Can one person change the world? Can one person stand up to an entire society? This baby is mine

I realized a long time ago that my current place of residence influenced my worldview. And when you live in the ghetto as long as I did, it not only gives you a unique perspective, but it also changes your thinking. It's easy for us to pick up a newspaper and read about violence, and then put the newspaper aside. But it won’t be so easy to put it aside if you live where I live. You can't turn the page when you walk down the street and witness fights and shootings, as happened to me. I have already experienced twenty-one murders in my life. When violence is so close to you, it changes the way you think. It forces us to think differently about what ministry is and what it should be.

All this helps me see behind simple newspaper headlines the real lives of people on both sides of the violence. Most of them will never appear in church for various reasons, some more obvious than others. And although they may not be the people we would put our business on hold for, they are real, living people, and someone needs to go to them. But can one person make a difference?

In the Book of Numbers chapter 16, the children of Israel complained again. It just became a way of life for them. No matter what God did, the children of Israel did not like it. They didn't like the water. They didn't like the food. The Children of Israel did not like the leadership. In fact, they didn't like much of anything. People were no longer just complaining about Moses and Aaron, things were moving towards a revolution. The children of Israel were unhappy that Moses and Aaron were trying to help them become more spiritual. People didn't want this. They didn't want to change.

Moses and Aaron tried to help the children of Israel draw closer to God, but the people of Israel really did not want to do this. And this led to the fact that people's attempts to rebel grew and grew. At the end of the day, everyone likes to do what they want. This does not seem to us to be some kind of new revelation. But the conflict grew, and the children of Israel tried to overthrow their leaders. Imagine: Moses and Aaron are trying to lead people to God, and two million Jews say: “No way! We will not change!” This is not good for Moses and Aaron.

This is where God begins to speak. As far as I understand, God simply said, “Okay! You don't like your leaders. You don't like what I gave you. No problem, I’ll just destroy you all.” And this is one of the aspects of God that I really like. Do you know why? God endures. He endures and continues to endure until His patience comes to an end.

Imagine with me again. Before you are Moses, Aaron and several million Jews. What happens next is very difficult to explain: suddenly a wave of death begins to sweep through the crowd. People are falling dead, and the number of dead bodies is amazing. If you study this incident, you will see that fourteen thousand seven hundred people died then. And you know what's sad? To most people who read this story in the Book of Numbers, it is just a biblical statistic, another biblical story. But don't let this become a statistic for you. Fourteen thousand seven hundred children of Israel fell dead. And they didn't rise again. But if you don’t associate it with anything, it’s not so easy for it to become something more than a simple statistic in your life.

When it comes to death, I have a lot to remember. As I mentioned, I witnessed twenty-one murders in New York, the place where I chose to live. And when you stand as close to murder as I did, seeing a man's head shatter into pieces from a gun shot, the way you think completely changes. This is exactly what happens! when you allow yourself to the reality of life. It changes you. That's why I still live in a warehouse in the ghetto. Not at all because I have no other choice. Namely because I I decided so. But can one person make a difference?

I was invited to speak at the Southern Baptist Bible Conference in Florida. This was a very memorable conference for me because of the question one of the pastors asked me after my talk. The pastor challenged me with his question. He asked me, “Do you really think or believe that one person can make a difference in this thing we call Christianity? Or are they just words that people like you, people like us, like to say to get us to do something?”

We all say that one person can make a difference, those are good words to preach. They sound good in Bible school and conference. Good Christian words. But do we really believe what we say? That's exactly what the preacher asked me. I didn't give him a pleasant answer. I told him: “I don’t know...” That was my answer, but, taking his question very seriously, I added that I would like to think about it. “I will answer your question, but I need time. It is so serious that it deserves some thought. But I will answer you." His question led me to study what happened to Moses and Aaron (see: Numbers 16).

The children of Israel complained. No matter what God did, the children of Israel did not like it. They didn't like the water. They didn't like the food. The Children of Israel did not like the leadership. And now people fell to the ground dead. This is where the story takes an unexpected turn. Moses turns to Aaron and shouts, “Aaron, do something!” Moses asks Aaron to do something because he has never encountered such a situation. What to do when people drop dead?

Understand that Moses and Aaron were quite close to what was happening. This could not but affect them. And this required some kind of reaction from them. Moses told Aaron to do something. “Run to the altar, do something!” Something had to be done urgently. This is what made Aaron run and grab the censer. If you are familiar with the structure of the tabernacle, you know that the censer is similar to a bowl. Aaron grabs the censer and runs to the altar. He draws some fire from the altar into the censer. Then Aaron rushes into the midst of the people, carrying a censer, but I’m sure he doesn’t even know what he’s going to do. Aaron was obedient to Moses' command to do something. Here's what the Bible says:

He stood between the dead and the living, and the defeat stopped.

