Summer of Change Challenge: Will You Join?

Summer of Change Challenge: Use Your Change to Make a Change in Someone’s Life

Dear Friends & Family,

I hope you are all having an awesome start to your summer. I wanted to share with all of you an idea that God has placed on my heart and see if you and your family might be up for the challenge as well. I have been reading a really challenging book called The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns. It’s the personal journey of a man who goes from being the CEO of a luxury goods company to the Director of World Vision, a Christian organization who meets the physical and spiritual needs of people around the world through a variety of programs. I’m only mid way through the book but time and again the book keeps asking me the question “what will you do?” for the hurting, the hungry, the helpless and the hopeless.

So anyways, 2 days ago I started working on a new monthly budget. After losing almost my entire savings this winter to car repairs, medical bills and the IRS, my budget has become much tighter as I try to rebuild my savings. I was bummed as I went to bed that night because beyond regular tithing to my church there just wasn’t a lot of room in the budget for extra giving right now. So several hours into sleeping I woke up with an idea (Thank you God!). I, like most women, have crazy heavy purses trying to store everything under the sun in there and one of the things that weighs down my purse the most is change in my wallet. So periodically I empty out my wallet and put the change in a bag and now have a few bags of change in my bedroom trying to find something to do with it. And that was God’s idea to me, every time I get change back I’ll save it and after a month (or more) when I have enough for a donation I’ll give it away. It was the perfect solution for me. It gave me the chance to give but didn’t take away from my already tight budget.

So fast-forward to last night and again I’m sleeping and again wake up in the night with an idea (maybe next time God we can try ideas in the middle of the day :). This idea is to challenge all of my friends and family (You!) to save your loose change starting today until the end of the summer and then give it away too. While my small donation might not do much imagine the change all of our loose change could do together! Worldwide 26% of people live on less than $1.25 per day. In Sub Saharan Africa it’s up to 50% of people who live on less than $1.25 per day. Approx. 25,00 people die every single day of hunger related causes. We hear these numbers all the time but we must remember these statistics represent the lives of real people just like you with families just like you. So many of these deaths are preventable and our money no matter how small we think it is will go further than we can imagine. Remember the story of Jesus taking one small boy’s lunch and using it to feed 5,000 people? God can do big things with whatever we can offer Him.

So if you and your family are up for the challenge start collecting your loose change today and save it until Monday September 6^th (Labor Day). On that day each of us participating will count our change and then donate it to an organization of your choice that you believe will use the money to make a positive change in someone’s life. It’s a great time to start thinking about where you might want to donate. Some great organizations to consider are: http://www.chinaorphans.org/ , http://www.worldvision.org/ , http://www.skip1.org , http://www.compassion.com/ , or http://campfirefly.com/ . And don’t worry if you don’t collect that much, the cool thing will be see how each of our little amounts when added together makes a big change!

So if you’re in comment on here or send me FB/twitter message and let me know so I can make sure on Labor Day to find out how much you and your family saved and what organization you gave your money to. At the end of the challenge I will announce the total amount we raised as a group, the names of all the organizations we donated to as well as the person or family who saved the most change. It will be so neat to see what God does this summer and please forward this message to as many people as possible that might want to participate too.

Thanks and start saving today!

Stacy

Proverbs 14:31b “Whoever is kind to the needy honors God”

James 1:27 “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

Matthew 25:40
'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

Luke 12:48b “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”

California Girl

L, one of the 8 year olds I nanny for, has been calling me a California girl all week. Considering I went to California last week I didn't consider her new nickname for me to be much of a stretch but I was still curious why the new name. Her answer cracked me up. She said I was a California girl because I highlighted my hair again and I painted my fingernails! For the active, horse-riding, slightly tom-boyish sisters I watch anything remotely girly apparently makes you a California girl. But her comments got me thinking about how I have been more concerned about my appearance in the last couple years and how I think it's a really a good thing because it means I care about myself again, something that wasn't true for many years. 8 years ago I looked very similar to how I look now-roughly the same size & blonde hair...only then that was my natural hair color. Within 6 months I had gained 40 lbs and my hair went from blonde to an ugly dark brown, both the result in part of medications I was taking. I spent the next ,at least 5 years really not liking myself. I hated my weight and felt powerless to change it. I didn't have the money (and sometimes still don't) to make my hair look the way I liked and keep it up every month. While I certainly believe that the most important things about us as people are not outwardly it was still a miserable to place to be in when you hate the way you look. I just wanted to hide from the world and for a few years mostly did. But in September 2005 I decided to get serious about my weight and within 9 months lost 35 lbs and in the 4 years since then lost another 15 or so to bring my grand total weight loss to 50 lbs in 4 1/2 years. It was really hard work and I consider it a miracle from God that I was able to lose the weight and keep it off. But losing the weight didn't immediately change the way I felt about myself. Years of saying bad things about my appearance had taken its toll and I can honestly say it has probably only been in the last year that what I see in the mirror has begun to match what I think of myself in my mind. And with that realization I've wanted to take more pride in the way I look-new clothes, highlighted hair and yes even painted fingernails. If that makes me a California girl then so be it!

And speaking of California, I had a wonderful time visiting my friend Candace and her great family! It was very relaxing and I can't wait to go see them again and seriously don't I look good with the ocean behind me?!