: Water.
This Charity revolutionizes social entrepreneurship. They give 100% of donations directly to fund water projects, funding overhead via friends. The charity is extremely creative in how they tell their stories and market their mission. The hard work of starting such an endevour is evident, but they do not shy away from it.
What I Love
What I love most about this book is the way Scott embraces his past without covering it up. For example, for years his charity worked out of the house of his drug dealing friend. Similarly, Scott uses his celebrity connections to help get the venues and sponsorship he needs.
Scott’s story invites me to see a God weaving His good into our lives for ultimate good.
If you would rather skip reading the book you can also listen to this twenty minute youtube on The Charity: Water Story.
Read more about Thirst on Amazon
Invited: The Power of Hospitality in an Age of Loneliness
“And sometimes, when we’re out of breath and weary from the wandering, God calls us to stop going, searching, seeking, traveling, exploring, researching, and branching out and just start staying.”
Leslie Verner
Summary
In an age of loneliness, we crave relationships but find it hard to make time for it. Leslie vividly recounts her wanderings in China, Uganda, and Tajikistan compared to her inability to make friends and community in the United States. She finds the solution in the power of invitation. As she invites others into her messy life, she finds there is power in both loving the stranger and being the stranger.
What I Love
I’ve heard it before, I’ve lived it before. I’ve sat in the realization that God wants me where I am and I can serve where I am. Yet it is a message I needed to hear again. A message that resonates with many of us third culture kids. We who always feel we need to be somewhere else, never quite at home.
Leslie writes with engaging words and stories– you are pulled in quickly. This book was gripping from start to finish. She powerfully invites you to stop looking at all the ways one can help those a million miles away. She challenges you to change the world, by inviting those right in front of you.
I also started following Leslie Verner at some point, due likely to stories of running and culture crossing 😉 (as with Rachel Pieh Jones), and I gratefully received an early reader copy this book as well.
It wasn’t that I was supposed to do more, but that God wanted me to notice the people the Spirit was placing on my path. …I had been so busy hijacking other people’s Jericho roads that I hadn’t even noticed God directing a spotlight on someone beside the road I walk every single day.”
Leslie Verner
Read more about Invited on Amazon
Stronger Than Death
Summary
This is the biography of Annalena Tonelli, an Italian aid worker. A stunning character who will leave you inspired to love well, and rest in a God who can distinguish the wrong around you.
Annalena Tonelli gives up her Law degree and lives in the horn of Africa, stoically allowing herself no conveniences– her act of identifying with the poor. She spends 34 years in Africa developing astoundingly successful tuberculosis clinics–even in the midst of the most horrifying massacres.
Annalena’s method is always to love the person in front of her–to her, this is faith. Rachel, the author, pulls apart the complexity of Annalena’s faith. It is a love that can change the world, yet does not identify with any one religion.
The love Annalena has for God keeps her grounded in her work to help the people in Somaliland– even when they turn against her. Even when bombs blast and she faces death threats, she continues, fearless because this is the course she has chosen.
What I Love
What is evident to those who come into contact with Annalena are touched. For example, David Brown writes in the Washington Post first in 1993 with the article “A BREATH OF FRESH AIR” and then “Annalena Tonelli, a health activist who fought TB in Africa, defied hardships and terrorism.”
Annalena reminds me of my own radical ways I have tried to identify with people in the country I may be visiting. It inspires me to remember how little I need, how much love is at God’s feet, and how much I can pour out in return. Her life is a story worth remembering.
Rachel Pieh Jones, the author of this book, had been living in Somaliland in 2003 when Annelena Tonelli is assassinated just a few blocks away. I started following her writing at some point, (likely due to stories of running in Djibouti). I gratefully received an early reader copy of the book.
Read more about Stronger than Death on Amazon
Looking for another way to be a world-changer one person at a time? Read more about how to sponsor a child here.
*I am attempting to gain access to the Amazon Associates Program. When 3 people click on one of the above links and order something on Amazon (anything), I will be inducted. At that point, I can begin earning nominal fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Eventually, I hope small fees like this will help fund the site’s development.
