Compassion Fundraiser and Giveaway

A couple weeks ago I wrote about Christmas as the season of repayment. It's a time when we give to those who give to us, and feel good about ourselves for doing it. 

Not this year.

Help a malnourished child - $13

This year I'm challenging myself and others to go beyond the norm and buy gifts (and ask for gifts) that benefit others. A bead bracelet that helps reach out to women in prison in Ecuador, a fabric and burlap bag that helps African widows know God and raise their standard of living--these are the kinds of gifts that go beyond "repayment" and enter into the realm of true sacrifice, helping those who cannot return the favor.

But I'll come out and say what I really, really want to you to do this Christmas: buy something from Compassion International's gift catalog.

Compassion is a ministry I'm passionate about (more about that here), and their catalog is full of amazing gifts that you can buy for people in poverty. Here's a sample:

• Provide Garden Seeds for a Family in Africa - $10
• Give a Christmas Gift to a Mom and Her Baby - $20
• Provide a First-Time HIV Test for a Child - $25
• Give Children Access to Safe and Sanitary Bathrooms - $30 
• Help Develop a Future Leader - $40

My goal is to raise $100 through this blog. That's just 10 readers giving $10 each. And here's the special part:

Care for a baby's medical needs for a year - $55

If all of you raise $100 for Compassion, one of you will win a $10 Amazon.com gift card or $10 worth of merchandise from the Compassion store.   

Giving and receiving. Giving grace, receiving mercy, giving treasures, receiving joy, giving our hearts, receiving Jesus. That is what Christmas should be about.

This works on the honor system, so please do not abuse it. Follow this link to the Compassion Catalog and buy one of the items. Then enter the contest by selecting the amount you have donated (the more you give, the more entries you get). Once we raise $100 I will randomly select a winner and you can choose your prize!

You must live within the continental United States and have a physical address to which your prize can be mailed in order to win the giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you donate, please leave a comment mentioning what you purchased!

One Thousand Gifts: Soap, Friends, Birds, Music, Graffiti, and Pickles

“Eucharisteo—thanksgiving—always precedes the miracle.” 

― Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are

Pear trees bursting out in a froth of blossoms

• Whipping up muffins in the morning
• The perfect sugar cookie: firm outside, fluffy inside
• Messy remnants of good times
• Chicken trucks barreling down our highway
• My brother's "inside voice"
• The carved table in my room--racetrack, palace, desk
• Granddaddy's love living in the woodwork
• An easy burden and a yoke that is light
• The amazing power of prayer
• An intercessor for all my weaknesses
• High scores on college papers!
• Bill Bryson's hilarious travelogue
• "You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world." -1 John 4:4
• Crisp white shirt on a warm afternoon
• The swollen bud of a spring mayapple
• Raindrop, almost invisible, turning the world upside down
• I know that God is listening
• A newly-made bed
• A smile when it's hard
• Sweaty morning exercise
• Piles of muddy weeds
• Clean socks, inside out
• A scribbled Granny letter

Gratitude: It Isn't Easy

In the hush of the moment,

in the beautiful quiet,

in the peaceful silence,

that's when I can hear God.

In the roar of the day,

in the monstrous rush,

in the chaotic maelstrom,

that's when I should hear God.

There are so many things to give thanks for, so many reasons to be joyful! Why let stress and anxiety ruin this second? This minute? This life?

Quick, type out five things you have to be grateful for right now. Then dwell on those things as you go about the rest of your day. Don't forget how good God is!

• Daddy dropping pounds
• An invisible network of spiderwebs, gilded by the sun

The intricacies of granola

• Making a donation to Voice Of the Martyrs, impacting lives through Christ
• Afternoon sunlight silhouetting the world
• A grassy nook made fairylike by shadows
• Invisible water making a blurry shadow on the wall
• Sweet smiles as I hand out drinks at potluck
• Singing with Clara while washing dishes
• Clean countertops and an orderly sink
• Discovering spiritual truths through toast
• Business inspiration on a red envelope
• A scrubby, scribbled notebook
• Roasting marshmallows with friends
• Hearing an old friend's voice instead of staying at home
• Exchanging closure for healing
• Mastering the art of French eating
• Country music blaring--sounds of home
• My creamy canvas bag--simple and lovely
• A bit of litter on the parking lot
• The tiniest white flower bud on a purplish-green stem, resting in the hollow of my dishwashed hand
• Sacrificing stress for Jesus' joy
• Hank whining and getting me out into the balmy February clouds

Remembering sweet times spent with a friend now passed 

• Sacrificing stress for joy
• Glowing autumn leaves preserved in brilliant tin
• Tinkling glass slipper, Cinderella's prize
• Wood rubbed smooth on a new/old buffet
• The smell of garlic, onions, and cheese
• Chunky-knit sweater, all collar
• Curls of steam from a hot faucet, rising in morning light
• Sheltering blanket with a long, wide rip
• Bold black camera, ripe for capturing
• Fragile tea ball, cradling withered leaves under boiling pour
• Daffa-down-dillies against a dark window
• Warm lamplight brought back from glass
• Brother silhouette, leaning against the door
• Scratched and dirty floor, bearing the memories of good times passed
• Police lights in the dark: safety under the law
• A filthy men's bathroom, nothing compared to the ancient Romans' latrines
• God providing Ashley and Capernwray and Mr. Byron's generosity
• Safety in risky circumstances, against all probability
• The everyday gifts that make even the worst days brighter
• Worn finish on our little piano

Goofy St. Patrick's Day Regalia

• Glimmering rainbow of lights through a cut-glass window
• Porcelain sink, gleaming smooth
• Rolls of shimmering ribbon
• Wind blustering around a snug, safe home
• Big spiky purple/green salad
• Piles of dollar bills
• Familiar warmth of an old cardigan
• My "practice challenge" t-shirt
• The gentle grace of a hair clip
• Mr. Byron's passing
• College work
• Friend finding another church family
• Caraway in hamburger pie
• Bright red cardinal on a wind-tossed branch
• Skin crevices

                                               

Exchanging Burdens

1. Plan my day
2. Put in new contacts
3. Exercise
4. Read books
5. Write Altogether Separate Post
6. Practice Piano
7. Write Granny
8. Call Brent
9. Work on college essay
10. Write for Picture Britain
11. Email Jonathan
12. Write Church newsletter
13. Journal
14. Type notes
15. Come up with ideas for guest posts
16. Go to work for eight hours

This is the kind of to-do list that's been weighing on my chest for the past few weeks, etching lines in my forehead, weighing my steps, tying me to my pillow, stiffening my muscles and eating at my bones. When Solomon said, "anxiety weighs down the heart," he wasn't kidding. I don't have enough time. There's so much to do. People are counting on me!

You probably know that I'm in the middle of reading One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp right now, and it's been challenging me to trust God on a wholly different level. I'm learning that I have to do more than trust Him with my salvation—I must trust Him with the smallest items on every day's to-do list. Do you sometimes make that error too? Will you trust the Lord with your immortal soul but not with your schoolwork or job interview or lunch? "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life...." How easy that sounds, and yet so hard. 

Book Giveaway!

Calling all Christian homeschool girls!

If you haven't checked out www.AltogetherSeparate.com, this is a great time because we're running a lovely giveaway of that book I've been telling you all so much about.

One Thousand Gifts is a New York Times Bestselling book written by Ann Voskamp. Its purpose? Daring you to live fully right where you are by giving thanks in all things. It's something that every Christian should be doing, but how often do we forget to be filled with the joy of the Lord?

“I want to see beauty. In the ugly, in the sink, in the suffering, in the daily, in all the days before I die, the moments before I sleep.”

Ann is really a poet masquerading as a prose-writer. Her words sing off the page as she carries the reader through a journey from brokenness to absolute joy! Ann's search for beauty is not the result of a perfect life that's brought her breakfast in bed from the day she was born; it's a search that was bled out of a horrific wound—many wounds—some that I can't imagine, and some that I can identify with perfectly.  

Her challenge to herself was to find 1,000 gifts in the world around her. They weren't the kind of gifts that we usually thank God for, they were bubbles, and warm sunlight, and weathered wood, and the curl of a child's hair, and her little boy's injured hand, and tulips in a bucket with wooden candlesticks, and her scarred past, and a white fleece shirt, and what the scale read. Ann says, “How my eyes see, perspective, is my key to enter into His gates. I can only do so with thanksgiving. If my inner eye has God seeping up through all things, then can't I give thanks for anything? And if I can give thanks for the good things, the hard things, the absolute everything, I can enter the gates to glory. Living in His presence is fullness of joy—and seeing shows the way in.” This book is where Ann shows us the key to entering those gates to glory.

I know that this is a powerful book, even though I have yet to finish reading it myself. I joined Ann on her quest to find 1,000 gifts in a year (read some of my gifts here), and it's changing the way I see the world.

So, about that giveaway. If you want to be part of this amazing gift-counting experience, then join the community over at Altogether Separate!

