One of my favorite songs about Christmas time (the holiday) was released in 1984 and it’s called “Do they know it’s Christmas?”. It was recorded by an ensemble of British and Irish artists, known as Band Aid, with the goal to raise funds to help fight famine in Africa.

Years went by, but unfortunately the problem is still the same. In 2011, the region known as the Horn of Africa suffered one of the worst draughts ever and famine claimed many lives.

And that is not the only region that registers alarming number of deaths related to poverty in Africa. That brings to mind the lyrics of that song…

Today is the National Adoption Day in the USA. It is a moment to remember all the children who lost their parents and wait for someone to welcome them into their families.

Photo courtesy of ©iStockphoto/MissHibiscus

Through the Internet, I came to know some beautiful adoption stories. Like Megan Hyatt Miller and her family, who adopted twin boys from Africa.

It was such a blessing to be able to read about their story, post by post, tweet by tweet. It was a journey of faith indeed. You can read about their story here.

And most recently, Jason Stasyszen and his family decided to adopt a boy from Japan. And they’re counting on our help to raise the money to travel and bring the boy to his new home. Their journey of faith is starting and we can participate too. You can read more about their story here.

Today I start a new category in this blog called “Make a Difference”.

Photo courtesy of ©iStockphoto/Destonian

As I’ve shared with you in my previous post, as I read the book “The Unlikely Missionary: From Pew-Warmer to Poverty-Fighter” by Dan King (from BibleDude.net), I realized that I could use this blog to share how we can help people and causes and make a difference in other people’s lives. And it is easier than one might think, actually.

The first post I wrote with this focus was The ugly reality of famine, for Blog Action Day 2001, inspired by an idea from Dan King’s book. If you haven’t read that post yet, please do so. You will be amazed at how easy it is to help, even if you have no money to give.

And now I will share with you a cause that is dear to my heart: adoption.

Food is something that lots of us take for granted. We have it so easily that we don’t worry about it. We might complain about the prices, about the quality, but worrying about how to get food for the next meal is not the reality for most people reading this post. But it is the reality for millions of people in our world today.

According to the latest Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) statistics, there are 925 million hungry people in the world and 98 percent of them are in developing countries. Almost 1 billion people!

In the Horn of Africa alone, a region that is experiencing the worst drought of the last 60 years, 13 million people are in desperate need for food. Thirty thousand children died in the first 3 months of the drought. It is beyond tragic.

The good news is that you can make a difference in those people’s lives. Let me say it again: YOU can make a difference. And it’s easier than you might think.