Hello Everyone! My name is Jennifer Ross and I will be guest blogging for the next three Wednesday's. You may remember me from my post on V-Day and the prevalence of sexual assault on April 17.

Last year, while moving out of my dorm after my first year in college, I was astounded by the amount of "stuff" that was being thrown away, including clothes, DVDs, jewelry, books, televisions, refrigerators, and microwaves. How could so much stuff be thrown away and not be noticed? How could good people allow for such wasteful behavior? Is it not the duty of the privileged to make sure that everything is evenly dispersed, that everyone is well cared for?

Anyway, this year NNPCW member Alex Chambers took what she saw last year and decided to make a change. Almost single-handedly, Alex organized a MIFA move out (MIFA stands for Memphis Interfaith Association, an organization that comprises of 20 programs and that serves approximately 60,000 people a year). Alex asked students to donate clothes, furniture, electronics, food and cleaning supplies, the most commonly thrown out stuff at the end of the year. It was amazing to see how much stuff was donated for MIFA. More importantly, it was amazing to see how much difference one person could make when that person is dissatisfied with the current way things are being done.

As Christians, I think that we are supposed to take action, like Alex did, in the face of oppression or dissatisfactory conditions. We have the strength and the spirit to make change in any arena that we so choose, we only have to realize our inner strength. We cannot simply sit idly by as those around us are being forced down.

So let us take action, stand up and speak out, guided by the love of Christ and the strength of the Spirit.

-Jennifer

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor." Luke 4:18-19

Hey Jen!

Thanks for the great Blog. Is Alex coming to the Leadership Event again this year? I sure hope so!
~Brianne