I sat in the room filled with people, all with their own story, all hoping to make it a good one. Each of us had come to get inspiration, direction, a new focus. I left with $10 burning a proverbial hole in my pocket.
One of the speakers at the Storyline conference shared how he decided to create opportunities for his church members to live a better story. Normally, churches ask for money. The plate goes around and you put your offering in. That's how it roles. This guy Mack, decided to break $26,000 dollars into small denominations ($5, $10, $20) and hand it out to anyone who would take one. The catch was: this money is God's money; they were to pray and use it to tell a better story as good as they could come up with; and lastly, none of that money was to come back to the church.
They did the same thing at this conference I went to, and I, being a sucker for a challenge, took one of the envelopes.
I am also a procrastinator.
About two months ago, right after the Storyline conference, with that $10 burning a hole in my pocket (and heart), I was invited along to a fund raising dinner for an organization called AOET. I was keeping my eyes open for a good way to tell a better story with $10. I found it that night while listening to the heart behind AOET. (check out the impetus behind this org at http://www.aoet.org/?page_id=3). A young, high school aged girl spoke about how she decided to try to raise enough money to build a house in a new village ($26,000). I have never tried to raise money for anything, so how a then 15 year old just got it into her head to set that goal for herself and do it was inspiring to me.
As I sat there listening, I thought about Facebook; I know it's a shocker to most of you- I am not totally addicted to Facebook...yet. Earlier that evening I had noticed that I had 540 friends. Five HUNDRED and forty. Suddenly the thought occurred to me, "How hard would it be to raise $26,000...540....26,000...540." Then I started doing the math, that took more than a few minutes, I can tell you, and you know what I figured out? Fifty bucks. Fifty bucks each is all it would take to raise the money to build a house. What do you say? Want to build a house with me?
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Yes, I do, friend. Yes I do!!
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