Numbers 16:48

It's all said in verse forty-eight. Aaron stood between the living and the dead. Where he became, death ceased. Are you following my thought?

A question a Baptist pastor asked me: “Do you really think one person can make a difference?” And what do you think? In this story, even the average reader would have to agree that Aaron made a difference. One man made a change, but what did he have to do? Aaron had to run to the altar, take the fire, and then he had to go into the crowd. And he just went, didn't he?

So, if one person can change something, and it is obvious to us just from this small passage that this is possible, then what kind of person should this person be?

Let's take a closer look at Aaron. When I began to study this story, I noticed that Aaron and the fire were the only thing that stood between the living and the dead. Just Aaron and the fire. It wasn't something that the denominations made up. There were no parishioners involved, and there wasn't even a committee there. One person made a move. And this is not just a biblical story about a man or woman who brought change. In such situations, something happens to the personality, and this personality becomes the conductor of everything that follows. This man is making a difference.

In our ministry, we visit every child every week, which means we make over twenty thousand personal visits. It's hard to write about this because it feels like you're lying. People ask us, “How can you visit twenty thousand children a week?” Like this. And what we do is physical service. It takes a lot of physical effort - visiting, street Sunday schools, bus ministry, camps, "Feast of Hope" and support work to keep it all going. But we just do it and keep doing it.

And, more importantly, we develop relationships. We don't just knock on doors, we build relationships with people. We have many hard-working employees making changes. Employees like the two young women who attend one of the street Sunday School districts in the South Bronx. It's a very difficult area, but they just do it.

One of the families on their route included a seven-year-old girl and her little brother, five or six years old. The children were not mentally retarded, they just needed more time to develop. They were good children who always came to Sunday School classes. They came there every week.

However, one day the children did not show up and our staff became worried. A few days later, the girls went to check on the children to make sure they were okay and to invite them to the next Sunday School service. They went to the door and knocked. They kept knocking, but no one answered. It was strange because the employees could hear the TV on, but no one answered it for them.

Our staff developed a good relationship with this family, and due to the children's condition, the mother was always at home. The girls knocked on the next door, thinking that perhaps the neighbors knew what was happening, but they could not help, could not answer their questions. So our employees returned and started knocking on doors again. Nobody answered. This time, however, the girls noticed a strange smell coming from the apartment. When no one in the building was able to help our employees, they called the police.

Each New York City Police Department has a special department called OSS (E511) - Emergency Service Division. It was this police department that came on call. The chief officer decided to break down the doors. You may have seen that tool that police use to break down doors. The police were breaking down the doors, and our employees were waiting to make sure that the children were okay.

When the police opened the door and entered the apartment, they saw that my mother was lying on the floor in the room. Her throat was cut and she had been dead for a week. That's why there was such a smell coming from the apartment. The children were also in the room. The girl and her younger brother were sitting on the sofa and watching TV. They ate everything they could find in the house.

Our employees sat down with the children on the sofa. A seven-year-old girl was holding a cardboard box in her hand and tearing it into small pieces. The children ate the box - that's all they had.

I wasn't there that day. The only people who made a difference were two young girls who, like Aaron, simply did something. They visited children in the South Bronx that no one else cared about. But you won't see our young employees on the covers of magazines. Nobody invites them to participate in television programs. Our ministry staff are not magazine material, and no one invites them on television. And besides, one of these employees has a speech impediment, and the other is very poor. But that day, these two girls literally stood between the living and the dead, and they changed something. The most ordinary people, the most ordinary employees. No special titles, just ordinary employees. Just faithful people who cared about the fate of these children.

As I continued to study what Aaron was like, I saw something that was completely incomprehensible to me. Do you know how old Aaron was when all this happened? Aaron was one hundred years old. What did Moses tell him? Run to the altar?! Should a man who is already a hundred years old run to the altar? But this is simply impossible! You can't do this, Aaron. Your time is already up. This is impossible. But guess what happened? He did it.

Isn't it amazing what you can do that you seemingly can't do? You hear all the time: “No, I can’t do this.” Of course you can, you just don't want to.

People don't expect me to drive a bus and pick up kids after all these years, but I do. “You shouldn't do this,” they say. - You are the senior pastor. You can’t drive a bus either.” I know it. But I'm going to do it now and I'm going to do it next week. I will continue to drive the bus. Want to know how I do it? One day I ran to the altar and took some fire there. I just went there. It wasn't that difficult. I've been doing this for over thirty years, and I think I'm making a difference.

