CHUMP CHANGE CAN LITERALLY CHANGE THE WORLD

Every weekend for the past 3 years we have challenged our high school students to bring in a $1 a week for an offering.  It's stupid really, like American chump change. It's a dollar. It's really not a stretch for 99% of our San Diego crowd.  But believe it or not, it's a rare weekend when our high school offering actually amounts to $1 times the number of warm bodies in the room.  But we keep pushing it every week and reminding them of the difference they can make with just a little effort to help us stack hands together in this.

We use the dollar a week to sponsor 3 kids through world vision (Zambia, El Salvador, and India), an orphanage in Uganda, and a child we visit once or twice a year in Tecate, Mexico.  With that money, we can provide monthly food, shelter, education, and medicine.

This year, I vowed that at Christmas, none of these kids would go without a Christmas present.  So, for the world vision kids, we sent $75 each.  We also were told that this gift would be used to bless not just the kids we sponsor, but the community they live in via the World Vision workers too.  But I had no idea how true that would really be.

We have started receiving letters and pictures back telling us what they did with the money and each time I read a letter and see the pictures, I cry.  I can't believe how much difference a mere $75 can make.

See for yourself.

LUYANDO IN ZAMBIA, AFRICA got a new umbrella, new clothes, and new bed for herself, a goat for her family, and several other gifts that were given to her community.

RUBY IN INDIA.  Well, the letter said it's cold there now and people need blankets.  So, we bought Ruby one.  Oh... and EVERY KID in her village got one too!!  I have 2 pictures like this.  Are you kidding me?  EVERY KID got a blanket!  I sent how much again?  Oh yeah....  75 stupid bucks.

It's crazy what $75 can do.

It's crazy what I normally do with $75.

It's awesome that our world is so small that we can change the life of a kid 10,000 miles away.

It's ridiculous that living standards are so varied on this planet and that I have the power to radically alter that.