As my wife & I have continued to be convicted about getting in the battle against global poverty and HIV/AIDS, we made a decision to step up our involvement a little bit. We’ve been sponsoring a child through World Vision for a few years, but just decided that we were going to modify a family tradition to allow us to engage in the battle a bit more.
This past year we have had Thursday nights be our “Office & Pizza” night where we order pizza and watch “The Office.” We are modifying that night slightly so that we no longer order pizza, but instead have something simple. The bill typically ends up being $25 for the pizza, wings, breadsticks, and tip. We’ve justified this over the year as a small investment in our family, but with this new conviction we felt we could still keep the “tradition” without the expense. A World Vision sponsorship is $30/month so what we decided is that we would only order pizza on the 5th Thursday of a month (if there was one) and use the other 4 nights to instead sponsor a World Vision child – allowing us to sponsor a total of 5; symbolically representing one for each of us.
We had a great family meeting about this and although it was tough for them at first, our kids understood and accepted how this can have more significant impact. About 30 minutes later my 7-year old daughter walks up to me with a first full of 1 and 5 dollar bills… totaling $30. She said she wanted to pay for the first month for one child. This is money she had been saving for an American Doll (I think that’s the name of them). I started crying… man that was a powerful moment on so many levels.
These are small steps… but we finally feel we are engaging in the battle rather than just talking about engaging.
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3 comments:
What a wonderful commitment you're making! And I even teared up a bit reading about little A's contribution.
As for dinner, a fun substitute for ordering pizza is making them. Brian and I do this once in a while and it's so much fun. I bet the kids would have a blast topping their own 'zas.
What a geat way to walk the walk and not just talk the talk or something like that. Wonderful committment. Yes, I too got tears when you shared Annie Bug's contribution; what giving children you have. Of course look at the giving parents..true examples. Thanks for sharing. Hope there is a few 5th Thursdays for Pizza.(Bet u will lose a few pounds also..tee hee) (hopefully the kids are not watching The Office too??) el
"I tell you the truth ... this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on" (Luke 21:4).
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