Think about how my mother left me alone on the sidewalk and never came back for me. Think about how a man passing by, a Christian, stopped and took me with him. He fed me. That same day he paid for my stay at a youth camp, and there I was saved. Can one person make a difference? Someone did this for me.

A woman who couldn't even speak English came to salvation in one of our adult services. After the service, she came up to me and said through an interpreter: “I want to do something for God.” I didn’t even know what to answer her. I knew that the language barrier would be a definite challenge for a Puerto Rican woman, as our staff must be able to communicate with everyone. So I asked her to just love children. “We have a lot of buses,” I told her. “Just take different routes and love the kids.” She accepted my offer.

What the woman didn't tell us then was that a week before she started working on the buses, she asked someone to teach her how to say "I love you" and "Jesus loves you" in English. That's all she could say. So, she would sit in the front seats of the bus and find the children who looked worse than the others. She would sit this child on her lap and whisper, “I love you. Jesus loves you” all the way to Sunday School and back home. That's all she could say, all she could do. But when someone told her to go and do something, she, like Aaron, did it. In her own, simple way, she loved children, and so it went on week after week. In early fall, she told our bus ministry leaders that she no longer wanted to change buses. She found one bus that she wanted to continue working on. There was a little boy on that bus that this Puerto Rican woman wanted to hang out with. She wanted to devote all her attention to this boy.

The boy was about three years old. He was thin and dirty. He never said a word. Somehow one of our employees found this child. He was taught about Sunday School and how to get on the bus. And he came. No siblings or neighbor friends came with this baby. He himself came to the bus. Every Saturday he sat on the steps in front of his house and waited for the Sunday School bus to come for him.

And every time he got on the bus, this woman from Puerto Rico greeted him. She took the baby in her arms and repeated to him over and over again: “I love you. Jesus love you". She repeated these words to him all the way to Sunday School. She did the same on the way home. Week after week, week after week. That was all she could do, but she did it with amazing fidelity.

Weeks turned into months, but the process remained the same. The Puerto Rican woman couldn't stop showering her love on this boy, constantly repeating, “I love you. Jesus love you". About two weeks before Christmas the situation changed. As before, the boy boarded the bus and received the love and attention of a woman who wanted to do something for God. Together they came to Sunday School. And after Sunday School they got on the bus to return home. On the way home, the woman sat the boy on her lap. “I love you,” she told him, “Jesus loves you.” When the bus arrived at his house, the boy did not run out of the bus as usual. This time he turned around before leaving. And for the first time he tried to speak in front of us. He looked at a Puerto Rican woman who wanted to do something for God and said, “Yay..I love you too much.” Then the little boy hugged tightly the woman who cared for him so much. This was at 2:30 pm on Saturday.

That same evening, around 6:30 p.m., the boy's dead body was found at the fire exit of his home. The day one of our employees had a breakthrough in her relationship with a boy, his mother killed him. She beat him to death, put his body in a trash bag and threw it away.

There are not enough qualified people in what we call Christianity, but we each have our own area, don't we? I'm not the smartest person and I don't pretend like I am. I'm not the best writer or minister. But I can drive a bus. And thanks to the fact that others have joined me, I believe that we are making a difference.

Today I believe there is a boy in Heaven because of a woman who didn't speak English but who really wanted to do something for God. I believe that one woman who took the time to hold a dirty little child in her arms and tell him that she loved him and that Jesus loved him made a difference in that boy's eternity. And no one can convince me otherwise.

A Baptist pastor asked me, “Do you think one person can make a difference?”

Yes, I truly believe that one person can make a difference. And what do you think? When all is said and done, it is important for you and me to remember that somewhere out there today, there is another child living who is not doing well in life. Somewhere today there is another child sitting on the sidewalk. And all it takes is just one person to make a difference in the lives of these children.

Chapter 13

This baby is mine

What will these children become? I've been asked this question hundreds of times. It seems to me that the question cannot be posed this way. For years, I've responded that I'm less interested in what these kids will become than what they won't become.

Guests who come to see our program have a hard time understanding me and what we do here. They see a fun, exciting program and dedicated staff, but they don't understand the depth of the challenge we face. “Impacting the lives of tens of thousands” may sound impressive when you live in a city of twenty thousand. But more than one million children live in the five boroughs of New York. We work with less than one percent of children.

When I look on the street and see young boys and girls doing drugs and prostitution and all these things, I think, “We could have saved them if we had been here when they were younger.”

Do I expect the kids who ride on our buses now to become doctors, lawyers, and accountants? Maybe one or two will become them. But, again, I don’t care much about their profession. I want to help them get out of the mud. It's a success for me to see that they're not on Flushing Avenue among the prostitutes and they're not selling drugs on Troutman.

