Sunday Sermon and Something Big!

Our church is doing a study of Rich Stearns "The Hole in Our Gospel". I've read most of the book already as our SS class did the study in November. It was a life changing book for me....truly....it was. One member of church told me, before I read it, that it will make you question the kind of christian you are. HARSH but true! Rich, who heads up World Vision, reiterates how we are called to serve the poor! As I said.....it was life changing for me. I've always believed in serving the poor and serve as often as I can, BUT this is bigger....this is serving the poor at our back door, down the street, across the country, and across the world. With our church doing a church wide study of the book, Pastor Ken has been leading a sermon series that ties in to the book. Sunday he talked about how living in America was a blessing....not one he deserved or any of us "deserve" but we are blessed enough to live here....it's a gift. Then he told us about this website he found....www.globalrichlist.com. On this list you can see where you stand economically out of all of the 600 billion people in the world. He typed in the amount of $50,000, and it popped up that if you make $50,000/year; you are in the top 1% of the entire population. WOW! He then decided to see if he could find the amount that would put a person right in the middle....300 billion people above and 300 billion people below. Can you guess what that amount of yearly income was? Any guesses? The guess I had in my head was somewhere around $8,000. I was way off. The yearly income... that would put you in the 50th % of our world's population....are you ready for this....was $850. Yes that's $850/year! Can you imagine providing your family's needs on $850/year....$70.83 per month. Food, clothing, shelter, water....for $70.83 per month. There are approximately 300 billion people in our world living on $70 or less per month. WOW! Talk about eye opening and life changing. I can tell you that where we live....we could not feed, clothe, shelter and water our family of 7 for $70.83/month. We could provide some of those needs but not all of them....and wants....well those would be non existent. So imagine....if you will....half of the world's families, parents, children, babies aren't getting their needs met much less their wants.....their needs then become their wants. It's hard to imagine that....it's hard to wrap my brain around that....it's hard for my children to imagine that! Nobody wants their children to do without....it's just that in our culture when we talk about doing without, we are oftentimes referring to doing without eating out, video games, cars, expensive clothes, and much more. We are not usually referring to food, water, a roof over our heads, or any sort of clothing. Now don't get me wrong, I know for a fact and have witnessed right in my neighborhood, families whose wants are their needs....families who do without many of their necessities. Every since last year when Pastor Ken led a sermon about providing clean water to the entire population for $10 billion while we as Americans spend approximately $450 billion on just Christmas, I have been feeling a calling to do something. I kept thinking....I'm just one person, what can I do? Then I read the book, and I knew without a doubt that that's where I am being called.....as I mentioned in a post before.....something big is brewing in my life. I am not sure what, and I don't have all the details. but I feel it nudging my heart. I've been praying and on my knees anytime I think about it which has been LOTS....I've been asking God to reveal it to me, to guide me, to let me serve Him by serving them. I've been asking God to allow me to be part of it....whatever "it" is. I've been praying and listening in fear that I would miss the calling. I still don't know all the details, but I know it's BIG; and I know that I get excited, nervous, anxious, giddy, and emotional thinking about it. I know that God knew I needed to read that book....to motivate me, to make me listen, to help me realize that I'm being called to do something.....and that YES just one person can do something. If you haven't read the book, READ IT, maybe it will change your life too.