This Conversation Is Missing Your Voice

Today, my friends are dying.

It hurts. Every day for months now, I wake up to this thought. It rolls hot down my cheeks when I'm alone for too long. It haunts silent prayers as I drift to sleep. And it is still the reality. Ebola is devastating Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia - it is not getting better. These are my friends; they are mommys and daddys, baby brothers, and big sisters, grandpas, grandmas, and teenagers. Real live living, breathing, joking, dreaming, loving, hoping, incredible people.

You've probably already heard a million hard things today just turning on the news and it's exhausting. We change the subject, the channel, the conversation, to suppress the growing feeling of helplessness, because it's uncomfortable and we are busy and ...what good can one person actually do, anyway? I hear you, I get it... and here's what I've learned: 

You cannot change the world and you were never meant to. Me neither.

But being a bystander to suffering is not an option. What you can do is change the story for one person. You can pick a cause, a problem, a need, a friend, a story, and dive in. Starting right now, you can begin to do for one what you wish you could do for everyone.

The process isn't glamorous or romantic or simple. It isn't quick, it will not come easy. It won't fill your bank account, it will cost you more than money. It doesn't make you warm and fuzzy. It doesn't guarantee your happiness; you may find quite the opposite as you begin to share a burden too heavy for one set of shoulders. It will continue to look and feel increasingly crazy, you will not feel prepared. It's everything our culture will try to warn you against, but right there in the midst of chaos, what you find is beautiful and valuable and lasting: what you find is hope. The kind worth spending your life on.

If you know anything about my life in the past few years, you may have seen things shift inside me. You may have noticed the pieces of my heart being achingly, awkwardly, and unexpectedly rearranged. There is a story that is changing my story. I'm not the only one. Since this journey began I have come to know some of the most incredible people whose stories continue to shape mine as they have decided to help one like they wished to help everyone; together they are changing the world.

And I have an idea. Soon, I will be launching an online art shop (you guessed it, titled: Do For One). I want you to be part of it: if you have been impacted by Let Them LOL and/or a person in Sierra Leone, West Africa, I want to hear from you!

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Here's what I'll need:

1) Your voice: Share a moment where the mission of Let Them LOL became personal for you and why. Explain (350-500 words emailed or facebook messaged to me) how you do for one what you wish you could do for everyone. This doesn't need to be profound/dramatic/religious, just honest and providing dignity to the people of Sierra Leone. If you're insecure with words, we can chat over coffee ;)

2) Your heart: Provide a quote (ideally a short one, 3-8 words) or an idea that resonates with you and might be visually transformed into an art piece/print item for the shop

3) Your hope: Spread the word so more people can enter into the awesomeness of Let Them LOL and the people of sweet SaLone (and hopefully collect some cool artwork, in the process)

4) Your help: Donate art (or send suggestions/requests)! I will reserve the final say on what goes up, but if you'd like to contribute to the shop do not hesitate to reach out!!!

Each month, I will feature a post called The Story That's Changing Mine. This will highlight your story as well as a corresponding item in the 'Do For One' online shop, named after & inspired by you! Any and all profit generated by your item will be donated to the Let Them LOL DiggingDeeper Ebola campaign.

***

Um, honest moment: Guys, this feels scary, uncomfortable, vulnerable. This may totally flop. I'm trying to mentally prepare for that. Maybe you won't want to share your story, maybe no one will want to listen, maybe the artwork will turn out crappy and people will avoid the shop like the plague... it's all possible. But I don't care. I believe without wavering that we can be part of something bigger and this is one small way I can try to encourage that.

My friends matter enough to try.

So I'm hitting publish and hoping for some emails, here goes nothing...!

An Open Letter to the Community of Buffalo

I am young and naïve; my background is humble and my voice is small, but I will use it, because I have a story to tell.

We are the city of good neighbors. We believe in working hard, and playing hard. We are the kind of fans who make the news, who rename townships, and who people want to play for. We are the people who won't give up. We know what it is to face failure, to rebuild, to hope against all odds for what seems downright crazy.

For my brief 25 years of life I have known this place as my home and you, reader, as my neighbor. Time and again I have seen us come together for the hope and encouragement of even just one person struggling in our midst.

Right now, there is a virus taking the lives of thousands of people in West Africa. I am no doctor, I cannot fix it.

Right now there is a village of little ones whose mommies and daddies will not come home from a treatment center. I am no superhero, I cannot bring their families back.

Right now, there is a community who has suffered greatly overcoming the grips of hatred and fear. I am no billionaire, I cannot make it better.

But I can ask for help.

Maybe you've seen it on the news. Maybe you changed the channel. The world is full of problems; it’s easy to add this one to the pile… but what if we didn’t?

The truth is, the story of this faraway community is already weaved into ours. Because of the hearts of the people of Buffalo, I have been to Sierra Leone and I have seen hope growing. In one of the poorest communities in the world, I have shared hurt and unprecedented joy with an incredible people who, much like us, are trying desperately to rebuild. I have held more than one tiny hand in mine and gazed into a longing to be seen, known, and loved. And I have seen the efforts of our stateside community help begin to change the story.

So I am asking for your help, Buffalo. I am pleading with you to do something because right now there’s a lot of need.

In five years, people in our humble hometown have funded over sixty clean water wells, provided a home to orphans, and built a school. Right now we have the opportunity to impact 25 Ebola orphans, to feed and nourish struggling families, but we need you. Join the Digging Deeper campaign with Buffalo humanitarian group Let Them LOL. Give your change, plan a fundraiser, collect an offering. Together we can only make a small drop in a mighty ocean, but every drop matters. This is what community looks like – and Buffalo, I think it looks good on us.

Join the campaign visit: loldiggingdeeper.com or facebook.com/ltlol

For fundraising ideas visit: engage.ltlol.com

"Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work." - Mother Theresa