Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger: Moving from Affluence to Generosity

Have you read Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger: Moving from Affluence to Generosity? If you haven't I highly recommend reading it (make sure you order the 20th anniversary edition). You can read the first chapter on Amazon.com! It's a powerful book that has me thinking. The author has the reader imagine what it would be like to be poor, really poor. Imagine living like 1.2 billion people- we would live in a backyard shed without:

access to education/school, books, electricity, running water, newspapers, the Internet, mail, your pantry, any savings.

We would have the clothes on our backs, maybe $5, a kitchen table, a chair, maybe some dried beans, moldy potatoes and some onions.

It sounds awful, hard, brutal but it's reality for more than a billion people! This is weighing heavy on my heart.

I think of the children we left behind in Igor's orphanage, the street children in Ethiopia, the children living in the slums of Mexico, Honduras and Costa Rica... I can picture them in my mind, I can see their eyes and I wonder what I can do to help.

I wonder if what we are doing (compassion children, KIVA loans, etc.) to help the 1.2 billion is enough? And then I get overwhelmed... 1.2 billion people... our family cannot do it alone.

This week I was on a conference call to learn what we can do in Ethiopia to change lives. Check out Karen's blog. Here's the key question she asks:

Would you consider partnering with me and a few other families as we return to Ethiopia in November with Children's Hopechest (www.hopechest.org)? We will be visiting several orphanages and care-points during our trip, with plans to develop them into long-term care-points.

So am I going on the trip in Nov/Dec? I'm not sure. I am praying about it. But I know one thing, we are incredibly blessed.. and when managing our budget and household finances I know that we have more than many and we can sacrifice more to help others.