Thought Provoking...

This past Wednesday night, the sermon title for the youth was "ChristmUS". Reminding us that Christmas is really not about US at all.

As a part of the message, I shared a statistic that I had discovered that alluded to our making Christmas, ChristmUS. From that statistic, I went on to do some figuring. Below are some interesting thoughts....

The statistic: On "Black Friday" in 2010, 10.6 BILLION dollars were spent. 1 DAY, billions of dollars spent on stuff!

My figurings...

There are approximately 350,000 orphans in the country of Haiti.

If you divide 350,000 into 10.6 billion, you get $30,285. That amount is the amount each orphan would have received if that money would have been given to them on that one day in 2010, instead of on “stuff” for ChristmUS!

That amount of money would have been enough to have each orphan adopted into a family, anywhere in the world, plus probably have a little spending money left over!

More figuring...

1 in 5 children in Haiti die before age 5 from preventable causes.

For the Haitian people that survive, a large majority live on less than $1 a day.

Also, for the Haitian people that survive those first critical years, the average lifespan is then 60 years.

Take the $30,285 figure given, divide by 21,900 days, which equals 60 years....

You get $1.40 per day!

So,we Americans had two opportunities on that day in 2010. If we would have chosen to give the same amount of money to the orphans of Haiti that we spent on ourselves or our family/friends, which are an extension of ourselves, 1 of 2 things could have happened....

1. There would no longer be an orphan crisis in the country of Haiti.

2. Each orphan would have at least been able to survive and live for 60 years.

On a personal note, this week has been tough. We miss our boy. It is the holidays and our family is incomplete. Please remember us in your prayers.

Clinging to a few certain scriptures. I pray they speak to you as they have us. Love you all!

"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer." Romans 12:12

"The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.” Exodus 14:14

"A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families,he leads out the prisoners with singing;but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land." Psalms 68:5-6

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21

P.S. I am aware that my figurings are very much hypothetical. My desire for sharing them is simply to raise all of our awareness of how blessed we are and to challenge us to maybe view some things a little different.