Mission Monday: Lemon-Aid Stand

Proverbs 30: 8-9 “….give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the LORD?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.”

Summer is a time to create memories, enjoy time together, and slow down.  Ironically, it is also the perfect time to multi-task.  That is multi-task  with some memory-making, moment-creating opportunities that center not on our own.  Centered around those who can’t possibly focus on making summertime memories because they spend every ounce of their time focusing on survival.

I am uncomfortable being so comfortable.  Chopping organic tomatoes on my granite countertops causes my stomach to feel a bit knotted when I think about the poor and needy all over God’s earth scraping up morsels out of dirt to fill their bellies.  His children!

Internally, I rage when I listen to talk of storing up wealth, saving for retirement, creating comfy cozy lives all while millions of children are starving all over the face of this earth.

And I am one.  It is my own voice that causes the rage to well up.  I don’t want to be so comfortable being comfortable.

My primary mission field is my home.  I have the greatest influence on the 3 little hearts under my care.  Though I may not realize it in the moment by moment, I can impact the world by training up boys to care more for the souls of humanity than for themselves.  I can impact the world by training these little men to love others more than themselves.

I can be with my kids, create memories with them, all while showing them how much God needs them on His mission field.  Together we can do more good.

I must be focused on the long-term not the short.  Training my boys to be mission-minded, we can significantly impact God’s kingdom with the opportunities He’s given me right beneath my nose.

Lord, I pray I will use the blessings you pour onto me to bless others.  Let me never grow so comfortable being comfortable.  Give me no more than I need lest I forget that I need you.

As we move closer to our midway point of the summer, some of our best summer moments have been on our Mission Mondays.

Last week we had a lemonade stand.  Or a Lemon-Aid stand for Blood Water Mission.  Raising money to bring clean water to African communities.  Places where 7 year olds walk miles every day just to bring clean water back to their communities.  Communities where HIV/AIDS is widespread.

Blood Water Missions provides great tools to make this such an exciting way to raise money.  We made t-shirts, applied tattoos, made posters, and set up our stand.  I loved listening to my boys explain to their customers why they were selling lemonade.  I loved watching the little children’s eyes as they heard something they’ve never heard before.  And I pray that each person that visited that stand will have a heart that desires to leave a few comforts behind and do a little more good for humanity.  For God’s world that is in desperate need.

We did see it though.  We saw people so moved by what the boys were doing, they would pay $10 for a small cup of lemonade.  We listened as one little boy said, “We have lots of clean water at our house.” His mom was able to begin a conversation about how blessed we are to have access to water.  Something we take for granted every day.

One of mine began to count the money.  He said, “I just can’t believe how much people are paying for lemonade.”

“People want to feel good about where their money goes.  It’s easy to pay a lot for lemonade to help a good cause when you have the ability to do so.”

“You know, mom.  This is so much better than having a lemonade stand where we keep all the money for ourselves.  I love knowing how many Africans will have water because we sold lemonade.”

Just $1 provides clean water for one year for one African.  The boys raised $80 and were floored at the idea of how that will be used to provide clean water for an entire year for 80 people!

So for us parents in this stage of life,  desiring to be out in the world, used by God to save it.  Rest assured, when we invest in our children, molding their hearts to care for the needs of the world, we are being used by God to save the world.