Best Way to Be Charitable

Leesa Bellesi is the co-author of The Kingdom Assignment. She and a group of high school students—Katie, Terry, Brittany, Sarah, Shan­non, Kristy, and Molly-will tell you about adding charity to your life:

Charity: Generous giving to the poor or to organizations that look after the sick, the poor, and the helpless.

This is how the dictionary describes something that is an important part of a healthy teenage girl’s life. While it’s not always fashionable to be a participant in helping others in need, it’s an important part of being a well-rounded person.

I have witnessed firsthand how acts of charity by a sin­gle ordinary person, or by a small group of people working together, can change lives. It happened in a whole new way at the church where my husband, Denny, is the senior pas­tor. One day, our dream of creatively teaching a grand les­son to our congregation became a reality. Denny shocked and surprised the people attending our four weekend serv­ices by handing out crisp $100 bills. He handed out twenty-five at each service, for a total of 100 people in all. I watched men, women, and children cry, shake, and smile as they listened to the rules of the assignment Denny had given them. He called it a Kingdom Assignment.

• This is not your money; it’s God’s money. He has en­trusted it to you.
• You need to invest this money outside the walls of this church.
• In ninety days you will need to come back and report what you have done.

Suddenly, there was a buzz around our church. People started thinking differently about their money, about every­thing. The media picked up on it, and the story went into thousands of papers around the world. NBC’s Dateline fol­lowed the story, as did People magazine and Readers Digest.

Steve was only 14, but he wasn’t too young to make a difference. He found a family that had no table at which to eat their meals, let alone somewhere to do their homework. He bought them a table with his $100.

Michael found a family that had lost two daughters to aplastic anemia just months from each other. His company raised $10,000 to pay funeral costs and help their 16-year-old son who had lost his teeth due to a similar disease.

Kim had a desire to help children. She asked book­stores to match her $100. She now has a warehouse full of children’s books to distribute, and she reads to kids in can­cer wards to help cheer up their day.

I am happy to say that the original $10,000 has now turned into over $500,000-and we’re still counting.

So you can see, charity can have wonderful effects on people’s lives. I have the privilege of mentoring a group of seven high school senior girls. I asked them how they have helped others and given of themselves, and what that meant to them.

They all agreed that reaching out to others got them away from their own problems and made their own issues look smaller. It helped them cope with disappointment. The girls give up their spring break to go toMexicoevery year to help any way they can-build homes, cut people’s hair (really!). When they see the sweet and wonderful looks on the faces of the children that they help with crafts, read a story to, or just sit and hug, they feel an indescrib­able joy.

They give of themselves, and they give of their money. Some of the money that they take out of their own earnings from allowance or working goes back into helping others in need at Christmas time or anytime they think help is needed. They have come to realize that everything they have belongs to God, and it’s important that they can give back in many, many ways. These girls have learned what real happiness is all about.

They made a few suggestions of some good ways to give back without spending money.

•  Tutor children at hospitals or foster homes.
•  Answer phones at a crisis pregnancy center.
•  Simply look in people’s eyes and smile.
•  Teach dance, art, or something you love to underprivileged children.
•  Play music for the elderly at a rest home.
•  Babysit for someone who can’t afford to hire a sitter.
•  As you walk out of a store, be on the lookout for someone who needs help with groceries, like a mom with young children.

•  Wash a neighbor’s car for free.
•  Grocery-shop for a house-bound friend or neighbor.
•  Pray for people, and let them know you prayed for them.
•  Drop a quick note of encouragement to someone who would never expect it.
•  Organize a pick-up-trash competition with friends. The one with the most trash gets taken out for ice cream by the other friends.
•  Have pizza delivered to someone who is injured or can’t afford it.
•  Read books to children in the hospital.

The week after Denny handed out the money, some people came up to him and said, “If I’d only gotten $100,1 would have really done something great.” He pointed out that maybe they had missed the point. We are all given money and talents that we can use each and every day to help others. That is what we are put on this earth to do: to give to others in proportion to what has been given to us.

What would you do with your $100?