It's nice to help!

I sponsor a beautiful little girl called Peace, who lives in Uganda. She's 7 years old and an only child, she lives with relatives as her mother died some years ago. One year for her birthday I sent her a gift of $10 and she wrote back to let me know what she'd bought with it - the list was so long! She even bought a hen, which she now makes some money from by selling the eggs. She writes me the most beautiful letters, and even says that she is praying for ME! It's so humbling.

I also donate money monthly to Mercy Ministries, a charity that I wholeheartedly believe in. The founder of Mercy, Nancy Alcorn, wrote an inspiring book called Echoes of Mercy, which I read and loved, and she also spoke at our Colour Conference in March. Her compassion, her courage, her vision - were so inspiring. I've met someone who has spent time in a Mercy home and she is an amazing girl who has really overcome the world to get to where she is now, and has done so through the support that she received and still receives from Mercy.

I give blood too - once every 12 weeks. The next trip is scheduled on my birthday! Happy Birthday to me! I'm a bit sad about that, but will still go. My blood type is B+, and only 8% of the population have this blood type. I found out that only 3-4% of Australians donate blood regularly, yet as many as 80% of us will require a blood transfusion or blood product at some point in our lives. They have these great pressue bandages now too, which means I don't end up with big junkie-looking tracks up my arm any more ;-)

I'm also doing the 40 Hour Famine this year. I'll be going without food for 40 Hours! This is to raise money for hungry kids in East Timor, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia. So far I've raised just over AUS$500. Want to help raise the total and feed some kids? Click here to sponsor me.

So how holy am I??

Don't even start.

Yes, it's nice to help, but really, I end up feeling a bit patronising. In the developed world - we are so lucky. If the worst thing that has happened to me in the last 6 months is that I haven't been able to blog at work, well then I really should be thanking my lucky stars. I have a house to live in, my own room, a job that keeps me well above the poverty line, disposable income, enough food to eat (maybe even too much food to eat!), a support network who are all just as well equipped as me... It's so frightening to think that there are so many people who right now are close to dying from starvation. Not because they can't blog, or they couldn't afford a Hillsong conference hoodie, or don't have an iPod yet - all the problems that we think of as important - but because they haven't eaten in so long. What they are needing is something that we consider mundane, and standard, not even an option to go without. Food is such a normal every day thing to us that we throw it away, leave it in the fridge to go bad, leave it on our plate if we don't like it...

I heard someone say once that they considered it the responsibility of every person in the 1st world to sponsor someone in the 3rd world. I agree! I say get moving! Start now! Sponsor a child, donate to building homes for orphans, give blood, support a charity that you believe in, open your eyes and realise that just a little bit of sacrifice on our part can change someone's world. Be part of somebodies story - and be the hero!