Beirut, Zimbabwe, and "Save the World" Katty

There’s like... a lot of stuff going on around the world, huh?

Drawing has increasingly become one of the ways I process stuff, and I’m so thankful I have that tool. Here are three things going on far from home that hit close to home:

We Stand With Beirut.JPG

🇱🇧

By now you probably know about the Beirut explosion. It’s apparently the second largest urban explosion, after Hiroshima/Nagasaki. What makes the immediate catastrophe even worse is the fact that most of Lebanon’s wheat and food supply was lost in the explosion, and between COVID and the blast, Beirut’s hospitals are completely overwhelmed.

Save The World Katty.JPG

🇰🇵

I learned from my @libertyinnorthkorea family about the loss of an amazing person, who I never got to meet, but who I feel acquainted with through her amazing work- helping 800+ North Korean refugees find freedom. Katty is a great reminder that no matter how overwhelming things can seem, there are lots of quiet, unnoticed helpers all around.

Zim Lives Matter.JPG

🇿🇼

Then there’s Zimbabwe. What’s happening there is complex but familiar. An authoritarian regime clamping down on its own people through police brutality. A staggering loss of jobs, food, and health during the pandemic. A corrupt regime using the pandemic to excuse its overreach. No country is immune to this, unfortunately.

🌐

Look. Paul the Apostle was once like, “don’t be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good,” then Desmond Tutu pulled up and he was all like, “keep doing simple acts of good. They’re the ones that overwhelm the world.”

One of those simple acts of good sitting in front of us right now is finding the helpers already at work and giving them a hand.