{"id":369,"date":"2008-02-06T05:35:29","date_gmt":"2008-02-06T05:35:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/2008\/02\/back-from-afric.html"},"modified":"2008-02-06T05:35:29","modified_gmt":"2008-02-06T05:35:29","slug":"back-from-afric","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2008\/02\/back-from-afric.html","title":{"rendered":"Back from Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Just a few rambling thoughts about the trip from a jet-lagged mind at 3:00 am:<\/p>\n<p>Nobody should have to die because they don&#8217;t have enough food to eat. To quote Bono, &#8220;Where you live should not decide whether you live or whether you die.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Today, a little girl named Lilly, like my Lilly, dies on a mat in a dirt floor with flies all over her face and insect eggs in a small bowl of water sitting next to her.<\/p>\n<p>Nobody should ever have to die from AIDS alone, ashamed, and in hiding in a shanty town room that&#8217;s over 100 degrees.<\/p>\n<p>Children should never have to grow up at 4 years old or be forced to have sex in order to eat.<\/p>\n<p>A baby born with the AIDS virus ought to have had the chance to be AIDS free from a $5 medication.<\/p>\n<p>Jesus is the starving, He is Lilly, He is the man dying of AIDS, He is the child, He is the baby.<\/p>\n<p>\nToday is the beginning of Lent. A time of fasting, prayer and reflection in order to examine our lives and contemplate the death of our savior on a cross. As I think about my poverty today, my heart is full with the real poverty my friends in Africa deal with on a daily basis. Lord have mercy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just a few rambling thoughts about the trip from a jet-lagged mind at 3:00 am: Nobody should have to die because they don&#8217;t have enough food to eat. To quote Bono, &#8220;Where you live should not decide whether you live or whether you die.&#8221; Today, a little girl named Lilly, like my Lilly, dies on&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-swaziland"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Back from Africa - Red Letters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2008\/02\/back-from-afric.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Back from Africa - Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Just a few rambling thoughts about the trip from a jet-lagged mind at 3:00 am: Nobody should have to die because they don&#8217;t have enough food to eat. To quote Bono, &#8220;Where you live should not decide whether you live or whether you die.&#8221; Today, a little girl named Lilly, like my Lilly, dies on&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2008\/02\/back-from-afric.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-02-06T05:35:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Davis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Back from Africa - Red Letters","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2008\/02\/back-from-afric.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Back from Africa - Red Letters","og_description":"Just a few rambling thoughts about the trip from a jet-lagged mind at 3:00 am: Nobody should have to die because they don&#8217;t have enough food to eat. To quote Bono, &#8220;Where you live should not decide whether you live or whether you die.&#8221; Today, a little girl named Lilly, like my Lilly, dies on&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2008\/02\/back-from-afric.html","og_site_name":"Red Letters","article_published_time":"2008-02-06T05:35:29+00:00","author":"Tom Davis","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2008\/02\/back-from-afric.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2008\/02\/back-from-afric.html","name":"Back from Africa - Red Letters","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-02-06T05:35:29+00:00","dateModified":"2008-02-06T05:35:29+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/c78d22af30aa2e0860a621fadf855b92"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2008\/02\/back-from-afric.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2008\/02\/back-from-afric.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2008\/02\/back-from-afric.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Back from Africa"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/","name":"Red Letters","description":"Christian, Christian Inspiration, Christian News, Christian Activism News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/c78d22af30aa2e0860a621fadf855b92","name":"Tom Davis","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b5c\/b5c5842c5b6dd6c51062873d0bb1dfafx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b5c\/b5c5842c5b6dd6c51062873d0bb1dfafx96.jpg","caption":"Tom Davis"},"description":"Tom Davis currently serves as CEO of Children's HopeChest (www.hopechest.org), a global orphan care ministry headquartered in Colorado Springs. A tireless advocate for fatherless children, Davis has spent most of his adult life calling U.S. believers to become the hands and feet of Jesus Christ to the 143 million orphans living around the world. Through those connections, thousands of orphans now have the bright and hopeful future--one that is filled with opportunities and the love of the one true Father. Davis speaks hundreds of times each year at churches and conferences, mobilizing the church to action on behalf of the poor. He is the author of four books. His most recent novel, SCARED is a fictionalized account of his first-hand experiencing living and working with orphans in Swaziland, Africa. Davis' blog is the premier resource for the latest developments in Christian orphan ministry. Davis also currently teaches courses as adjunct professor at George Fox University in Newberg, OR. When not traveling the globe, Davis resides in the mountains of Colorado in the small community of Palmer Lake. He and his wife Emily have seven children, including two adopted daughters from Russia.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/author\/tdavis"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}