This is How the World Will End

From The Elms, a video filmed in 2008 in Haiti:


When the dollar made with blood is spent,
When an enemy can't become a friend.
When the better man won't lend a hand,
Baby, this is how the world will end.
When a day of hope is a rarity,
Or a diplomat hasn't time to see
That a child lost is a true offense,
Baby, this is how the world will end.

CHORUS:
Bring a chair up to the table.
Bring a message to the crowd.
Where's a common trust to deliver us from the wretched and the proud?
Sing a tune about the promise.
Speak on that which we depend.
And if a certain light don't shine again,
Baby, this is how the world will end.

When the poorest kid is fending for himself,
Or the widow cries, but she gets no help.
When we know what's true, but we still pretend,
Baby, this is how the world will end.

I'm still overwhelmed at the loss in Haiti. Friends of mine were just there a couple months ago, and reported back on the abject poverty they saw- before the disaster. Check out their articles on World Next Door both before and since the earthquake, especially Barry's post Heartache.

Our response to this tragedy matters. It' just so big- my heart can't comprehend what just happened, and where to give and help. As a crazy first step, my husband printed out 2 passport applications last night. When volunteers are needed and trips are put together, if God calls us to go, we'll be ready. In the meantime, I'm praying like crazy.

Wanna get angry about Christmas?

Christian music artist Shaun Groves points out the real reason to get angry about the 'war on Christmas'. (HT Brian McLaren)

I read Shaun Groves post directly after reading Slate's declaration that the cultural war on Christmas is coming to an end. I think Shaun hits the nail on the head- do we want to make sure all the stores say Merry Christmas rather than Season's Greetings to signify that we're shopping like crazy in Christ's name? I almost think we need a new name for the celebration of Jesus' birth, since the holiday 'Christmas' has been hijacked by the mall. It's not like the word 'Christmas' is Biblical or anything, so changing it shouldn't be too big a deal, right?

A new 'war on Christmas' has been brewing the last few years, though- a war on the consumerism of Christmas. There are many movements out there, and the most prominent is the Advent Conspiracy- even TIME covered it this year.



Another, Christmas Change, is similar:

Christmas Change from Kujilana on Vimeo.

For us, we're still doing the typical Christmas presents, toned down from years past. We're giving a couple 'donation presents' (donating to a cause in the name of the gift recipient) to people who I think will "get it". We're giving some 'used' gifts to give very usable items a new home, and we're even regifting for the same reasons. We hand-made our Christmas cards.

What are you doing to keep the consumerism out of Christmas this year?

"Church service" of a different sort

When I think "church service," I think of the hour on Sunday morning where a bunch of people dress up and gather together to sing, pray, and listen to a sermon before going out to eat for lunch. Church service.

Really, though, what service is being done? Who is being served?

Last weekend, at my church, there were no services, as we think of them, anyway. No sermon, no congregating in a sanctuary, no dressing up.

But service? There was plenty of that.

This weekend was the second annual Weekend of Service, when the church closes its doors and, instead of sitting and singing and doing the typical church-service thing, thousands of church members went out and did service. You know, actually served.

What did they do?

Ran a half-marathon to raise money to battle AIDS

Put together meals for hungry families

Beautified a downtown school's garden

Collected food in local neighborhoods

Sorted clothes to be given to needy families

Painted. Built. Sorted. Organized. Fed. Clothed. Healed. Helped.

What did I do?

Last year, we went with an organization called Rebuilding the Wall and helped demolish parts of a house so it could be rebuilt for a needy family. I discovered that, although Josh does love swinging a sledgehammer, demolition isn't one of my spiritual gifts. This year I wanted to work on something I felt I could use what I'm good at a little more.

We ended up at Third Phase- a women's shelter, food pantry and thrift store. It's the biggest food pantry in our county, and the only emergency shelter. There were lots of volunteers there on Saturday- some to do yardwork, some to sort donations, some to organize the food pantry, some to revamp the thrift store- all sorts of things. We were there to do a very specific task- test electronics that had been donated to the thrift store, to see if they worked and if they could be sold. There were 4 of us testing electronics, and a couple others cleaning the dust and grime off of them. Third Phase has an entire basement room stacked floor-to-ceiling with these donations, so I felt what we were doing was definitely helping out. I chose to start testing microwaves and household electronics, knowing that if I was short on money, these were things that would be necessities. Josh worked on testing computers, mice, keyboards, and TVs.

