Giving

“It is more blessed to give than to receive…”

by Crystal on May 15, 2012

Katie and her sons with all of the birthday donations they collected from friends

I was so blessed and inspired by this email from Katie:

I’ve been a reader of yours for years, and you’ve helped me learn to be content with what I have and who I am. I’ve also learned from you the value of living with less “stuff”. With that, for my recent 29th (golden) birthday, I asked friends and family to donate birthday supplies (instead of buying me “more stuff”) to help with my mission to assemble and donate 29 bags for deserving/needy children in our area. The response was INCREDIBLE and my new goal is to assemble 100 bags this year, and maybe double that next year!

This has been an amazing lesson for my children to watch me give graciously and find joy in helping others.

Thank you for planting the seeds of generosity in my heart. -Katie

For more pictures and details on Katie’s story, check out this news story.

{ 21 comments }

I have no excuse to ever complain again

Add to my favorites

by Crystal on March 20, 2012

On Thursday on our trip to the Dominican Republic, we visited an urban slum in downtown Santo Domingo. What we saw and experienced was shocking–and yet heart-warming.

{I wish I could have taken my camera to capture the scenes for you, but we’d decided to leave it behind as it was a somewhat dangerous situation for Americans to go into these slums. We found out later that one of the men who showed up while we were visiting was actually one of the city’s most dangerous criminals–a man who has an alliance with the police and therefore never gets punished for any of his deeds because he just pays them money to overlook his criminal actions. Our guide was incredibly grateful that I hadn’t brought the camera as he felt there was a good chance it would have put us in a great deal of danger!}

To even reach where the people lived, you had to go through this very small and long concrete corridor in between two stores. At the back, we ducked under laundry hanging out and entered a concrete broken down dwelling that looked like it hadn’t seen anything clean in decades. It reeked of years’ worth of dirty laundry piles mixed with sweat.

Inside this smelly, dirty, concrete dwelling was a beautiful woman. To most people, she wouldn’t appear all that beautiful from the outside. Her teeth were mostly missing and what was left of them were rotted and brown. Her hair looked like it hadn’t been washed in a very long time. Her clothes were dirty, extremely worn out, and stained.

But she was a beautiful woman regardless of her outward appearances because she radiated with contentment. Her living conditions were appalling. She was in charge of caring for some of her grandchildren because her daughter has been sick for years. Her son is a high profile criminal. And she is unable to find work and relies on the kindness of others for support.

Despite all her struggles, she was so joyful. Instead of giving in to hopelessness and despair, she was telling us how she’s trying to reach out and help others.

And then, she asked if she could pray for us. I was moved to tears.

Here was this woman who has practically nothing and she’s asking to pray for us!

I wish you could have heard her prayer. It was powerful and filled with praise to the Lord, thanking Him for bringing us to visit her and asking that God would bless us.

After we gave her a box of staple supplies and prayed for her, I hugged her and thanked her profusely for letting us come. While we came to reach out to her, we left the ones who were ministered to.

If she can be joyful, content, and giving in such an awful situation in life, I have no excuse to ever complain again.

{This picture is of one of the other families we visited on our trip. All six of them live in this house and it wasn’t much bigger than what you see here. I was so impressed with the girl on the left. She had so much drive and potential: she’s working at the supermarket and going to the university to study accounting and hoping to get a job in the accounting field once she graduates.}

{ 40 comments }

We all have something to give, even if it doesn’t seem like much

Add to my favorites

by Crystal on March 19, 2012

After spending time with the children in the Child Sponsorship Program on Thursday, we served them lunch and then headed to meet with a local pastor who was involved in this Child Sponsorship Program. He showed us some of the amazing outreach opportunities his church is spearheading in their community.

One of them is this Water Store that Debbie, a woman who is on this trip with us, helped to fund. The store has a water purification plant that provides water to their church, the Child Sponsorship Program, as well as providing a very inexpensive source of water for this community.

{Piles of trash like this were very common in many of the places we visited.}

There is a huge need for clean water in almost all parts of the DR, but it can be expensive to have to purchase all of the water. The Water Store offers water at about half the price of what you’d pay elsewhere, so people from all over come to buy it!

What I loved most about the Water Store is that it is self-sustaining and income-producing. So not only is it helping to increase the health of thousands of families in this community through clean water and providing the water at a great price, but it’s also creating a source of income for a number of families, too.

The Water Store is staffed by four employees, plus there are many people who buy the water in bulk and have set up numerous distribution points in outlying areas. In this urban area where jobs are very scarce, the Water Store is helping to provide an income source to many, many families!

They are currently planning to expand the store because the demand is so great. By expanding, they will also be able to supply many more distribution points and provide even more revenue for more families.