This is why we put so much effort into our work.

I was happy when I once met a man who, as a child, participated in Yoga Bear Sunday School. Now he works as a janitor. His starting salary was more than thirty-two thousand dollars a year. Compared to what he could have expected, he achieved enormous success.

"I'm staying here"

We do not strive for our children to successfully graduate from school and then move to a better area. It was this kind of thinking that led to the emergence of the ghetto. Who will stay and fight? Who would buy a house in Bushwick and try to make a difference here?

One of our employees advised a young woman with great potential to apply for a scholarship to a Christian college in Florida. The girl told her: “No way. Do you think I can go and leave my little sisters in a place like this?”

What happens to the young people we have invested our lives in? Some are in college. Others stayed in the area and found work. Some are preparing for full-time ministry. There are those who work with the Metro Church.

People often ask me, “Bill, will you ever be 80, 90, or 100 percent successful?”

Probably not.

Sociologists are constantly studying the problem of urban ghettos. I tell them that only one in four young people living here will achieve anything in life. The parable of the seeds and the four kinds of soil is very applicable here and very accurate. In ten years, our success will be doubled if at least half of those we now work with become productive citizens and Christian parents.

I know deep in my soul that if what we are doing does not spread to other areas of the city, the country, then millions of young people will be lost to the Lord. That is why we work so hard on programs that we place in the hands of Christian teachers and youth ministry workers. What we present on Saturday mornings is included in programs published by Charisma Life and is now taught throughout the country and overseas.

Lack of responsibility

I was in Los Angeles as the 1992 riots were ending.

What happened was not possible simply because Rodney King was beaten by police. This happened because people live here who have no values, who have no relationship with Christ, which leads to a lack of responsibility.

When I was in Los Angeles, I spoke with one of the US Army personnel whose platoon had been called in to restore order. “That's what worries me most,” he said, “a mother and two children ran away from the store with a lot of different things. I hurried to one of the boys and told him to put everything back in its place. The child was about eight or nine years old. He looked at me, a man in uniform, and said: “I shouldn’t listen to you,” and went after his mother.”

I am not saying that I know all the reasons for the collapse of our city centers. But we as Christians must reconsider our priorities and our view of missions.

More than 90 percent of the funding for foreign missions comes from the United States. It is good to support Christian workers in Haiti or Hungary, but if we lose our own country, we will no longer have to think about supporting others.

We need a massive invasion of Christian workers into our city centers. For example, one full-time staff member is required to effectively reach children in an eight- or ten-block area. We need hundreds of employees in New York. The same number of people would be required to conduct similar services in any large city in America.

Streets of the world

Over the past few years, we have developed a method of reaching young people that is very effective and promising. These are street Sunday schools,

This idea arose in our church because Metro could no longer accommodate all the children who needed to be saved. This is really just an improved version of the Area Bible Clubs that I started in St. Petersburg many years ago. Every day after school we go to those areas where we cannot take children on buses to Sunday School. We have teams that go in trucks to different areas and conduct Sunday School classes on the street, in the park. Small trucks can quickly be turned into a stage. We return to the same place every week. We never tire of talking about the importance and regularity of visits, and children come, in any weather, and not only children, but also their parents.

They say that a church is not a building, but people, so we decided: “Okay, let's do it that way.” We have formed a church with an average of 150 to 500 people. It is much like a regular church service, with a prayer at the beginning and a call to repentance. The only difference is that we hold our meetings outside.

More than thirty street Sunday Schools are held each week in some of our city's poorest neighborhoods: the Lower East Side, Harlem, and the South Bronx. One of the places is located next to a shelter for homeless families.

The people who participate in this program cannot get enough of it. John DeRienzo, our associate who runs the Lower East Side program, once told me, “If there was enough money and people dedicated to our cause, it would probably be the number one ministry in the world. This is the most visual presentation of the gospel I have ever seen."

Some believe that this method is so powerful that it will stimulate the awakening of today. It is a low-cost program that can be easily implemented in every city in America, regardless of size or economic status. It can be administered in areas where lower or middle class people live.

We like to say, “The message is so simple that even adults can understand it.”

This method is already being used in Miami, Mobile, Washington, Detroit, Los Angeles, Atlanta, St. Louis, Grand Rapids, Seattle, Dallas and many other cities in the United States and abroad. We believe that this movement will stir millions of people around the world.

No excuses

You might say, “I would love to be involved in something like this, but I just don’t have the time.”

When I was nineteen, I could still believe this excuse. But I know that if you want to do something, you can always find time for it.