All through the day, I was being reminded, Do not despise the small things. What we were doing was small, but it mattered. Because we tested, cleaned, and priced the microwaves, a mom working two jobs can still get dinner cooked for her family. Because the computers were evaluated, a father out of work will be able to get his resume put together and printed. A heater I found that DIDN'T work won't be sold and set someone's house on fire. Little things, but they matter. I tend to focus on the big, systemic issues like global poverty, affordable health insurance, clean drinking water... and I forget that the little things that are easier to accomplish do make a difference.

Best news of the week so far? All those small things added up. Everyone who participated in the Weekend of Service brought food for the food pantry, and many projects went to nearby neighborhoods to collect food. All in all, 257,000 pounds of food were collected by the projects for Indianapolis-area food pantries. The hungry will be fed, because lots of people gave a little.
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Part of the crowd, before we left for all the projects:


Gathering at Third Phase:


Newly-organized thrift store:


All my Weekend of Service pictures:

Weekend of Service 09

Alternative to the Holiday Madness

My husband and I started talking about gifts this weekend.

Between now and the end of the year, we've got five family birthdays plus Christmas. Every year, we go back and forth about what to do for gifts. As for me- gifts are not my Love Language, and I'd prefer some sort of experience or something practical to some thing I have to store in my house. We do like getting gifts for our nephews though- but they all have so many toys that we try to find some non-toy thing to get them, and the ideas are running thin. As for our adult siblings and parents, we want to do something, but have trouble thinking up what that something ought to be.

Alternatives to traditional Christmas gifts have popped up over the last few years. These alternatives sometimes save money and sometimes don't, but almost always reduce the environmental impact of the gift and sometimes work toward justice, too!

• Buy nothing - This is the most obvious way to save money during the shopping season- just don't shop. This is a hard decision for us to make, because we do like showing others love by giving them gifts, and we're not sure how we'd explain it to people. There's a whole organization that advocates a Buy Nothing Christmas: "Buy Nothing Christmas is a national initiative started by Canadian Mennonites who offer a prophetic "no" to the patterns of over-consumption of middle-class North Americans. They are inviting Christians (and others) all over Canada to join a movement to de-commercialize Christmas and re-design a Christian lifestyle that is richer in meaning, smaller in impact upon the earth, and greater in giving to people less-privileged."
• Support a cause in the name of the gift-receiver - I think it'd be fun to find causes that I know are near and dear to my loved ones' hearts, and donate to the cause in their name, rather than buying them stuff. Giving the loved one a choice on how to donate by getting a gift certificate to Kiva, DonorsChoose.org or World Vision would make it more fun, because the recipient could choose what project the gift goes toward. The catch: Some of our family does have the love-language of Gifts, and I'm afraid they wouldn't "get" this donation-gift. They rather have a thing, in hand. Curtis is making his birthday list by asking for donations for a trip to Haiti. Bonus: gifts made this way are tax-deductible!
• Do good with a gift - A step from donation-as-a-gift is a gift that also supports a cause. An example of this would be buying a fair-trade toy or purse, or TOMS Shoes as a gift. This would both give the recipient something they can use, and know that, with the purchase, Good is being done by supporting the poor elsewhere. 
• Buy handmade - Crunchy Chicken is suggesting this strategy- buying all handmade gifts. Why handmade? The handmade items, along with being works of art and more meaningful, weren't made in sweatshops and produced on a mass scale. Depending on where you find them, they may even be "local", cutting down on the miles they had to travel to get to you.
• Give the intangible - Like I said, I have a hard time thinking up any more stuff that I want as a gift, taking up space and requiring upkeep. An idea we had this weekend was giving intangible things- experiences rather than objects. Museum tickets. Tickets to a show. A "date night" package. Certificate to a locally-owned restaurant. Experience-gifts don't have to be stored or repaired, don't need batteries or assembly- they just give us time with loved ones, which IS my love language. We're leaning toward this gift-strategy this year, but are on the fence about it. Good thing we have a little time to think about it!

