Locally and Globally, There is a Need

You’ve got to see this video from Good Morning America where they did a segment on World Vision. This video sums up exactly what we’re talking about at GiveUpOne. A family in Oregon is giving up one “normal” dinner a week to instead save the money from that meal and use it to give away to someone that has more needs than themselves.

The video highlights their story and talks more about World Vision and the impact they are making. ABC does insert a 10 second ad to the beginning of the video, but the video is well worth watching.

You can watch it by clicking here to go to the ABC News website.

Locally, here in Indianapolis, my church Northview Christian Life helps supports an inner-city church called Brookside. I was down at Brookside today and got to see all of the awesome things going on there. However, my heart was troubled.

We had a big snow storm this past weekend and Brookside had to cancel the Sunday morning service. I was told that some of the volunteers were calling members to let them know about the cancelled service. One member was particularly sad to hear that news because she said she had not had a meal in 2 days. You see, Brookside has a food pantry that people look forward to after each service. This woman was looking forward to getting some food. Another member was able to help her out, so that’s good news.

In the Brookside food pantry they have a table with pre-filled bags of food. On each bag there are numbers written such as 3-4, 6-7. These numbers act as a guide for family size such as 3 to 4 family members. When I looked in the bag for 3-4, I couldn’t believe that the contents of the bag were supposed to last the family a week. It made me think about all of the food that we have in my home’s pantry and refrigerator.

Honestly, so many of us are so blessed that I think we don’t even know how blessed we are. I know there are people that are reading this that are struggling financially, but I think many of us would agree we have a pantry full of food in our homes and we don’t have to worry about where our next meal is going to come from.

As we get closer to Christmas, let’s keep our focus. However, as Christmas goes past us this year, let’s continue to keep our focus on the idea of GiveUpOne. It’s so simple, yet so very powerful. There are people that need our help locally and globally.

Galatians 6:9 says “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”