STAND UP sets world record

To get others to sit up and take notice, some 23.5 million people got to their feet Oct. 15-16 to show support for “making poverty history”—the goal of the U.N. Millennium Campaign. These students at the School of Knowledge, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, form the record-setting total of 23,542,614 that earned the effort a place in the Guinness World Records for the largest number of people to stand up for a cause.

In ELCA churches from Houston to Hinsdale, Ill., 1,500 members stood during worship in prayer. “Our commitment as Lutherans to fighting poverty and disease in the world is part of a global movement with a common goal to end the scandal of poverty that kills,” said Kim C. Stietz, ONE Lutheran Campaign coordinator, ELCA Washington Office.