What are some creative money-saving or justice-supporting gift-giving strategies you've come up with? How have they worked?

What is 'justice'?

Lately, I've just been talking about the 'saving change' part of It's Just Change during my No-Spend Month, but I'm still thinking plenty about the justice aspect of what I'm doing. This week, my friends and I started a discussion on the book Justice In the Burbs by Will and Lisa Samson.

The first point that came up generated a lot of discussion- what is "justice"?

Growing up, many of us related "justice" to things like the Judicial System and Criminal Justice. In church, when "love and justice" was spoken of, it was comparing the grace of God to the 'justice' of sending people to Hell. So, in that context, how do we understand Social Justice?

In the book, the Samsons explain justice as mercy, compassion, and fairness. When I've tried to explain why I care about social justice to friends in the past, and the term isn't in their vocabulary, I talk about justice as fairness. Someone pointed out in the discussion last night, 'fairness' can be taken many ways. If everyone begins at the same starting-line and works themselves to where they are today, the system is inherently fair & just, and nothing needs to be done. At the other end of the spectrum, at what standard of living is 'fair'? Should everyone own BMWs?

When using the book's definition- mercy, compassion, and fairness- these misconceptions aren't present. "Justice" is a desire for fairness flowing out of a love for others. This makes sense to us, because we see God's desire for this kind of justice through the story of His people. Over and over in the Old Testament, he tells His people to take care of the poor, widows, orphans and aliens among them. Jesus seemed to have a preference for those same marginalized people on his time on earth. The early church shared with each other to see that no one was needy.

Today, who are the "poor, widows, orphans and aliens" among us who need mercy, compassion, and fairness?

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At the end of September, the authors of Justice In the Burbs, Will and Lisa Samson, will be doing a seminar at our church. I look forward to blogging about the book, and then meeting and interacting with the authors! Also, I've reviewed Will's book Enough at my other blog.

No-Spend Month Day 19: Clearing out

A strange side effect from not spending this month has been the desire to simplify in other areas. I've tried to straighten up the office. I went through my clothes and have a pile to drop off at Goodwill. The clean laundry didn't sit unfolded in the baskets as long as it would in a normal week. I'm keeping the kitchen cleaner. I'm actually wanting to weed in the garden.

All of these things may not seem like "simplifying" at first glance, but the desire to have my surroundings uncluttered is stemming from not doing the opposite- shopping, accumulating, buying.

Last weekend, on a whim, I threw together a care package for my brother-in-law whose headed back to college soon. I picked up a few free things at CVS, then proceeded to check around the house, seeing if we had anything he could use at college.

Popcorn.
Mac & cheese.
Candy bars.
Sticky notes.
Pens.
Scotch tape.
Medicines.
A first aid kit.

All unopened, new in the packaging.

While it was really cool I was able to get a gift together by just looking for stuff around the house, it occurred to me later- how much is enough? When does stockpiling become hoarding? How much extra stuff do I really need to store, "just in case"? Also, how much room would I find in my house if I got rid of stuff I may not ever use?

This No-Spend Month experiment really makes you think.

Another note: Though this care package was a gift I could get from gathering stuff from around the house, I don't want to imply gifts are worth skimping on. Gifts, especially the gift of Experiences and Time, are worth every penny for important relationships in your life. That's why we went to a birthday dinner with friends earlier this month, and that's why we're taking my mom out for her birthday tonight. Relationships matter, even with a silly experiment going on.

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Spent $0.13 at CVS in tax on Sunday.
Also, spent $0.35 at the office on snacks, because I under-packed my lunch yesterday.

Previous Total: $54.17
New Total: $54.65

Back-to-School Bounty

A couple weeks ago, I wrote on Inexpensively about buying school supplies to donate to needy students.