What we were most inspired by was how hard this local pastor and church was working to reach out to those in their community. In addition to the Child Sponsorship Program and the Water Store, they offer a medical clinic, classes for the local public school students, retreats for young people. They are also actively working on setting up a vocational school for their community with plans to offer English classes, computer classes, vocational classes, and more in order to help those in their community find jobs.

They had so little themselves, and yet they were doing all they could to help those who were in much worse situations. It was so convicting to me to see firsthand!

Maybe you don’t have money to invest in something like a Water Store, but I want to challenge you to follow the example of this pastor and think about what you can do to bring health and hope to those in your own community–and around the world. We all have something we can give, even if it’s just a cup of cold water to someone who is begging on the streets.

Start looking for opportunities to reach out and give and you’ll likely find them all around you!

Tomorrow, I’ll share about our experiences visiting the slums in Santo Domingo. It was definitely a life-impacting experience for both my husband and me!

{ 26 comments }

Live your life with arms outstretched

Add to my favorites

by Crystal on March 17, 2012

I’ve been so busy with activities in the Dominican Republic the past few days that I haven’t had much more than a few minutes to log onto the computer. And when I could log in, my internet was extremely slow & sketchy. There’s so much to share from what we’ve experienced and so many pictures I want to post, that it’s probably going to take me at least five more days to try and scratch the surface of all I want to share!

On Thursday, we visited a Child Sponsorship Program in Santo Domingo. The children were older (ages 11-15) and they didn’t warm up to us as quickly as they did on Tuesday.

However, after playing some rousing outdoor games and sitting in their classroom and asking them questions about their home, parents, food, and life in general, they began to slowly warm up. And once they warmed up, they just ate up our love and affection.

This little boy, Darius, stole my heart. He said he didn’t ever know who his father was and, from the questions I asked, it sounds like he lives in very primitive conditions.

He was starving to just have someone look into his eyes and tell him he was loved, cared for, and valuable. He drew me this picture to take home, but honestly, I just wanted to take him home with me!

I’m so grateful that he’s part of the Child Sponsorship Program and is getting regular meals, education, attention, love, clothes and shoes, and medical help as part of the program. I truly don’t think I could have left without knowing he was going to be taken care of!

While the children were waiting for lunch to be served, I showed them pictures of my children and introduced them to Fruit Ninja–a game on my phone that my daughter loves. They were mesmerized and I didn’t even have to explain to them how to play the game; they got it right off!

Even though most of these children come from very deplorable home situations, they are bright, cheerful, industrious, and intelligent. And with the right education and encouragement, they are going to go so far in life!

{This home–a very nice one for this area–was available to rent for the equivalent of around $1 per month!}

I’ve appreciated Compassion’s Child Sponsorship Program the past four years that we’ve been involved in it, but now that I’ve seen the work firsthand, I’m a hundred times more excited about the work they are doing.

Most of these children come from homes that have little joy and comfort in them. They spoke of fights, disease, family problems, and lack of parental involvement when we asked them specific questions about their living conditions.

The pain on their faces as they shared broke my heart. I wanted to scoop them all up, take them home with me, and provide a safe haven with plenty of food, clothes and shoes, a soft bed, medical care, and lots and lots of love.

I can’t bring them all home with me, but by investing $38 per month, I can provide all of that for one child who is in Compassion’s Child Sponsorship Program. If you don’t already support a child through Compassion’s Child Sponsorship Program, may I encourage you to prayerfully consider it?

The $38 per month commitment amount might seem outside your budget right now, but maybe there are some things you can cut from your budget in order to free up the funds? Or maybe you could partner with some other families and pool together your money to be able to support a child. I promise that it will be worth it.

If you don’t feel led to support children through Compassion or you just truly don’t have any extra room in your barebones budget–that’s completely okay! I don’t share this with you to guilt you into doing something that’s not what God is calling you to do.

That said, I want to encourage you to do something. Find a single mom in your neighborhood who could use a bag of groceries that you got for free with coupons. Find an elderly couple who could use assistance or friendship. Donate some supplies to your local homeless center or work in a nearby soup kitchen. Write a letter of encouragement. Be a listening ear. Freely share your knowledge and experience with others.

Step outside your comfort zone, give freely and generously of your resources and time, and live your life with arms outstretched. And I promise you’ll be blessed beyond what you can imagine!

On Monday, I’ll share about the Water Store Project and, if I have space, I’ll also include details and photos from the slums we visited. I can’t wait to share more as my heart is just about bursting right now!

{ 50 comments }

It was a beautiful day

Add to my favorites

by Crystal on March 15, 2012

{The children, staff, and mothers who welcomed us as we drove up to the Child Sponsorship Program in Santiago yesterday morning.}

Yesterday was a day of firsts… my first day to use a bathroom without running water, my first time to speak from a stage with an interpreter (They asked us to come up to the stage and say a few words to the 200 or so children and moms who were gathered at Compassion’s Child Sponsorship Project in Santiago), my first time to eat Dominican food (it was delicious!), and my first time to visit a home with a dirt floor.

