Saturday Morning Sermon 2
This week’s sermon is about the importance of child activism, and how the messages spread through child activist can apply to our everyday lives. Malala Yousafzai is a great example of a child activist who endured extreme conditions, and used her experience to help change the world for millions of people.
Malala Yousafzai was born and raised in Pakistan. She lived in Pakistan during a time where women were limited to very few personal rights. Girls at the time were given the bare minimum of education, and we taught in dirty, run-down schools. The issue that concerned Malala the most was education for young girls like her. She became an advocate for girls’ education, and spoke at many locations about the issue. Because women had very few rights at the time, her actions resulted in the Taliban putting a death threat on her. Despite this, she continued to persevere and fight. One day, Malala was near-fatally shot in the head on a school bus on the way home from school. Malala’s incredible perseverance and courage allowed her to continue speaking out about what mattered to her most. Malala’s hard work changed the lives of millions of young girls all around the world, and has given the gift of quality education to millions more.
One very important lesson to take way from Malala’s story, is her non-stop passion and perseverance to make a change to what mattered to her most. Even after having a death threat put to her, and narrowly surviving an attempted assassination, she continued to protest and speak out.
Malala’s dedication to her goals is a very good model to others, and teaches us to never give up, even under the most extreme circumstances. Although we are all very fortunate to not have lived in Malala’s situation, we can still persevere just like she did. Whether you are trying to make a change in your community, achieve a goal that you set, or something as small as completing a difficult task, we can all work hard at our goals and never give up, just like Malala did.
We can all take the lesson of never giving up into our lives at camp. Continue to try out for intercamp teams, even if you don’t make them. Keep taking the deep water test until you pass. Shoot one more arrow at archery to hit that bullseye. Whatever it is that you do at camp, remember Malala’s lesson, and apply it to your time at Baco. Never give up at whatever you do here, and continue to persevere, because just like Malala, if you are determined to persevere and make a change, you can achieve amazing things.
-Jason S., Baco Bunk 23
