Wilberforce was a man of deep faith - Evangelical Faith. In today's world, the word evangelical conjures up so many different images - arrogant, pompous, self-righteous, right-wing, power hungry and hypocritical, to name a few. While I would like to say all the caricatures are media biases and conspiracy, as a leader of a global network that serves 420 million evangelicals, I have to hang my head and say I have seen it all and sometimes it is not very pretty.
However, there is another side to evangelicals. As someone who travels 250,000 miles a year around the world, I have come across hundreds of unsung heroes, women and men of faith who are profoundly changing the world where they have been planted. These individuals don't have a big TV "ministry" or influential radio show or even pastor a big church. They are people who every day serve the poor, the neglected, the sick and ill-treated. They sacrifice their time and often their own personal resources for the sake of others. For some, they risk their lives everyday.
I think of Walter, a soft-spoken and humble man from Ghana. Over the last several years, Walter has rescued over 3,000 young women who had been bartered as sex slaves to village witch doctors. These women are now being counselled, educated and trained so they can take up a meaningful place in their society.
I think of a former PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) fighter who ended up in America. After 10 years in America, he found evangelical Christian faith. Today, he and his rural Wisconsin-born wife are living in Gaza city running a school for poor Palestine kids.
I think of Fidelis, a vibrant young Kenyan woman who works with poor farmers as she challenges the injustices and the need for land reform.
