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Meet Rev. Jennifer Kottler, Leader of a Breakout Session at Fall Microfinance Conference

By Opportunity International

Reverend Jennifer Kottler is the director of policy and advocacy at Sojourners, an organization that aims to articulate the biblical call to social justice, “inspiring hope and building a movement to transform individuals, communities, the church, and the world.” Kottler will lead a breakout session at the Fall Microfinance Conference on how to be a stronger advocate for Opportunity and its work.

A long-time advocate for justice, Kottler has worked at Protestants for the Common Good, the Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign, and the Chicago Jobs Council. Read more about Kottler’s work on the Sojourners’ website. At the Fall Microfinance Conference, she’ll explain how to make an effective appeal to a congressperson, influence U.S. development policy, and network with other advocates to help eliminate global poverty. To meet Kottler and other advocates for changing the lives of people all over the world, register for Opportunity’s Fall Microfinance Conference at opportunity.org/opportunity-microfinance-conference, Oct. 8-9 in Washington, D.C.

Get to know Rev. Kottler by reading an excerpt from her piece “Choices Make Changes” in the Sojomail e-zine. To read the rest of the article, click here.

“Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.” William Jennings Bryan (1860 – 1925)

I think it’s often easier to let life happen than to consciously experience it. Many of us (far too many of us, perhaps) go through the motions without a lot of thought about how our actions both individually and collectively are creating (and destroying) the world. How we spend our money, how we consume news and information, how we treat each other and the earth — all of these impact our communities, our families, and ourselves.

Until recently, I never gave going to the grocery store a second thought. Grocery shopping was a necessary evil for me, and once I got there, I just bought what I needed for the best price I could find, and then left — often thankful that the store had what I needed. But did you know that our food (the growing, processing, packaging, and transportation) is second only to personal automobiles in consumption of fossil fuels? And it is a close second at that. We consume nearly as much fossil fuel through our food as we do in our cars. As someone who rarely drives and takes public transportation or walks as an alternative, this stunned me. It has forced me to confront the ways that I contribute to our over-consumption of energy for the sake of convenience.

Read more of Rev. Kottler’s Sojomail piece about making small and large changes in your life that impacts the global community.

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