Do I have time to help organize Sunday Schools in other cities? In other countries? No. But I do it because it's important. We recently returned from a worker training program in Argentina where thousands of children attend what they call La Escuela en la Calle, or "School on the Street" - their version of street Sunday School. It took seventeen hours to fly there and seventeen hours back. It was very tiring, but we took the time to do it because we think it's important.

Scripture tells us that to whom much is given, much will be required (see: Luke 12:48). I am fully aware that someone saved me when I was a lonely boy. Now I can enjoy saving other young people in need.

"We don't need him anymore"

These were the words of a former couple who stood at my door one evening while I was serving as a pastor in Florida. Their son Jeff was with them.

“If you accept him, he can stay with you,” the father said.

Jeff was a child who immediately became everyone's enemy. He was constantly getting into trouble: at school, at home and at church.

One could certainly expect that the church elders would not be able to control themselves when Jeff was around. One day, Jeff borrowed a motorcycle and rode it on the church lawn right before the service. One of the deacons grabbed Jeff by the shirt, lifted him off the motorcycle and threw him to the ground. No one expected what happened next from the deacon. He cursed him with words that can only be heard in a remote area. What a testimony!

People won't listen to you if they don't like you. Many people come to church because they like the pastor or someone in the church. If there are no such people in the church, people do not come. That's how it works.

I ran to the scene and tried to calm the deacon.

That evening in my apartment I stood up for the guy again. I took him in and raised him for several years as my own son. Today Jeff is the Sunday School director of Metro Church in South Los Angeles.

His parents throwing him out is something Jesus would never do.

I gave my life to pay my debt not only to the one who picked me up when I fell, but also to Christ who gave His life for me at Calvary.

Strategy

There are children in need in every city in America. There are conflicts at home in both Manhattan, Kansas and Manhattan, New York. No matter where people live, they are similar to each other in what lies behind the façade of their home. Here in New York it's just more residents. This is the only difference.

It is not surprising that we see hostility and violence when some nine million people live in an area of twenty-five or fifty square kilometers.

In consultations with pastors and youth ministers, I discovered that we all face the same human sins and problems. Sin is sin, no matter where you are.

If we want people to turn to the Lord, we must not try to bring a city, or a region, or even a neighborhood to God. We must be willing to bring one person to the Lord at a time.

The success of our ministry is not a giant rally. These are individuals serving the Lord.

Television cameras and stadiums filled with people also play a role, but their influence will never compare to the influence of a faithful Christian living a Christian life, serving in a local church, taking time to minister to a lost child.

We must never forget the purpose God has given the Church. It is far more valuable than any service you name. That was the plan of the New Testament, and it is still the same. The local church must lead, teach, and build the good relationships necessary to fulfill God's commission.

You may say, “My church is dead! How can I change something?

First, never criticize a pastor. You don't always see what he sees. You don't bear this burden. Plus, it only takes one person to make a difference in the church. I've seen this happen many times. If the Lord wants you to become this person, step forward and get started. We know effective methods and can teach you how to do it. But one thing we cannot give you is a burden that must burn in your heart, and a burning desire to bring your cities to God, one person at a time. It's just between you and God.

There will come a day when you say, “I don’t care if anyone else is with me. I’m going to bring this city to God one person at a time.” The moment you put in your efforts, you will be surprised at how many people were looking to your guidance. The multiplying factor can lead to service you never dreamed of.

Today, Sunday School from the city center is spreading throughout the country. However, efforts need to be directed beyond the centers of poverty and crime. I believe it's time to take a good, proper, morally sound neighborhood and commit to keeping it that way. Great ministries do not have to focus on invading areas where drugs and perversion have taken over. They can be aimed at prevention so that young people never have to experience the destruction of sin. We need to learn to pray, “Lord, help me to save them before their bodies and souls are sullied by Satan.”

In many third world countries, 60 percent of the population is under fourteen years of age. Yet very few mission strategies are aimed at saving children. They prefer to conduct tent evangelism for adults or build a Bible school. I was in Mexico City and saw Friday and Saturday night street dances sponsored by the local Communist Party, followed by the distribution of Marxist political literature. Young people came there in thousands. Why is it so difficult for us to adopt this method?

Bold steps

One day a critic of our program said, “Bill, you're just brainwashing these kids!”

I wish it were so. They are with us only an hour and a half a week. This can hardly be compared to the garbage that surrounds them every day.

If we want their lives to change, we need to take extraordinary steps. The days of funny little stories on a flannel board in Sunday School are over. Your program must come from your spirit and be presented with such force as if this is the last chance for these children to hear the Gospel. We fight to win back the people and the hearts of the youth.

Over the years I have seen many good beginnings. But there are not many who make it to the end. There is only one way to reach the end: to act boldly in your dedication.

We don't play games. The issue of life and death is being decided. Every day a matter of life and death is decided.

