17. Giving and Lending

For Christmas, everyone on the Boemler side of the family got either 1/10 of a heifer or 1/3rd of a llama. Beth and I were inspired by the Advent Conspiracy to spend less and give more, or in our case, spend the same and give a whole lot more. We did this through Heifer International. The way it works, is that you buy a gift which can be an animal, a share of an animal, or some other reproductive gift like a tree or a flock of domesticated fowl. The gift is given to a family who promises that the first born of their animal will be given to another family who is in need. Its a lot less stressful than buying some crappy gift at the mall or online. And a whole lot more meaningful.

Allong the same line, Como UMC collected $680 (with some help from our friends Brandon and Erin) to donate to the 1000 Wells Project organized by Blood:Water Mission. We fasted from non-water beverages for the entire Advent season and then donated our savings on Christmas Eve toward the digging of fresh-water wells in countries who do not have access to such a basic nesessity as clean water. In years past, the Christmas Eve collection has been around $200. It was amazing to see how such a small church in rural East Texas can help an entire village increase its standard of living on the other side of the planet.

What inspired me to write this post is this video about micro-loans that has been shared by Questing Parson. It's about 11 minutes long, but worth the watch. I encourage you to consider one of these--and many other--means of giving in a more meaningful way for Valentine's Day, birthdays, Christmas, aniversaries, Arbor Day, or for whatever. You have the chance to make life better for "the least of these." Here's the video:


A Fistful Of Dollars: The Story of a Kiva.org Loan from Kieran Ball on Vimeo.