Could you live on $100 a year?

I was reading an article about mission outreach of The Advance concerning a missionary in China by Diane Allen. It talked about illegal blood collecting dealers that targeted impoverished farmers that earn less than $100 per year. I can not fathom living on $100 a year.

This prompted me to track my spending over a few days last week to see where I spend my money and how much.

Monday:
Lunch - $6.73
Vending Machine - $1.25
Fuel - $36.00
Total: $43.98

Tuesday:
Breakfast - $3.83
Vending Machine - $1.25
Misc. items from Wal-Mart: $29.84
Starbucks - $4.68
Total: $39.60

Wednesday:
Vending Machine - $1.25
Groceries - $24.59
Total: 25.84

In three days, I had spent $109.42. In three days, I had spent more than some farmers make in a year in China. This amazes me. Could I live on $100 a year? Absolutely not. Could I live on $100 a month? Again, I couldn’t. What about $100 a week ($5,200)? I don’t think I could.

Then how can we turn a blind eye to the impoverished in China? The Amity Foundation (TAF) hasn’t. This Advance based mission is making Christian presence more widely known to the Chinese people through programs of health care, education, blindness prevention, integrated rural development, advocacy, emergency relief and rehabilitation partnership with local communities.

Could you live on $100 a year? What about $100 a month? Or even $100 a week?
Think of how much God has blessed you – and I hope you feel led as I was to give back to those who truly need it.

--Tracy Wood, Web Coordinator, Connectional Giving Team, United Methodist Communications

How one Conference took a campaign and made a slam dunk!

Here in the North Texas Conference the Nothing But Nets (NBN) campaign has really captured the interest of our local congregations. For a brand new program, the amount of interest we’ve seen in this initiative is outstanding. I believe this is because of the simplicity of the slogan “Buy A Net. Save A Life.” Everyone can understand that $10 buys a bed net that can save lives and prevent malaria, which kills a child every 30 seconds.

We started promoting this campaign by putting information in our conference newspaper, The Reporter. By August 2007, we had raised $62,935.61. We also had a 3-on-3 basketball tournament that started with the local churches, then went to the district level, then the conference level. Our conference winners then played the Central Texas Conference winners at General Conference in Ft. Worth this past April.

Since our basketball tournaments were spread out over many months, we were able to continually keep the NBN initiative before the congregations. We have now raised $113,801.74. A small church in Aubrey, Texas gave $200. Collectively, a lot of small donations can amount to something truly significant. Together, our conference has bought 11,380 bed nets. That is enough nets to drape all the beds in a small African town.

Imagine a town where no child dies of malaria. In this effort, I have truly seen the hand of God at work.

--Rev. Marji Bishir, Associate Director of Connectional Ministries with the North Texas Annual Conference