No, I don't want a tent for Christmas. I have a tent. It's a great little
tent. Albeit, when it’s raining, it's a tent that leaks as though someone
cut a hole in the top and placed a fire hose in it. Sleeping in that tent in
the rain is akin to rafting the Nantahala without the raft. In fact, each morning
when I'm in the shower, I get all nostalgic about the last time I went camping
with that tent and it rained.
Anyway, I'm not talking about a tent for myself for Christmas. Instead, I'm talking about literally giving someone else a tent. A tent that would act as their only form of shelter against the winter. In short, it's time we slow down our Christmas gift-giving to ourselves and family members this Christmas, and instead, give a tent to someone affected by the earthquakes in Pakistan/Afghanistan who is without any form of shelter. Notice that I didn’t say we shouldn’t give each other presents. Instead, we should slow down the gift giving to ourselves and use the extra money to give to these refugees.
With all the disasters this year, it's easy to get overwhelmed. Major disasters include the tsunami in southeast Asia, the flooding of New Orleans, and the earthquakes in the Kashmir region of Pakistan. In my mind, it’s hard to argue with the fact that people affected by this earthquake are more in need of help than any other group you can name. First of all, although the tsunami victims will always need help, we can all agree that the world responded well to that disaster. There’s no way to really react in the proportion that was needed to help all of those people hit by the tsunami, but the world did respond well.
The hurricane that destroyed New Orleans and much of coastal Mississippi is
of staggering proportions. However, let’s be realistic. People affected
in those areas live in a first world country. Typically, they had
shelter and food of some type within a week or two of the disaster. On the
contrary, the people affected by the earthquakes in the Kashmir region had
nothing. Nothing. No food, no shelter, no equipment to dig out their trapped
loved ones. No helicopters, no rescue crews, nothing. The only thing they did
have was no roaming gangs with automatic weapons driving the streets committing
crimes.
And here we are, a few months later, and what has happened in that region? Nothing. Not really. Obviously, there has been much effort expended to help, but we are still talking about hundreds of thousands of people with no homes, no shelter, and no way to make a living. Face it, everything is in rubble. There are no buildings, houses, schools, roads, or vehicles.
So what are you and I going to do for Christmas? Are we going to flood the malls to buy more stuff for each other that we don’t really need? Of course we are. We are fickle Americans, and we have no idea just how much stuff we have. Nor do we care how much stuff we have. We just want more. More stuff. A new cell phone, an iPod, a new digital camera, a video camera…… I list these things because they’re on my Christmas list, but I know they’re on yours too. And yet, family after family and orphan after orphan don’t even have so much as a tent to sleep in in Northern Pakistan where the temperatures from Christmas to March is often below zero. Are we seriously just going to head for the mall?
The need is for over 450,000 tents. There’s no way the world can even
produce that number in time. But, we can try. Your money is needed and so is
mine. Just cut down a little this year and send the extra to your most trusted
charity that is working in the region. Here’s a formula- for every gift
you give to friends and family, send $5 to help earthquake victims. If you
don’t have a favorite charity, here’s mine: https://secure3.salvationarmy.org/donations.nsf/donate?openform&projectid=IHQ-SAsia_Quake
