Holiday Survival Guide Installment #4 - Parties

Holiday survival tip #6 - Be a hostess with the most-est

I mentioned my mom and her attempt at a magnificent holiday party in a previous post. She was so busy trying to make everything "perfect" that she failed to be present at her own party. Major bummer. No need to re-hash that one. But recall that I said before how important it was to actually be at your own party.

Moving on.

Let's talk about what it means to actually be the hostess. This is an area I struggle with. I'm not sure how to be a gracious hostess. People walk in and compliment the decorations, the food, or even my hair, and I instantly go into freak out mode. I act like I've never been complimented before! "Oh, this old thing" I say of my brand new dress, or "oh it's such a mess" I say of the house I've spent all month cleaning. Maybe some of us are just trying to be modest, but there is nothing wrong with accepting a compliment. A simple "thank you" would be fine. But for some reason the thought of someone having kind words about my efforts sends me into a panic.

This year I've agreed to host a formal Christmas dinner at my house. I know this will mean a lot of hard work on my part, and I know that my family will say something kind about what they see, smell, hear, and taste - which is something that really warms my heart. I am praying genuinely that I'll be able to accept the compliment without somehow degrading my efforts with a back-handed comment like, "the turkey is too dry" or "I'm sorry the living room is such a mess."

If you're the hostess, take pride in your hard work, and then allow yourself to reap the reward! You've earned it. And no one will be upset if you bask in your success for a minute. Just make sure you don't forget to compliment Nana on that hideous Christmas sweater she insists on wearing every year and it will even out.

Holiday survival tip #7 - RSVP

I'll keep it short and sweet. If you are invited to a gathering, and you intend to be present at said gathering, make it known so that your hosts can be sure to have enough seating, refreshments, etc. It is terribly rude to assume that your hosts can read your mind and sense telepathically that you intend to show up at some point to partake of the food and entertainment, while taking up a share of the couch, and therefore they should expect enough to satisfy you. The RSVP, which is a nice way of saying "Are you coming or not???", lets your host prepare and plan so that your arrival, departure, and everything in between is as pleasurable as possible. In my opinion, no RSVP means no attendance, and your butt should have to wait outside! Having planned parties in the past, I know what goes on behind the scenes, and if you plan for only 30 people to come and you get 50, there can be a lot of hungry, cold, tired, cranky guests at your event. No one wants this. If you're coming, please say so.

At the same time, if you have agreed to attend and you are then unable, please let your host know that as well. It stinks to have food left over with no where to store it, and to have rearranged your living room for extra chairs only to discover that no one will be sitting in them. It's just a courtesy to someone who was kind enough to invite you.

Holiday survival tip #9 - Alcohol in M O D E R A T I O N

There is nothing cute or funny about finding out that your boss now has 500 photocopies of your butt after you hit the eggnog too hard at the company party. Be smart. If you are going to an office party, keep in mind that you will have to look these people in the eye again Monday morning. They would prefer that yours not be blood-shot. You'll look like a jerk. Go easy on the booze.

This rule also is important when your party takes you away from home. Unless your sled is powered by the spirit of Christmas, hand crafted by elves, and is pulled by 8 magic reindeer, you need not get behind the wheel after drinking. Period. There is no excuse for drinking and driving.

Friends, I have had the unfortunate experience of burying dear friends due to auto accidents related to excessive drinking. It's not something any mom, wife, daughter, aunt, grandmother, co-worker, or friend wants to remember every Christmas. Be considerate of society at-large and get a designated driver. Heck, you can call ME if you need to. Just please, I beg you, do not drive if you've been drinking.

Party on...

