EMERGENCY LOVE FLASH MOB FOR SYRIA!

ALL HANDS ON DECK! EMERGENCY LOVE FLASH MOB!I woke this morning to reports of the Syrian devastation. I saw the little ones’ terrified faces. I saw mothers and fathers who have spent their lives fleeing- fleeing once again. I am here to tell you that my first response was: Nope. I’m done. This is just too effing much. I changed the channel to House Hunters.Then I sat on the couch and thought: What if that was Abby and me fleeing? What if those were Chase and Tish and Amma’s terrified faces? And what if another mother — across the globe — saw us and decided our pain was “too much,” so instead of doing what she could, she changed the channel?WE WILL RESIST GOING NUMB. We will NOT be people of pity who console ourselves by saying: I feel your pain in my heart. Pity is nothing.Instead: We will be people of Love. Love is everything. Love is: Your pain in my heart and BACK OUT THROUGH MY HANDS.We will DO SOMETHING. We will not allow the fact that we cannot do everything keep us from doing SOMETHING.The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.So here I am. I haven’t put a bra on yet but I’m off the couch and in my office. I called the Together Rising Board this morning and said: LET’S GO, SISTERS. They said: YEP. LET’S. DO. THIS. So, while caring for ill family, third-base coaching, and soccer mom-ing, we put this Love Flash Mob together today.We called our partners working on the ground in Syria. They responded immediately and said that the carnage, fear, and pain is unfathomable. They told us that the international community’s response will likely take ONE MONTH. We said: Well we are here now. Together Rising is here NOW. Tell us exactly what you see and exactly what you need.This is what they see- this is from our partners, Jeremy and Jessica this morning, whose organization has been serving in Syria for years:“For weeks families outside Damascus have been hiding in tunnels beneath the ground to avoid airstrikes and chemical attacks. Some families have spent up to twenty days at a time underground — eating paper and leaves to stay alive. Water is contaminated. They’ve been in lockdown so long – since 2013 – that the children don’t know what a banana or an egg is – they’ve never seen or tasted one. By Monday, our team expects to be the first into Douma, which sustained the attacks this week. More than 50,000 people are still inside. Already we are operating a kitchen and mobile medical clinics serving those families who made it out of the tunnels – injured, traumatized- but alive.”This is what they need: $175,000.”$175,000 will provide food and medical support to 20,000 people every single day for one month. Lice and skin rashes are rampant. Women don’t have pads and babies don’t have diapers. This support will not only help keep these people alive: but will help them keep their dignity.”This is our goal: $175,000 to serve these families for one month.EVERY TAX-DEDUCTIBLE PENNY WE RECEIVE FROM YOU WILL GO DIRECTLY TO OUR PARTNERSTO USE ON THE GROUND IN SYRIA WITHIN 48 HOURS.Please show up. I have already told our partners that we WILL SHOW UP, so they have already told the Syrian families they are serving that immediate help is on the way. Please show up.Even in the face of this: I want you to enjoy your weekend with your family. I plan to. Eventually – I will turn all of this off and sink into gratitude for the peace that my family has, for the safety we enjoy- for my babies’ fear-free faces. But first: I will give thanks for all of that by DOING SOMETHING to serve those mothers and fathers who — because of where they were born — have none of this for their babies. SHOW UP FOR THESE FAMILIES. Then go show up for yours.This weekend: First the pain, then the rising.Please give your $5, $10, or $25 tax-deductible donation here: www.togetherrising.org/give

UPDATE:

Forty-eight hours ago, I asked us to resist going numb. To refuse to be people of pity who console ourselves by saying: “I feel your pain in my heart.”I asked us to instead be people of Love. People who do not allow the fact that we cannot do everything keep us from doing SOMETHING.And we sure did. We did a miraculous something.In 48 hours, you raised $594,844.Every penny we received from you over the past 48 hours will go on the ground to serve the besieged people of Syria. In fact, your money will be on the ground tomorrow — we already sent it. Our partners on the ground in Syria have shared these immediate steps they are taking with your funds: “1) You’re providing hot meals every day from our emergency kitchen, feeding approximately 20,000 people who have fled Douma and Eastern Ghouta and are now displaced. Tomorrow, we plan to take food inside Douma, where last week’s attacks occurred, to reach 2,000 of the neediest people we met this week. 2) You’re providing soap and pads and hygiene products for approximately 10,000 people. 3) You’re keeping two of our mobile medical teams in the field for another month. If this next month is like the last, you’ll be making sure shrapnel is removed from children’s skin, burns are healed, and lifesaving medicine reaches those who need it most.” As always, we will be in constant contact, reevaluating with our partners, and you will be the first to hear about the life-saving work your dollars are doing. Love is everything. Love is: Your pain in my heart and BACK OUT THROUGH MY HANDS. Thank you, thank you, thank you, for renewing my faith in Love every damn day.

Love, Glennon & Together Rising