Still, I am overwhelmed by the needs out there...how can my little gifts, the little amount that we can afford, help enough people to make a difference? Well it may or may not make a big difference in the world, that's just the way life works. I saw a quote today that kind of made me stop to and think "Never get tired of doing little things for others, sometimes those little things occupy the biggest part of their hearts". Wow. You see the "burden" that is poverty and orphans is not a burden but a face...millions of faces actually! What if my dollar gives a mom one more day with her baby? What if my dollar made a child feel safe and loved? What if my dollar helped a woman escape human trafficking? Or, what is I kept my dollar and it did nothing? These are the things I think about now. My heart is restless to DO something, GO somewhere, LOVE on someone, to make changes! Right now the best I can do is GIVE and I want to give generously, I want to give in a way that makes me a little uncomfortable. When we give generously we take the power away from money and wealth and its hold on us (ok I might have stolen that from Dave Ramsey, we are doing FPU in our small group and I feel like I remember him saying something like that) and we save lives and hearts. I want to share some of the places and people that have helped build this fire in my heart and who I want to advocate for. Each of these organizations and people have a passion for helping those that can't help themselves and to love the fatherless:
Because Every Mother Matters - becauseeverymothermatters.com
Their mission is to reduce the occurrence of maternal and infant mortality by providing sterile birthing kits, holistic childbirth and development centers, and sponsorships of mothers in East Africa. I talked about them in a previous blog post but I wanted to get the word out about them again! Organizations like this are vital to stopping the orphan crisis! Right now they are trying to fund an ambulance that will help 24 villages in Ethiopia save many lives. Can you help them?
Delicate Fortress - http://www.delicatefortress.com/
Shop with purpose! Delicate Fortress sells items that are made by refugees to help stop human trafficking, extreme poverty and modern day slavery. They are unique and well made. Check them out and do a little guilt free shopping!
Give1Save1 - give1save1.com
I think this is said best in their words "every monday i’m going to ask you for a dollar. i’m going to tell you who it’s going to and what it’s being used for. we’re mostly funding african adoption for the people, by the people. we’re just going to rain down a crazy blessing on a family, organization, orphanage, or project and we’re going to do it every week. we’re going to get huge. and the world will be changed for lots of people because of your generosity. that sounds exciting, doesn’t it?! let’s do it.
i’ll tell you who we’re sponsoring and where to send your dollar. you’ll need a paypal account to play. if you don’t have a paypal account, you just need one. it’s time. so go ahead and set one up and meet me back here. i’ll link a button to the paypal account that we’ll be blasting. then once you’ve donated your dollar spread the word to get some more dollars in here. if you have a voice, an email account, a blog, a facebook page, a twitter account or a pinboard USE IT! the only way we can make a big difference is to make it viral!
SAVE 1
and your dollar will be saving and restoring lives in all kinds of ways. in ethiopia one in six children don’t live to be five years old. there is a desperate need for basic food, clean water, and medicine. removing a child from an orphanage gives that child a family and a future, something everyone needs. it also frees up a bed in an orphanage for a street child. your dollar will change lives and save lives in ways you may never know." Um, this is super cool and it was started by an adopting Mom!! Yeah she pretty much rocks! Every week they will spotlight someone different and you can expect $1 a week to go to a family adopting a baby, an older child, siblings, and a project. Super cool...Can you give a dollar a week? Or what about a dollar a day? Think about it, pray about it!
Sweet Sleep/Jenn and Chris Verme - http://www.pureandlasting.com/ and www.sweetsleep.org
"Sweet Sleep is a faith-based nonprofit organization which provides beds to the world’s orphaned and abandoned children, demonstrating God’s love for them and improving their quality of life.
Sweet Sleep’s vision is for every orphaned child in the world to lie down in their own bed reminding them they are loved, protected and cared for with hope for the future through Jesus Christ.
According to UNICEF, there are more that 210 million orphans worldwide. Today, 5,760 more children will become orphans.
Orphaned and abandoned children around the world suffer from lack of sufficient or healthy places to sleep. These children often sleep on old, broken and soiled beds or have no beds at all – forcing them to sleep on paper-thin mats or cold, hard floors, making them susceptible to crawling, biting insects and disease. In these conditions, it is nearly impossible to get a good night’s sleep and the effects are staggering:
1 in 5 of all childhood deaths is caused from malaria.
90% of these children are in Africa alone.
A sagging or misshapen mattress may add tension to a child’s joints because their bodies rest on the mattress for hours at a time.
Even if a child sleeps well on a bad mattress, these injuries to their bodies only make them weaker.
Old mattresses or scraps of foam are breeding grounds for bed bugs and allergens that contribute to startling increases in respiratory diseases, including asthma as well as rhinitis, eczema and bed bug bites.
When children continuously do not get enough sleep it affects their health, makes them tired during the day, hinders their ability to do well at school and leaves them more prone to disease.
Sweet Sleep’s provision of mosquito nets to orphanages is literally life-changing to children who live in fear of death by malaria. With your help, we are able to get sweet orphaned and abandoned children around the world into healthy, comfortable new Sweet Sleep beds."
Jennifer and Chris went to Ethiopia and Rwanda last month and visited the Noel Orphanage, which is home to over 600 children. Many of these children sleep 2 and 3 to a bed. Right now, Noel needs 50 new bunk beds for the girls and 20 new cots for the toddlers. Each bunk bed cost $135 and each toddler cot cost $65. Can you help a child sleep safely tonight?? You can donate on either the Give1Save1 site, Jenn and Chris' blog or straight to Sleep Sweet's site.
Ok that's all I have right now! There are MANY more organizations out there to help, all you have to do is look.
~Abbey
The after...not great because it hasn't been painted, but you get the idea!
