How can we change the world as we make our way through 2011? It is a big question but the challenge is before us.
The news which has bombarded our over these past two or three weeks indicates so very clearly the type of environment in which we are living and by environment I include, physical and geographical and more and most importantly spiritual.
If the spiritual is weak and faulty and just wrong, then so many other issues will be weak and faulty and wrong too and will cause suffering and pain to millions of men and women.
Jesus Christ changed this world by changing men! These men were soon to be accused of turning the world upside down when, in reality, they were working to turn it the right way up.
There is a situation, in Kenya, where a man called Sam came to Jesus Christ and soon this disciple of Jesus began to grow food for his family and then he began to reach out to help others.
He knew he had to do something positive and practical to feed the hungry.
The environment was being improved on a micro-scale, but being improved it was and those around Sam benefited.
In some places women are made to feel they are worth little and that they are of no importance.
If there is one thing the Christian Faith does, it is to give women and indeed everyone a place of importance and a sense of having real worth because they are now, in Christ.
Situations in homes are transformed with a consequential change in that local environment.
We saw this so evidently in Uganda too, as the risen and living Lord Jesus Christ was empowering women to find their proper and relevant role in society.
One man was so disabled that he felt worthless.
He came to Christ and the local church was able to guide him into employment making and repairing shoes.
He was now earning and able to feed people whereas previously he had been begging from a bike.
The disabled in Kampala and Bungoma whom I saw need much help and encouragement in small steps and stages.
Jesus Christ has good news for everyone and everyone needs to hear that and know that and be aware of that and be unafraid and unashamed to share it.
As people are gently encouraged they can then be educated and find what Almighty God has for them.
When it comes to school and children there are fees and uniforms and books but that can be slowly overcome, as the home environment changes.
When Christ comes into the homes and when husbands and wives find Christ as Saviour and Lord and transformer, abuse stops, and forgiveness can take place and life can be so very different.
The atmosphere of the environment is renewed.
To help bring about reconciliation in families can changes communities and towns and cities and even nations.
This is what Jesus Christ came to do.
Deal with sin, and the opportunities will be astounding for everyone involved.
To see someone born in abject poverty and being lifted up out of that poverty is one of life's greatest sights.
I have seen it in various circumstances in Kenya and Uganda over these past six years.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to do this, through His birth, life, teaching, death and resurrection.
Here we discover the creative power of God the Holy Spirit and when the Holy Spirit really gets a hold of a man a multitude of circumstances are changed for the better.
I just think of the three hundred people in rural Kenya who this time last year were walking four miles a day to collect all their water and now they have a well, a few yards from their homes.
With vision and action, this could be multiplied thousands of time throughout 2011, and individual's environments radically improved.
Then, we could move on, and do it elsewhere on a bigger scale, without banks and without corruption, and without greedy individuals selfishly concerned about what they could make from such projects! Sandy Shaw