I saw extreme poverty. I cried and prayed with a pregnant mom who lives in a one-room hut with dirt floors, no bathroom, and who is struggling to find food to eat.

I saw immense hope. I stood in another shack with a tin roof and listened to a mother of three who told us how excited she is about her future, how thankful she is to have a part-time job, and how blessed she is to have three children.

I fell in love with the beautiful people in the Dominican. I cooed over adorable babies. I held wiggly children who were eager to sit on my lap and try out my camera. And I hugged moms who are working so hard to put food on the table and clothes on their children’s backs.

I realized anew that there are so many pressing needs around the world. None of us can obliterate worldwide poverty, but if each of us wisely steward our finances so that we can give generously, we can collectively have a powerful impact in reaching those who are incredibly needy.

And I’m inspired to continue on this journey of living simply so that others can simply live.

{ 70 comments }

We made it to the Dominican Republic!

by Crystal on March 13, 2012

After a long day of traveling (we left our house before 5 a.m. this morning!), we made it to Santo Domingo a little after 9 p.m. this evening. Just getting out of the airport and through customs by ourselves was a fun little adventure–and we quickly had opportunities to brush up on our Spanish!

One of the local staff from Compassion and Marie (who works with Compassion in the U.S.) met us at the airport and we made the 45-minute drive to the hotel. Along the way, we got to experience a little glimpse into the city here and Marie shared stories with us from her visits to Kenya, Haiti, and other countries.

The hardest thing so far? Trying to remember not to use the water to brush our teeth, figuring how to configure the international outlets with my laptop cord, and trying to explain to the hotel staff that we’d like some regular pillows.

(They had some straw-type pillows on our bed that didn’t have pillow cases on them. So we called the front desk to ask if they had any regular pillows with cases on them. It took a number of minutes and various front-desk people for them to understand what it was we were asking for. But once they finally understood, they graciously brought us some normal pillows. And yes, I know that it probably sounds silly that with all the needs we’re seeing around us, we’re asking for replacement pillows, but we’re new to all of this and figured we’d probably sleep ten times better if we had different pillows.)

Tomorrow we’ll be visiting two of Compassion’s projects here and we’ll have the opportunity to visit in some of the homes and meet many of the locals. I’ll share some stories and photos from our experiences tomorrow evening.

{ 39 comments }

Stepping out of the safe zone

Add to my favorites

by Crystal on March 12, 2012

The last 12 months have been all about stepping outside of my comfort zone… writing and marketing a book, recording an audiobook, speaking in public, being interviewed for radio shows, appearing on national TV (live!). There are so many things I’ve done in the last year that five years ago I never would have thought I could possibly do.

For many people, these are small things. After all, there are hundreds of thousands of people doing stuff on a much, much larger scale all the time. But for a once-shy person like me who got nervous just to go to church or some other event with people I knew well, these are milestone things.

I read Crazy Love last year and committed to the Lord that I would step out and do whatever He called me to do–no matter what. I won’t tell you that any of this has been easy for me, because it hasn’t been. Truthfully, I’ve experienced tremendous fear and nerves time and again.

There are times when I’ve wanted to run away and hide and there are so many times when I’ve thought, “There is no way I can do X.” However, as I’ve stepped out in faith and asked God to hold me up when I felt incredibly unqualified, He has been so faithful.

And I echo what I read in yesterday’s Jesus Calling devotional:

“If you live your life too safely, you will never know the thrill of seeing [God] work through you.”

That’s definitely been the case for me. As I’ve gotten out of the safe zone, I’ve experienced God’s power and provision in my life like never before. It’s an awesome thing to be walking in His strength and might, because you know that your own strength and might would never be enough.

And this week, I’m once again stepping out of the “safe” zone. Tomorrow morning, my husband and I are boarding a plane bound for the Dominican Republic.

We’ll be traveling to visit two Child Survival Programs (one of which is the one we’ve “adopted” through your support of my book!) and we’ll also be visiting in the homes of some of the mothers who are a part of the program. In addition, we’ll be going to see some of the other projects Compassion has in the DR and attending a Leadership Development Program graduation.

We’re excited to have this opportunity, but I wouldn’t be completely honest if I pretended that I wasn’t somewhat apprehensive. You see, aside from the Love Like You Mean It Cruise, I’ve never traveled outside the U.S.

I’ve lived a safe and sheltered life. I’ve always had a roof over my head, food to eat, clothes to wear, and much more than most of the people in the DR could probably even fathom.

I know that the poverty and need I’m going to see this week will be far beyond what I’ve ever witness before. And I’m almost certain it is going to profoundly affect me in ways I can’t imagine right now.

