The Last Day
Kristin and I are still up in Michigan, but I wanted to remind everyone that tomorrow is the last day for our Blood Water Mission fund raiser here. Remember three months ago when I asked what everyone thought about trying to raise some money to build wells in Africa for three months? Well this is three months later and I am planning on sending the check to Blood Water Mission on Monday. Honestly, we are nowhere near the amount to build three wells, but we are closer than we were before we started and that’s all that matters.
If you haven’t been paying attention, or are new to this blog, there is a giant orange button over on the right where you can donate to Blood Water, or you can head to JesusGreaterThan.org and buy a “Jesus>Thirst” shirt. All the proceeds from the shirt sales will also go into this account.
So here’s the deal. Let’s all dig deep today and tomorrow, click that orange button and give whatever you can. I know there’s a bunch of stuff you can be giving to right now, but if at all possible this is something great to help with. And thanks to everyone who has given already. It’s going to be be great to pass that check along.
Blood Water Mission
Well, here it is the end of April. Some of you may not remember, but I wanted to remind everyone about the Blood Water Mission well fund raiser we are doing here on this blog. Here are all the posts related to donating money to help build wells for people in need of clean water. So far we are not even close to the original goal of “Two Wells in Three Months”, in fact I think we should change the name to “One Well In Three Months” and shoot for that instead.
There are a couple different ways you can give. One is by clicking that giant orange box to the right of this post. That will take you to a PayPal account where you can donate. The other way is to head over to JesusGreaterThan.org and buy a Thirst Shirt. Whatever money is made from the shirts will also be donated to Blood Water Mission as well.
The plan is still to send BWM a check on the first of June. Hopefully it will be enough to get them a well, but we’ve got a long way to go. Seriously, thanks for all of you who have donated. Tell as many people as you can today about this, and let’s get some people some clean water. There’s really no reason this community here on this blog can’t spread the word like crazy about this.
Let’s get a well this month. What do you say?
“Positive Post Tuesday”
Last Tuesday we tried something that seemed to work pretty well, and from what I can tell struck a cord with a lot of people, which I think is awesome. Several of you wrote amazing posts about your spouses, friends, and people in your church. Apparently there even was a youth group that talked about it, and someone was encouraged that way.
So I thought about it this morning and I think we should make this into a “thing”. What do you say? I think every Tuesday we should all write something encouraging about someone that we feel deserves to be “built up”.
This week I want to talk about my wife. She has been working for a week now, waking up to an alarm clock at an un-godly hour, on her feet all day, and still manages to come home and have energy to hang out with me and the boys. She hasn’t been the the “working world” for over five years, and somehow jumped in and taken the whole thing in stride. I know it’s hard, and I know she doesn’t feel like it doing it everyday, but somehow she does it and does it well.
On the other end of that, I have had the ability to mostly work from home, and so when she is gone I am taking care of the kids. Now, I love my kids to death, but there have been times this week where I wish the closet doors locked from the outside. I don’t know how Kristin does it. I don’t know how she gets anything done and still has time to feed these kids, nurture them and also step it up and teach them junk. I don’t get it. It’s all I can do to just get some food on the table and keep them from killing each other. I know this last few weeks has been particularly rough for her, and I think this week she deserves a little extra building up. I don’t know anyone like her and I couldn’t have married a more perfect woman.
So now it’s your turn. I have noticed this crazy Mr. Linky thing on every blog I read so I thought I would give it a try. Turns out there are rules that go along with this Mr. Linky thing, so here they are:
(a) Post on your blog.
(b) Fill out the widget on the bottom of this post linking to your post.
(c) Then link back to this post.
Sounds easy enough. Ready? Go.
In Case You Forgot
Just wanted to remind everyone we are still trying to build some wells in Africa through the work of Blood Water Mission. So far the response has been great, but I know there are plenty of other folks out there that wanted to give.
Remember my piss-poor math? Ten bucks a month, or thirty bucks for three months because we are trying to give enough for two wells every three months. With the amount of readers here we should be able to get that done in no time. Obviously there is no penalty for giving more, so do that if you wish.
Click that giant, obvious orange box over there on the right and enter the amount you want to donate, or head over to Jesus>Thirst and get a shirt, where the proceeds will go into the pot. Remember, June 1st is the day that I am sending the check. It’s not too close right now, but I don’t see why it can’t be a lot closer by that date, so let’s get on it. Everyone here has some cash laying around that can go to help save some lives.
Ready? Go.
