Mercy Rising 4 Haiti

LIVE MUSIC, LOCAL BAND
Date: Friday, April 30, 2010
Time: 7:00pm
Location: 2606 W 96th Street - College Park Church
Indianapolis, IN 46268

Great Party, Good Cause, Mercy Rising Book Tour

Free Admission with a $5 suggested donation per person
benefiting Compassion International's Haiti Relief Fund.

Anti-Trafficking events

Last year I was working on the Mercy Rising book project and came across an almost unbelievable story of a family who lives in East Asia. The parents both work all day and all night in sweat shops while their children live with their grandparents. Both parents send almost all their money to their family to keep them all alive. What haunts me most is that the parents get to see their children one day a year. On Easter.

This stuff shouldn't happen - how can we make it stop? Besides changing our purchases, find out more at these great events.

"Break the Chains of Human Trafficking", is a student-led community-wide event held in Marion, Indiana on April 10, 2010. In addition to bands, food, and other entertainment, including the DK Bicycles world class BMX stunt team, they are hosting former George W. Bush Senior Advisor, Laura Lederer. The Mercy Rising book tour will be there. I hope to see you as well.

Other anti-trafficking events:
Call and Response
4/10/2010 Berkeley, CA
4/12/2010 Greenwood Village, CO
4/14/2010 Cheboygan, MI
4/15/2010 Hammond, IN
4/14/2010 Durham, NC
4/14/2010 Wilmington, NC
4/16/2010 Chapel Hill, NC
4/22/2010 Spokane, WA
4/23/2010 Redwood City, CA
4/24/2010 Lac La Biche, CANADA
4/24/2010 Edmonton, CANADA
4/24/2010 Calgary, CANADA
5/4/2010 Missoula, MT
5/5/2010 Palatine, IL
5/16/2010 San Rafael, CA
5/22/2010 Beaverton, WA
5/22/2010 Danville, CA
5/22/2010 London, UK
5/23/2010 Pompano Beach, FL
6/4/2010 San Jose, CA

And the Oscar goes to...

Well not really, but the results are in from last week's free book drawing.

Congratulations to Natalie, grantandsara, Mark, Katie, and Cynthia!

Mercy Rising Book Release Giveaway

Happy March 1st and release day to you! We're giving away 5 books to blog readers. Winners will be discussing today's topic:

What do you do to live simple-practical justice and compassion in your everyday life? or How do you struggle with this?



Winners will be drawn randomly.

Mercy Rising - The Book

Mercy Rising book's official release is next Monday, March 1st. Pre-order copies are available now. Visit the blog again next week to join in on the celebration and to enter to win copies of the release.

What others are saying:

"In Mercy Rising, Amber Robinson presents the issues of social justice through personal and powerful stories, encouraging women of all ages to actively live out their faith in a hurting world.”
—Dr. Wess Stafford
President and CEO,
Compassion International

"Amber strikes the perfect balance of kindness and conviction as she encourages young women to step outside of their comfort zones and be their faith in the world - one act of love and compassion at a time."
--Joan Ball, author of Flirting with Faith: My Spiritual Journey from Atheism to a Faith-Filled Life

“Amber Robinson’s Mercy Rising is a quick and powerful read. She doesn’t avoid the difficult questions surrounding poverty, and she testifies to facing her own fears and obstacles. Packed with practical information and inspiring stories, this read is a must for anyone diving into changing the lives of the least of these.”
—Craig Hilton Dyer
President, Bright Hope International

Book Update

Lots of you have been asking, "How's the book thing?" In December I signed with Beacon Hill Publishers. Yeah! Originally I thought the book would come out in the fall of 2009. It is coming out in March of 2010.

What I am doing right now -

Finishing editing my manuscript
Interviewing women who have stories of doing practical justice in their everyday lives

What can you do to help?
Pray for uninterrupted writing times - especially Thursday through Saturday
Do you know any women I should interview?
Support Beacon Hill Publishers by buying some great books.

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Common Ground MOPS

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to speak to a fabulous group of moms who are fired up about doing what they can to give back to their community. They were very kind and welcoming and I appreciate the opportunity to learn from them. They had lots of great ideas they shared with me about what they do as moms to not only give of themselves but involve their children and train their children to be givers.

Here are some of their great ideas of what they do:
1. Buy school supplies for needy kids
2. Take a homeless person out to eat so you can listen to their story and share the hope of Christ with them
3. Cleaning out toys with her daughter to get her excited about sharing and giving them to needy kids
4. Meet your real neighbor next door, be vulnerable enough so you can know them well enough to meet their real needs.
5. Foster parenting/adoption
6. Not for sale, charity water
7. Project Linus
8. Family service projects with the Lions Club
9. Mentoring/Tutoring
10. Local shelters - Julian Center
11. Food for Shepherd Community
12. McDonald bucks to give to the homeless instead of $ that can be used for drugs/alcohol
13. Volunteer in the community
14. Servlife, friends of wfp, results.org
15. Justice kitchen - learning to buy local, etc.

Write to Publish Conference 2008

I am amazed at how vastly different my experience was this year at 2008 WTP. The conference was set in beautiful Wheaton College. I made great contacts with book publishers, agents, and magazine editors. It was amazing to see the progress I had made in one year. Mercy Rising came from an idea to a full book proposal with chapters. This year I actually had work for writers and editors to evaluate. It is very different having someone evaluate your work not just an idea and now I actually know I can do it!

The main difference though was my contacts with writers. We can help critique each other's work, keep each other accountable to submit, and laugh a lot! Although we were a little slap-happy at 3 am!

Please keep praying for this book project that God would get the glory and that I would be disciplined to write. Please also pray for the new magazine editor contacts made this year.

What is God speaking in to your life? Do you need to follow through on a project or with a person? Let me know how I can pray for you.