Category Archives: Karah

How to Focus Your Giving for More Impact and Less Guilt

Charity Review, inspiration, Karah, Ministry, ,

How to Focus Your Giving

Years ago, I struggled to find my passion and my place in this world and in the kingdom of God. I was still involved in helping out here and there and giving a little to this and that, but I felt like my meager efforts were spread so thin, and I wasn’t sure I was making an impact anywhere. I prayed for God to give me a specific passion, something to focus my efforts to multiply my impact. I actually sat down and made a list of all the things I was involved in and all the things I really cared about. That thought and that exercise were part of my journey, and as my passion for hunger began to reveal itself to me, that thought about spreading or concentrating efforts stuck with me.

So I have introduced you to a number of programs and organizations that are helping the hungry, and there are many more to come. But I don’t want that to become overwhelming to you. I don’t volunteer or donate to every hunger cause, and I don’t automatically say no to every non-hunger thing that comes up. So in the interest of transparency I’m going to let you in on what I actually do for those in need. I hope it helps you clarify your mission and learn to say yes or no with confidence instead of guilt.

First, as a Christian I believe that I am called to give 10% of my income to the support of the church (Malachi 3:10, Leviticus 27:30, Deuteronomy 14:22). Some people accept this responsibility but include their other charitable giving in this number, and some think that tithing went out with the Old Testament. They both make good points, truly, and I don’t condemn anyone who sees this differently than I do. But if people are tithing by giving to a different charity or not tithing because they no longer feel obligated, how will the church survive? Because I believe in my church, because I want to live a more generous life, and because I see it in the Bible, I have chosen to give the first 10% of my income to my local church. In my heart AND in my checkbook I am invested in my church.

For us, that’s the big one. But there are smaller things we do on a regular basis or on occasion. We have a sponsored child through Compassion International. That costs us a mere $38 a month, and it lets us invest in the life of one individual. We also keep mini M&M tubes to collect quarters for Feed My Starving Children. When they’re full, we schedule a time to go pack meals at their facility and swap out our full tubes of quarters for new empty tubes.

And of course there’s Food Shelf Friday. Every Friday night (or another night if Friday doesn’t work) my family exchanges our regular meal for a simplified meal like food shelf users receive. The experience makes us more thoughtful donors (aware of things like protein sources and sodium overload in canned foods), and the savings allows us to donate the identical meal. I collect our Food Shelf Friday duplicate meals in grocery bags in my home office. When the bags are full I take them to my church’s food bank. Sometimes I donate it somewhere different. The Scouts and the mail carriers both hold door to door food drives. In October I’ll probably be giving it to another food shelf, as I am hoping to do a tour and interview for the blog, and in December I’ll bring my stash to work for the food drive we do at our annual community Christmas event.

So that is my family’s regular giving plan: tithe, Compassion sponsorship, quarters and volunteer packing for FMSC, and Food Shelf Friday. We also chip in now and then to one-time things like the recent Convoy of Hope event, or last fall’s Hope For Dinner. When we can, we give a little for school and sports fundraisers, benefits, and pancake breakfasts. Those things are kind of hit and miss and I don’t really think of them as giving as much as just being part of a community. When asked to donate or participate in something, my first consideration is if I can afford to do that without sacrificing my commitments. Second I ask myself if it will advance the kingdom of God, meet the actual physical needs of people, or help build my local community, because those are the things that matter most to me. This allows me to confidently say yes or no depending on my resources and priorities.

I hope this post helps you in two ways:
First, I hope it helps as you see many FSF posts about different programs and organizations to know that I don’t give to everything. I like to share about these organizations because it might be one that you want to participate in, and also just to give us all hope and faith in humanity by hearing about all the people and organizations that are out there doing good work for the poor.
Second, I hope that it helps you evaluate your passions and priorities so you can focus your efforts, giving to and volunteering with quality organizations that share your values and priorities.

Leave a comment – share the causes you’re passionate about and the organizations you love!

The Precious Burden: My Struggle to go ‘all in’ for the Hungry

Karah, ,

Precious Burden

There is no denying that kids, even the smart, well-behaved, happy ones, are challenging. Some years back my son decided that he didn’t like caramel. My guess is that he tried a candy bar he didn’t like and threw that baby out with the bath water. About that time I re-discovered a childhood favorite recipe, monkey bread. If you don’t know monkey bread, it is refrigerated biscuit dough cut up into small pieces, tossed in cinnamon sugar, and baked in a Bundt pan with a delightful brown sugar and butter combo that becomes ooey gooey caramel.  When you invert the pan, the caramel fills the cracks between the soft pull-apart biscuit pieces. It’s delightful.

