Our church participates in the national Christmas service project called "Operation Christmas Child" in which plastic shoeboxes are filled with presents for a boy or a girl who receive the box via Christian airmail.
Recently I was preparing to go shopping for the items to go in the shoebox we were going to donate, and was explaining to my shopping partner--my 6 year old son--why we were going to buy these gifts for a 6 year old boy in another country. "Well, a lot of other countries don't have the stores we have. Remember when I went to Haiti not long ago? Many of their villages don't have stores even as big as that gas station store over there." And then I tried to explain how some parents were only able to make 1/3 or 1/4 or 1/10 of the money I make, and so their children may only get 1/3 or 1/10 the number of presents he gets...including some that don't get any at all.
Then it hit me that this was a lot for a six year old to take in!
And THEN it hit me that it's a lot for the six year old to take in who doesn't get a present but knows that others do.
So, here's a little tidbit: If you ever have to explain poverty to a 6 year old, be sure to buy everything we've been putting off buying up until that point BEFORE giving the explanation. Because afterwards it's going to be pretty tough to justify a lot of those expenses! :)
Local kids plead for school
3 weeks ago
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My church has a yearly garage sale to raise money for an orphanage and several other ministries in Cambodia. A few years ago this sale went particularly well and the woman organizing started writing a letter to these children about the $4500 that had been raised for them. But as she began to write, she struggled in how to communicate that we had gathered up all of the extra stuff that people didn't need in one building and held a sale where mostly other people would buy things they didn't need in order to raise this money. It made her cry. Me too. Our perspective in the U.S. is radically skewed from God's words, "13Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. 14At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality, 15as it is written: "He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little."" - 2 Corinthians 8:13-15
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