The prospect of changing the world seems like an overwhelming one; matter of fact, it IS an overwhelming one. How can one person change the world?
This is a question that has plagued me for so long. It may sound egotistical of me, but I really do want to make a difference in the world. I want to start a revolution, create a new model of whatever, make things happen. But how can I? I’m just a struggling Lawyer in Nigeria with a laptop, epileptic power supply and a faltering internet connection.
I think the desire to leave a mark on the earth is an indelible part of man. That is probably why people have children; you can say to posterity ‘I was here’.
This question has been on my mind for quite some time. I even complained to my fiancee (who is also my best friend) that if I fell off the edge of the world someday, I wasn’t sure many people would miss me. Yep, it bothers me lots.
With thoughts like that rummaging through my mind, you can imagine how consoled I became when I read the story of Jane Novak who is running a one-woman crusade from her living room.
Ms Novak is a stay-at-home-mom who is also a blogger, using her blog to fight for the freedom of a Yemeni journalist who is facing trial with a possible death sentence for writing about a rebellion in the north of Yemen. Journalists in Yemen have been experiencing serious human rights issues; issues bordering on freedom of speech.
There have been countless imprisonments and trials of people who have dared to speak the truth as they see it. It has been worse for those who have made the ‘mistake’ to speak in favour of democracy. These people have sometimes had to seek assylum, exiled from their homes for the cause of freedom.
Through Ms Novak’s persistence ans sheer doggedness, and through the help of the online movement for human rights, the sentencing of the Yemeni journalist, Karim Al-Khaiwani, which could have been a death sentence, has been ‘suddenly postponed’.
The amazing thing about this is Ms Novak does not speak Arabic; she has no background in Middle East Studies; in fact she is not even a journalist. She could have let all these curtail her effectiveness but she didn’t. Instead, she took the tools she had and is changing the world with them. Who says one person cannot change the world?
What excuse do I have? So maybe I will not discover a way to travel to Jupiter, or invent the new sliced bread… the question to ask myself is this:
Girl, what do you have in your hands?
With what I already have access to, I can begin my journey to changing the world.
Thank you Ms Novak!
To find out more about the Ms Novak’s Crusade, go to the following websites:
http://www.armiesofliberation.com
You can also sign the online petition here
The time to change the world is now!
the reservoir 
Hi send an email to sage@hamsaweb.org this is Jesse Sage, who helped me,
he’ll help you, keep me updated, tell him i referred you
best wishes on your journey
jane novak
http://armiesofliberation.com
Thanks Jane, you really are doing a great work and are an inspiration to the rest of us. I have sent the mail to Jesse Sage and will definitely keep you posted.
What a great post for a worthy subject!
We CAN change the world! 🙂
One blog post at a time we can Beth! Thanks for the comment.
Very nice post, Sharon. Thank you for honoring my good friend Jane. You’ve already changed the world, and you didn’t even know it.
After all, if you haven’t changed the world, then how come you’re getting commenters from places as far away as Nebraska!
🙂
You are kind Vinnie. Nebraska! wow… Thank you for leaving such an encouraging comment. I’ll turn to this page any time I get discouraged in this journey I’ve decided to take.
Good for you, you go to it, you can change the world. A wonderful goal, with the ripple effect of words on a blog you can do it.
Good luck to you
Thanks for the visit to my site and your kind comment.
Bill
Thanks Bill. I believe if everyone in their little corners do something positive…change will indeed happen. It’s as Mahmet Ghandi used to say ‘the change you want to see in the world begins with you’ and I believe that heart and soul.
Thanks for the visit and the comment. I LOVE your writings!
The desire to make a positive change in the world is never born of our own will…that desire can only be “born of God”. This being said…when He places this desire within a heart…it is to produce “fruit for His Kingdom”. He will make a way where there is no way. Be still and know that He is God.
I can echo the sentiments of many others…being from a small midwest town in the USA….what could I do? If I looked at myself, apart from the Lord, I would have said I could do absolutely nothing.
However…a desire was “born” within my heart. There was nothing I could do to cause this desire to “come to pass”. If it really was of the Lord…He would have to do it, as I had no way of going forward…unless He “sent” me. Send me He did…
…into numerous nations and across four continents. Almost three decades of being “His Hands” extended. All I did was walk through the doors that He opened. When we do it His way…then no one can claim “credit”…as it is obviously all about Him whom our hearts love.
There were also many things I wish I hadn’t seen…yet, these are the very things my heart will never relinquish. Those that know me…also know that pieces of my heart are scattered across the world, with those that I grew to love.
The reason I shared this, is for a testimony of what the Lord can do when He finds a willing heart. YOU have a willing heart. I am very grateful for finding this article and learning that there is coming an “explosion” for the Kingdom of God…through YOU.
May The Lord Richly Bless You!
Michelle
http://michelle2005.wordpress.com