Tea for me, food for them. {What One Thing Would You Give Up?}
I click the screen and see the Somali faces gaunt, hollow eyes of hunger.
Just this morning I told Jeff I need to lose a couple pounds.
Isn’t this a crazy world?
Every person on this planet fights a battle. Just different kinds depending where we live. We in America battle the beast of consumerism, materialism, overindulgence, comfort-addiction.
Or am I the only one?
Every day the beast of my flesh must be slain.
You too?
You know what’s funny? We can actually help each other fight the other’s battle.
Perhaps we often think that we can help Somalia. Perhaps we think they need us. (And we can and they do!)
But think for a moment how we need them. How they can help us. I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that our adventure this past year of pushing open the doors of giving has helped us more than anyone else. Other have received the donations but the real gift has been ours.
When we willingly help fight the beast of hunger that Somalis battle we break the back of our own beasts: consumerism, materialism, overindulgence, comfort-addiction. Beasts are slain exponentially.
By us helping them, they are helping us.
And we do need help, friends. Are you kidding? I couldn’t even kick my coffee habit on my own! Which is why when I received the email from World Vision Bloggers — an awesome group of people committed to blogging about poverty across our world and raising awareness for those in need (us all) — I was thrilled. Yes, the Somalis would help me!
How? By providing the perfect opportunity to say no to myself and yes to them. We’ve already discussed the facts (F is for Famine, Fundraisers, Fourteen-year-olds and fifty-one photos), but here’s a refresher:
- 12.4 million are affected in the region
- More than 35% of all children in the region are now facing emergency levels of malnutrition
- Starvation is a real threat in famine-declared areas of Somalia
- Some 30,000 children have already lost their lives
- Worst drought in 60 years
- World Vision’s teams in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia are responding to this crisis with food, water, blankets and other critical needs for families
Ready for the fun part? I invite you to take part in World Vision’s 3-day awareness campaign Famine No More. Check out World Vision blogger Joy Bennett’s blog asking What one thing would you give up? so that you can simply send $10 to those in need. (click on graphic.)
See what I mean? We both have battles — we are helping theirs and they are helping ours. When we go without we are taking ground in the battle against consumerism and self-indulgence. Friends, we need this. We need them.
So what would I give up? I couldn’t think of anything at first. We live a pretty pared-down life and already give to World Vision on a regular basis, so I thought I could just add a little bonus to our next gift. But I wanted to do something that would daily remind me to put someone else above myself. (Goodness knows I can use some of that!) Then I thought of it — coffee. By quitting coffee for a few weeks I could remind myself every single morning that these Somali people are precious in the sight of God. That they matter, that their well-being is more important than my favorite morning perk. It’s silly perhaps, but I know of nothing else that cuts closer to the heart than caffeine. 🙂 (For the record, I’m not against drinking coffee–it’s just that it can save me a few bucks and remind me every morning … you get the idea.)
So I wrote myself a note this past weekend, taped it to my counter, a gentle morning reminder for my head and heart: Tea for me, food for them. By drinking tea (I have loads of it on hand already) I can send that $10, but more importantly, send my heart and my prayers.
What one thing would you give up? Once you decide, go ahead and text in your $10 donation to “FAMINE” to 20222 or visit WorldVision.org.
Lastly, PLEASE leave a comment here and let us know what you did! It’s always more fun to do these things together, so please take a second and let us know you joined in the fun. Have a blog? Link up here, or to Joy’s post, and share the What One Thing Would You Give Up challenge with those in your sphere!
And now, I’m off to drink my tea. Thank you, dear friends, for reading.
F is for Fundraising, a Fourteen-year-old and Fifty-one photos
Yesterday I picked blueberries with an experienced fundraiser and philanthropist. You’d never know it, and he’d never say it — he’s a quiet, humble guy. Maybe that’s why I like him so much.
That and I used to change his diapers.
Yes, he’s fourteen and the beloved son of my friend and discipler of many years. He piled in between my two kids’ carseats and joined us for a morning of blueberry picking in the beautiful foothills of Colton. This is the same boy who slept on my floor ten years ago (the day that Jeff broke my heart) and asked me, “Miss Kari, are you ever going to get married?”
But recently this shy guy has a bee in his bonnet about raising funds for those in need in Africa. So he and his two brothers got creative and started their own little MooGuyz ministry, working, selling stuff, and raising support to purchase a $1,000 cow for a family in Uganda. Their older sister, Hannah, had the joy of delivering the cow to the family in Uganda just a few weeks ago (All four pictured below)
Isn’t that so cool? It reminded me of this little 11-year-old boy in Ghana, who has made headlines by endeavoring to raise $13 MILLION dollars during his 8-week school holiday, walking office to office and approaching local businesses for donations. The skinny, soft-spoken boy says,
“There is no point for others to have so much to eat while others have nothing … There are hungry people in Ghana too but our situation is not as desperate as the people of Somalia,”
There is no point …
The part that gets me about this story? The boy’s father, a school-teacher in Ghana, gave his entire July salary: $500.
His entire month’s salary.
I look at that boy, at his father, at my little 14-year-old friend, and I say: That is beautiful.
And yesterday I clicked it again: That World Vision link that multiplies your gift times five and sends food and supplies to our Somalian brothers and sisters in desperate need. And I turn here to the 51-photos, to see for myself, and weep, again. Mother closing her lifeless child’s eyes. Four-year-old buried in a roll of carpet. 7-month-old baby weighing 7.5 pounds. Without even thinking the words escape from my mouth, “This is hell.”
One photo is first blocked by a warning message: The following image contains graphic content that some viewers may find disturbing. A choice: Do I click?
Will I be disturbed?
To disturb is to move, to “break up the normal arrangement.” Do I want to be moved? Do I want my normal arrangement to be broken?
Aren’t I so thankful that 11-year-old Ghana boy was moved? That his dad was moved? That my 14-year-old friend was moved? That they were all disturbed?
I don’t like disturbing things, but there are beautiful stories in the midst of the hellish Horn of Africa situation.
And all of them begin with being disturbed.
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{Would you take some time today to look, and be a bit disturbed, for good? There IS hope. There IS joy. This IS the day that the Lord has made and He is GOOD. Will you continue to pray, give, spread the word, for those who desperately need hope. Happy Friday and Thank you for reading.}