Way back in May of 2016, I was living in Haiti and one morning the three of us from Kansas City, who were living down there, all showed up wearing the same shirt. The hilarity turned into a Friday tradition of wearing our Global Orphan Project “Defend the Oppressed” shirts and hashtaging #DTOfriday. It gained momentum when those who visited got in on it, and many even wore their DTO shirts on Fridays once they got home. We would take group photos on Fridays in Haiti and then post it with the hashtag. 

One of my favorite stories about #DTOfriday was when my friends heard I was sick and were trying to cheer me up. They all posted on Facebook a photo of them in their DTO shirt, and tagged me. It really did make me feel better, because I felt my friends thinking about me. 

In the last couple of months, the shitshow that is our current world, had me thinking about  “Defend the Oppressed” Fridays. Then it kept coming up in conversations, with one friend saying she was going to start wearing hers on Fridays again, because she felt the message was needed even more now. 

Then it came up in another conversation…and if you know me well enough, you know what happens when I see patterns. I don’t believe in gut instinct or coincidence, I believe in the Holy Spirit speaking and leading.  

Which means it is time for #DTOfriday to make a comeback!

GOEX Apparel has recreated the original graphic and we have set up an online store that is open until May 15! Because we could all use a refresh AND I’m slightly addicted to GOEX triblend AND because there are so many of us with littles in our lives, we have TWO colors for Youth sizes!

But I’m feeling convicted to take #DTOfriday a step further than just wearing a shirt this time. A conversation I got into once in Haiti had me replying with “You can’t sacrifice relationships on the altar of the finances.” Over time, it turned into “Relationships are the currency of the Kingdom.” What I mean by that is to be more and more and more like Jesus means to work on building the Kingdom here and now, and we have to be relationally connected to others to do all that. 

I also think the good in our world is getting lost in all the divisive hate. Love is not shouting loud enough to be heard. Jesus was an immigrant. Jesus was not white. Jesus fed the hungry. Jesus’s healed. Jesus ate around tables with people who had been outcast. Jesus defied social constraints to speak love into women. Jesus made political statements. Jesus turned over tables in the temple when the focus was taken off real worship and made room for those who needed healing. Jesus defended the oppressed. Jesus loved out loud with his words and actions, and we are called to do the same.

I will be posting about a non-profit every Friday that is a way to bring more good to our world. They will have an element of connecting relationally, as well as an organization that I trust to be good stewards of all their resources: human, time and money. So I will also be sharing information on how best to support them. 

I think that non-profits are going to be having a very difficult year with all the loses of federal funding. The church must be the Church this year in all the ways that count. There are a myriad of ways to shout love into the world. 

I am passionate about defending the oppressed, because I love my friends and what has happened, or is happening to them, is NOT fair in this world, or within God’s Kingdom realm. It is names and faces. It is actually life and death. It’s not a movie. These are real lives that are so beyond your context of understanding, but it doesn’t negate their reality. Right the wrongs, friends. Wherever God has you. Right the wrongs this world perpetuates as being acceptable. It. Is. Not. Acceptable. It is wrong. And together I believe we can make a difference!