Holiday Survival Guide Installment #3 - Guests

Holiday survival tip # 4 - Strive to be Mary in a Martha world

My mother was a very social woman. One Christmas, she decided to host a Christmas Open House. From about mid-October until the party date in early December, preparations were being made. We cleaned the house with toothbrushes and a fine-toothed comb top to bottom until every surface glistened. We decorated the house with garland and lights until every room twinkled with Christmas. We selected the perfect mix of traditional and contemporary Christmas songs to play in the background. Mom baked for what seemed like an eternity (and we were NOT allowed to sample!). The refreshments were laid out on our Christmas plates, neatly arranged around the matching Christmas-patterned plates and flatware. She spent the last several hours before guests arrived primping and preening herself to look fabulous in the glow of the candles and garland. Everything was perfect. Once guests began arriving, Mom could be spotted running from here or there to refill the ice, replenish the punch, take more appetizers from the oven, more crackers, more chips, more drinks. Her feet never stopped moving. And until the last guest grabbed her coat, she was in constant motion. When the music stopped, the candles were extinguished, and the dishes were put up, she realized that she herself had not eaten or partaken of the eggnog, nor had she spent any real time visiting with the guests she had invited weeks earlier. She was so busy making the party look, smell, and taste amazing, that she hadn't actually been at the party.

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
Luke 10:38-42

It's hard when you're the host/hostess, and you want so badly to ensure your guests are enjoying themselves. You spend hours in the kitchen preparing the food to absolute perfection. You spend hours cleaning the house to make sure it feels clean and comfortable. You spend an hour or two sprucing yourself up, and you'll spend hours cleaning up afterward. But how much time did you spend with your guests?

This holiday season, resist the urge to strive for perfection. Chances are, your guests didn't come to judge your appearance, the appearance of your home, or the quality of your food. They came to spend time with you. So, make sure you spend time with them. Enjoy them. Treasure them.

When the lights go out and everyone has gone home, no one will be talking about how spotless your house is or how professional your catering was - but they'll remember if you sat with them, talked with them, shared a laugh over some hot chocolate with them. This is why we gather at the holidays in the first place, right?

Holiday survival tip # 5 - Call ahead for best service

Ladies, lets get real for a moment. For most of us, the pride of who we are is reflected in our home. We want it to be a place of warmth, love, comfort and welcome. But if we're being honest, we can also admit that at times it can be a place of chaos and mess. And in those times that most closely resemble the path of destruction left by a hurricane, the last thing we want is for someone to show up at our doorstep, suitcase in hand, and see the disaster we call a home. Yes, we're going to talk about uninvited guests.

First of all, I'm not one who loves surprises. The idea that anyone would show up at my house unannounced sends my heart racing. I don't like being unprepared. I am very much a "Martha" of my time. Uninvited guests don't usually get the full "welcome" experience. And that makes me sad for them. So, I generally believe it's a little bit rude to show up and expect to receive room and board and see my smiling face. I would definitely prefer that you don't show up without giving me a heads-up. But, it happens.

If you are the guest who shows up without advanced notice, be the kind of guest who comes prepared with low expectations and a gracious heart. Know that your hosts didn't intend for you to be stuck on the couch, but they didn't have time to prepare anything else. Your hosts didn't intend to call out for pizza, but the gourmet meal they wanted to serve didn't include a portion for you. Simply put: they didn't know you were coming.

The holiday season should be one of fellowship and love. Respect one another enough to realize that your host needs to know you're coming, and your guests need to feel welcome no matter how much - or how little - advanced notice you received.

Above all else, dear friends, please don't get stressed out about your guests. This is a season of love and fellowship, not stress and frustration. Jesus wants us to gather together, in his name, to rejoice in what our Heavenly Father has given to us in this special season - grace. So, give some to your guests.

Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ.
1 Peter 5:14

Holiday Survival Guide Installment #2 - Shopping

Holiday survival tip #2 - Shop smarter, not harder

Black Friday

Eight years ago, my sister-in-law and I had the grand idea that since our men were going to be away the day after Thanksgiving (hers in Iraq, mine at deer camp), we would sneak away for some early morning shopping. The deals were particularly appealing that year and I was particularly broke, being that I was expecting our second child within a month of Thanksgiving. Since I was having difficulty sleeping anyway, this seemed like a perfectly reasonable thing to do. So, with sale papers in hand, we left our centrally-heated homes to brave the freezing temperatures and insane crowds to get a jump-start on holiday deals.

Friends, it's called "Black Friday" for a reason. There is nothing white, pink, yellow, or green about this day. Folks lose their minds. Seriously. Something about 900 people all clamoring for the 100 items displayed at a drastically reduced price sends people into a frenzy. All sense is lost. All courtesy is forgotten. Any manners? Forget it. All bets are off.

