Andrea and I had an interesting experience last night.  We had gotten home from a great day of church activities - fun Sunday service talking about World Vision and then a potluck and TRVC Partners meeting at night.   To wind down for the night, we had recorded the 2 hour special of "24" that was on FOX last night.  (Although, I don't know that watching 24 is a very effective way to wind down!) 

Anyway - we were blown away with the setting and subject matter of 24, and how amazingly that related to things we had just talked about earlier that day.  Anne Ptaszynski was one of our speakers yesterday morning.  One of the things she spoke about was World Vision's advocacy program, where people can do simple, but direct actions that help to bring justice to parts of the world.  The first example she used was World Vision's work to help end the recruitment of child soldiers in Africa... where different groups bascially raid villiages, stealing their young boys and then turn them into soldiers for their military causes.  Unfortunately, there also seems to be ways that the US government has indirectly propped up the problem, providing military assistance to six countries that have been implicated in their use of child soldiers. 

So - we were really surprised last night, that the setting for the 24 movie was exactly that - child soldiers.    On one level, it was exciting TV, seeing Jack Bauer be heroic in helping these boys (it's Jack Bauer, you know...)   But then, it was also sad, realizing that some of the things we were watching on TV program were actually happening, and likely in worse ways than they can even show on TV. 

To learn more about the issue and what World Vision is doing (and what you can do) to help - check out the page on the World Vision website about child soldiers.   Child Soldiers