The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

Vintage Youth Pastor , Timothy Parker

Have you heard about the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge? It is going viral on social media everywhere. You can find videos on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube. People accept the Ice Bucket Challenge and then challenging several of their friends before having a bucket full, or in some cases a cooler full, of ice water dumped over their heads. People young and old are doing it. Even celebrities are getting involved in this campaign. Check out what happened on the Jimmy Falon show.

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This is one of the most brilliant awareness campaigns and fundraisers all rolled into one that I’ve ever seen. First of all, more people are talking about ALS this month than probably any other time in history. People are given the challenge who don’t know what ALS is so they Google it to learn. When you do, you’ll learn,

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease,” is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their death. When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With voluntary muscle action progressively affected, patients in the later stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed.”

This is a vicious disease that robs its victims of not only their muscle movement, but it steals their dignity and any quality of life. Currently, ALS is a death sentence. There is a great need for research and that costs money, which leads to the second part of this challenge.

Aldersgate Youth Pastor, Jason Williams

If you choose to accept the challenge, you are to dump your bucket of ice water over your head, challenge others to the task, and then send $10 to the ALS Association. If you don’t accept the challenge, you’re to send $100 to the ALS Association. It has been reported that the ALS Association’s 38 chapters have received over $4 million in donations in a two week period. That’s crazy. Not only have their funds surpassed anything they’ve ever experienced, ALS is one of the top topics trending in social media today.

“We have never seen anything like this in the history of the disease,” said Barbara Newhouse, president and CEO of The ALS Association,  in a release on the association’s website. “We couldn’t be more thrilled with the level of compassion, generosity and sense of humor that people are exhibiting as they take part in this impactful viral initiative.

Riverstone Church Youth Pastor, Kristin McLendon

This crazy idea of dumping a bucket of ice water over your head, an act that doesn’t cost you anything more than a bag of ice and a bucket of water. has made a difference. Someone chose to take a crazy idea and turn it into a huge awareness campaign and fundraiser to fight a vicious disease.

God calls us all to raise our voice for hope for those who cannot speak for themselves [Proverbs 31:8].  If you’ve been around me for any length of time, you know I raise my voice for victims of sex trafficking. I only wish I’d come up with the brilliant idea of the ice bucket challenge. Kudos to the mastermind Corey Griffin, the 27 year old who came up with the idea. Just look at whats happened when someone acts on a crazy idea.

Who are you raising your voice for? What are you doing to make a difference?