So the first time I made monkey bread for my little family, J turned a wary eye on its perfection and said, “Is that caramel?  I don’t like caramel.” In that moment I had a choice; I could admit that it was in fact caramel, keep the monkey bread for just the adults and rarely make it again (with just three of us in the house, if one doesn’t like something it goes on the more seldom rotation because we generate too much waste when things don’t get eaten), or I could find out in an I’m not lying, per se, I prefer to think of it as a psychological experiment kind of way if he did, in fact, dislike caramel. “No,” I replied, “it’s a brown sugar sauce.” The kid ate half the pan and asked me to make it again the next day.

At this point I had another choice to make. I could pounce on him with the revelation that he did like caramel, or I could keep it to myself. There was a lot at stake. If I revealed the truth he would probably stubbornly refuse to eat the monkey bread again. And I admit that I don’t mind being given the caramel portion of his Halloween candy. So I let it ride.

I love being a mom. My son is a definite highlight of my life. But sometimes he is a challenge. Kids whine, they talk back, and they cost a fortune to feed (Mine is 14 now. If yours are still little, just wait, soon they’ll obliterate your grocery budget). Kids make you worry like nothing else can. They are a burden, but a precious burden that is worth every minute of lost sleep and every dollar of expense.

That is the best metaphor I can come up with to describe my burden to feed the hungry. Every book I read, every website I research, every news report I see is a burden. My heart breaks a hundred times a day. I want to gather up all the hungry kids in the world and make them cookies. Or monkey bread. Now that I thought about that again I’m going to crave it for a week… I want to open my home, my pantry, my wallet. I know that the poor and the hungry are important to God and I want to show His love by serving them.

This burden is so heavy, but it is so precious. It gives me right perspective and adds a sense of value and purpose to my life. Like parenting, my burden for the hungry keeps me up at night and messes with my financial accounting. And I love it.

But I have only begun the journey of carrying this burden for the hungry and living a lifestyle of intention and focus on others. It’s a process. I can’t tell you how often I dream of putting more time and energy into feeding the hungry only to push aside God’s prompting with promises about getting to it after I finish grad school, or once this or that is paid off. I’m inching into the kiddie pool when I should cannon ball into the deep end. According to the UN, 21,000 precious people die of hunger and hunger-related illness EVERY DAY. They can’t wait for me to finish being entertained; I need to act on their behalf NOW.

That’s easier said than done, I know. Like you I have a mortgage, school debt, a car payment, etc. My home needs to be maintained, and I appreciate the importance of down time in a person’s life and date nights in a marriage. There are a lot of things to juggle. But a lot of them aren’t as important as I make them. I know I have a long way to go. I don’t want to wait and lug around this precious burden for no reason. I want to jump into the deep end and live a life that makes people a priority. I hope that, whatever your burden, you feel the same way.Thank you for caring for the hungry.

Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.

Bonus: Monkey Bread

2 cans refrigerated biscuit dough
Cinnamon-sugar
1 Stick of Butter (1/2 cup)
1 Cup of Brown Sugar

Open the tube of biscuits and cut each individual biscuit into 3-4 pieces. Drop the biscuit pieces in a baggie, add some cinnamon-sugar, and shake to coat. Put the cinnamon-sugar coated biscuit pieces into a Bundt pan (non-stick or greased). In the microwave or on the stove top, melt the butter. Add the brown sugar to the melted butter and stir until combined. Pour the melted butter-brown sugar mixture evenly over the biscuit pieces. Bake at 325 degrees for 30-35 minutes, or until biscuits are golden brown. Let the monkey bread sit for about ten minutes, then invert the pan onto a plate (not plastic or styrofoam, those monkeys are hot, and you only make that melting mistake once…).

Double Bonus: Tonight’s FSF dinner, Cheesy Rice and Beans. My local food shelf gets a bag of rice, can of beans, can of tomatoes, and can of corn, and my family gets this tasty dish. Since I make my chicken stock from the bones of the chicken we eat (FREE, less wasteful, low sodium, no preservatives or mystery ingredients, I know the quality of chicken that went into it, and delicious flavor), the grand total for this meal and the matching food shelf donation is around $10

I got this recipe from the Cheese Pusher, and made a few alterations/corrections. See her original HERE.

