Unselfishly blogging.

When I started my blog it was a completely, self absorbed endeavor.  Well who am I kidding; it still is,  It is my place to say what I want, share what I want and it is generally all about me.  As I was doing some blog research for work I ran across a blogger who blogs for Compassion International!  WHAT!?!  I didn't even know you could do that. 


In previous posts I have mentioned my compassion kiddo.  Between my husband and I we have 3 kids that we currently financially support on a monthly basis.  We love Compassion and I think we both hope to increase the number of kids we support as we are financial able to do so.  I thought to myself what do I have to do to be a Compassion Blogger?  So I checked it out and as it turns out, all I had to do was sign up!  So NOW I'm a Compassion Blogger!  I get assignments a couple times a month to increase awareness of children in poverty around the world.  
My goal (because I think you always need your own goals and expectations) in being a Compassion Blogger will be to remind myself and others to serve those less fortunate, to share ways to get involved and to use my creative blogging outlet world to inspire us to live out compassion.

The current assignment is: 

Survive125: Can you survive on $1.25 a day?

It's a game by by 58 (a global initiative to end extreme poverty by living out Isaiah 58 ) that you can "play" to experience the decisions and hardships of people's daily lives as they try to survive in great poverty.

So I want to tell you about my experience as I went through this game and challenge you to play through it as well.

To be honest the last thing I expected to have to consider when I was about to begin this game was the level of difficult questions I would be faced with. In my naivety my initial thought was how could I save money on lunch? What could I cut out?  But the questions of medical decision because of being sexually assaulted or not having clean water to drink or if I could afford for my children to go to school were not even close to the forefront of my thinking.  

When the question was posed; Can you survive on $1.25 a day of course my initial reaction was well no, not as I live today. 

But what I found out is that I'm completely inadequate to empathize with poverty at all.  I don't know it.  I have never lived it and the anxiety I felt rising in me as I read through the questions was almost enough to bring me to tears. While playing the game I tried to have a long term perspective when making decision and I made hard decisions that truthfully I don' t know if I could make the same decisions if I was actually living the choices and not sitting comfortably in my living room clicking through these questions on my laptop.  I learned that I only successfully survived because of the support of ministries like Hope International, Compassion International and several others.

So I challenge you to take the challenge I linked to about.  Take a few minutes today to think about what it would be like to live in poverty.  I'm not a high pressure guilt you into something kind of person but just take a few minutes to think today.  Maybe your heart will be softened to something outside your daily concerns.  And I think that is good.  I didn't say it was easy or happy or cheerful - It's called a challenge for a reason.  But there are ways to get involved and make a difference even if it is only in one life.

Here is my kiddo Zakayo, he is my one life that I am making a difference in.  

So I suggest:  Take the challenge and tell others about it.