We signed up to fill 2 backpacks at church for the Back-to-School Blast, one for a middle-schooler and another for a high-schooler. All the items in the picture were obtained from CVS and Meijer, shopping back to school sales. All in all, I spent $2 on the assignment notebook, $1 on the flashcards, $1 on 20 spiral notebooks, 40 cents on the pencil case, and about 50 cents in the folders. Everything else was free.

Five dollars. I filled two backpacks for $5*, and have a big pile of notebooks and binders and pens and pencils, as well as many other supplies, to give to my sister-in-law who teaches at a low-income school.

It doesn't take much to make a difference in someone else's life, and it pays to find ways to save money on both things for yourself and things to give.
 
* There are a few things that were on the school supply list that I wasn't able to find on sale. I spent another $3 on a calculator, $3 on 2 colored pencil packs, and $14 on two alarm clocks, one for each backpack. The backpacks were bought as part of the program for $10, so the total cost of each backpack filled with supplies was about $20- totally worth it for the opportunity for an at-risk kid to be able to learn!

Living Inexpensively- and Justly!

My friend Heather has been working behind the scenes for months, and just last week finally launched Inexpensively, a site sharing deals and coupons locally and nationally. I especially like the local aspect to it- bloggers from specific states are sharing deals from those states- from their neighborhood. It makes the whole, big, national site feel a little smaller when I see my hometown zoo or grocery store featured.

And- EVEN BETTER- the site isn't just about saving money for your own family. When Heather started her previous site, FeedIndy.com, it was originally purposed to help people find deals so they can share with food pantries while still staying on-budget. Inexpensively has continued that same idea, and has an area labelled "Sharing" that will motivate readers to share with those in need. I love the concept, as I've written about before. It doesn't have to be an expensive undertaking, to help others.

Oh, and I should mention, I'm guest posting at Inexpensively today, and hope to in the future, in the Sharing category. Today we're talking about saving money on school supplies, to fill backpacks for kids that wouldn't otherwise have the tools to learn. I'm excited to fill a backpack for a middle schooler and a high schooler- so far I'm about half-done with the school supply lists and have spent about 80 cents, total, on supplies. Helping the less fortunate is affordable, and worth it. Check it out!

Mary Poppins Wisdom

Seriously, I promise not to just keep posting videos here, but this one came to my attention, and I was surprised how much truth was in it:


When we watch Mary Poppins as kids, we're pulled into a fantasy story full of flying nannies and carousels that come alive. The fact that the workaholic dad is a banker is besides the point, and this song, as a kid, went over my head, full of big words I didn't understand.

But now? Wow. Some highlights:

• Giving our money to banks for "safekeeping" doesn't mean it stays in the vaults. As the bankers point out, it goes to fund ships and tea farms and all sort of non-banking related things. Investing, whether it's an interest-earning savings account or bonds and stocks for retirement, necessarily means you're owning and contributing to something other than the bank, something bigger and largely unknown.
• Money choices are wrapped up in emotions. Good salespeople know this. The bankers say the boy will achieve a sense of "stature" and "conquest"- emotional, rather than logical words. So much of what we do about our money is driven by fear, pride, or some other emotion. Advertisers know this, and play on it in every advertisement. Be aware.
• Money choices always support something. It's not always obvious, but when we give our money- whether it's buying a shirt at the mall, or opening a savings account- we're promoting or upholding something- whether it's child labor or local food or, in this boy's case, dams, railways, and shipping. Thinking beyond the immediate thing we're paying for can help us decide what exactly it is we want to support.
  
• Banks are core to our economic system. Today, we say "Duh" to that- look what happened to the economy when the banks got in trouble! I don't think it was always obvious. The bank owner says "While stand the banks of England, England stands. When fall the banks of England, England falls."- has that been true of nations during this crisis?
  
• Charity isn't logical. Giving the tuppence "to the birds" is a compassionate act that will bring the boy joy, but doesn't make sense in the adult world of interest-earning propositions. In the end, he had to stay determined to do what he views as right and good.

What other wisdom from this song did you miss as a kid?

On "Opportunity Cost"

I'm back!

