Day 17: The missing drop

I wanted to start out tonight by thanking the approximately 100 people who take the time to actually visit these posts each night. Thank you for caring. While it is one I am very happy to do, this is a tough job. Preparing 3 meals a day from scratch, trying to be creative, and then each night, trying to think of what I can write about that will keep you engaged in my little journey here.

So it means a lot to see the traffic stats, to know you're out there, whoever you are, reading and allowing yourself to be made of aware of the realities of extreme poverty. That takes courage, really. It takes courage to face the real world that we live in, and even more bravery to overcome the indifference you might honestly struggle with in order to take necessary action.

I get this. I really do. We all have human moments where we look at how enormous the problem is and just shrug our shoulders because it's like, how could my tiny contribution make any difference? So it takes a real step of faith, and dare I say, nobility, to say, no, I don't care how little it seems, I must. do. something.

That is where the real power is, my friends. Mother Theresa wrote about "The Missing Drop," stating that, yes, you may withhold simply because your contribution seems as though it would be merely a drop in the ocean, but, she says, the ocean would be less because of that missing drop. 

So I'm very happy to report tonight that someone overcame that hesitation, stepped forward and sponsored the next heart on our "Monthly Donor Heart-Chart" and now, thanks to that, one little girl at our India girls home will be completely cared for!

This new donor told me the story of her own little girl hearing about what the recurring donation would achieve, and she ran into the other room and came back with her piggy bank. I wish we all had such faith; if so, we could turn the world right side up in a matter of weeks.

So we are now at 19 "monthly donor hearts" sponsored since I launched the challenge on June 1st. Amazing! Now we have just 31 hearts remaining to be filled, with 13 days to go. This means I will either need an overwhelming outpouring of smaller "Heart of Gold" registrants, or a handful of extremely generous individuals willing to sponsor multiple hearts. Either scenario is completely possible if we can all overcome that feeling that our contribution isn't going to make a difference. One thing is for certain: if we're going to change the world, we have to stand up and do it together; we can't wait on other people to do it.

Here's a look at the current state of the first part of our "Monthly Donor Heart-Chart" ... we have come so far! Remember, once this chart is full, our monthly budget needs will be met in full and we can move on to more important tasks than raising funds to fill the deficit each month!

Tonight I'm dedicating day 17 of the challenge to the children of our six orphan homes in Myanmar. Thanks to the generous support of our "Heart-Chart" members, along with other donations received each month, we are able to house, feed, clothe, and educate over 100 orphan children coming from hopeless situations of malnourishment and extreme poverty, with no parents to care for them. Their smiles are a direct result of our donors' generosity and courage to stand up and take action. 

These are some of the photos I've taken of these children over my several visits to check in on our programs over the years...

Charitable goal explanation. For those of you just tuning in, I'll recap what I'm trying to achieve with the "Monthly Donor Heart-Chart" and my goal of finding 50 new sponsors for these "hearts" which I like to think of as representing lives being transformed and, ultimately, saved.

Why am I seeking monthly donors? The orphan care, child labor response, and human trafficking response programs we've pioneered at Peace Gospel and She Has Hope— while sustained in part by small business enterprise— need charitable support to be fully sustained. The budgets of these programs have fixed, monthly expenses. Thus, while one-time donations are deeply appreciated, it's the monthly donations that give us something to count on and plan with. Therefor, long-term, they're the most powerful.

If you're willing to make a small monthly sacrifice of any amount to help ensure that the following merciful actions are fully funded each month, I would be grateful for your partnership with me in this effort. With your help, our monthly budget enables us to…

• Provide resident care for 290 orphans in 11 homes in Asia and Africa
  
• Operate 4 schools and 4 after-school care programs reaching over 1000 children
  
• Serve approx. 50,000 fresh meals to children in our programs
  
• Train 100s of girls how to avoid the dangers of human trafficking
  
• House, rehabilitate and empower 20 girls recovering from human trafficking

On to what I was able to create with just $1 worth of food today. I felt like I got a little extra gust of creativity today.

Click or tap on image to enlarge...

Breakfast. ▼

Lunch. ▼

Dinner. ▼

Take Action!

1) Please consider helping me reach my goal to find 50 new "Sustainers"— donors willing to give a small amount each month toward our work helping vulnerable children and trafficking survivors. Learn more and sign up here!

2) Please visit my unofficial sponsor, Amazon.com through this link. 7% of your purchases made through the link are given to the work of Peace Gospel's programs helping orphans, at-risk children of the slums, and human trafficking survivors.

3) If you're compelled by my effort here, please share it with friends. One of the main goals is awareness. So if you can help with that, huge.

4) Leave me feedback. Please comment on this post, especially if you have any ideas about what I should try to cook with these ingredients I have available. I love hearing from you! It really helps!