One of the most common mistakes you and I can make is to believe that we have nothing of significance to offer. We ask the question, “Can I really make a difference?” We think we’re not rich enough, smart enough, skilled enough or spiritual enough to make much difference at all … especially when it comes to making a difference in this HUGE global problem of poverty.

But you and I CAN make a difference. Like the young boy, Trae, I told you about here or my 11 year old friend, Christopher, who has a ministry called the Ice Cream Ministry. Christopher gives up ice cream, and encourages his family to give up their favorite comfort food, and use it to make a difference in the world. In May when we raised money for the Dump in Honduras, it was Christopher that told the “Bread for a Hungry World” group that he was giving his ice cream money to the Dump Fund. The Bread group saw what we were doing and decided to give us $25,000 to help with that ministry in the dump…. all because of Christopher, an 11 year old boy. Just this morning, I got a letter from Christopher saying he’d raised another $669.29 for the Dump Fund. It’s amazing what God can do when you’re willing to let Him.

You can make a difference.  Here’s what I’d suggest…

First, make a difference by doing something. Get involved. It’s easy sometimes to write a check or give $20 to something. It’s a little tougher to make a commitment to actually get involved. Ministry is getting involved on a personal level.  Here are some examples:  find a homeless shelter where you can volunteer, sign up to help feed homeless, volunteer to head up a plan to raise money for a mission work that’s in a 3rd world country, go on a short term mission trip and serve others, etc.  Just look around in your community, you can find someone to serve.

Now, I’d also suggest giving. God has blessed us. If you don’t believe me, read this. We are the richest people in the world. If you ate three meals yesterday, if you slept in a home last night, if you have a car … then you’re in the top 10% of the richest people in the world. If your household income is above $50k you are in the top 1% of the richest people in the world. Let’s share what we have.  Here are a few places I suggest today…

• Bread for a Hungry World: This is an amazing organization that’s dedicated to both meeting physical needs of the poor and reaching them with the story of Christ. Would you believe that Lea and I gave a goat this morning. Yes, a goat. Here’s where. A $50 donation will buy a goat for a poor family in the Philippines. We made a difference in one family. ALSO, one of the coolest things the Bread group is doing is providing powdered milk for 1,200 school children each day in Honduras. The milk is distributed by teachers in the public schools, grades 1-3. Read about how you can help here. My favorite page is the video page explaining where everything goes, but don’t just read about it … pick some place to help.
• Build some Homeless Food Bags and give them away. About 3 weeks ago, a group got together at the church building and put together some bags that can be handed out to people you see that are asking for food at a stoplight, wanting something to eat, etc. In the 1 gallon ziplock bag we put a bottle of water, juice box, crackers, granola bar, Vienna sausages, trail mix and a little devotional book that tells them that Jesus loves them. Although we don’t get a lot of homeless people through Childress, we’ve already given quite a few of these away.
• Want something with the Dump Ministry on it? Buy a “Dump Shirt” (see picture below). Our church just ordered 20+ shirts from Bread for a Hungry World, who are making these shirts. On the shirt you’ll find a scripture and a picture I took of a sweet little girl as she sat in the trash and ate the food we’d given her. I still remember sneaking her an extra banana. With a $20 donation to Bread for a Hungry World, they’ll send you a Dump Shirt. Most of the proceeds will go to help that work. Make sure when you make the donation you tell them it’s for a Dump Shirt.
• Want to do something locally? Here’s a great place. The North Texas Food Bank does a great job seeing that kids are being fed in our area. It’s a great place to give. Better yet, volunteer to help them.
• Of course you can always support the Honduras work we’re involved in with Marc Tindall. That work will continue to do great things. And, we’d love to have you join us on a trip to Honduras for a week of building houses, feeding hungry kids, working in the dump, etc. The address for Honduras Missions is: TORCH, PO Box 9222, Columbus MS 39705.

There are literally thousands of things you can do… just find one and DO IT! Make a difference. Bloom where you are planted. Don’t be someone who just feels sorry for the hungry and less fortunate … DO SOMETHING. Get involved and share what you have. Share your TIME, your TALENTS and your TREASURES.

So I’d love to hear of some other ways we can help. What are you doing? What organization do you know about that’s helping fight poverty? Share something with us today. Remember … “If you can’t feed 100 people, then just feed one.” ~ Mother Teresa

Building food bags, or what we call "Homeless Survival Bags"

We kicked off Poverty Week yesterday.  Our goal is to bring to light those around us that are living in hunger and poverty. We’re also going to be looking at ways that we can help (on Thursday). Today I want to share with you a story of a young boy who is trying to make a difference. Here’s a letter I got last weekend in the mail from an 11 year old boy who lives in Oklahoma.

“Dear Trey,

My name is Trae. I am 11 years old and have just started 6h grade. I met you this spring when you spoke at our church in Tecumseh.

This summer I watched the video about the group that went to Honduras to minister to the children in The Dump. It touched my heart and inspired me to do something to help. We made a lemonade stand and sold cold lemonade, brownies and cookies on a hot July afternoon. We also made signs that would explain what the money would go to. People in our community were kind and generous. We raised $116.  I remember from the video about the boy who was trying to raise money for his family and hoped to get about $4 a day. I figured that we had raised almost a month of money for a boy like him and we only worked 5 hours. It was a blessing to get to help.

