In recent studies, it has been found that the old rule of thumb "six degrees of separation" has actually shrunk to somewhere between 3.2 - 3.9 degrees of separation. This means that you could choose any random person on earth (let's say a farmer in Tashkent, Uzbekistan named Zara) and there would be a way to show that you have a connection to Zara through just 4 degrees of relationships.
For example: (you) - 1 - (your friend John who lives in the UK) - 2 - (who has a friend Fatima who lives in Dubai) - 3 - (who has a friend Gabriel who lives in Uzbekistan) - 4 - (who knows Zara from seeing her every week in the market when he buys his vegetables from her).
I know you may not really care about Zara, hopefully not because you are really that apathetic, but maybe for more practical reasons. Sure, you don't have the bandwidth to care about Zara; you don't know her and her life has no real bearing in your day to day life. But my point is, we are all much more connected than we realize. We are sharing this tiny blue orb of a planet together. We are all in this together. What affects Zara as an average human ultimately affects you and me.
But what if you heard a story from your UK friend John about Zara? He tells you that his Dubai friend Fatima was having lunch with him on a recent visit, and she shared the most poignant story with him about her friend Gabriel and his interaction with Zara? Zara struggles to make ends meet from selling vegetables in the market and can't afford to send her daughter to school. Her daughter was put in a compromising situation working in the fields while her mother went into the city to sell her vegetables. Tragedy struck Zara's daughter and it hit Gabriel in such a sobering way. You see, Gabriel had gotten to know of Zara's daughter from seeing her helping her mother in the market every weekend. All kinds of questions had entered Gabriel's mind about what he could have done differently to make a difference for Zara and her daughter if he had only known of their desperation.
Zara's story then becomes personal, relatable, and real. You feel it.
My friends, that is how we should feel about every human on our planet.
I know we can't take on the weight of the world, I am just saying we should be conscious of the condition of humanity.
It should influence our day to day decisions in how we live our lives.
If we knew that living on less and giving a little bit more to help those who have next to nothing and face desperate life and death risks every day could make a difference in saving their lives and giving them hope, should we not do it?
And I'm not talking about selling everything you own and taking a vow of poverty. I'm just talking about making small changes that add up to big differences.
Won't we feel better about ourselves and our world if we made conscious decisions to live more simply so that others can simply live?
I think so!
I think that at our core, on a soul level, we need that hope just as much as those living in extreme poverty do! Hope that we can make a difference, hope that we can help, hope that we can find meaning beyond our possessions.
I'm happy to report that slowly but surely more of you who are following my 30 day journey are finding that hope and take that step of faith to believe that you really can make a difference.
We are up to 14 "monthly donor" hearts filled of our goal of 50! So we are up to $431 in new monthly donations that will help orphans and trafficking survivors every single month moving forward, long after my $30 worth of food is consumed and gone.
That's $5,172 every year for these programs. I say that to encourage you that together, even with what is essentially "spare change" to us individually, we are making real change, long-term!
If we can fill the whole chart, such an impact would completely fund 10 spaces at our Kathmandu rehabilitation home for trafficking survivors each and every month, or 24 spaces at our India girls home, for example!
Ready to join in? Here's how:
Just tap on this chart and then on the next page choose the amount of the heart you want to sponsor, choose the day of the month you want your donation to be charged each month, enter your details, and you're done!
Then tomorrow I will fill in your heart to represent the progress we're making!
Tonight I dedicate Day 8 to this mother and daughter who enthusiastically invited me into their makeshift home in the slums of Kathmandu and fed me the small snack they had available; likely sacrificing what small calorie count they had to survive off of, in the interest of hospitality. True humility! I warmly and gratefully accepted their hospitality and sat and spoke with them using the little broken English we could exchange. It was a moment I'll never easily forget.
I also wanted to introduce you to more of our global neighbors. These kids I also met in the Thapathali colony of Kathmandu, Nepal. The evening I met them they were eating what looked like a very basic soup for dinner. It makes my meals from today look like a feast in comparison.
And here are my day 8 meals, made from about $1 worth of food.
Take Action!
2) Please visit my unofficial sponsor, Amazon.com through this link. 7% of your purchases made through the link are given to the work of Peace Gospel's programs helping orphans, at-risk children of the slums, and human trafficking survivors.
3) If you're compelled by my effort here, please share it with friends. One of the main goals is awareness. So if you can help with that, huge.
4) Leave me feedback. Please comment on this post, especially if you have any ideas about what I should try to cook with these ingredients I have available. I love hearing from you! It really helps!
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