Giving testimony

[Shirley Erwee]

Greg Bunyard wrote:

"Dear Shirley,

At the Homeschool expo we had a very nice chat about how well you are doing with Ka-Ching!, how your youngster found a heart-warming way of giving.

 

I am sure the 390 members in the Ka-Ching! Members group would love to hear about it. And I would really appreciate hearing it again."

 

 

After starting a pocket money system (a la Ka-ching!) in our home with our 8 and 6 year olds for about 8 weeks, we reached month end and decided it was time to donate the money they had accumulated in their 'Giving' category.

 

I had already shared with my children, two worthy causes that I support from my home businesses on a monthly basis. One is a privately run Christian Aids Orphanage run by a client of mine in Johannesburg, The Love of Christ Ministeries, www.tlc.org.za and the other is a lady in Cape Town who recently started helping the poor and needy in the squatter camps in Cape Town.

 

Just a few months ago, when her own domestic worker, Honey, along with a whole lot of others, was forced to move to another area in order for a road to be built where their shacks were situated, Jan Lill became aware of the needs of this community in Kayelitsha. She discovered that many of them live in shacks that were leaking like sieves during the wet Cape winter and she started asking friends and acquaintances for donations to have canvas covers made for the shacks. As funds came in, she was accountable and sent regular email updates to the donors, with photos showing the folk who were being given the covers and their happy faces in front of their newly waterproofed shacks.

She also used some funds to provide food for starving single parent families and organised a container to be donated so that a shop could be established in this new area where residents otherwise had to walk for an hour to the nearest shop for basic supplies.

 

Well, my daughter, 8, decided to support the orphanage and my son, 6, decided to give his R40 to Jan Lill in Cape Town. I added my monthly donation to it and did an online transaction. I then emailed Jan to tell her to use the donation as she saw fit and I told her that my son had given R40 of it. A few days later, Jon-Jon received an email and a photo of Wiseman, Honey's brother, to whom the R40 had been given. It was used to pay his taxi fare so that he could travel to the clinic where he gets his TB medication.

 

It was not the way we expected the funds to be used, but after explaining about TB and the need for ongoing medication and that not everyone has their own transport, my son was very pleased to know that his donation could make a difference in the life of someone else. This has raised his awareness of the needs of others in our country.

If anyone is interested in the work that Jan Lill is doing you can visit her blog at http://heart-2heart.blogspot.com/

 

I think in a materialistic world where people are either money-hungry, or the complete opposite - they think that money is a dirty word, we have the opportunity to show our kids that money is an essential part of economic life and that it is a tool that we can learn to use wisely and use to bless others.

 

This month both kids want to give to the TLC orphanage as we have been reading a biography of George Mueller - a Christian man of faith who started what became Britian's largest orphanage in the 1800's, relying only on prayer for funding. He never asked people for money and never did fund-raising, yet the money came in and he never had unmet needs - a remarkable testimony!

 

 

Regards

Shirley

www.shirleys-preschool-activities.com

www.south-african-homeschool-curriculum.com