PREFACE: I just want to give a HUGE shout out to each and every one of you who has donated to my fundraising campaign page and through the Guatemalan Christmas Market we launched! I'm excited to share later this week the net total that we raised together through the market! You all are amazing for joining the vision and purchasing an item or just donating because you see the good happening here! The market is closed but the fundraising page is still open. You can still donate to the transformation of lives and communities here!
HERE WE GO! I have had some thoughts this week - they are my opinion but I hope you see some truth and good in them! :)
Tomorrow is called Giving Tuesday - I honestly hadn't ever heard of it before but it's a day that was deemed a day to 'give back' to charities/NGO's, those in your city, people close to you and more. It's a day for living generously - above and beyond what you would normally do. I love that the creators of this day put it after Black Friday... and Cyber Monday. I know I loved the online sales I was seeing in my email inbox and I'm sure many of you did! Like, who doesn't love a good sale?!
But while I was scanning through all these sales, I started thinking about the billions of dollars that got spent in North America on these days, I kept thinking: why can't billions get spent on Giving Tuesday? A day where people donate money to good causes, to places doing transformative work, or even to their neighbours or the homeless person they see every day going into work?
What if people choose to donate to a charity/NGO instead of spending $300 shopping for items that'll loose value eventually... oh what those billions of dollars could do... oh the lives that could be forever changed!!!
Then I thought - why do we struggle with the concept and action of living generously? As a recent graduate, I know what it's like to want to hold onto every cent as tightly as I can, I have experienced living paycheck to paycheck (with a pretty full credit card at the same time). I know that the struggle is real.
After the first two years of university, I began to understand what it means to 'steward over my money well'; to be responsible with my money in a way that primarily honours God and where I receive a blessings in return. As I began to give back to God (through giving at church) and living generously with any extra cash/change I had to those on the streets or donating to charities or supporting my friends missions trips, God blessed me in return. He provided me constant employment throughout university. Even as a recent grad, money is a struggle in certain seasons for sure, but I know I am blessed to be a blessing. To me that means I get to live generously whether I am living with financial comfort or if I just scraping by. I will always live generously, because God has given me all I have, so I must give it right back out. As we use our money for His glory and we don't hold onto it with a tight, closed fist, He will keep blessing us!
Like I said in the beginning, these are my thoughts and things I have learned over the past few years from lessons at my church about living generously and sacrificially and just through being abroad for work here in the DR and Guatemala - seeing the living conditions have made me extremely thankful for what I have. It put my mere server hourly wage (which I used to complain about) into perspective - it's a lot! I am blessed.
Since starting this internship-job, I have chosen to live generously with my finances. I too have been donating to my own fundraising campaign with my incoming paycheck because I am behind the vision of iTeams and want to do all I can to support the programs I have been able to learn about, work at, and hopefully spur forward a bit - like Impact DR (The Lighthouse School) and Impact Guatemala (Senderos de Luz) I am not saying this to flaunt it or anything weird, but to be honest and transparent with you. To tell you that I am not just asking you to live generously on Giving Tuesday, but that I too am doing it - with you!!
So I'm encouraging you: this Giving Tuesday - November 27th - will you choose to live generously (above and beyond) during this dedicated day? Will you see the lives that are being physically and spiritually transformed here in Guatemala and the Dominican Republic - as well as the many other programs that iTeams supports?
Will you join me in contributing the goal of raising $4,000 by the end of THIS WEEK?
I think you can do it. Be it $25... be it $50... be it $150, each dollar is going towards transforming lives and communities. Transformation that I have seen with my own eyes!
So then... you can be apart of the vision of iTeams: "to see lives and communities transformed through the power of God"... as each of you decides to live generously here, that is how/why lives continue to be transformed. It's actually not possible without your donation!
Click here to donate - you're blessed to be a blessing. Whatever you give towards this campaign to see lives and communities continue to be transformed makes a difference, I promise you.
You know you've got a lil' something extra you can donate... I believe you will be blessed in return!