"They used up their monies"

Sarah just turned 4 today.  Oh how time flies!!!  We celebrated her birthday with her friends this weekend.

And so, the traditional yearly question comes up:  "What would you like on your cake?"  A dangerous question indeed but one I cannot help myself asking!

Sarah, pensively, replies to me on a night before heading to bed..."Ariel - because I don't have Ariel yet".

Of course.  Why am I not surprised!

But deep inside I am stubbornly fighting the urge to give her a 'princess party' - you know, one of those parties where we hire a princess of choice to oooo and ahhh the kids (and parents).  Aside from the costs, and the fact that I'm just simply too lazy to rent out a place to hold the party (we did splurge on a Gymboree party for my son's 3rd year...), I just do not want to encourage her to focus on outward beauty any more than what is already occurring in her -- she notices make up and pretty things already and I am already cautiously observing and wondering if she is already associating it all to beauty and self worth.

So, I tell her that Ariel lives under the sea, with all the fish, crabs, lobsters and such...much like the "Bubble Guppies" and the "Octonauts".....so maybe we should have an "Under the Sea Birthday Party" 

Good one, mom!

She agreed and so we proceeded to plan and execute ideas. This time it was more fun -- I let go of my perfectionism and involved my kids in the preparation -- no matter how crooked they cut, they can help cut the decorations, glue them, paint, etc. etc...and so...we had lots of fun (and some screams from mommy about paint going all over the wall) preparing for the party!

Then I started thinking about the PRESENTS....

I have learned from previous years of hosting and attending kids parties and this is what I noticed:

- There was one year where I almost felt sick at how many gifts my kids got, but we still enjoy opening gifts
- I appreciated some of my friends asking for donations to local charities in lieu of gifts, but I did not really know much about these charities and so they were more like donations with no heart in them (for me at least)

So, I asked God....how can we take this opportunity to not only teach, but to share?

So we talked with Sarah about a far away country called NIGER - in Africa.  They know of a missionary family there already as we have been sharing with them their pictures, what they do there for Jesus, and even at one time Samuel had a chance to say hi to them via Skype.  It was time perhaps to keep this educational moment and stretch it a bit further...

I remember vaguely that our denomination had a gift catalogue and there were projects one could help fund in Niger.  So I looked there first.

Found this project interesting:  $40 will feed a girl for one month in a vocational school where they will be learning life skills.

So I talked with Sarah about it - about how these girls need help.  How they do not have money to even buy food to eat.  I asked her if she thought it was a good idea that she get one special gift from mommy and daddy and instead of all the other gifts we ask our friends to help give to those girls in Africa.

She thought about it and agreed...

So I sent out an email to the families asking them to consider helping us.  I thought about a goal - something to look forward to, and decided on raising funds to feed 5 girls for 1 month.

Then while planning for the party, we found a little wooden box in the dollar store so we bought it and painted it purple, and Sarah placed the letters that make up the word "NIGER" on it.



I wanted to make sure I sent the correct message to my 3, soon to be 4 year old girl so I asked her again at this point WHY we were doing this, and what this box was for.

She surprised me by her clarity: "we are getting money to send to the girls in Niger.  They used up all their monies and we need to share"

I chuckled.  I hugged her.  I took a mental note on all the lessons I was learning about parenting, sharing a vision with others, and going forth with no fear.  It dawned to me at that point that my kids have SO MUCH they cannot fathom people who actually DO NOT HAVE anything to eat.  So the closest they can come up with is that they must have run out of money!

At the party, we switched the traditional party favours to giving the kids a garment each that the girls in this vocational school made (we just had a team from our church go to Niger so I asked them to purchase these for us).  It was interesting to see the kids reactions - "What is this?" "No toys?"



We invited the 2 ladies from our church who had just visited Niger to come share with us.  So they sat down with the kids and the parents and started sharing with us WHERE Niger was, how you say "thank you" and "Hello" in one of the languages there ("Fo fo").  They shared simple pictures of the girls in the vocational school too.  And then we prayed for Niger together.





All in all it probably lasted no more than 5 minutes.  But I believe we planted some seeds that day.  It was also wonderful to see parents chat with the ladies during the party about their trip and what they saw, what the needs there are, etc.

And at the end of the party Sarah and I opened the chest to count the money.  We raised enough to feed 6 girls!

Amazing

This morning I sent the money and I wondered.  It took us so little to do this and yet it means so much.

Imagine...

how much more could we do if we set our hearts and minds to it?

what would happen if in our church, in our desire to support Niger, a number of us devoted to raise funds for these girls through all our kids parties?

what would happen if we for once do not let our inhibitions and fears cripple us from acting out our faith?

I really did not dare aim 'too much' (is there such a thing?) -- because honestly I had no idea how this would turn out - but it was worth an effort...I figured, at least try it out and see how it might work.

I had my challenges though - from not knowing what project to focus on to wrestling with thoughts of whether I was 'using' my kids rights for presents to push my convictions (yes, I know...don't roll your eyes...I know the answer but that doesn't mean I still struggled with the thought!).  I wondered how to explain this all to a 4 year old kid.  I wondered how the parents/guests would feel.  I wondered if this was the right 'venue' to fundraise.  I worried my kids would misunderstand what we were doing....

But now that this is over I know one thing for sure -- we can sit and wonder all we want and never find out .... or.... we can just go ahead and live out our faith out loud...and pray that the Spirit guide each of our steps.

For now my young kids might not fully understand the poverty in Niger, or the needs, or even that not everyone has the hope and grace we have in Jesus...but my prayer is that we may have planted seeds this weekend that will spur growth in that direction...not just in my kids but in all our families...



What do you sometimes imagine?  Have you ever imagined?  Perhaps that 'imagination' is the Spirit's tugging in our hearts to get into action!!!  If you have something you have always wondered about...don't think too much about it....do it...I just witnessed a 4 year old raise enough money to feed 6 girls for a whole month.  She now knows where Niger is...but still has no idea where Canada is in the map.




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