(This post is a continuation from yesterday.) I for years wanted a iPhone but couldn’t afford it. When my job offered me one it was awesome. I spend an immense amount of time on it. Yet I wanted to get my wife one. We just couldn’t afford it and support the charities that we support. We believe in giving to others even when we don’t always have extra. If you only give out of your abundance then how is that sacrificial?
My church, Grace EPC, at the beginning of the year brought me on staff as a Families and Children’s pastor. I love it. Not a lot of pay but it supplements our monthly income and keeps us from being quite so fiscally tight. We went through two years in what at times was a really tight financial period. It sometimes generated more heat than light. We even got a few checks in the mail from complete strangers and a few family members that brought our bank account from out of the hole and back up on to the ledge. We also made it a point not to ask others to help us. We waited on God to provide. He has again and again.
A few weeks ago I started thinking of Mother’s Day. My wife is pretty awesome. She is doing a great job raising our kids during the day. I was a latch key kid and I am so glad that my kids are not. I wanted to get her a iPhone since her computer is dying. Our son whacked it like he was a mini Don Corleone. I figured out a way to get a used one and was going to do it. We had a data plan option that would have made our phone bill only 30 bucks more a month to add a iPhone. I crunched the numbers and re-crunched the numbers. It was finally doable and I was going to do it.
My wife asked me one day a few weeks in to my scheming if she could travel down to Charleston to visit a graduate school friend and go to a concert to see Laura Story and Mandisa. I told her to go. She needed a break. A dramatic four year old girl and a two year old boy that makes Daredevil look like a wuss can make anyone need a well deserved break. During the intermission she calls and tells me about a charity that feeds one hungry child daily for only thirty bucks a month. She felt led to support this kid. The support last for a decade or more. She asked me could we do it? How could I tell her and God no? How do you say no to supporting a kid that just needs someone to love them by giving what ultimately is not that much money? How could I choose getting my wife a iPhone over supporting a kid? I told her go for it. It was a God thing. We now get to support a kid in the name of our son just like we support another kid in the name of our daughter.
As mother’s day was approaching I still wanted to get her a new phone. We talked it over since her phone was busted and it sounded at times like she was talking in to a tin can on a string, a change needed to happen. We agreed that we couldn’t responsibly get a iPhone with the extra data charge that our carrier tacks on for owning a smart phone. What had been a extra 30 bucks was now going to Feed the Hungry to support a adorable little girl in Africa.
I was about to give up on the iPhone entirely until I found a Verizon service reseller called PagePlus. PagePlus offers the Verizon network but charges a flat fee. Unlimited calls, texts, and a gig of 3G is a flat $55 a month. Our prior phone bill was always like 52.30 a month. God was gracious and still gave us the little desire of my heart to get a iPhone that I know will eventually die and to support a child that will eventually live forever. So the results all said and done is my wife has a spiffy new iPhone at a flat 55 rate for as long as it last. The difference in money saved lets us sponsor the child that will one day live on in to eternity. Maybe, just maybe, our compassion to sponsor her will change her life in a way that leads her to serving others.
This kid and her family now gets to eat three times a day every day. We live a good life and we are sharing it with stranger. This child now has hope for a better life. She knows someone cares for her. There are countless kids who have yet to experience God’s grace, grace that may only come through you be willing to help. Maybe you can’t now, maybe you can. Could you pray about sponsoring a child? Can you find 30 bucks in your budget or even cutting something out of your budget to save a kid’s temporal life? As you read this a child has entered in to the other side of eternity from complications with hunger. Let your grace change that for some child half a world away. Save a life. We recommend both Compassion and Feed the Hungry. It may not always be easy but it can change a life. I know it’s changed ours.