We made the mistake of hitting Walmart first. I'm not a fan of this particular retailer in the first place, but the deals really were enticing. So, we walked (I waddled) into the store and began scoping out our points of attack. She headed for the small kitchen appliances and I teetered through the electronics section. A line had formed to even enter this section, and being claustrophobic, I decided I probably ought to just head toward the small kitchen appliances also. With my walking trail obscured by my giant (and I mean GIANT) belly, I failed to see an obstacle in my path. I tripped over a cardboard box and fell, face first, landing on all fours in the middle of the isle. At first no one saw me, for which I was grateful, considering my lack of grace at the moment. Plus, I was unsure if my maternity blue jeans had remained intact during the fall. But because of a shift in my center of gravity, and pain in my knees, getting up was difficult and took a great deal more time than I had anticipated, giving passers by plenty of time to gawk and stare. Finally, a kind gentlemen offered a hand. I was so humiliated I didn't even want to look him in the eye. Then I began to wonder if my bladder had held during the fall. What if my water had broken? Oh, dear. This could be disastrous. Fortunately, after a lot of grunting (which wasn't all my own, I might add), the kind man lifted me up and I discovered that my bag of waters was intact, and my pants were dry. Praise God. But my dignity? Yeah, that had left me.

I waddled my way to the front of the store where I found my sister-in-law, with her treasures, and we proceeded to the checkout. This, friends, is where I saw the blackest of Black Friday...

We stood in line for around 15 minutes, me praying silently that none of the folks around me recognized me as "that pregnant lady who took a spill on isle 5." Finally, the registers opened and the cash registers began beeping and jingling. After a few folks had paid and left, the line began to move forward. My sister-in-law began to step forward, realizing that a coffee pot was blocking her path. With her foot, she nudged it out of the way. Out of nowhere, a husky voice and the smell of stale cigarette smoke hovered over us, shouting, "I was saving my place in line with that!" My sister-in-law, in her sweetest voice, said, "you can't save a place in line with a coffee pot. We've been standing here, waiting, and that's not fair." Somehow, the rather large loud woman didn't feel compelled to evacuate her reserved space. In fact, she began to move ever closer to my sister-in-law's space. (My left eye twitches feverishly as I write.) The woman proceeded to all but threaten my sister in law, over a coffee pot, in the middle of Walmart on the busiest shopping day of the year, stating that she had "been here longer" and had "reserved her place in line while [she] ran to go grab something else" and that my poor sister-in-law had better not say another word about it. At this point, I felt dizzy and I felt something kinda wet around my knee. Please, don't let me be going into labor right here in Walmart! Thankfully, it was only a little bit of blood from the abuse my knees took a few moments before. Meanwhile, my non-confrontational sister-in-law was standing her ground while this unattractive woman was losing her religion over a reserved space in line with a $5 coffee pot and a box of Marlboro reds. I don't recall the exact words, but some four letter ones were shared and finally a Walmart associate manager asked the "lady" to please step to the back of the line.

We checked out and headed to the car, which I half expected to find keyed and lit on fire. We left Walmart and headed to Old Navy where I bought a maternity sweater that I later accidentally put into the drier and had to give to my 5-year-old niece. I did save $20, though. All-in-all, the shopping trip yielded no real amazing finds. In fact, I can't recall that I actually bought any Christmas gifts at all. I think my spirit was so broken after realizing how many selfish people claim to celebrate a holiday based on the birth of the most unselfish being ever to walk upon the earth.

Holiday survival tip #3 - Spend on where it really matters

I recently had a long telephone conversation with my dad where we both recalled our favorite memories from Christmases past. Our recollections both included things like the smell of the Christmas turkey, the taste of the homemade fudge, the twinkling lights, and watching It's A Wonderful Life a dozen times in the course of a season. Nowhere in our fondest memories lie the gifts we exchanged. In fact, while I know that my parents (and grandparents) spoiled us with gifts in quantities unheard of, I can't really recall what those gifts were. I can't recall how long they lasted. And I can't recall any that I gave, either. But I remember how the time was spent.

I can only imagine the crazy kind of debt my parents went into showering us with gifts like they did. But they were spinning their wheels trying always to outdo the previous year's yield. What we remember most, what we value most, is the time spent making memories - the kind of memories I try to make with my own children.