But I know that it’s going to rock my world in a good way. And so I board the plane tomorrow, not knowing what lies ahead of us, but knowing that stepping out of the safe zone is exactly what I’m supposed to be doing.

By the way, since you all were an integral part in why we’re taking this trip, I’ll be “bringing you along with me” by blogging a little about our experiences each day and sharing pictures of some of the things we see and people we meet.

{ 86 comments }

A Simple Way to Give: Blessings in a Backpack

Add to my favorites

by Crystal on March 9, 2012

Carrie emailed in the following testimonial:

Three years ago, our church of 40 members started giving away backpacks and school supplies every August for needy children in our area. I secured a list of families from a local organization, sent out invitations, and began collecting donations from Target, Meijer, and individuals.

These donations were used to fill backpacks for 150 needy children. To top it off, they were invited to our church facility where a local salon set up hair cutting stations and gave the children free back-to-school haircuts. It was incredible!

Fast forward three years, to this past August. We had so many backpacks and supplies donated the we had leftovers. I called two local schools, asking them if they would like what we had left.

One said, “Yes. We can use those to send food home to children who need it.” I was astonished, heartbroken, and saddened–there were children in our area, who for whatever reason, were not being fed by their parents on the weekend.

Since this particular school already had a food program in place, I contacted the school that was taking the remainder of our backpacks and told the counselor my plan: We wanted to provide food for needy children in the school via a backpack each week.

That started the ball rolling. The school sent home surveys to parents to get a feel for who needed food, and how many people we would be dealing with. It turned out that there are 18 children who go home each Friday with a backpack of food to feed them for seven meals over the weekend. Our little church of 40 people is feeding 18 children week! I did some math, and when it came down to it, a backpack of weekend food can be filled for less than $10!

After a few months of this, I was made aware of a national organization called Blessings in a Backpack. Although our church isn’t doing the program through this organization, it seems to be an easy way to start helping others if you need something more “official” to present to a school for consideration.

The point of the Backpack Buddies is not to fill pantries for families, but instead to provide enough food to children to get them through the weekend.

Here is a list of food we decided to collect:

Canned vegetables and fruit (with easy open tops)

Canned meat or meat stews (with easy open tops)

Easy Mac or Ramen CUP of Soup

Juice Boxes

Shelf Stable Milk

Snacks (granola bars, peanut butter crackers, etc.)

Breakfast items (small boxes of cereal, granola bars, cereal bars, etc.)

We try to make the foods as kid-friendly as possible to open, prepare, and warm in the microwave.

I am so thankful to God that He has blessed us in a way that we can be a blessing to others! -Carrie

photo credit

{ 96 comments }

Video Blog: How to encourage children to become givers

Add to my favorites

by Crystal on February 20, 2012

In this last video with Chris Seay (see all of our previous videos here, if you missed them), I ask him for practical advice and suggestions for teaching your children to become givers and to teach them to be grateful for what they have.

Teaching our children to be givers is something that my husband and I so much for our own three children. And we’ve been encouraged to see that our oldest is definitely “getting it”.

However, there are still many times when our children complain about having to give things up in order to give to others. And there are also other times when the entitlement mentality rears it’s head and, instead of being grateful, they are discontent.

I asked Chris if his children complained throughout the 40-day fast from excess. He has a great answer for that question and some practical ideas that inspired me as I continue to try to instill a servant’s heart in my children.

If you are a parent or are someone who works with children, I think you’ll be especially blessed by this short video clip:

Interview w. Money Saving Mom Part 4 from Chris Seay on Vimeo.

Have you been inspired by this video series with Chris Seay? Be sure to check out his website and read more information on his book here. And come back tomorrow because I’ll be hosting a giveaway for 10 copies of his book!

Did you enjoy this video series? If so, would you be interested in me interviewing other authors from time to time? As this was my first time to do something like this, I’d love to hear your suggestions for future video interviews. Feel free to email me or leave your thoughts in the comments

{ 34 comments }

Video Blog: What a 40-Day Fast From Excess Might Look Like for Your Family

Add to my favorites

by Crystal on February 15, 2012

I introduced you to Chris Seay on Monday (watch the video here, if you missed it) and he shared a little of his heart for giving and reaching out to the poor.
In today’s video, Chris shares more about his yearly 40-day fast and how it looks for him and his family.

While what Chris and his family have chosen to do might not work for your family, I’d love to challenge you to consider what you could give up in your own life to experience in a tiny way what millions of those in poverty experience on a daily basis.

Perhaps you could considering eating oatmeal every morning for breakfast for a month. Or, have a meatless meal twice a week for an extended time period. Or, eat from the pantry for a few weeks. Or, maybe you do something entirely unrelated to food.

Watch the video short below and then I’d love to hear your ideas on how a 40-day fast from excess might work for your family: