Oh boy. Someone please come and get me off my soap box. Oh wait, I don't actually want you to because I think everyone should seriously consider this :)
Once upon a time.. like a couple days ago.. my wonderful friend Joy posted on facebook a comment about how much money we put into Halloween and what a concept it would be if we instead put that money towards freeing sex slaves, providing education, and feeding the hungry. Of course this is why I'm friends with her, we think about the same things haha. Someone eventually commented that the average American will spend $79 on Halloween this year. $8 billion total. Continuing the conversation, another person mentioned what a huge difference it would make if Americans just spent less money on coffee and put it elsewhere. I mentioned that Americans spend $20 billion on ice cream per year. Anyways, someone else finally challenged Joy asking if she was actually going to put as much money into one of those causes as she did on Halloween expenses, soooo being myself, I decided to provide some quick access to find some good organizations because let's be honest, I fully support all of those things, especially freeing sex slaves.
So I think I'll post those links in a comment to this blog, but I had an idea after I shared some of my favorite organizations that give great things to provide safety, food, and education to people in need. A bunch of my close friends right now are in pretty desperate need of finances so that they can go out and do some of those things. There are two teams leaving my YWAM base in early December going to Nepal and India to practice what they've been learning so far in this Fall Discipleship Training School! Some of them are new students I don't know very well because I'm not at the base anymore and some of them are my close friends, but all of them are paying thousands of dollars for airfare and grounds fees (food, transportation, housing, etc) and they actually need their money in by the end of next week. I think most of them are completely depending on God to provide anywhere from $200-7000 in this short amount of time.
Sooooooo. If you're thinking this typical North American lifestyle of excess is a little lame, please please please consider giving absolutely anything that you can to any of these students and staff going out to serve the Lord and these countries! To partner with them in their ministry, either through prayer or financial support -both are very much needed- you can either contact me for details or check out the YWAM Minneapolis facebook page for their phone number/address (or www.ywam-mn.org). I can give you specific names or a team to donate to, or you can call/email and ask who needs to be supported. Seriously, at this point, every single cent helps. They're looking for monthly/regularly pledged support or one time donations of literally any amount. Plus, checks written out to YWAM with a note attached saying who it's for are tax deductible! And you'll know that the five dollars you chose not to spend this week at Caribou/Starbucks is going to help a student or full time missionary share love with people that have never been shown kindness before. What could really be better than that?
Alright, that was my brilliant idea or maybe just the beginning of a tangent, as usual. Hopefully something you'll consider though? And share! Please! Make sure you also check out the links I'll post in the comments so you can support some legit organizations doing incredible things. But only after you support a YWAM missionary of course. :D
