1,056

One thousand and fifty six...that's how many pounds of food we were able to collect, and send off today, to the Backpack Mission!

My heart is happy...

Bless these precious faces:

Thank you Ms. Diane Durham for being such an inspiration and blessing our lives with your example.

Lent

I know, I know, Lent began on Wednesday and today is Friday. Yes, I am two days late with this post, but I figure better late than never! (oh wait, this seems to be the motto of my entire life! Anyway, moving on...)

For the last few years, my friends, co-workers, and I, have participated in Lent. We all commit to abstain from something or commit to do something that will better us for 40 days (until Easter Sunday). Then if we slip up, we owe $1.00 for each mishap and at the end of the 40 days all of the money collected goes to charity. It's a win-win. Like that year I gave up Peeps and Mt. Dew...the Utah Food Bank made out like a bandit from my $75-ish contribution alone! (Okay, so that wasn't one of my stronger years of self control, but hey, it was for a good cause...)

I don't know if there are any of you who love the Girl Scout Cookies, but I sure do as many of you know and as I have already mentioned in multiple previous posts. I had considered giving up ThinMints, when this thought hit me...If I were to give up those little gems, and then were to have a moment of weakness and let's say 'fall face first into a box of them' I would end up owing a whopping $28 if I finished off the whole box! So at $3.50 just to purchase the cookies and then with the fee being $1 for each slip up or in this case each cookie, I decided against giving them up for Lent as it would be too pricey for me who has so little self control when it comes to the chocolate covered bits of heaven! So I went with giving up baked goods from any store or restaurant (I figure I will be much less likely to consume treats if I have to make them myself) and also committed to hitting the treadmill 4 times a week. (In case you are wondering, I have already tossed $4 into the Lent jar...1 brownie and 3 days of no treadmill. Oopsy. But this is a minimal contribution compared to the $15 someone who gave up the 's' word has already tossed in. I'm just sayin...)

So this year is no exception. We are going ahead with Lent commitments and for those of you, (who I hope is everyone reading this) who want to participate, each slip-up will cost you $1.00 and all of the proceeds go to the Backpack Mission (click HERE to see a previous blog post that will give you all the deets on this incredible organization). We have quite a list of participants this year giving up a variety of vices...there's everything from Ice Cream to Alcohol to Cheetos to before mentioned use of the $#it word.

So who is in? What vice are you going to give up? What are you going to commit to do to make yourself better? Join the fun. And just think, you will only have to give it up for 38 days as we are already 2 days into this bad boy!...

A Call For Help...

I need help. A LOT of it...

I am talking about help for hungry children and hungry adults.

Last year, I was deeply impacted by a commercial done by the Utah Food Bank. Click here to watch it. It moved to tears but also to action. We ended up in a U-Haul in the Harmons parking lot for three days. And oh what a three days it was. It was humbling to see so many give so freely, even when they too were struggling to get by.

I am a firm believer in the motto, "Think global, act local." Yes there is need all over this world. But we must start in our 'own backyards', if you will. Start with the community in which you live. And then extend that helping hand to our neighbors.

And so I have decided to embark upon a mission to help the hungry. It is my goal to collect as many backpacks, as much food, and as much money as possible, to donate to two organizations. Everything that is collected will be divided evenly between the Utah Food Bank and The Backpack Mission.

The Food Bank is pretty obvious as to what it does. The other helps the children in the Appalachian Mountains, in Kentucky. It is an absolutely incredible organization called the Backpack Mission Ministry. It was started by a woman named Diane Durham. I have only spoken to her on the phone, but I will just state that her goodness was almost tangible, even in a phone conversation. She began her amazing work in 2006. It came to her awareness that there were children in this area that would leave school on Friday and not eat again until they returned to school on Monday morning for the school breakfast program. The poverty that plagues this area is heartbreaking. And so this saintly woman restarted the backpack program. They give backpacks to these children and fill them with food for the weekend.

When she began this program, they were helping 68 children. At the end of last year that number had grown to a staggering 700 children that they were providing food to each weekend. She told me that with the phone calls she has received this Summer, that number has already greatly increased for this upcoming school year.

And so, I have felt prompted and directed to help. I know I can't do it alone. And so I am asking you as my friends, family, and readers of this blog for you assistance. If you want to join this cause, message me here on the blog, on FaceBook, by email, however. Together we can and will make a difference. As Diane told me yesterday, "it is amazing what we can do when we all hold hands."

The first endeavor is to collect new backpacks. I figure it is a perfect time, as it is 'back to school' time. So lets get out there and collect as many as we can. Tell your friends, family, neighbors, Churches, whoever will listen! We just need to get the word out...

Check out this amazing organization.
Here is the link:

http://backpackmission.com