If the Japan earthquake and tsunami had happened 100 years ago, most of us would not even be aware that it had happened. Perhaps a telegram would have been sent to the US and perhaps a small story might have appeared in major newspapers, but other than that, it would have had little effect on our consciousness.

(Reuters/ Yomiuri, Courtesy alertnet.org)

So why is today any different? In a word, awareness. The connectedness of our world today brings the trauma and pain of Japan into our living rooms with gut wrenching emotional force. The result is that we cannot turn away. As human beings we are, by nature, empathetic to the suffering of others. But that empathy is not triggered as acutely by sterile newspaper articles, as it is by the vivid and shocking images of human suffering bombarding our TVs, computers, and iPads, causing even our children to ask what we can do to help. I think that most of us–as we have watched the events unfold in Japan–have thought to ourselves: “What if this had happened to us?”

Last night on our local news in Seattle, a rescue worker was interviewed as he prepared to leave for Japan. He had also deployed last year to Haiti. The reporter asked why he felt compelled to go, and he answered with words that many of us feel: “I just have to respond. The world is a smaller place today. It’s about ‘loving our neighbors as ourselves,’ and it doesn’t matter if they are right here or halfway around the world.”  Indeed, it is about “loving our neighbors as ourselves”–the very thing Jesus called “the second greatest commandment.”

Here on the northwest coast of the U.S., we live on the same volcanic, “ring of fire” as Japan, and are vulnerable in the same way to earthquakes. Driving to work this morning over our vital bridges and highways, I thought about what might happen if such an earthquake hit Seattle. I shuddered at the possibility. This really could happen to us, I thought. And if it does, I pray that the rest of the world will also see us as their neighbor. Because we will surely need some friends.

Two years ago this week, The Hole in Our Gospel landed in bookstores. I remember how I felt in March 2009, a bit overwhelmed by what I was getting into as a new author. All I knew was that I had sat down at the computer and this book just poured out of me. Where it would go, what it might accomplish—I had no idea. Would it end up on a dusty shelf?

God has had a bigger plan for it. The Hole in Our Gospel has been translated into Korean, Portuguese, German, Chinese, and Spanish. It has been passed along hand-to-hand, placed in church libraries, added to college course reading, and transported to distant corners of the earth.

The response has been amazing and humbling. Just on this website alone, caring people have sponsored some 640 children and contributed more than $355,000 to World Vision. And two years later, nearly every day, people tell me how their hearts have been tugged by the question, “What does God expect of me?” They’re volunteering, changing jobs, adopting children, holding fundraisers, and mobilizing their networks to care for neighbors in need. Just this week, I learned that a billionaire in Malaysia gave World Vision $1 million after reading the book.

The Hole in Our Gospel is a small pebble tossed into God’s pond, creating ripples beyond anything I could have imagined. What a privilege it has been to be part of this movement of Christ’s ambassadors in the world!

Next week, March 8, is International Women’s Day. You might wonder why this date still exists, as women in many parts of the world, including the U.S., have freedoms and achievements equal to men.

If you’ve traveled in the developing world, though, you know that it isn’t the same story in some societies. Where women’s roles are strictly limited to domestic work, educating girls is considered unnecessary. This is a shame, and not just for the girls themselves. Study after study and expert after expert have noted the remarkable benefits to families’ well-being when mothers are educated.

Lorena, an admired doctor in this Bolivian community. (Jon Warren/WV)

In Bolivia, I met a young woman who beat the odds—Lorena, 25, a doctor serving in one of World Vision’s projects. She grew up poor, one of eight children in her family. But she became a sponsored child, and that, along with scholarships, helped her go all the way to medical school. “We want our daughters to be like Lorena,” say the women in this community.

Lorena told me that many of her brothers and sisters live with her. She’s helping support them as four are in university and a few are in high school. Ultimately, all eight children will hold college degrees.

Wow, I thought. I asked her, “What is it about your family that made education so important—for both the boys and the girls?” And she said it was her father, quoting him: “I will not die a happy man until all of my children are educated.”

That’s an important idea for International Women’s Day. It takes courageous women and men to change perceptions of gender and equality in societies. It takes us all seeing each other as God sees us—created in His image, each with a purpose and a role to play in His kingdom.