I heard on the news a few nights ago that Americans will spend around $1.2 billion between Black Friday and Cyber Monday (Black Friday's less intrusive cousin), working out to around $400 per customer. Wow. Is there not any other way to spend $400? Would Jesus have accepted a $400 gift? And how could you top the gift He gave anyway? Why try?

This year, God has really put it on my heart to give something that cannot be exchanged, replaced, or thrown out. It can (and should be) re-gifted, though. This Christmas, I want to bless my family and friends with the gift of love. I want to spend time with them, nurture our relationships, and truly rejoice in the birth of our savior. Isn't that what Christmas is about anyway??

Now, if you feel compelled to give a gift, let me suggest the gift of life. For way less than $400, you can literally save a life. Just visit the World Vision gift catalog and buy a life-saving gift to help those who aren't concerned with getting presents for Christmas - they're concerned with living to see another Christmas.

That everyone should know him by receiving him in real, tangible ways... This, my friends, this is what Jesus wants for his birthday.

Holiday Survival Guide Installment #1 - Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving happens to be one of my most favorite holidays on the calendar. The feast aside, this holiday lands smack in the middle of my most favorite season. If you are fortunate enough to live in a climate rich with lush greenery, you may notice a change in the scenery. Leaves fall in beautiful shades of brown and vibrant orange. The atmosphere becomes crisp and cool, and the wind sends a small, but pleasant, chill in the air. Fall festivities abound. The best football games happen during the Thanksgiving weekend, and school lets out briefly. It is a fantastic time of year, and Thanksgiving day is the jewel in her crown.

I grew up having a formal Thanksgiving meal. It was the one day during the entire year we ate on real china and sat in the formal dining room. It was at this table that my mom taught me valuable lessons about proper table etiquette by stabbing me in the forearm with a real silver fork because my elbows were on the table. I learned that goblets were for water, not for Kool Aid. I learned that you do not set a jar of mayonnaise on Mom's glamorously set table to make a turkey sandwich out of her beautifully browned bird and a homemade roll while waiting for the blessing to be said. I learned the value, or lack thereof, in literally "passing a roll" down to the end of the table upon request.

I look back fondly on Thanksgiving, but my best memories have been made since I became a mother myself. Nearly every Thanksgiving since I married my husband 13 years ago, we have made the trek from wherever we had been living at the time, to a rural area in south Mississippi to enjoy a fantastically home cooked meal with my husband's grandparents, where our children run and play with their cousins and the livestock while the adults sit and talk about football, weather, and the price of gasoline while stirring the gravy and sampling the sweet potato casserole. This year was no different.

Funny thing about Thanksgiving - the holidays in general, really - is family. Some you love, some you loathe. It's a mixed blessing. We've all had to sit through uncomfortable Thanksgiving meals. That's just part of the experience, I've come to believe. But the turkey and dressing makes it worth it. I'm not sure that I would choose to sit at a table with some of my family under any other circumstance. I believe that's why God made turkey with tryptophan. You're too full and too tired to fight after a meal like that.

While the food and the table in that warm house in the deep south look very different from the one I sat - and was stabbed - at in my youth, there are some things that seem to be universal about Thanksgiving in America, and I do not refer to the turkey (although it is worth mentioning that my mother, my mother-in-law, and my grandmother-in-law are all in peak performance mode when it comes to Thanksgiving meals). After having traveled hundreds of miles, crossing multiple state lines, and grown weary of other travelers having done the same, there is something instantly re-energizing about the sight of loved ones holding hands around the table to pray. We are all one family unit - our struggles, our disagreements, and our issues aside for that brief moment we bow our heads and thank God Almighty for blessing us with another year of family, memories, and delicious food. We break bread fully knowing that it may be our last under these circumstances, but we give thanks for the chance to do so. We forgive one another, if only for a moment, for being imperfect and give thanks for being present.

Isn't that what it's really all about? Isn't it really about remembering what you have to be thankful for? Family, friends, memories... those are the real treats.

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.
Psalm 107:1

Holiday survival tip #1 - be thankful that you have family around to annoy you, push your buttons, aggrivate you, and be a thorn in your side. Next year, you may not be so lucky.

