The beginning

First let me say that Tiffany and I are very honored to have the opportunity to bless others with this benevolence fund. When Kilde first contacted us on Facebook my wife and I were both intrigued and nervous. After having a meeting with Brian and some of the other participants Tiffany and I really felt that this was a great opportunity for us to become closer to Christ and bless others. It has now been a week since that first meeting and we have been praying daily about who Christ would like us to bless. It would be easy to find a charity and donate the money but Tiffany and I are trying to take our time so that we may hear the voice of Christ. This was very difficult early on because as soon as we left the meeting I instantly could think of all the different worthy people and organizations. However, after reflection Tiffany and I came to the conclusion that we need involve God in the process. This really made me stop to think. How many times do we make decisions without involving Christ. I am the type of person who likes to be in control of situations so it can be extremely challenging to be dependent.

Overall we are excited about this opportunity and we thank those of you who are following us.

"Go and do the same."

Our Life Group has the exciting opportunity to spend $100 for the purpose of blessing someone (or many people)! We met on Wednesday night and read through the passage of the Good Samaritan, in Luke 10:25-37. Jesus commanded the religious leader in the story to care for his neighbor by demonstrating kindness and compassion, just as the Good Samaritan did for the man traveling to Jericho.

At the end of the story, Jesus said,

³⁶"What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?"

³⁷"The one who treated him kindly," the religion scholar responded.

Jesus said, "Go and do the same."

As we've been brainstorming with our Life Group, we've come to a few conclusions:

* $100 is a powerful sum of money! It has the potential to turn someone's power on at their house, buy a new pair of glasses, get 100 pairs of inexpensive gloves, or pay for a lot of value meals at a fast food restaurant. We want to be thoughtful about how we spend the money.

* Because we've been so richly blessed as a Life Group - i.e. - We all have electricity in our homes, cars in working order, food in the cupboards, we want to be able to reach out and help meet someone's need in the name of Jesus.

We will continue to pray about specific situations this week, and when we meet again this Wednesday, we hope to have a more specific direction about "who" and "how".

Thank you for joining in prayer with us!