Week Two

I have been homeless for two weeks now. Thus far, I have gone swimming
every morning, and swimming with my head in the water is not quite as
horrible as it first was. I consider this quite an accomplishment
since I have always hated swimming. I am also much better at avoiding
attention. For example, I have discovered that if I arrive at the top
of the parking garage (where I sleep) and there is another person
there, I pretend to be talking on my cell phone. One of these days, I
might actually call someone, but for now, I have just been praying into
my phone until the other person leaves. So far, I have kept a careful
record of my costs, which in total averages $12.30/day. However, this
includes food and capital costs (things I will be using long term).
Thus far, I have been able to maintain a balanced diet with $4.50/day
and have spent an average of $4 a day on capital cost items. This
means my actual cost of living in the car has been $3.80, which is
$9.20 less than living in an apartment. While living in my car is not
convenient, it’s not horrible either, and I am excited that it affords
the opportunity to potentially sponsor nine children through a year of
school. At the one month mark I will be going to Food for the Hungry
and selecting a few children from there to sponsor.

My challenge to anyone reading this is to consider how you can cut
one dollar out of your daily budget, and instead use that dollar to
sponsor a child. If the average young couple cut just one dollar out
of their daily budget, they would be able to sponsor about six kids
from the time they enter 1st grade, all the way through high school.
In 2009, the median American household income was $49,777 (about
$136/day). While we complain about not having enough money, we forget
that 5% of this income could support seven children. A radical family
who gave 50% of their income (and still be one of the richest
households in the world) could support 68 children. If they gave this
amount throughout their lives they would be able to fully sponsor 408
children through school (68 children * 60 years / 10 years to get
through school). While that would be a challenged, it’s interesting to
think that we could completely alter the lives of more people, than
the number of Facebook friends we have.

All that said, remember two things, 1) we at war, 2) we have a
tremendous amount of power to make a difference. If we are willing to
focus less on what we don’t have and more on what we do have we could
very quickly change the course of history. My challenge to everyone
reading this is to cut one dollar out of your budget tomorrow, and
give it to the war effort.