A Servant's Heart

I really want to write a book. Not exactly sure what my topic would be, but I feel like it might be based on the following paragraph taken from my personal journal:

11 November 2010
Lord, I just pray that you reach into my heart and touch it in such a way that makes my yearning for Your causes permanent. God, open my eyes to the world around me that is crying out for love to be put into action. Let me be full of compassion and mercy for all of Your children. Let me love as You have. Let me reach out to those the world would discard. Show me how to love the world for what You made it to be - not what we made it to be. Give me Your eyes, that I might see people the way You do. Lord, Let me know where You want me to go for You. Where are You calling me? Where do You, Lord, need me to serve Your people? Show me where, tell me how. Break my heart for what breaks Yours - make it my life's mission, my purpose. And Lord, please give me the strength to follow Your call.

I could not have imagined that praying over my journal that night would result in my fingers running over these tear-soaked pages time and time again, pondering what God was calling my heart to. Since I wrote those words, almost exactly one year ago, I have read and re-read that prayer. There is something beautiful about being brought to your knees and moved to tears in prayer to the Father.

I always thought of myself as "charitable". Always took at least one tag off the Angel Tree. Made sure to give canned food to the Foodbank. Took my coats and blankets to the mission. Put an extra $5 in the collection plate at Christmas. Yes, I was "charitable". You can give without love, but you cannot truly love without giving. Giving, the kind that stretches you past what you think you can do on your own, the kind that makes you feel a little bit uncomfortable, the kind that pushes the limits of your heart... that kind of giving can only be done of love. And until last year, when I hit my knees and asked God to open my heart to this kind of giving - the kind that requires blood, sweat, and tears - I had no idea how beautifully painful, and awesomely rewarding it would feel to be uncomfortable for God.

The bottom line, friends, is that giving is not what you do with your hands or you money or your time... it's what you do with your heart.

Falling Leaves

Autumn is one of my most favorite times of the year. I love watching the oak trees change into browns and oranges, dropping leaves and acorns all about. I'm not a fan of raking, but it seems such a small sacrifice for such a beautiful change in scenery. Fall brings about a shift in wind and weather, dramatic colors, and delicious flavors. It is a season based on gratitude and change - two things that, at least for me, don't often go together. But they should.

Our circumstances are often a mess. No one would really choose to be homeless, jobless, hungry, or poor, would they? No one would choose the life of hardship over a life of ease, would they? Of course not. But often our circumstances place us in these difficult times. And we feel so abandoned in those times, as if God has shunned us to this spiritual wasteland. A change in circumstances, especially a negative one, often makes us a little bit bitter toward God. After all, a loving God wouldn't want to punish us this way, right??

We live in a broken, jacked up, icky, messed up world full of pain, suffering, and evil. The moment the first bite was taken of the apple, all hell broke loose - literally. Mankind allowed sin into the world, and for that we all pay. The world is not the beautiful paradise it once was when God roamed through the garden freely, and man and woman were naked an unashamed. Today, we have drugs, violence, disease, famine, and a whole host of other things that come as a result of sin's admittance to our world. Sometimes, the result of that sin spills over into innocent lives and causes circumstances to change in such a negative and nasty way that we feel that we are far, far too removed from God to even reach out to Him. Things have changed, and we can't see God's hand at work anymore.

But that doesn't mean He's stopped working. A change in our circumstances is a wonderful time to praise the Father. Sure, things seem hard now, but there is nothing - absolutely, positively nothing - that God can't see you through.

A few years ago, I experienced a dramatic change. I lost my mom to cancer. I was so busy allowing my circumstances to drown me, I forgot to ask God for a life preserver. Never once did I praise Him for the years I had with my mom - 30 years full of memories. Never once did I thank Him for allowing her to pass peacefully, though her disease was a painful, slow death. Never one did I glorify Him for allowing me to be at her bedside in her final moments, though I lived 3 states away. But often did I criticize Him for "making" her die, for "allowing" this cancer, and for "taking" her from me. My circumstances were unpleasant, and I made sure He knew how I felt about it. I knew things had changed for the worse, and I couldn't see how God could possibly use this for good. After about a month of grieving and feeling sorry for myself, God delivered a miracle. My husband gave his life to Christ. He said that he hadn't been able to give me the kind of peace and love about this situation that I needed to receive, because he didn't himself possess it. You can't give away what you never had. But once he allowed Christ to fill his heart, he understood the kind of love I needed to feel. Our marriage changed immediately. And I came to the realization that even though my circumstances had changed, God used it to make an amazing story - and for that, I should be thankful.

