Internally Displaced People a Global Crisis

It's an alarming statistic that came across my desk here at The Global Lane--one I wish I didn't have to share with you.

According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, 28.8 million people were displaced in their own countries in 2012 because of armed conflict and human rights violations. That's 2.4 million more than in 2011 and the highest figure ever recorded by the IDMC.

The world is truly facing an IDP crisis.

That's an astounding figure because 29 million internally displaced are as many people as the combined populations of Israel, Switzerland, Denmark, Ireland, Botswana, and Cyprus! Each person needs food, shelter and clean water.

The hot spots for 2012? Syria and Congo. More than one million people were newly displaced in the eastern DRC last year, and the IDMC says the ongoing civil war in Syria is causing the greatest IDP crisis in the world today.

So, what are we to do about it? Yes, prayer is important, but faith without action is dead.

Our response begins with prayer. God will speak to each of us as we pray and He'll tell us what he expects us to do collectively and individually. Maybe he'll call some to serve in places like Mali. Others may be required to write letters to people in government. Some of us may be called to inform our churches and raise money to help. God may also ask us to give of our (His) treasure.

To find out how Operation Blessing International is helping IDP's, click here.

And to read the IDMC report on internally displaced people, click here.

Click and then pray!