Tuesday, November 11, 2008

No Money in My Pocket.

A strange but exciting thing happened to me today at the gas station. My tank stopped pumping at $58.36! I am so used to the usual $140 fill up every week. I know, I know- I don't want to get started on the sheer absurdity of that amount of money or the size of my car. Yes, I own a huge mega van. Remember I sold my smaller vehicle to pay for Gedese's expenses. Anyway, I started doing the dance. (For those of you new to my blog, the dance is something that is done when I'm overwhelmed with happiness) You do the math- that is $81.64 in my pocket. That is huge. Then a thought hit me. Wait-I was planning on spending $140. I budgeted $140. So really this savings is "extra" money. What do I usually do with extra money? I know I should save it, but in reality I find a way to spend it on things I justify needing. Not this time. I gave it.

Statistics show that Americans spend 450 billion dollars on Christmas every year. Experts estimate it would cost 10 billion dollars to give the whole world clean water. This has become a national campaign to see if we can change these statistics. To swing the pendulum from consumerism to compassion.
To see what happens when we come together and buy Water for Christmas.


I know I'm not the only one who saved money on gas this week. Won't you get involved too, and if not Water for Christmas; Then something. Anything. There are needs every where that God wants us to meet if we will only open our eyes.

My friend Amy is selling bracelets at Etsy to raise money as well.

It has been really hard for me to get behind causes and help raise money due to past experiences. I am incredibly slow to trust organizations now, but every thing I can tell from Charity Water and the people that support it-I believe it to be a wonderful way to help. And because of my belief in this cause, I was willing to publicly humiliate myself with the dance post from above.

9 comments:

amy smith said...

steffany! thank you so much! great idea!

Cassie said...

thank you, steffany!
we REALLY believe in this cause, too. and charity global has a great reputation! so anxious to see what happens when thousands of people band together to bring change across the ocean....

crispy said...

Great idea. Gas was 2.09 today. I can take that extra money and buy some chickens or rabbits from Gospel for Asia. We did it last year instead of Christmas gifts. You can buy chickens for $11.

Here is the link.

http://www.gfa.org/gift

crispy said...

OK, so that comment was a little vague. You can buy basic need gifts for needy families and native missionaries in Asia. It is a great way for kids to get involved. The link takes you to their site and you can click and order online. Worth checking out.

Natalie said...

compassion instead of consumerism...

Why did gas go down so much anyway???

Anonymous said...

Great post and an amazing to think we could change the world this Christmas.

PS. I love the dane. I loved it then... I love it even more now.

Unknown said...

Hey Steffany,

Love this idea. I wanted to make a mention of the organization that my husband and I work with in Haiti - Clean Water for Haiti. Haitian families get clean water in their homes through the use of Biosand water filters because even well water here is contaminated. $40 can cover the costs of a filter that will last indefinitely. Our program is subsidized because we feel it's important that the families make a contribution for their filter. It gives them a sense of ownership & dignity, and gives the filter value. They're the ones choosing to better their family's health.

We put hardly anything into administration and overhead, probably less than 5%. The rest goes right into our programs in Haiti and keeping the mission running.

If anyone would like more info I would encourage them to visit the website - www.cleanwaterforhaiti.org. There's a video on the multi-media page that is really great.

Thanks for encouraging people to back off of consumerism.

~Leslie

Brandi said...

LOVE IT!

Love you . . . hey, I've tagged you over at my blog. You have 48 hours to answer.

Love,
B

Adam said...

I DON'T KNOW ABOUT EVERY ONE ELSE BUT I THINK IT'S ABOUT TIME WE SAW A NEW "DO THE DANCE" VIDEO . . .

. . . ONLY THIS TIME WITH THE HAT AND GLASSES ON!!!