It was about 9:30 a.m., and I had just successfully pulled myself out of bed. I meandered downstairs to the computer, wearing my flannel pajama pants and a V-necked T-shirt. Yearning for some intellectual stimulant, I sat down at my laptop, logged onto the Internet, and began my scan of the six newspapers I like to read daily. Is this what I’ve turned into?

“I’ll start with the Washington Post,” I said to myself. As I scanned the various articles, I began to reflect. What am I looking for? During the prior 2½ years, I had acheived everything I thought I wanted. I graduated president of my class, got a job working on nuclear submarines, took up residence in a beach-front home overlooking Puget Sound, and got my European dream car. I had to drive to Minnesota to pick it up! I had money for weekend trips to Canada, Florida, or anywhere else in between. Europe opened her doors to me three times, and there are lions in South Africa and Botswana that remember me as the “one that got away.” I was active in my local church. So why did I have a hard time finding a reason to get up in the morning?

“Nothing interesting here.” Having struck out at the first three newspapers, I turned on iTunes and began to listen. Just then, I remembered the “Old Grey Lady.” I quickly visited the New York Times Web site. An article by Nicholas Kristof jumped to my attention. I clicked on it and began to read. ITunes was playing Michael W. Smith’s “Healing Rain.”

I began to read Kristof’s article, “The Secret Genocide Archive.” I researched the subject matter. During the 1970s, tensions began to surface between the region’s Arabs and Africans over the region’s scarce resources. In February 2003, African Muslims, who had grown tired of chronic discrimination by the ruling Arab elitist government, rose up against the Khartoum government. Khartoum responded to the uprising by siding with and arming the local militias in their attempt to put down the Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa ethnic groups.

The “Janjaweed,” the government-backed Arab militia groups, have since been terrorizing the Africans, killing and maiming the men and boys, ransacking food supplies, blocking help attempted in the form of international aid, and setting fire to villages. Emily Wax, of the Washington Post, reported that the Janjaweed have also been carrying out systematic campaigns of rape against African women in an attempt to humiliate the women and their families.1

The Sudan government has specifically denied genocide is involved, and that what’s taking place is a matter of internal conflict with the rebellious African faction.

Today’s Happenings

The current situation is bleak. Various sources report an estimated 2,000,000 people have left their homes in the wake of violence. Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps have been constructed for the refugees and offer a moderate source of protection. They are filled with family members who have lost loved ones, and it has been estimated over 60 percent have seen a family member murdered.2 Brian Steidle, a contractor for the State Department and a former Marine, wrote in the Washington Post after visiting Darfur:

“Every day, women are sent outside the IDP camps to seek firewood and water, despite the constant risk of rape at the hands of the Janjaweed. Should men be available to venture out of the camps, they risk castration and murder. So families decide that rape is the lesser evil.”

Women who are raped are often left to bear the brunt of unwanted pregnancies. Adding insult to injury, these women are often ostracized by family and community.3

The World Notices

So who’s helping? I wanted to see what the world is doing about it. While the world has recognized that the current atrocities are horrible, some debate exists as to whether it is actually “genocide.”

On September 9, 2004, then Secretary of State Colin Powell labeled the atrocities as genocide in testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He said:

“We concluded, I concluded, that genocide has been committed in Darfur and that the Government of Sudan and the Janjaweed bear responsibility—and that genocide may still be occurring.”3

On March 8, 2005, U.S. Senators Sam Brownback (R-KS) and John S. Corzine (D-NJ) introduced the Darfur Accountability Act of 2005. This bill calls for U.S. and multilateral sanctions against those parties responsible for the genocide taking place in Darfur. It also demands prompt prosecution in an international court of justice for those responsible, immediate UN Security Council sanctions against Sudan, and accelerated help to the African Union, which is currently providing monitors to the region.

