$30,000 in 18 hours.
Nov 10th by JonDid that really happen yesterday?
Did we raise $30,000 in 18 hours to build a kindergarten in Vietnam?
Did a blog, that isn’t even based on an original idea, come together and do something much bigger than a blog?
Did a community of people who use the phrase, “Booty, God, Booty,” and know how to instantly score how metrosexual their worship leader is, really give $5 and $10 and $5,000 donations until they hit $30,000?
Did that really happen yesterday?
It did and if there’s one thing I want you to remember, it’s this:
The miracle of yesterday is so small compared to how much God loves you.
The sum of $30,000 is so tiny compared to the outrageousness of God’s love for you. He’d crossed countries and oceans and space and time to pull you close, traveling to Vietnam is but a hop skip and a jump for a God who can’t keep Himself away from you.
That’s the truth of yesterday, but what does tomorrow hold?
Good question, I think there are four things we could do …
1. We could stop.
2. We could raise the remaining $60,000 to build the two other kindergartens in the area.
3. We could figure out if it’s possible to raise money to sustain and nurture the one kindergarten from yesterday.
4. We could find sponsors (like Compassion International, Catalyst, Samaritan’s Purse, Zondervan and Desiring God) to send me, Abraham Piper, Tripp Crosby and a bunch of ya’ll to Vietnam next year to pour into that village in a 3D way and make a documentary film of the whole thing.
Clearly, that last one is far fetched, but after yesterday, I’ve decided to retire the phrase “far fetched” from my vocabulary.
I’m talking to Samaritan’s Purse today to figure out next steps, but in the meantime, if you missed the razor thin 18 hour window of craziness that was yesterday, you can still donate. We’re going to continue raising the money and I don’t want anyone to miss the chance to be part of this just because they don’t read Stuff Christians Like on Mondays. Click here to donate.
Yesterday in my journal, I wrote to God, “I pray you raise $10,000 today. I pray you blow everyone’s expectations out of the water.” And $10,000 felt big and impossible but I forgot something I learned a few years ago – God loves dancing.
In 2006, after a really tough season, such a fantastic Christian word, I realized that I had made God into an emo God. I had made him a God of weeping and tears. When life got hard and painful, I would go see him, take him my problems and weep with him. When life got good, I would walk away and eventually pat myself on the back for all the good times I was experiencing. The outcome of that cycle was that I associated God strictly with seasons of hardship, pain and suffering, and never with joy.
So one morning driving to work, I confessed, “God I’ve made you into a God of weeping. I don’t know how to dance with you.”
And I felt like God said back, “Well, the best way to learn is for me to give you lots of reasons to dance.”
Today is a day of dancing.
Let’s put the glory and the honor and the whoa did that really happen where it belongs – God.
Let’s finish this sentence:
God is _______________
I’ll go first:
God is just getting started.
God is bigger than my big dreams.
God has a huge heart for children and that includes me.
Your turn:
God is _________________
Comments
[...] 31 to build this Kindergarten. God probably saw that goal and thought, “how cute.” 18 hours later God’s people had responded and raised the entire $30,000. In the time it took me to fill out [...]
[...] $30,000 in 18 hours – the readers at Stuff Christians Like donated $30,000 in 18 hours to build a kindergarten in Vietnam. Now they are working on building a second one. Awesome use of blog influence! [...]
[...] week, a pretty cool thing happened over at the Stuff Christians Like blog. On Monday, Jon Acuff shared an idea with his readers: let’s raise $30,000 to build a [...]
[...] week, a pretty cool thing happened over at the Stuff Christians Like blog. On Monday, Jon Acuff shared an idea with his readers: let’s raise $30,000 to build a [...]
God is beyond my mind and universe and heart.
He is more than real.
God is right here.
[...] find out how much they raised the first day here, and how much they raised in the first 18 hours here, and the announcement of the second kindergarten here. That’s the one we’re currently [...]
[...] week, a pretty cool thing happened over at the Stuff Christians Like blog. On Monday, Jon Acuff shared an idea with his readers: let’s raise $30,000 to build a [...]