1 Cup White Rice (or 2 cups Minute rice)
2 Cups Chicken Stock
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1/2 Cup Chopped Onion
1 Clove of Garlic
1 Tbsp. Cumin
1 Can Black Beans, Rinsed and Drained
1 Can Whole Kernel Corn, Drained
1 Can Diced Tomatoes with Chilies (I prefer the tomatoes petite diced)

Toppings:
Cheddar or Mexican Cheese Blend
Sour Cream (or plain Greek yogurt)
Cilantro
Hot Sauce

Prepare the rice like normal, using the chicken stock in place of water. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a skillet and add the onions. Cook onions until translucent, then add the garlic for one minute more. Add the cumin to the onion mixture, stir gently. Add the drained beans and corn, and the undrained tomatoes to the mixture. When the rice is done, add the bean and veggie mixture to the rice and stir until combined. Serve with a generous amount of cheese, sour cream, and cilantro. For those who prefer more spice, add hot sauce to taste.

Thoughts from a Visit to the Playground of the Rich & Famous

Karah

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Over Christmas, my family was fortunate to cross something off our “bucket list” by spending part of winter break in Aspen and Snowmass, Colorado. My husband and son are downhill skiers, so for years we have been dreaming of the winter when J would be old enough and experienced enough to enjoy a couple days on a real mountain. At 14, and with 5 years’ experience on the modest ski hills of Minnesota, we decided he was ready, so we packed up the SUV and hit the road! (That sounds so spur of the moment. We actually planned and prepared for MONTHS researching housing options, routes, ski packages, etc.)

Aspen is whole different world. I didn’t recognize any celebrities, but there are paparazzi shots online that prove quite a few celebs were in town when we were. Pretty much every store in Aspen is designer. Pretty much every restaurant is fine dining. I saw more furs on the streets than you see in the cages at a zoo. Set all that against the glorious backdrop of snow draped mountains, and it was simply unreal to this small town girl who grew up on the plains of North Dakota.

The cost of living in Aspen is much higher than it is here in the Minneapolis suburbs. We tried to save money by doing some of our meals in the villa we stayed in. It helped, but their grocery prices were so high that it didn’t make as big of a difference as I expected. I saw a sign at one real estate office that said the lowest priced single family home on the market in Aspen was over $2 million! And very few of the owners of those multi-million dollar homes actually live in them. They are vacation properties owned by high rollers who can afford to keep a place just for winter ski vacations. Ooh la la. And I felt really spoiled just to drive out and spend a couple days there. The idea of owning there – especially just for vacations – blew my mind!

Of course, this made me wonder how regular people make it. We encountered a number of bus drivers, waiters, resort staff, etc. during our trip. While they make good money in tips and overtime during Christmas, the crowds thin at the end of the ski season, and the other three-quarters of the year are much slimmer pickings. In conversations I discovered that most of them don’t live in Aspen, but commute in from surrounding towns like Carbondale and Glenwood Springs.  As we passed through those communities on the highway, I saw neighborhoods full of old trailer homes and some grubby looking apartments. For the young who love to ski and want to spend a season or a couple years in the beauty of the mountains, that works out. But for families, living off service jobs in seasonal resort community with a high cost of living is very difficult. According to the local paper (the slogan on the masthead gave me a chuckle: “If you don’t want it printed, don’t let it happen”), 77% of kids in the Aspen school district receive free or reduced-price lunches.  This indicates a significant poverty level among the permanent residents.

I don’t really have some big conclusion from all this, just a new eyewitness awareness of the poverty that it takes to support the posh life. As much as we enjoyed the stunning scenery, the guys enjoyed the skiing, and we all enjoyed the hospitality, I was happy to go home. I like my simple home, my comfy bed, and the self-reliance of my everyday life. I’m even excited to eat our FSF meal of Tuna Helper and canned corn tonight. Perhaps that’s the real takeaway. Just like it takes a certain level of poverty to support the fancy life of wealth and fame, so it also takes a certain level of restraint, simplicity, and self-denial in our comfortable lives to support everyone. As Mother Theresa said, “Live simply so others can simply live.”

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Spectacular mountain view from one of the ski hills.

New Year’s Resolutions that Save Lives!

inspiration, Karah,

New Years Resolutions

Confession: I’m a bit of a cynic when it comes to resolutions. I rarely make them because I know no one keeps them. I used to work in a gym’s childcare center.  Every year in January and February the parking lot would be full. The locker room would be full. The childcare center would be full. And by March, resolutions faded and we were back to just the regulars. The regulars and staff hated the January crush of new members hogging all the space. We all knew that it was just a phase, and while it lasted the “resolutioners” were clogging up the system.

I have new resolutions this year, something that’s not about me, and I think that’s a plan that will help me make resolutions that stick. Plus, sharing them with you creates accountability, and that helps too (I hope!).