It's hard, I won't lie. Often all we can see is our the circumstances in life that keep us from moving forward. We feel stuck. But praise God. Praise Him for the goodness. Praise Him that in those moments when you have more month left than money, He gave you that time. When you can't park near the building and have to walk a half mile in from the parking lot, that at least you have healthy legs to do so. When you run out of laundry soap in the middle of washing clothes, that you are blessed to have that many articles of clothing to wash. When you lose someone you love unexpectedly, that you got to spend time with them and love them while they were here. There are a million reasons to praise - big and small.

I'm not a big fan of change. In fact, it makes me very anxious. But watching the leaves turn and fall off the trees gives me such a peace. Yes, the trees will soon be bare, but our God is an amazing provider, and soon enough those trees will be covered with new leaves, blossoms, and fruit. Allow Him to be present through the changes, and amazing things will happen. After all, you will go through the changes in life regardless... wouldn't it be better to go WITH God, than WITHOUT Him?

Water = Life

As many of my friends know, water - something vital to life - is very close to my heart. My family has made it our mission to be involved in bringing water, in both it's physical and spiritual forms, to those who need it most. We have been involved with Living Water International for a few years now, and have been on 5 mission trips between us, with many more planned for the future. We give regularly to this ministry, and fully support the vision for providing the world's thirsty with water that will nourish the body and the soul. To say we are passionate about water would be a small understatement.

This week I began a program sponsored by LWI called Pray for Water, a 21-day prayer guide to pray for those who need water most, and for the issues that affect them. Today, Day 3, struck me in particular because it hit so close to home for me. Today, I prayed for the mothers and fathers of children born in communities with poor sanitation and a lack of clean water. They often hold off on naming their babies until they are 2 years old, because anonymous death hurts less. I have to tell you, it was difficult not to burst into tears.

When my children were born, we were surrounded by family and friends. We were in a modern hospital with full comfort amenities. There was no lack of medicine, care, or staff to ensure the health and safety of myself or my newly born child. Surrounded by high-tech equipment, computer monitors, and air-conditioned private rooms, I was blessed to be able to love my new babies without worrying about disease or illness in the water they drank or were bathed in. I didn't worry about malnourishment or water-born illness. I worried about what outfit to put them in for pictures. I worried about making sure I looked good for pictures. I worried about the nursing staff interrupting my afternoon nap. I worried that the cafeteria food would taste good. But at that same moment, a mother somewhere around the world was burying a baby she didn't name because he or she was exposed to pathogens that would take his or her young life. Recalling the memory of those early days in my baby's life suddenly seemed so insignificant in comparison.

I often feel a little guilty for being so blessed while others suffer so. But God has given me a new peace about this. He wants to bless me. He wants me to enjoy those sweet moments when a new child enters the earthly kingdom. He wants me to soak up the smell of that new baby shampoo, joy in the tender touch of the soft, supple skin, and snuggle up close to that precious angel He has blessed me with. But I also know that He wants me to remember how blessed I am, not take it for granted, be thankful for it, and try to bless those who don't have that. He isn't asking me to feel guilty, but He is asking me to be the change I want to see in the world. He's asking me to bless someone else. He's asking me to use the experiences and resources He's blessed me with to pass on to someone else.

I feel that this call will be through organizations like Living Water. But I am open to finding ways to bless others who truly thirst. If God calls me to another path, I pray He will open my eyes to it. I know that I can't change the world by myself, but He hasn't called me to change it all by myself - He's called me to be His hands and feet, He can handle the rest. And if I partner with someone else, the impact can only be greater.

While I pray for those families who are burdened with the loss of their children, I also pray that my friends and family would feel the call to their own hearts to give to the cause. None of us has ever experienced the kind of loss and pain that says it is better to bury a child you didn't ever even name. Give, and give generously, and I promise that you will be the change that you want to see in the world. God will use what you give, and He will bless you for it. I promise you that.

Please visit www.water.cc to find out how you can give, pray, and support the cause.