It is more blessed to give than to receive...... Jesus

For a few years now we have kept a Folgers coffee can in our room for our spare change. We call it the "blessings jar" and have encouraged the boys to put their money in it when they get some for birthdays or Christmas, reminding them that Jesus taught that it was better to give than receive. Stacie and I try to put our change in it everyday as well. It may not seem like much, but over a year it can grow to a couple hundred dollars that can be used to help others that have need.

The purpose of this post is not to blow a trumpet when we give like the hypocrites did according to Jesus, but rather to let you all know of a non-profit that was recently started in Kansas City by a friend. His idea takes the concept of pocket change to a new level that I thought was pretty unique when I recently heard about it.

The organization is called roundup2roundup and the President is Shane Santner. I have met Shane a few times, through a mutual friend Sean Baker. The times I have been around him were great. I haven't seen him in awhile and wasn't aware of the new startup until a week or so ago when Sean recently emailed me about it. Please go to their website and read about what they are trying to do. Also, be sure to watch the 3 minute video from YouTube that gives some background on how they got started. It was pretty convicting to me about the poverty around the world that we don't think much about as we go through our daily routines.

It wasn't until my recent trip to India that I realized just how spoiled our nation is. While I was in India, the headlines for three days were about the comments from President Bush regarding the rising price of food. He stated that food prices are rising worldwide because of India's increased consumption. As I considered my own stomach bulge and the millions of Americans that are overweight, his comments seemed rather silly when looking at the skinny India population and at how little they actually have. It is easy to understand why they have such a poor view of us. If anyone in the world is overconsuming, the blame lies at our feet. If we cut back on our eating and used the money to help the poor, the money would be helpful in fighting global poverty and the decreased demand would also make the price of food go down for poorer nations.

We used roundup2roundup's YouTube video to teach Isaac about why he should be thankful for his green beans. Last night we had green beans with our dinner, and we made Isaac eat the beans we had put on his plate. He was not happy about it and sat at the table for about 20 minutes before he finally ate them. We showed him this video tonight of the starving children around the world to illustrate to him how he should be thankful for even the food he doesn't like. How those starving children would love a big plate of green beans! We dont' want him to eat his green beans out of guilt, but to be thankful for them and all the food God has given him to eat. We'll see if he learned this lesson the next time we have green beans for dinner!

Here's the site! Check it out and support our friend Shane in this Christ-honoring endeavor.

http://www.roundup2roundup.org/

Acts 20:35 In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'