Over 300 Million people need shoes.. you can help… 50000shoes.com

Anne Jackson over at www.flowerdust.net has been talking about a secret project she has been working on the last few weeks…she has asked a few blogger friends to help…I was game.

SO IT’S TIME FOR THE LAUNCH OF 50000SHOES.COM!

soles4souls is an amazing charity in Nashville, TN that has one mission: get shoes to people who need shoes. over 300 million people around the world don’t have shoes and are forced to walk around unsafe and in potentially life-threatening conditions.

Anne had the opportunity to meet with wayne elsey, the founder and CEO of s4s and he asked her what is the craziest thing we could do using social media to meet this huge need? What kind of ridiculous goal could we create?  Here was the answer.

Let’s get money raised for 50,000 shoes in 50 days and make it as easy as possible for people to not only donate online, but to spread the word about the campaign. the only way this goal can be reached is if you not only donate $5, but spread the word!

So now right from Anne’s blog here is how it works…

HOW DOES IT WORK?
go to 50000shoes.com. a $5 donation buys two pairs of shoes.

everyone has $5 (or more!). and everyone has 2 minutes. from start to finish, donating is literally three clicks. no fluff. no hassle. anyone can donate. it is so, so easy!

and it’s easy to spread the word. use the graphics on your blog. email everyone you know. join the facebook group and ask your friends to do the same!

YOU CAN WIN A TRIP TO GIVE SOMEONE THEIR FIRST PAIR OF SHOES!
besides the fact that the blogging world can literally impact 50,000 people before the end of the year, one person (and their guest) will be chosen at random to hand deliver the shoes they purchased on a s4s trip to mexico. can you imagine handing someone their very first pair of shoes? it could be a child. or it could be a mother. or a father. or a grandmother. who knows?!

PLEASE DON’T CLICK AWAY…
we could have made the goal attainable - like 5000 shoes in 50 days. i have no doubt that could happen. but we wanted to show a watching world the positive power of social media. we wanted this to be a challenge for bloggers and people to unite in a way never before seen!

50,000 pairs of shoes in 50 days. THAT’S HUGE!!!!!

please donate. please blog about this. please email everyone you know about this.

five bucks. three clicks. two minutes. that’s all and it can make a HUGE difference!!

THE MATH
if 500 people influence 10 people to donate, and those people influence 5 more, that’s 50,000 pairs of shoes (because remember - $5 buys 2 pairs!)…please help make this a reality! let’s blow it out of the water…can we raise enough for 100,000 pairs? I THINK SO!!!

300 million people around the world need you!

chris and i donated on friday. we are spreading the word today.

please join in! even non bloggers can help. just email everyone you know! take up a collection in your office or at your church. do you know someone in the press who can do a story on this? be creative!!!

forbes.com and cnbc.com have already picked up on this…and we have only just begun. with your help (and only with your help) this can be a worldwide movement. i truly believe it can!

are you in?

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Nashville-based Soles4Souls(TM) facilitates the donations of both new and used shoes, which are used to aid the hurting worldwide. Since its inception, Soles4Souls has distributed more than 3.5 million pairs (or one pair every 23 seconds) to people in 61 countries, including Honduras, Romania, Thailand, and the Sudan. The charity has been featured on CNN Headline News, NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, ABC News, FOX, CBS, and hundreds of regional outlets around North America. Soles4Souls is a 501(c)(3) recognized by the IRS; donating parties are eligible for tax advantages. Visit www.giveshoes.org for more information.

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As I was sifting through my google reader, I stopped to read a post from Mark Beeson, Pastor of Granger Community Church, that he wrote about one of the sessions at Saddleback.

Rick Warren, the Pastor of Saddleback, made this statement, “The most counter-culture statement you can make in this world is, ‘It’s not about you.’”

This reminded me of a true story in that I had heard in my Intro To Pastoral Care class my second year at Rhema. (this is my retelling so I’ll do my best)

This pastor called our ministerial association in a complete rant and rave and how he was done with the church he was at. The staff member calmed the pastor and started trying to find the cause of this outburst. After some talking, the pastor said that his congregation was just ungrateful and non-caring about him. Recently, a congregation member had given him a gift. He opened it up to find a 5×7 picture of Jesus as the gift. This, he told the staff member, was the last straw.

The staff member responded with the question, who called you to where you are? Is your pastoring really just about you? Cause it’s not about you, it’s about Jesus and the people. So every time you look at the 5×7 picture, remember that it’s about the Him.

I know I’m guilty of such things in my own life, even in doing tech work. It’s really not about me or my wants, but about Christ and loving people; helping the hurting and the lost. In that pastor’s life, it seems that 5×7 picture came just at the right time, as a reminder of our purpose.

As Rick Warren noted in 2 Cor 4:5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. (ESV)

St Francis of Assisi prayed this prayer:

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is error, the truth;
Where there is doubt, the faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled, as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

Let us endeavor to stay focused on the purpose and desires Christ has for us and not to use the cliche, but More of Him and Less of Me.

Heavenly Father and God of mercy, we no longer look for Jesus among the dead, for he is alive and has become the Lord of life. From the waters of death you raise us with him and renew your gift of life within us. Increase in our minds and hearts the risen life we share with Christ, and help us to grow as your people toward the fullness of eternal life with you. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Love this song and very proper for this weekend.

Beautiful the Blood by Steve Fee

It’s only by the cross I’m saved

The King of Glory rescued me

How beautiful the blood flow

How merciful the love shown…

Never knew the nails would love unfold

Never knew these wounds would heal my soul

Never seen such beauty and sorrow meet

The King of glory poured out,

Victorious we are now…

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father. (Phil 2:8-11, NIV)

Recently, I’ve read a few blog posts that stand out to me in regards to how people are treated both in ministry settings and personal. 

There is a saying I’ve heard many times:

“No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.”

While I will again say that we are not trying to gain a following but to help people in their lives, we cannot do that unless we have established that we care for them in whatever state they come in. 

A good example of this is a small story that Kathy Guy, Director of Community at Granger Community Church, tells about what person visiting one of their classes said. The guest commented that “I’ve never been in church before where it’s safe for broken people. Thank you. It’s really helping me.”

The question remains for the lot of us, what are we needing to do to change perception and change our attitudes and thoughts about those who are broken and hurting and calling for help and do not fit our mold.

What are things that you all are doing to help gain people’s trust?

I just finished re-reading the Phil Vischer blog post about “The Fall of the Big Idea“.. no not this Big Idea..

Phil’s story, which is also told in full in his book, always makes me re-evaluate what’s going on. It makes me want to ask the questions: What am I doing? Why am I doing it? What did I mean to be doing? Am I sure? God? Bueller?

We get so busy going about what we think we should be doing, we forget about going about doing what Christ wants us to do. Is that site really that important? How about those two Equallogic SANs I just got approved and purchased? Why are we doing that program? Hey, I’m just as guilty.

Phil’s story relates just as much on a business/ministry front as it does in our personal lives. (I really almost typed spiritual lives there, but like Rob Bell says, everything is spiritual… we cannot separate the two parts out.. spiritual and non-spiritual.)

Are we reaching out to our communities and the neighbors down the road? How are we interacting with our family members? Are we really letting the Christ IN us affect our OUTward lives?

It’s really like a roundhouse kick in the face by !Chuck thinking about it and taking it to heart and seeking God.

Thoughts?

Heard these while listening to Ed Gungor.  Thought they were good enough to post!

The world of performance is not a reflection of God.

Faith is supposed to be a response to this wonderful person who is in pursuit of us.

We turn prayer from being an open response to a pursuing creator to a performance to try and get him to pay attention to us.