After reading the book A Million Miles In A Thousand Years by Donald Miller, our minister has been talking about the story we write with our lives. Travis and I both happen to have read this book at the beginning of this year, and so it has spurred some conversation in our home about what kind of story we want to tell in the things we choose to DO in our lives. It's caused us to reflect on the sort of boring story we live through every day. Not to say that our life together does not have any meaning or purpose, but many days, we are going from alarm clock (or Paxon waking us up) to bedtime with the purpose of getting our work done, our house clean, our bills paid, our meals made, the laundry folded, some errands run, some TV watched, and on and on...We are existing within the confines of our daily responsibilities and habits. We've been discussing ways that we can write a better story for ourselves and for our family. What do we want Pax to see us doing? Are we really living intentionally?
Not to say that we don't find a lot of ways to love each other, laugh together, and do good things together, but if I'm honest, I see some room to make a much more interesting and meaningful story with my life and our life as a family. So Travis and I have been discussing this lately. Enter the Holy Spirit.
Last Sunday, our church gave out $25,000 in increments of $5, $10, and $20 and challenged us to think of ways we can use whatever we were given to write a better story for our lives. The only catch is that we couldn't give it back to our church in any way. We had 3 days to think/pray about it and then 2 weeks to do something with it.
We had some great ideas immediately, but decided to follow what was asked and think/pray for 3 days. Glad we did. We decided we wanted to build a well in Africa with an organization called Just Hope International-- this was not my original idea of what to do with it, but quickly became apparent that it was what we were supposed to try. It's well known that most diseases in the world come from a lack of access to clean drinking water, an issue that could easily be solved, and is being solved by different organizations who dig wells in third world countries. Typically, the cost of digging one of these wells is around $5,000. The problem is that Travis and I got $5 in our envelope. In order to build a well, we'd need to grow that money x1000. And I HATE asking for money... for any reason...My detailed oriented mind is telling me this is crazy... $5 to $5000 in two weeks... how is this going to happen? Still, the message was clear. BUILD A WELL. So, we are trying something crazy.
Within a few hours, we had put together a facebook group and a blog. We had an email address and people are JOINING US in this story. It's crazy and exciting. I am not sure what will come of this, maybe we'll just get a couple of hundred dollars, maybe we will build a well in 2 weeks, but even thinking about this sure beats folding laundry while catching up on the DVR.
Not to say that we don't find a lot of ways to love each other, laugh together, and do good things together, but if I'm honest, I see some room to make a much more interesting and meaningful story with my life and our life as a family. So Travis and I have been discussing this lately. Enter the Holy Spirit.
Last Sunday, our church gave out $25,000 in increments of $5, $10, and $20 and challenged us to think of ways we can use whatever we were given to write a better story for our lives. The only catch is that we couldn't give it back to our church in any way. We had 3 days to think/pray about it and then 2 weeks to do something with it.
We had some great ideas immediately, but decided to follow what was asked and think/pray for 3 days. Glad we did. We decided we wanted to build a well in Africa with an organization called Just Hope International-- this was not my original idea of what to do with it, but quickly became apparent that it was what we were supposed to try. It's well known that most diseases in the world come from a lack of access to clean drinking water, an issue that could easily be solved, and is being solved by different organizations who dig wells in third world countries. Typically, the cost of digging one of these wells is around $5,000. The problem is that Travis and I got $5 in our envelope. In order to build a well, we'd need to grow that money x1000. And I HATE asking for money... for any reason...My detailed oriented mind is telling me this is crazy... $5 to $5000 in two weeks... how is this going to happen? Still, the message was clear. BUILD A WELL. So, we are trying something crazy.
Within a few hours, we had put together a facebook group and a blog. We had an email address and people are JOINING US in this story. It's crazy and exciting. I am not sure what will come of this, maybe we'll just get a couple of hundred dollars, maybe we will build a well in 2 weeks, but even thinking about this sure beats folding laundry while catching up on the DVR.
