"Doing God's work is an equal opportunity ministry to which we are all called," says Frances Sheridan Goulart in this handy guidebook filled with imaginative and practical suggestions for igniting your spiritual activism. There are many ways to be of service. There are sections here on good works in prayer, the workplace, the community, society, the environment, and the global community. Here is a sampler of the material:
• "Keep a 'Hunger Piggy' bank on the table, encouraging everyone in the family to add whatever spare change they have at the end of the day. Once a month turn the contents over to a local food shelter."
• "Next time you book shop for your children at Amazon online or at Barnes and Noble around the corner, buy one for a bookless kid too, or set aside the amount you just spent to send to First Book (www.firstbook.org)."
• "Take a five minute silence break three times a day and take a Friends of Silence newsletter (129 Skunk Hollow Rd., Jericho, VT 05465) with you to read when you're through."
• "Join Bread for the World's Offering of Letters campaign (www.bread.org). Bread for the World also has videos available to educate about food justice issues worldwide."
• "Place a cut flower under the windshield wiper of a few cars in a nearby parking lot."
• Be a "volunteer puppy raiser for the Guiding Eyes for the Blind (www.guidingeyes.org), a nonprofit nationwide organization that trains animal lovers to bring up a puppy that at maturity will become a blind person's seeing eyes.
• "Farm animals suffer because of the inhumane agribusiness practices that threaten both human and inhuman lives. . . You can help by becoming a voice for the voiceless. Join Farm Sanctuary (www.farmsanctuary.org) and receive regular action alerts.
• "Go abroad and broaden your social justice sensibilities. Take a Witness for Peace trip (www.witnessforpeace.org) and travel to Latin American countries where you'll work for human rights and meet unforgettable men, women and children . . . Can't leave the country? Look into Sierra Club's Volunteer Vacations. Go to www.sierraclub.org and look under their Siera Club Outings program.
