• For more info and motivating words

  • Stuff to check out in Africa

    • Amangwe Zulu Craft:  The bead project in which Thembi (of the book) is involved.  Provides income and a sales outlet for gorgeous crafts made by lots of Zulu “mamas” in Amangwe.  Every bit of profit returns to the community, making it a great place to shop.
    • ELCA – M.U.D.: Friends in Pietermaritzburg work with this Lutheran young adult internationa volunteer program.
    • Evangelical Seminary of Southern Africa (ESSA): The small but very international, interdenominational, and holistic African seminary where I taught.  Always looking for students, donations, and often has openings for qualified (minimum masters level) instructors or a variety of volunteers.
    • Isibani Community Centre: Sofi (in the second chapter) started this excellent social ministry.  Last I heard they’re looking for pre-school manager and physical therapist volunteers.  See video here: Isibani Community Centre Video.
    • The Beautiful Life Project: A group of South Africans with a passion to help people see how beautiful and precious their own lives are.  They organized an amazing fashion show featuring “ordinary” women, dance groups, and volunteers from the community where Into the Mud takes place.
    • Voice for the Voiceless: This young ministry in Cape Town “seeks to identify and raise awareness of issues of social injustice, with the aim of mobilizing people to prayer and radical action.”  That sounds good.

  • Ways to get into mud around the world

    • Blood Water Mission
    • Bread for the World
    • Compassion
    • Dev Jobs
    • Eastern University School of Leadership and Development: The grad school where my husband, Adam, and I earned MBA’s in International Development, where I taught a course this past year, and where Tony Campolo and Ron Sider (Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger) have taught.  Has low-residency options to study online plus a month of the year in Africa or other locations around the world.
    • Food for the Hungry: “Food for the Hungry goes to the hard places – places darkened by poverty, war and injustice – to bring hope and help to children, families and communities in the most impoverished countries around the world.”  They have short- and long-term volunteer opportunities and do good things with donations.
    • Habitat for Humanity
    • Heifer Project
    • Hope International
    • Idealist
    • InnerCHANGE : This ministry forms and serves as incarnational missional communities around the world.  They do not shy away from hard teachings in the Bible about wealth, poverty, and the mission of the church.
    • InterVarsity Global Treks: This is a quality, short-term, incarnational, team-based ministry program.
    • Jubilee Partners: A thirty-some-year-old Christian Community where short- and long-term volunteers help refugees adjust to the United States, as well as engage in a wide variety of social justice concerns from racism to the death penalty.
    • Mennonite Central Committee
    • Micah Challenge
    • Missionaries of Charity: We’ve all heard of Mother Theresa.  Her work is as cool as they say it is.
    • Peace Corps
    • Servants to Asia’s Urban Poor: Viv Grigg (another author worth checking into) started this lifestyle ministry in a slum in Manila.  It has grown and does good work in the mud.
    • The Simple Way: Shane Claiborne and some more wonderful people expressing God’s love in creative ways as a community.
    • Word Made Flesh: This is serious incarnational ministry, really attempting to live “in the mud” and do what is possible to help and learn there.
    • World Concern
    • World Relief
    • World Vision: One of the biggest, and one of the best.  World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice.
    • YWAM (Youth with a Mission): Combines intense practical discipleship training with volunteer ministry experiences nearly anywhere in the world.