We will not bring them all to God, but we will bring one, another, another. On my route, I recently spoke with a young girl who had been coming to Metro Church Sunday School for many years. She said to me, “Pastor Bill, I just wanted to tell you that half of everything I've learned in life I've learned from you.”

We talked about this and came to the conclusion that the values she learned were the result of our constant drilling of these themes. Every week we just kept hammering it home.

One of the bus workers, Millie, has been with us since her teenage years. Now she is already the mother of two boys who also come to our Sunday School. I asked her why she still stayed with us.

“I saw so many of my friends just throw away their lives,” she said, “but Sunday School changed my life.” Then she added: “I want my sons to become what I became - Christians.”

Millie's husband is now in prison on murder charges.

“He was in bad company,” she explained. “I pray that my boys will follow Jesus.”

We're just getting started

Are we having success? The number is just a by-product. The only measure worth taking is what happens in the child's life. But it also benefits adults, including the entire neighborhood.

Before he died, David Feingold, the government's director of urban revitalization in Brooklyn, told me, “One of the reasons why Bushwick was put on government rent relief was because of the change in the feeling and attitude of the community that was brought about by your service. It’s because of you that this area is now worth investing in.”

Even for secular society, the changes that have taken place are obvious. But there is still a long road ahead.

On stage at Metro Church, Norman Vincent Peale spoke words I will never forget. The ninety-three-year-old thinker stood there to present the Church of the Year award from Guideposts magazine. He said, “You have done a wonderful job here for God, but you still have many years of dedicated work ahead of you.”

What about tomorrow? Do we still have dreams and plans?

Definitely! We need a garage for our buses, a larger publishing house, dormitories for our staff, more staff, more trucks for Sidewalk Sunday Schools.

Dear readers of the HRM blog.

I bring to your attention an interesting article by American consultant and writer Steve Toback.

“Let me ask you a question, and I want you to answer honestly: Do you really think you can make a difference in the world?

If you're like most people, your answer will be no. But, you know what? You are wrong. Most likely, you simply underestimate the impact on other people that you have every day. Believe me, it's bigger than you think.

Awareness of such an impact really helps, the main thing is to believe in it. There are many examples of leaders who changed the course of industry history simply because they believed that they were special and destined for great things.

Such a powerful combination, closely related to the self-realization of top officials, leads to incredible results. This is a very correct and laconic description of all successful leaders. They really believe that they can change...

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This is what a fucking, thrice-fucking cunning and fucking well-thought-out sabotage should have been on the part of the Mujahideen (Sorry for the swearing, but I couldn’t resist), so that they could induce the Minister of Armaments himself or someone else to convert to Islam, so that no one would notice... And so that this minister goes through all the security levels.... NOD32.dll, well, you certainly amused me.

Okay, let's say the rocket was launched like this? There are two options. Either the whole planet will die to hell, or people will survive and build everything again... Of course, thousands of years will pass before we return to a happy existence. But we’ll come back if we survive! And if we die, we won’t care.

And in my memory, the most powerful explosion that took a lot of lives was the explosion in Hiroshima. But it was wartime.

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In Christ, cleansed from petrified LIES, the coming GOLDEN age of humanity:
1. Matt. 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.

This commandment is for creators! Love of truth is the main feature of scientific thinking.

2. Christ came with a sword capable of dividing TRUTH from LIES and GOOD from EVIL!

3. Ch. the commandment (Matthew 22:37) REQUIRES to love God not only with all your HEART (faith!), but also with all your MIND (and this is the path of KNOWLEDGE!), and the MIND and HEART in ch. zap. - these are two blades of the DOUBLE-EDGED sword of Christ (for creators!) - your SIGN, in which is the SALVATION of the soul and the world!! !

(Divine truth, LOVE, PEACE and GOOD where there is harmony of MIND and HEART; and where there is no this harmony, there is EVIL and the devilish LIE!)

4. To love God and “neighbor” - to conquer (with the sword of Christ!) all difficulties and enemies with your MIND and HEART, making them your friends and bringing the good news - LIGHT, LOVE, PEACE and prosperity to the whole earth!! !

(The Sword of Christ is the only weapon worthy of a MAN!!!...

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Discussion "Can one person change the world?" took place as part of the "Open Show" project.

The DOC Documentary Film Center screened the film “The Day Peace Came”, which tells the story of the actor’s struggle for his idea to create a “day of peace on Earth.”

In 1998, director and actor Jeremy Gilley came up with the idea of creating an “International Day of Peace,” a day when “military activities would stop and humanitarian aid would be delivered to those in need.” He managed to achieve recognition of his idea at the UN on September 7, 2001, but after well-known events, the approval of the idea dragged on for another seven years. As a result, with the help of celebrities, including Angelina Jolie, Jude Law and Elton John, the actor achieves his goal - the “International Day of Peace” is scheduled for September 21.