The president of the United States Committee for Refugees (USCR), Lavina Limon, affirmed the need for action by stating:

“As Senator Brownback said so eloquently on the floor of the Senate last week in displaying the faces of genocide through selections from a photographic archive of scorched bodies, castrated men, murdered children, and burning villages, the world community needs to apologize for its complete inaction and indifference to the genocide being perpetrated by the Government of Sudan in Darfur and act immediately to put a stop to it.” Limon added, “We applaud Senators Brownback and Corzine for introducing this important legislation to increase the pressure to hold the criminals responsible for this tragedy to account. The heinous atrocities, human rights violations, and intentional starvation of the people of Darfur must come to an end.”5

Currently, the African Union (AU) has troops in the region as a monitoring force. “Armed with a mandate to stop the widespread atrocities in the violence-prone western region of Darfur in Sudan, a militarily weak African Union (AU) monitoring force is finding itself weighed down by a shortage of troops, funds, logistical support and communications equipment.”6 As of March 1, only about half the 3,320 African Union personnel promised had arrived in the Darfur region. This has amounted to about 1,000 workers monitoring an area the size of France.7

But what about me? I finished my research. A quote in Mr. Kristof’s article kept rolling over and over in my head.

“What will really stop this genocide is indignation,” Senator Paul Simon, who died in 2003, said after the Rwandan genocide. “If every member of the House and Senate had received 100 letters from people back home saying we have to do something about Rwanda, when the crisis was first developing, then I think the response would have been different.”7

3Minutes.org

I sat silently. Joni Mitchell began singing Both Sides Now. Thinking. 100 letters…100 letters…Rwanda…800,000 people killed in about 100 days…100 letters. I began to hear the still small voice in the back of my head. I know what the Lord is capable of if I am willing to help him. “Michael,” I thought, “it’s time to act.”

Still wearing my pajamas, I found a flood of ideas suddenly coming to mind. How could I get 100 people from each state to contact their senator? I don’t know a single person in Vermont, yet alone 100. Then I remembered the one thing that had been a part of my life since the day I was born. Adventist education!

A week later, the Web site 3Minutes.org was born. This site is designed around the strategy of allowing a single person to send a pre-written letter to their Senator in a time span of about 3 minutes. In the following days I scanned the Internet looking for academy and junior academy staff I could reach. I sent e-mails to Bible teachers, social studies teachers, pastors, and principals. I next reached out to the Adventist colleges.

Theology departments, social study professors, and student unions were contacted.

I sent e-mail correspondences to the editors of the major college student publications, hoping to spread the word. I sent up a small prayer for each school before hitting the send button. The letters were now loaded with the most powerful weapon I could use. I now played the praying and waiting game. Psalm 41:1 says, “Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble.”

Darfur’s Reaching Hand

During difficult times in my life, I often have prayed that God would just speak out loud to me. I was too upset to hear the still small voice. Well, I believe God did talk to me that day. He chose to use a secular New York Times writer and a dead Senator. That day, I found an excitement that far surpassed those of flying in Lear jets and diving in submarines. A renewed sense of purpose came to me. At the same time, life suddenly became very short to me. The challenges that faced our church and humanity as a whole suddenly made me realize that my 75.6 years of life, 27 of which were gone, were not going to be enough.

At the time of this article’s submission, 3Minutes.org had not reached its goal of getting 100 letters to each of the U.S. Senators. To be bluntly honest, the numbers fell far, far short. Now, I’m not a computer programmer, nor am I a marketer. Perhaps there was more I could have done to spread the word. However, regardless of how the Lord chooses to use 3Minutes.org, he woke me up that day. For a long time I have seen our church suffer from stagnant growth rates and declining educational support. We entertain a general state of apathy. I’m tired of it. It’s time to face reality, focus on what’s important, and start living our lives as if Christ were coming soon. It starts with me. Will you help?

When we get to heaven, Christ will not ask us how our 401(k) did, whether we were able to afford the V6, what we believed would happen when we died, or if we ever played a drum set in church. He’ll ask us, “What did you do to bring others here with you?”

I’ve got Senator Simon’s response.