weShare2010 - Week one update

Last week I did receive a few verbal suggestions of sacrifices for the weShare campaign. The first two "sacrifice" suggestions I received were to give up a car payment for the month, and to give up taking hot showers and donating the money saved from the soap and hot water to the missionaries. Not exactly what I was thinking, but at least they were ideas.

Here is what Joyce (my wife) and I decided to sacrifice. After continually griping about the cost of purchased beverages when we go out to eat, we decided to do two things. First, we will give up purchasing individual beverages during the month of May. This will include coffee, ice tea or soda that we get with our meals along with the coffee I buy on the way to work and any bottled water or other drinks that we might buy during the day. After two days, I am realizing this is a bit more difficult than I anticipated.

In addition to the beverages, we are planning on putting any single dollar bills that I have in my wallet at the end of the day in our weShare jar. We were going to put just change in, but since we are not buying any coffee or sodas, there isn't that much change any more.

We started on our weShare journey on Saturday morning (12:01 am May 1^st). As is our custom on Saturday mornings when we can, we go to a coffee shop (Hatchers in Lebanon) to get breakfast. It is a very nice local version of Starbucks. We love to go there; the people are nice and the food is great. But it might not have been a great choice to kick off our weShare2010 journey. Since basically they make money by selling beverages, it is not the best place to be when you find yourself on a "purchased beverage fast". Since this was our first day on the weShare journey and we were all pumped up about our journey, we were able to choke down our bagels with no beverages. It was like eating a plate of sawdust after running a 10K marathon, but we made it.

We then looked unsuccessfully for a drinking fountain and found that they have all been replaced by people selling bottled water. We quickly realized this weShare journey is going to take a little planning. As soon as we got home from the bagel experience, Joyce went out and bought enough bottled water to put out a five alarm fire. We knew that our bottle of water was going to be like our American Express cards during our weShare journey and we could never leave home without it

Saturday evening we went out to eat at a sandwich shop. We were ready this time. We had our bottles of water and carried them proudly. Quite frankly we looked like eco-friendly, health conscious 22 year olds (of which we are not even close to being any of these). But we were prepared. Except for the looks of people thinking we were a bit tacky and cheap, dinner was a much better experience. Maybe God is dealing with an issue of pride on our weShare journey.

So after the first weekend on the weShare journey we are making progress. Between the loose dollar bills from my wallet and the savings on the beverages we have $16 in our weShare jar. But even more importantly we have two days of experience under our belt and we are ready for the next 29 days.

From a personal example side, last Halloween, my daughter found a very cute ladybug outfit for my granddaughter (Chloe) to wear. Chloe loved it and was very excited to wear it. When Taylor (her cousin) came to visit she too really wanted to dress up as a ladybug. After my two daughters went shopping they quickly realized that the ladybug outfits were all sold out. Without hesitation, Chloe gave her ladybug outfit to Taylor and found something else to wear. We can learn and see sacrificial giving in all ages and sizes.

John 6:9 says "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?" We all know the rest of the story and the answer to that question. That boy's sacrificial gift fed over 5000 men women and children. My $16 in my weShare jar may not be much, but just like God used the boy's sacrificial gift to feed thousands, He can use our sacrificial gift to spiritually (and physically) feed thousands. Our sacrificial gift is an indication that we understand that God can do so much more with what we have than we can.

I would really enjoy hearing your examples of sacrificial giving from the Bible or your personal life. I also would be interested in hearing your thoughts on what the greatest example of sacrificial giving in the Bible is. Also, please share your experiences on your weShare journey.