More Gifts

• Wind is the breath of sunshine
• The whistling train is victorious, chugging and squealing onward and upward
• My pillow is the transport to a world without expectations or responsibilities 
• From Grace for the Good Girl, "You are not accepted because you are good. You are free to be good because you are accepted."
• My hard-working-mud-caked-blue-jean brother
• Creative fingers, held in anticipation over keys of black and white
• Interactions with blog readers
• Arriving to piano lessons early, sipping hot black coffee

• Hearing words of inspiration and encouragement while wiping spaces clean 
• Mom and Dad, laughing together on the porch
• Aaron and his buddies laughing as they spill sawdust over the garage
• My parents taking it easy after I banged up the car
• "By perseverance the snail reached the ark." -C.H. Spurgeon
• "On every level of life, from housework to heights of prayer, in all judgment and efforts to get things done, hurry and impatience are sure marks of the amateur." - Evelyn Underhill
• Kyla's hilarious, wonderful review post: www.altogetherseparate.com
• Napkins in symmetrical rows, fresh in their pink elegance

• Cinnamon-ed muffins fluffing in the oven
• A spider folded, dangling underneath a table; repulsive then fascinating  
• Fuzzy blanket, lovingly stitched
• The littlest nails in the finished Axis and Allies game board
• The complex melodies and rhythms of classical music
• The frosting, chapping air to remind you that you're alive
• Rocks and dirt, turning with the flip of a shovel and a muddy converse shoe
• The incredible intricacy of snowdrops
• Adorable Russian doll earbuds
• Scrumptious strawberries in thick chocolate ice cream
• Cute little mini cooper
• Broken lips praising the Lord

• My tea tidy, glued with love
• A knitted scarf, a white elephant gift, and a wrinkled book from Goodwill
• Gelatinous halwa, glossy and sweet
• Blue jays hopping and diving and nibbling
• Burst of sunlight through lowering clouds
• After-midnight laughter over party plans
• Mamage laughing at my lame joke
• Late night laughs with the backseat comedians
• Nibbling--cook's privilege
• Guests having a blast at a party we created

• The opportunity to hear college lectures while cleaning
• Mr Byron, growing old alone in his house
• The possibility of a tumor on Malachi's brain
• Another hard night of cleaning
• Blazing orange coals, simmering in the stove
• Rows of colorful, beautiful, comfortable clothes
• A man and his dog, lounging warm in the office
• I can hear my loving, happy family around me
• The assurance of God's approval through Christ
• Knowing that God is listening to every word I pray

Every Day, A Gift

• Jesus said, "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not s the world gives do I give to you. do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful." (John 14:27)
• I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13)
• There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. (1 John 4:18)
• A psychedelic shadow pattern
• The grain of humor and pleasure from my brother's off-key singing
• The fine lines of my Grandmother's hands, brought out by a sprinkling of flour
• Soaring vultures, which look strangely picturesque
• Our amazing camping trip in October, doing daring things!
• Mr. Byron's hands, crinkled and spotted with memories
• The wrinkled pages of my book, which remind me that I don't need to be perfect

• The plan for my day out, written on a folded sheet of paper and unfolded to reveal a day of adventure
• Someone to listen when I need to be heard
• Someone to bear the burdens I can't possibly bear
• Someone who knows my end from my beginning
• Smoky blue clouds that provide the backdrop for a fiery sunset
• Peanut M&Ms. Which I can resist.
• Compassion's presentation materials, which bring hope and love to so many
• Wonderful books from the library
• Tiny birds nests, beautifully constructed from slender twigs
• A love of learning inherited from my dad
• Fleeting frost, soundlessly transforming the world and leaving unnoticed

One Thousand Gifts

How thankful are you? No, really. How many times do you purposefully put a stop to whatever you're doing and give thanks for the beautiful things in your life, or even just pause a moment to take in the joy of everything that is around you? I know that I've been unforgivably ungrateful for far too long, and 2012 is the time to change that. 

Enter Ann Voskamp. She's an amazing woman who has written the New York Times Bestselling book One Thousand Gifts (she also blogs over at www.aholyexperience.com), which is "a dare to live fully right where you are." It's a book about the gifts that God gives us every day--too many to count--but she's trying to count some (1,000 per year, to be exact), and she's got a few thousand people doing it with her. I'm doing it too. 

She has recommendations for what to look for every day (download her creative ideas here), and if you follow her plan you're going to "collect" 1,000 gifts in a year's time. I got started late, but I've committed to writing down the gifts I'm given on a daily basis. Here's what I have so far:

Three things about myself that I'm grateful for: I have a great metabolism. I can spell very well. I can write creatively.

Something inside: My ginormous window seat. Something outside: Horses frolicking in the pasture. Something on a plate: A very creative meal when there was no food in the house

Lines I Overheard That Were Graces: "I love you, Abby." -Aaron; "Thank God for work." -Rod

A gift in my hand: Mrs. Joyce's camera. A gift I walked by: This apple pie. A gift I sat with: My laptop

Something sour: a bright orange tangerine that pops with flavor on my tongue. Something sweet: a conversation with Mr. Byron. Something Just. Right.: A bright green pine tree drooping over the road, covered in pine cones