Lent 2014 - Day 8 - Paying It Forward

Paying It Forward

For the last 6 years Deane and I have been the leaders for our Church Youth Group. One of the things we do a lot of is raise money for the group to do things like go to Youth Gatherings and have Lock Ins. Every year during Lent we host a Soup & Sandwich supper at our church for a Free Will Donation. This is one of the major fundraisers for our group.  

This year we decided to shake it up a bit.

This year we decided to split the money we raise 50/50 between the Youth Group and a different person in need or charity each week.  Ok, it was my idea but the kids thought it was a good one.

We do not bring in tons of money.  All of the food is provided by the members of the Youth Group and their families. Tonight we served about 30 people and raised a total of $150. 

Do the math, that's an pretty expensive bowl of soup & sandwich!

We will donate half of it to a local woman who is in the hospital fighting a very serious infection.  It won't pay her bills, but it may pay for parking for her family to visit her, or gas for trips back and forth to the doctor once she gets out of the hospital. It did raise awareness that she is in need and hopefully there will be a ripple effect.

My family received help like this a few years ago and I can't begin to tell you what it meant to us.

We were in need.  I was in the hospital/nursing home for almost 6 months and off work for a year. Family and friends hosted fundraisers for us and we received pretty much exactly the amount of money we needed to keep going.  People also brought us food and groceries, bought my kids their school supplies, paid for their school lunches and left Christmas gifts on our doorstep.

My accident was not the defining moment of my life (I'll talk about that one later), but it definitely had a great impact on us (ha ha, impact, get it?).  All of the good that we received as a result of this bad thing needs to be paid forward. That's what we are trying to do, one bowl of soup, sandwich or whatever at a time.

Go out there, perform a random act of kindness and pay it forward!  You will receive so much more than you give!  It's amazing!