Thirty Nine Times
I heard the other day that the phrase “build up” was used in the New Testament thirty-nine times. I haven’t had time to confirm all thirty-nine, but I’m starting. Thirty-nine seems like a pretty substantial amount. I mean it doesn’t mention it once then drop it. It keeps repeating it… thirty-nine times…
“Build Up”, as in “the authority the Lord gave me for building you up, not for tearing you down.”- 2 Cor 13:10
-or-
“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”- Ephesians 4:29
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“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”-1 Thessalonians 5:11
I’m a pretty cynical guy, there’s no doubt about that. I think we all know how much easier it is to tear someone down than it is to lift them up, especially when it requires you lifting them above yourself. I heard a sermon the other day that had nothing to do with building people up, but when the pastor mentioned that there were thirty nine references to “building up” it made me stop and think about why. It also made me start to wonder how many people I build up. How many people do I proclaim are doing a great job? How many people do I talk about in my everyday life and genuinely build them up? Do I build my wife up for everything she does? Do I build my kids up for the things they are learning and accomplishing?
Obviously there was in Biblical times, and I believe now, a pretty common theme among Christians tearing each other down far more than they are building each other up. Even as I read different blogs, the far more common posted about (my blog included) is the negative state of the church and the negative state of people in general. We have this forum now where we are allowed to preach our beliefs to anyone who will listen and we focus on the things that are wrong. And some of us are right. Some of us know what we are talking about and have studied and come to some pretty amazing conclusions. Some of us have every right to point fingers at these ne’er do wells, sort of like Paul had the right to… but then he says this and messes the whole thing up.
“We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.”- 1 Corinthians 8:1
I want to try something. (and it’s pretty early in the morning so I don’t know how good of an idea this is) I want today to be “Positive Post Tuesday”. Let’s today, all write something on our blogs that builds another person up. Someone who is doing an amazing job at something, or someone that is changing the world around them by living the way they are supposed to, or someone that you feel needs building up and deserves it. Write about them and comment here with the post address to your blog. Then at the end of the day we can all go through the links and check them out. Sound good?
Euphrony, this might cross the gender blogging line, but don’t worry, I will post something manly later in the week… maybe we can have “Hunting Talk Friday” or something for balance.
Ready? Go.
Jesus>Thirst
So far the response to our “Two Wells Every Three Months” has been great, but I think that several of you were waiting for the “Jesus>Thirst” shirts. Well, they are ready to go and up on site.
Make sure you head over to the site and pick up a shirt. And like I mentioned before P.D. has graciously offered that all the proceeds from these shirts will go directly to the collection for Blood Water Mission.
My plan is to send a check in on June 1st, so let’s see how much we can raise before then. I’m excited to see where this is going to go.
So there you go…. go get a shirt… or donate by clicking the button on the right.
Thanks again.
Village Care International
A group of folks from my home church in California is taking off tomorrow and headed for Uganda with an organization called Village Care International.
Staff member, Sally Lunetta writes:
“Among other things, they will be presenting our 3-day “Outcomes, Practices and Open Space” training to the Lugazi Community Primary School in Lugazi, Uganda. This school has over 300 orphans in their orphanage and over 1200 students in the school. The training is presented to help the community get mobilized and achieve the outcomes we want for all children: to be safe, healthy, living in a loving home, attending and doing well in school and behaving well in their community.”
Pray for them and their travels. Pray that they can accomplish what they set out to do and make sure to check out their site and see what they are all about.
Two Wells Every Three Months
Remember the other day when I asked if we here as a “blogging community” would be willing to take on the feat of raising enough money every quarter to supply two wells through Blood Water Mission? Well, I was serious, and so were several of you. I was contacted by a friend of mine who is making some noise with several different shirts he is making. He told me that the next shirt that he is planning on making is a shirt simply stating “Jesus>Thirst”. Seems appropriate, don’t you think?
P.D. explained to me that he wants to get behind this little project here and we are working out the details on how to link the two. Right now P.D. has offered that if someone buys a “Jesus>Thirst” shirt and mentions Blood Water Mission he will donate all of the proceeds to the goal of Two Wells Every Three Months. Pretty generous, eh?
So here’s the deal. The shirts are on order, the “donate” button is conveniently placed over there on the right, and we are ready to go. I will keep you all updated on where we are at as far as our goal, and together we can start giving people something that we daily take for granted, clean water. This is something that I see as a “regular” thing, and am going to keep bugging you people about it. I’m thinking if we all do at least ten dollars a month we should be able to get pretty close to our goal. I’m not a business guy, I don’t know anything about non-profit stuff, this is just giving money to something I believe in. Once we have enough for the Two Wells, I will take the money out of the Paypal thing, and send them a check. I don’t really know how else to do it, so that’s where we are at. Eventually I will have a button that you guys can put on your blogs to spread the word to your readers.
Who’s with me?