  1. Blog every week – 52 posts that keep me thinking about the hungry and researching solutions.
  2. Participate in Food Shelf Friday 50 of 52 weeks in 2015. If for some reason a Friday doesn’t work, I give myself permission to hold the FSF meal on another night of the week.  It’s not about the day of the week; it’s about simplifying for the sake of providing more food for my food shelf.
  3. Participate in packing meals at Feed My Starving Children 6 times in 2015. My family participates in their M&M tube fundraiser. We bought tubes of mini-M&Ms at FMSC, and after we enjoyed the chocolate, we hold on to the tubes and fill them with quarters.  Each tube holds $12.  We plan to go to FMSC when our three tubes are filled, but life happens and we always have to wait for everyone to get healthy, or for the stars to align on our schedules.  This year, I’m making it a priority.

How about you? What resolutions are you setting for 2015, and what do you do to make sure your resolutions stick better than the people at the gym?

My story and the first Food Shelf Friday

Karah

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I thought I would use this week’s post to tell you my story and the story of how Food Shelf Friday came into being…

I spent 11 years as a stay-at-home mom.  I loved being with my son, attending field trips, helping in the classroom, going on playdates, etc.  We were involved with a great support/activity group called MOMS Club, and I really enjoyed the camaraderie and service projects with other SAHMs.  But once J went off to school full-time, there wasn’t a lot in that group for me.  I became discouraged, and felt like I was trading my life for my son’s and doing no other good in the world.  I remember one particular Sunday morning when the pastor said that God has already given you the talents to fulfill your mission in this life.  Your skills and passions are useful to God.  Now, I was not feeling particularly skilled or passionate.  I was frustrated.  I prayed, “Lord, I make good cookies.  What are you going to do with that?”

Apparently, God took me up on that sarcastic, frustrated challenge.  I began to notice food needs in a new and more pressing way.  I dabbled in food ministry meals for new moms and those coming off hospitalization, helped at funeral luncheons, participated in food drives, and started packing meals at Feed My Starving Children (FMSC).  None of this was regular or consistent, but there was a definite theme to the volunteer opportunities I accepted.  I found that my mind became more aware and my heart became more burdened with the world’s need for food.  But in my everyday reality I was still pursuing education, my career as a historian, and comfort above all.

Then came another red letter day for me, when FMSC posted the quote, “Live Simply so others can Simply Live,” on their Facebook page.  I was struck by that, convicted, and uncomfortable.  I wished that I hadn’t seen it.  I justified my comfort and my stuff before God.  I tried ignoring the prompting that was always with me.  I kept doing little things, a can of food here, a prayer there, to appease that call to live simply.  I told God that I would give hunger my full attention once He revealed His whole plan for my life.  Like a pebble in my shoe, this awareness of the world’s great need and my great abundance was always there poking me.  And the faster I tried to get away from it, the more it pressed into my soul.

I read Mark Batterson’s book All In.  I was jealous of the people he uses as examples.  They had a clear plan and dropped everything to see it through.  I read Jen Hatmaker’s 7, and I was reminded again of how much waste is in my life.  I read Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger (full disclosure, I haven’t finished this one yet, grad school makes me a slow reader) and I was astounded by the facts and figures.  So many people lack basic nutrition.  So much food is wasted and thrown away.  I am the chief among sinners.  But I was still lost about what to do.

Enter the promo videos for Hope For Dinner, my church’s new food shelf initiative, and my small group’s involvement in those programs.  I noticed that many people wanted to get involved but didn’t know what the food shelves needed, or that nutrition for the poor is so much more than calorie deprivation.  Sitting on my bed researching top food shelf needs on the internet, Food Shelf Friday was born.  I can’t feed the world’s hungry by myself, but I can educate and provide resources so that all of us are more aware of the needs and the solutions, the pitfalls and the resources, so we all can do more with our efforts.  And so that very day I began building the Food Shelf Friday blog.

The name “Food Shelf Friday” is from my personal plan to swap out my family’s dinner on Fridays for the kind of dinner families receive from a food shelf.  With the money we save by this simplified menu, we provide an identical meal to our local food shelf.  For example, tonight we are eating Tuna Helper and peas, and the food shelf received the same box of Helper, cans of tuna, and cans of veggies that we’re eating.  Without breaking my family’s food budget we can give away more and gain awareness of the food shelf user’s experience.

It is my hope and prayer that this blog and Facebook page will be tools to inspire and equip people who care about the hungry – that we would be informed and compassionate members of the developed world – that we would see needs and feel empowered to help rather than guilty about our success and comfort.  I welcome your ideas, questions, and suggestions.

“Follow me as I follow the example of Christ” – 1 Corinthians 11:1