Rich or Poor...God I want you more...

I wonder what it would take for the rich to have less costume changes, elaborate hair and make up styles and down scale their performance stages in order to feed the hungry and provide clean water and safe homes to people around the world. I appreciate celebs that take time to make their audiences aware of the needs around the world, but what if we expected more of all of us...rich and poor?

I love Carrie Underwood and I think she's a fine performer. I'm pretty sure her heart is tender and that she is quite a compassionate person. But something hit me while watching her Christmas special on TV tonight. The first thing that hit me was that that girl had a lot of costume changes; beautiful elaborate clothes and picture perfect hair and makeup. It made me wonder how much each outfit must have cost.

Then she ended on a song that drew attention to the needs of the people around the world; it was a great song and really right on. But I was a bit distracted...by her dress.

We are challenging our junior highers (LifeWire) to give up spending money on drinks they would normally get (energy drinks, coffee, smoothies, tea, etc) for twenty days (till December 20th) in an effort to help provide water filters for people overseas. There's a family from our church that are Wycliff missionaries and part of what they do is traveling to these countries and helping the people understand about clean water, while providing water filters and teaching them how to install them and use them.

I gotta say that just seven days into the challenge, every day has been a huge life lesson for me. I work in a coffee shop. I get free drinks on shift. Even though I'm not paying for it, and even though I have tea and hot cocoa at home, I'm choosing to just have water. IT'S HARD!! The temptation is all around me, especially since we have had freezing weather lately. But I'm learning so much and it's really making me appreciate how much we really do have. Just the fact that I get clean water to drink is HUGE!

If you're interested in taking up the challenge with us and want to donate to our cause, let me know! We'd love to have you on board!