I’m getting this posted today, because tomorrow, I won’t be at my desk. Tomorrow is the first day of the new fiscal year for World Vision, so everything we did in fiscal 2010—all the money raised, all the ministry programs launched and supported—is yesterday’s news. Time to start all over again.

(Mkama Mwijarubi/World Vision)

But instead of pushing up our sleeves, we’ll be falling to our knees—along with thousands of World Vision colleagues around the globe—at our annual Day of Prayer. We’re putting work aside for the privilege of corporate prayer and worship, thanking God for His guidance and provision in 2010 and seeking His will for the year ahead. We’ll lift up the children and families we serve, our global staff, and our extended family of supporters, who have sent us piles of prayer requests. It’s a full day, but I can’t imagine starting our new year without it.

What about you—what role does prayer play in your daily life and work? What do you feel you can’t do without praying first?

P.S. Oct. 1 is also the start of the U.S. government’s new fiscal year. World Vision’s ACT:S team has mobilized more than 250 groups to host a Day of Prayer and Action. Find out more here.

I spent this week in New York City, attending the Clinton Global Initiative, a big event with big names—heads of state, Nobel Peace Prize winners, CEOs, and philanthropists—discussing the world’s most pressing problems.

In the middle of it all, I found myself thinking of Bob Pierce. That’s not surprising, given that Wednesday marked the 60^th anniversary of World Vision’s founding. I was sorry to miss the celebrations in Federal Way, Wash., which included a visit from my friend and well-known author and pastor Max Lucado.

World Vision founder Bob Pierce, a man with audacious faith.

What struck me in New York is that there’s a growing movement around global poverty that now attracts the brightest stars and the best minds in the world. But back in Bob Pierce’s day, there was none of that. He was one man without much money or formal education. When he first went to Asia in 1947, he barely had enough cash to get there and back. He had to borrow an office from Youth for Christ in Portland, Ore., to get the ministry started.

But Bob Pierce had a big faith. That gave him the audacity to “go big” and name a fledgling ministry WORLD Vision. Sixty years later, thanks to God’s faithfulness, World Vision has grown into an organization of more than 40,000 people on six continents, and I dare to say it has changed the lives of millions of children over the decades.

These days we like big, splashy events, but God’s Word reminds us that real power—real change—starts with a mustard seed. Even faith as small as that can move mountains. Bob Pierce had audacious faith, and what he started has changed the world.

What might you do in faith today that could change the world tomorrow?

Do you ever get outraged? Do you ever get so angry that you are ready to spit?

I don’t mean how you feel when your football team loses on a bad call, the government threatens to hike taxes, or when the airlines find a new way to charge us for flying the friendly skies.

Most of us don’t get truly outraged very often. When life is pretty good, we become like frogs in the proverbial kettle, oblivious to the things happening in the world that should enrage us.

Here are some things that I find outrageous:

• 1 billion people are starving to death on our planet—half of them children.
• Another billion do not have even one glass of clean, safe water to drink.
• There are twice as many slaves in the world today than all the slaves brought to America before the Civil War—and again, many of them are children.
• There are more than 50 million orphaned children in sub-Saharan Africa.
• More than a third of all the world’s people live on less than $2 a day.

This child in Burundi died of preventable causes. (Jon Warren/WV)

Are you angry yet? If not, here’s one last statistic: 24,000 children under the age of 5 die every single day of preventable causes—simply because they’re poor. That’s one child every 3.5 seconds. And whatever’s written on their death certificates, I can tell you what the real cause of their deaths is: apathy. The world’s apathy. Our apathy.

There’s an antidote to apathy. It’s outrage. It’s not my fault that 24,000 children die every day—but it is my responsibility to do something about it.

Let’s get worked up about the right things. Then let’s get working on them. Pray out your anger, and God will use it to fuel holy action.

Some of the most popular movies depict people on a quest: Frodo in “Lord of the Rings” seeking to destroy the magic ring; Luke Skywalker battling dark forces in “Star Wars;” Neo in “The Matrix” striving to free humans from a computer-generated unreality. Many tales around the world follow this same narrative, called the hero-quest: An ordinary person is thrust into adventure; he or she is reluctant at first but then commits, strengthened by supernatural aid; and after many trials and obstacles, the hero emerges, victorious.

Lately it seems that everyone I meet is on a quest—a quest for calling. College students, stay-at-home moms, retirees, mid-career executives—they’re all seeking something more significant than a job or a way to fill their time and bank accounts. They’re trying to figure out what they were created to do on this earth. Like in the heroes’ tales, this journey might not be an easy one. They might have to battle a few demons or aliens along the way.

My advice to anyone who asks me—a guy still on his own quest—is to seek the Lord’s leading. Frodo had Gandalf; Luke had Obi-Wan Kenobi; and Neo had Morpheus, but we have the ultimate spiritual advisor in Jesus Christ. We have God’s Word, providing fresh guidance every day. And unlike the classic heroes, we don’t have to forge ahead alone. God wants us to consider our calling within our community of believers, contributing powerfully to the body of Christ. To find a great model for this, don’t go to the movies—check out the book of Acts or Gideon’s story in Judges chapter six.

Have you fulfilled your quest to find your calling? Tell me about your adventures. What advice do you have for other unlikely heroes?

Moses (Jon Warren/WV)

My travels in the developing world have proved to me that poverty is not really a lack of things, but a lack of options. By and large, those who are poor are not less intelligent or lazier than others. They’re not where they are by choice. Often they are trapped in circumstances beyond their control.

But some remarkable people do manage to break free. I want to tell you about Moses, a 47-year-old farmer who lives in Uganda’s Luwero district, a place wracked by civil war in the 1980s. As a young father, Moses struggled to make a life in a devastated land. “There was no health care center,” he says. “There were no neighboring houses. People were very few. The road was there. A car couldn’t drive on it.” He started small, growing bananas, and gradually added other crops. World Vision helped his community, but life was still an uphill climb.

In 2006, Moses crafted a vision, writing it down with a blue pen on an 8 x 11 piece of paper. It says, “This vision came into my mind after realizing that poverty is not an easy task to deal with unless you are organized.” He went on to take stock of his assets and plan how to manage and expand them. Then, a loan from World Vision earlier this year turbo-charged his enterprises.

Moses' vision statement (Click to see larger)

Today, Moses runs a 16-acre farm, raises 170 chickens and two cows, and makes a tidy profit selling coffee and milk. His newest endeavor: building rental houses. Under different circumstances, this man would be running a corporation. Heck, he could do my job!

This Labor Day, please join me in praying for people like Moses who defy stereotypes and overcome tremendous obstacles. Also, lift up in prayer the jobless and those still trapped in poverty, here and around the world.