My family and I are praying and hoping that we will get to be a part of the mission trip in December. In the meantime we are praying for you and your family.

In Christian love. Your friend,

Trae

PS – I’ve enclosed some pictures of my cousins and me along with the $116 check.

Stories like these remind me of two things …

1. Anything is possible with a little effort. You just have to be willing.

2. Jesus knew what he was talking about when he said, “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Later I’ll tell you about my young friend Christopher and how he’s helping feed hungry people. Thanks for stopping by during Poverty Week.

“If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.” Mother Teresa

I’d like to share a few things with you this week on poverty. If you are anything like me, I find myself ignoring the fact that there are hungry people in this world because it seems much easier than feeling guilty about it. I often times wonder … “Can I make a difference?”  What I do know is that poverty in many parts of the world is far worse than most Americans (including me) understand. Here are a few statistics …

• Only 10% of the people in the world can afford a car … (so I shouldn’t be griping about gas prices).
• Over 3 billion people, about half the world’s population, live on less than $2.50 a day.  1 billion people live on less than $1 a day. The average American (.3 billion) lives on $105 a day.
• According to UNICEF, 24,000 children die each day due to poverty.
• My 8 year-old son, Cooper, never goes to bed hungry unless he refuses to eat something he doesn’t like. In developing countries, approximately 850 million people go to bed hungry every night and search for creative ways to ignore their discomfort, like the little boy who grew up in India who remembered his mother telling him to sleep on his stomach because it helped quell the hunger pains.
• Twenty percent of the world has no access to clean water. Millions more walk long distances to carry every drop of water to their homes.

Here are some things to think about …

• You and I spent 15 billion dollars on bottled water last year, despite the clean water we have that flows from the faucet in our sinks.
• You and I spent 12 billion dollars on storage facilities last year to store our extra worldly possessions that we don’t have room for in our homes.
• Economists said last year’s Christmas season was a downer. Yet we somehow still spent 470.4 billion dollars. Now understand that is 11 million dollars a minute that we spent between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I’m not trying to make you feel guilty … but compared to everyone else, we’re rich! Chan was right when he said in his book Crazy Love, “It’s ridiculous that on any given day we might flippantly call ourselves “broke” or “poor”?  We are neither of those things. We are filthy rich.”

Here are a few things the Bible says about money …

• “If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?” James 2:15-16
• “He who is generous will be blessed, for he gives some of his food to the poor.” Proverbs 22:9
• “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” 1 John 3:17-18,
• “The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.” Luke 3:11

So what can we do?  What’s being done? What’s the church’s responsibility?  Glad you asked …

Tuesday & Wednesday, I’m going to share with you two inspirational stories of what kids are doing to feed and help hungry people. They are inspirations to me.

Thursday, I’m going to suggest some things you might do to help, and you can share with me some ways you know to help.

You’re going to love tomorrow’s story. And if you are interested, here’s my sermon from yesterday on the same topic.  :)

A Home in Honduras

Next week we’re going to spend the whole week talking poverty, hungry children and what WE can do about it. Get ready, because it’s going to be an incredible week.

Here’s what I want … I’m asking that you only ask God to touch your heart with what’s going on around you in the world, because we’ve ignored it for too long and for too long we’ve thought, “There’s really nothing I can do about it.”

It’s going to be an awesome week, so stop back by Monday and I’ll give you all the details. We’re going to allow God to challenge us, move us and make us uncomfortable. Helping is much easier than you might think.

This hungry little girl was living at the dump in Tegucigalpa, Hondruas.

Yesterday a bunch of us decided that we were giving up sodas, cokes, etc. I was thinking, “Why put something in my body that’s not good for me.” In fact, I decided that I’m not even buying soft drinks for my family for a month. If they want one, they have to use their money to buy it.  (I’m so mean).  Then my friend, Marc Tindall, suggested a better reason for giving up soft drinks … they are expensive and you could trade them for a trip to Honduras. Here’s his thinking…

“While visiting here in the USA the past few weeks, I have been blown away at how much a Coke costs at convenience stores. No longer available in cans – nope, gotta buy the big bottle at $1.69. Are you kidding me? Drink 2 a day and you have spent nearly $4 (pay uncle sam 10%). That is $120 a month and $1440 a year – enough to pay for a week in Honduras with the Childress Team in 2011. So, no Cokes for Honduras is a great trade off! See you in Honduras!”

Yip, that’s like a free trip to Honduras next summer … all you have to do is give up buying cokes. Besides, have you noticed how much you pay for a soft drink at a restaurant when you eat out? Most of the time $2 and sometimes more. Ridiculous!

So here’s how you get a free trip to Honduras with me … give up your soft drinks (ice cream, Starbucks or other expensive extras) and make the trade off.

I promise … it’ll be worth it.

BTW:  This is day two with no soft drinks.   I’m holding strong (and saving for my next Honduras trip).