The director personally presented his film manifesto, and also, together with Chulpan Khamatova, Nyuta Federmesser, Mitya Aleshkovsky and Tatyana Lazareva, took part in a discussion on the topic “Can one person change the world?” The presenter was...

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A comment from bee bee gave me an interesting thought. Can a person influence society, and if so, how?

Everyone understands that through its pressure, society produces the kind of person the state needs. All social technologies are focused on this. Personality is a product of social relationships. But a person as an individual, in turn, builds and rebuilds the society that creates him. There are very subtle relationships here. You may ask, how can one person influence society? Does this seem unlikely to you? But a person as an individual is, in principle, capable of influencing the fate of a city, a country, even humanity.

What conditions are necessary for a person to influence society? Firstly, the state system must be in a non-equilibrium state. We are talking about crisis periods in the development of society. As soon as the state as a system turns out to be weak, a huge number of charlatans, all kinds of dark ones, come to light...

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Instructions

Be kind to the people around you and smile more often. You smiled at your neighbor in the stairwell, he smiled at a fellow passenger on the subway, the fellow passenger smiled at his wife, the wife at the saleswoman, the saleswoman at the customer. And there were immediately more happy people.

Most people want to live in a clean, prosperous world. Keep order. Train yourself to take the trash to the trash can and turn off the water when it is not needed. When cleaning up trash in the forest, don’t be too lazy to grab empty bottles left by previous vacationers.

Learn to listen to others. Often, many people suffer from the fact that they have no one to talk to. By listening to the problems of a friend, mother, colleague, you can make these people calmer and happier.

Participate in volunteer events, become a blood donor. Surely you have things that you haven’t worn for a long time - give them to low-income families. By donating a small portion of your time or resources, you can help many...

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Can one person change history? miss_tramell - 07/10/2014 I am sure that the progress of humanity is driven by individuals. Any qualitative leap is the work of one person who was born at the right time and found himself in the right place.

So Napoleon turned France, torn apart by talkative rebels, into an empire, forced the whole world to reckon with it and scared it so much that all the European kings shit their pants in fear.

And Joan of Arc? France fell apart, the retinue of weak kings killed each other, the counts of Burgundy killed the Dukes of Burgundy, and the country was visited annually by the English degenerate and villain the Black Prince. Hunger, poverty, and death practically destroyed the prosperous country, and then she appeared.

Many said that Zhanna was fucked because of schizophrenia. Even so, what she did saved France. The people who believed her gathered their courage and slapped the invaders on the horns. From Zhanna's mission...

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Great gift.

Number of pages: 704
Binding: hard
Illustrations: b/w + color

Description of the book

Can one person change the whole world?

Maybe history knows many such examples. Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Galileo, Columbus, Einstein, Thomas Edison, Avicenna, Shakespeare, Charlie Chaplin, Yuri Gagarin and Leonardo da Vinci - the greatest commander and brilliant politician, great scientists and adventurous traveler, unrivaled playwright and resilient comedian, space explorer and the most mysterious painter and inventor - they lived at different times and in different parts of the world, and only Alexander set the goal of conquering the world.

However, we can safely say about all of them: they changed the world - each in their own way, each in their own area, and thanks to them we began to live differently, think differently, understand differently...

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40fdfb9862b63adf6731ed1b5a1e4b39

Download the movie in good quality

lyrics from the cartoon "Little Raccoon"

Of course, the idea that any good deed will be returned to you a hundredfold is as old as the world. But the film Pay It Forward, based on the book of the same name by Catherine R. Hyde, gives us a new vision of how to implement this idea. Many consider the plot of the film to be utopian, but it shows how literally one person can change the whole world.

But does it need to be changed? - the question arises. The answer is heard in the film: “Because there is trouble everywhere” - this is what the main character Trevor and the homeless drug addict Jerry say at the same time. Of course, people don't always know what they need and may simply not want to change anything. Then, according to Trevor, they lose.

Without change there is no future, no happiness, because life turns into a gray routine. And although we go to her...

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— 07/10/2014 I am sure that the progress of humanity is driven by individuals. Any qualitative leap is the work of one person who was born at the right time and found himself in the right place.

So Napoleon turned France, torn apart by talkative rebels, into an empire, forced the whole world to reckon with it and scared it so much that all the European kings shit their pants in fear.

Wasn’t that the case with us? Minin and Pozharsky gathered the people's militia and kicked out the Pole thieves from the Russian land. During the Time of Troubles, people hid in holes out of fear and lost faith, but two people were able to convince an entire people to fight back the invaders.

