It's Almost Dump Day!!

Tomorrow will be a huge day around the Internets and you are not going to want to miss out!

My friend, Trey Morgan, is hosting the 2nd Annual Dump Day! What in heaven's name is Dump Day? You will be so glad you asked. Trey regularly (twice a year, I think) travels to Honduras and takes a group with him. While there, one of the traditions they have established (I think this happens more often than when Trey goes -- I know about it through Trey) is to have what they call a "Jesus Banquet" at the dump. You see, there is an entire community of people living at the dump in Honduras so that they can find food on a regular basis: Luke 4:12-13 “When you give a dinner or a banquet, don’t invite your friends and family and relatives and rich neighbors. If you do, they will invite you in return, and you will be paid back. When you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.”

Trey's team took Luke 4:12-13 quite literally. They go to the dump in Tegucigalpa, Honduras and prepare a banquet. A sit-down banquet: tables, chairs, silverware, a place to wash up, napkins -- and as much food as the diners can hold.Last year Trey fasted, prayed, and raised money for Jesus Banquets on the 1st Annual Dump Day. God completely overwhelmed Trey (and me) by how many people were moved to respond. Trey was hoping to raise about $10,000. By late evening he had $19,000! Wow, huh? However... Bread for a Hungry World contacted Trey and said if Dump Day raised $25,000 by midnight -- they would match it! Whoa! Guess what? Done!

Now the story behind this little girl:
Trey saw her at one point when he walked off by himself. She was completely alone, with her head resting on the cardboard. Shaking with chills from fever, she was obviously ill, even before he witnessed her turn her head aside to vomit. He had no idea if there were any parents or siblings around or who even knew that she was sick. He offered her what he had -- a few pieces of hard candy and a smile -- and prayed for her. She has haunted me.

Germophobe friends/ moms out there: can you imagine having to live at a dump and finding food for your children there? Can you imagine the sicknesses that must ravage their tiny little bodies from living under those conditions? Obviously a Jesus Banquet is a band-aid on a huge problem, but the funds donated are able to go beyond just one day every few months, especially as more people respond.

Trey has a Q&A about Dump Day here. Please be in prayer about what you may be able to give tomorrow. My family is in the middle of a move (read: hemorrhaging cash). I haven't decided yet what we will give, but it will be something. I typically have about 75 people visit my blog in a day. What if each person were able to give $10? That would be $750 for Dump Day! Huge stuff!

I can't wait. God always does big stuff when His people work together! Let's do it!

Testing God -- in a Good Way

Sometimes social media is too much for me. Too much pain, too much suffering, too much information, just too much. That's one reason I have started having my weekly technology sabbath -- on Sundays I take a break from computers and cell phones to shut down and spend time with the Lord and renew.

Facebook has reconnected me with people that I love, and connected me with people I have never actually met but have now come to love. Each of them has hurts and concerns and struggles and prayer needs that they share. Sometimes I am BURDENED with those -- my heart aches for those of you that hurt, and I do pray fervently for each of those.

One thing that social media has brought to my attention that I can't get out of my head via Trey Morgan is the people (okay, really it's the children that haunt me) of Honduras that live at the dump -- because that's where they can find some food. Last December when Trey was in Honduras, his mission team had a banquet for these people -- at the dump. (Seriously, you HAVE to see that blog post. I dare you).

So May 5th, Trey celebrated Dump Day. He raises money for those people to get them fed and have clean water as much as possible throughout the year. This was the 2nd annual Dump Day and Trey was hoping for at least as much response as last year ($12,000). Trey has confessed that his faith was too small -- and I am so thrilled to have been able to witness what God did through the power of social media and generous people around the globe. Just WOW.

If you are moved to still give to this worthwhile project, you can find out how here.

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. Malachi 3:9