I just took a more-than-10,000-mile round trip, and the jet lag is finally wearing off! Since getting back, I've been thinking about the implications of our vacation. We went to Hawaii- a huge, once-in-a-lifetime vacation by most people's standards. For us, it was our "big trip" before we have kids, knowing that a trip like it won't happen again for a very, very long time. We waited until we were out of debt before we even started to save up for it. While we were there, we budgeted carefully, didn't really splurge on anything, and nothing went on the credit card. Only one attraction we visited cost anything at all, and it was $20. Looking back on what we ended up spending, we were hundreds of dollars under what we budgeted, and that "extra money" is going towards paying extra on the mortgage and building a 6-month emergency fund. All very responsible, right?

Then, I think of what else could have been done with the vacation funds. If we had forgone the vacation all together, lives could have been saved. The money budgeted for it could have bought medicine for many children suffering from AIDS, education for girls with no other future, or food for hungry families down the street. When I start to think of the opportunity cost of my choices, it gets overwhelming.

The opportunity cost of any aspect of my lifestyle choice is the same, though. If I go out to eat & spend $30 rather than the $5 it would cost at home, that's $25 that could have cared for an orphan, or bought a needy family 2 chickens. If I buy jeans at the mall for $40 rather than at the secondhand store for $4, that's $36 that could have done more good than it did for me- upgrading my pants.

So where's the line, for you? What's 'responsible'? Should we maintain a comfortable lifestyle and give a little, or take a knock on our own lifestyle for the sake of our neighbors'? Is 'opportunity cost' something that should even be taken into account?

In all honesty (because I'm all about honesty), if we hadn't taken the vacation, the money budgeted for it wouldn't have ended up buying AIDS medicines or farm animals for Africa. It probably would have gone toward completing our emergency fund, so we could stat paying down the mortgage more quickly. These are selfish choices, for my own security and comfort, and ones I am still wrestling with. Being "responsible" in an American-dream sense of the word is in conflict with "social responsibility" and responsibility to the "least of these." Balance is hard. And I'm not even sure "balance" is what is demanded of us- nothing about Jesus' teaching was balanced- "Sell everything and give to the poor." "Take nothing but your cloak & walking stick" "The widow is blessed for giving her last 2 coins"

Sorry, I don't have any answers. I'm still searching for where God wants us to be, and how he wants us to be stewards of His resources. How do you weigh the opportunity cost of your spending choices?

Good Deals at the Drugstore

I had a long conversation with friends Monday night on the greatness that is CVS. I got one friend onto the deals, and now he (yes, he) is a fanatic. I'm delighted. We sat & tried to convince other friends of the benefits of not paying for shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant, and many over-the-counter medicines. What's so great about CVS, you may ask? Here's a high level run-down.

CVS has a program called Extra Care Bucks (ECB), where they run deals in their weekly flyer. These deals will involve, say, buying a $3 tube of toothpaste, then getting $3 in ECBs back. ECBs can be spent like a gift card to CVS, on almost anything in the store. That's great, right? You spend $3, and get your money back to spend on something else!

But it gets better.

You see, if, for that tube of toothpaste, you have a $1 Off coupon, you only will spend $2 to buy the toothpaste, and will get $3 back. CVS just paid you $1 to take the toothpaste from them. That $3 ECB can be used to buy, say, the $4.50 shampoo that you have a $1.50 Off coupon for, and gives you back $4 in ECBs. So, in the end, you spent $2 out of your pocket, and have toothpaste, shampoo, and $4 to spend. Do you see where this is going?

These ECBs can be "rolled" indefinitely- provided you're able to use them before their expiration date about a month from when you get them. CVS offers both monthly deals and weekly deals, and by keeping up with the ads, you'll be able to quickly stock your medicine cabinet and toiletry supply.

But, as I said, these can be rolled indefinitely, so one you're stocked up, what to do with all that shampoo and toothpaste?

Here's what I do:

Food pantries need more than just food. CVS' ECB deals make it easy to donate to local food pantries by buying the loss leaders every week and rolling your ECBs for next time. Typically, you'll have a small out of pocket expense to start- like the $2 in the example above- and end up with a full bag of supplies to pass on to those in need- with money left to spend for next week!

Everyone wins.