These are difficult days in Ukraine. Fascist degenerates are killing the people of the South-East of the country. Everyone who does not want to live under the rule of the Kyiv junta and its overseas puppet masters is outlawed. They are arrested, killed, poisoned.

And again at such a time a personality appeared. This is Strelkov. I looked closely at him for a long time, trying to understand who he was. An ordinary guy who found himself in the right place at the right time. History has again brought the common man to the forefront.

I want you to know about it too. Its participants communities on VKontakte They made a website about him:
http://superstrelkov.ru/

This guy is a real good guy and a hero. That person who can save Ukraine, as Pozharsky and Minin saved Russia in their time, as Zhanna saved France.

Read the principles that the guys adhere to. They may be a little pretentious, but in war, as in war, and without pure faith in yourself and your cause, you probably cannot win.

What do you know about the Donbass militias? Do you know who they are, or are they unknown to you? What do you generally think about them?

Saved

I am sure that the progress of humanity is driven by individuals. Any qualitative leap is the work of one person who was born at the right time and found himself in the right place. So Napoleon turned France, torn apart by talkative rebels, into an empire, forced the whole world to reckon with it and...

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He stood between the dead and the living, and the defeat stopped.

Numbers 16:48

It's all said in verse forty-eight. Aaron stood between the living and the dead. Where he became, death ceased. Are you following my thought?

So, if one person can change something, and it is obvious to us just from this small passage that this is possible, then what kind of person should this person be?

Our employees sat down with the children on the sofa. A seven-year-old girl was holding a cardboard box in her hand and tearing it into small pieces. The children ate the box - that's all they had.

Isn't it amazing what you can do that you seemingly can't do? You hear all the time: “No, I can’t do this.” Of course you can, you just don't want to.

A Baptist pastor asked me, “Do you think one person can make a difference?”

Final essay grade 11 Completed by: Ermakov Nikita

Direction: “Man and Society”.

Topic: “Can one person change society?”

Can one person change society? I often think about this question and remember statements from social studies lessons: “You cannot live in society and be free from society.” I completely agree with this expression. Every person, personality is born and enters this world in order to make this world a little better. Society is also people who can either support any of us or not accept us. I believe that one person cannot change the world. Confirmation of my thoughts can be found in fiction.

Let's turn to the novel by I.S. Turgenev "Fathers and Sons". The main character of this work is Evgeny Bazarov. He is a new man, a man of his time. Bazarov and his few associates call themselves nihilists (from the Latinnihil-nothing). Together with his student Arkady, he comes to the Kirsanovs' parental estate. Here Bazarov meets the older generation of this family: Arkady's father Nikolai Kirsanov and Arkady's uncle Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov. From the very first meeting, the reader understands that a conflict is brewing between the characters. During their communication, we see constant clashes between the old and new generations. Heroes often argue on various topics. They express their opinion about the role of the outgoing aristocracy, argue about nihilists, and express their attitude towards the people and art. Representatives of the older generation, Messrs. Kirsanovs, defend their position, established for centuries, while Bazarov and Arkady advocate changing Russia through decisive measures, perhaps even through revolution. But time arranges everything in its own way. Rejecting love, Bazarov falls in love with Anna Sergeevna Odintsova. But she refused his feelings. Disillusioned with his life, work and love, Evgeny Bazarov goes to his parents' house and dies after some time. He could not change the world for the better, although his ideas and thoughts deserve attention to some extent. Perhaps because he was lonely, far from the people, and did not have a clear program of action.

You can give another example of confirmation of my thought. One of the main characters of the epic novel L.N. Tolstoy's "War and Peace" Andrei Bolkonsky is also burdened by society. Moving in the highest circles of society, he is forced to attend various evenings. He is young, handsome, received a decent education and upbringing for his time. He is a true patriot. During the war, he does not sit out in “cushy places.” Andrey is eager to take the battlefield, as he is a real warrior. When we meet him for the first time in Anna Pavlovna Sherer’s salon, we notice his absent-minded gaze and wandering smile. It is immediately obvious that he feels out of place in this society. He rejects this society and does not accept it. The day will come, and he will find the strength to break out of it. Andrei Bolkonsky failed to change society, but this image gives us a feeling of respect for trying to change the world for the better.

Thus, after analyzing episodes from these works, I came to the conclusion that one person cannot change society. I think, despite this, there have always been, are and will be people who will strive to change the world for the better. Be that as it may, life moves forward thanks to people like this, but before you can change the world for the better, you need to change yourself. It’s not for nothing that the famous American writer Sri Chinma said: “Yesterday I was smart, I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, and therefore I change myself.”

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