child moment

plucked from Scott Williams' blog ........


unless you become like a child...
8 or so months ago an older couple were having lunch at my restaurant when they happened to mention that they had inherited an orphanage in Haiti, and had no means to feed them. as we sat and talked i realized that something had to be done so i asked a couple of club members, who happened to be waiting on tables, if we should do something. we voted and adopted an orphanage. we had no committees to run it through, no old members to placate. there were no financial balance sheets to reconcile. the kids needed to eat.so i went to my little group of club members - 30 or so mostly teens and young adults and we talked about what we could do. that saturday we took an "offering" (i hate that word) and the kids got to eat for a month. within a couple of weeks we had 4 months worth of money. the giving never ended. let me assure you, i had very little to do with this. young adults signed over their whole paychecks, others gave 50% or more of their income. it was a marvel to watch.a couple months later we found out that a local pastor that had been helping 'our kids' had died falling off a roof and his body was stuck in the morgue, no money to release it for a funeral. so i told the peeps and that night, on top of the money they already shelled out, they raised $400. there was about 15 teens and young adults, and a few others, there that night.sometime later we found out that if we could somehow raise $800 bucks in 6 months the kids could have a teacher and books come in and have school. 2 or 3 weeks later we sent the money.last night a guy from haiti was here and i interviewed him. i asked him what they needed - $200 bucks for more books and approximately $300 bucks for shoes for all 30 kids. i put it out there, we have a month to raise it, and the kids ponied up $680 plus change. i couldn't get my head around it.one of the seniors who was visiting last night asked me how i could get young people to give and live so sacrificially. i simply said, "i told them if we don't give they don't eat'. i really did nothing else. they are rough and rude, loud and unpolished, authentic and sacrificial.maybe the problem with today's youth isn't that they aren't committed. maybe the problem is that we haven't given them anything of value to be committed to