“What can we do to in response to the crisis in Japan?” This is a question that I’m sure has been asked by many of you over the last week or so. Sometimes, when a catastrophe of this magnitude happens, it can lead to paralysis: we are so overwhelmed that we don’t respond at all.
Eric Heistand at Appalachian State just sent this to me to show what the Cru students at ASU did. I think it’s a great example of what happens when you create a culture of responding to pressing human need. Because Eric has created this kind of culture in the movement there, this was totally a student-led initiative, and the minute the Japan tsunami hit, various people on campus – students and administrators – were asking the Cru leaders, “What are we (App State) going to do in response to the Japan crisis?”
The Vision: A well-known Japanese tradition believes that a person is granted their wish of peace or recovery from illness if they fold a 1,000 paper origami cranes. What if people of faith invited their campus to fold their hands and fold their prayers inside a thousand paper cranes that could be sent to the Japanese people?
The Results: A powerful prayer movement for Japan brings a campus together over the tragedy in Japan. A thousand potential conversations about the Prince of Peace are sparked on campus.
An example: http://www.asucru.com
Do this on your campus: http://asucru.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/one-thousand-prayers-for-japan-how-to.pdf
Follow-up from Eric:
“Our “prayer crane” tables were packed all day. More than the number, it was very encouraging to see so many of our students out initiating spiritual conversations with the whole campus. We had a number of new faces at our weekly meeting tonight. This kind of initiative creates a powerful ‘good neighbor ethos’ that is hard for a campus to dismiss. When tragedy strikes and life is coming unraveled, our campus is beginning to assume that ‘The Christians’ will be the first to respond.
This event took us just 48hrs to pull off. These things have a very limited shelf life, so the time to act is now.
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