Just got my first letter from Uganda from the little girl I sponsor through world vision… thought I would type it out because it’s so amazing to get these, you just want to share them with the world.

Dear friend in the USA, I’m very happy to hear that you are my friend and sponsor through World Vision. My name is Fauziya. My birthday is on the 10th of July every year, I will be eight in July. This year I will be in grade two. My home is found in Bundibugyo district south west of Uganda. I live with both Mom and Dad. I have two sisters named Zakiya aged 11, Asibanti 21, and brothers: Kule 5, Asilata 10, Hakimo 14 and Itarsen 20. We all go to the mosque on fridays for prayer. Dad loves garden work. We all help him during holidays. It’s now very hot. He is only clearing the bush when rain starts. We shall be planting rice, maize, beans and sweet potatoes.

We are all happy to know you are now part of our family, we love you and can’t wait to learn more about you.

God bless you.

****

If you’d like to receive awesome letters like that I recommend you go sign up to sponsor a child at worldvision.com.

The issue of human trafficking was first brought to my attention like never before by my amazing Sociology teacher at UCF. She showed us the Lifetime movie “Human Trafficking” a fictional but factual movie about a cop who busts a huge sex slave trade organization. As good as that movie was, only so many people hear about & can be exposed to Lifetime movies… so I’ve been anxiously awaiting a big screen movie to cover the same topic. I was hoping it would be more a movie than a “rockumentary” but hey, if Switchfoot is in it then I’ll take it! 

Call + Response is a rockumentary coming out in just a few days (Oct 10) that seeks to draw more attention to human trafficking to evoke a response from it’s viewers, who can choose between a number of options to get involved on their website. One very easy thing you can do is simply write one letter to any company that has not clearly stated their stance on slave labor. The website makes it so easy, it only took me about 2 mins to do. Check it out. Be sure to go see the movie on October 10!

Even if you aren’t a fan of Hanson, and when they come up all you can think about is MmmBop and those lovely boy band days, you gotta give them a TON of credit for growing up to be amazing guys even though their super volatile younger years were spent basking in glow of the paparazzi. You couldn’t go to the grocery store or turn on the radio without hearing their hit song or seeing their cute little faces on the cover of Tiger Beat.

Unlike most of their peers, the Hanson boys never let any of the fame get to their heads. Even when their popularity dwindled after they started writing more from the heart and they lost the teeny bopper sound that defined them, they didn’t just throw in the towel or turn to drugs and bad relationships. Instead they started taking trips to Africa and researched ways to help fight the war on poverty. The most recent of their ongoing attempts is Take the Walk - a charity catalyst organization that helps to raise awareness about poverty by hosting barefoot walks before every Hanson concert. They also sponsor TOMS shoes, Free The Children, Docvia, and blood:water mission, raising awareness and money for those causes as well.

Truly I’ve never seen this amount of charity work done by any other band except Jars of Clay with blood:water and newsboys with Global Tribe, and I really wish every band would join forces with one of the three organizations… can you imagine the impact that would make? 

Our favorite musicians and music itself plays such a powerful role in our lives… it can inspire us to live life with a greater purpose than our own selfish desires that only lead to unhappiness and regret… and live a life filled with hope, wonder, love and fulfillment… one lived with the purpose to serve and love others and find the solution to problems that cause millions of our brothers and sisters to live life in a way that all people would find unacceptable if only they truly opened their eyes to it.