The Power of $1 or 2

Never in my life would I have guessed that seeing a pair of one dollar bills in an envelope could actually bring tears to my eyes. But that’s exactly what happened this past Sunday. And it’s all because God provided me with the opportunity to serve in UpStreet that those dollar bills ended up in my hands – and will next be used to benefit orphans in the country of Cambodia.

The story of how they came into my possession actually begins with me reading through the weekly announcements one Sunday in 2007. At that point in time, I had been attending Buckhead for nearly a year and half, but it had only been within the past couple months that I felt compelled to truly begin volunteering at the church. I had always enjoyed working with children and was fully aware that the church had an amazing program, but I knew absolutely nothing about what opportunities were available and had never really attempted to find out details about where I could plug in. After reading about a need in the bulleting, I knew I would be applying for this opportunity.

After going through training, I became a greeter for the kindergarten class. While I realized this most likely was going to be hectic, I had no idea just how crazy it would get. Standing behind the table at 8:39 was actually quite calm…but a minute later it turned into a whole new ballgame. I suddenly found myself watching a wave of families line up to check their kids in and it took me all of about 5 seconds to realize that my next 20 minutes would be a mad flurry of roster checking and kid tagging. I honestly thought I must have tagged at least a dozen kids incorrectly that day (this was at a time when KidStuf was weekly so there were always two sets of tags), but every parent who came to the room after service left with a child and there were no stray kindergartners wandering around after KidStuf, so I suppose I successfully did my job.

I can’t begin to put into words how much enjoyment I received in that first year serving in UpStreet. I actually looked forward to the alarm clock going off early on Sunday morning because I absolutely loved seeing those smiling little faces walk up to the table each week with Starbursts crammed into their cheeks. Even though I wasn’t sitting with the kids in a small group, I still began to develop strong relationships with not only them, but also with the parents. The more familiar I became with these families, the less I felt like a volunteer – I felt more like a friend.

As fortunate as I felt to stumble into this incredible volunteer experience, I began to feel an urge to do more. Other than knowing that children would once again be a part of this experience, I had no idea what route this would take. About a week later I found myself filling out a GlobalX application to go to Cambodia to work with kids in an orphanage.

As I prepared for the trip, I wrote my support letter, which was initially sent to family and friends. I did tell several of the UpStreet families about my trip and this made me realize how much I wanted to share the news with all of these wonderful families. It was because of these families that I was able to experience so much joy in my role at UpStreet. And it was because of my role at UpStreet that I came to understand my desire to serve on a mission trip. When I rewrote my letter to these families, the one thing that I wanted to make clear was that while I did include information about making a financial contribution to my mission, what was truly important to me was that they talk to their children about what a mission trip was and I asked that they pray as a family for our team. I could think of no better blessing than having these wonderful kindergartners pray for our mission.

The response from the families was more than I ever could have expected on both a financial and personal level. These families not only provided an incredible amount of funding towards my trip, but many of them told me how much they appreciated receiving my letter and a couple shared very touching stories about the effect my letter had on them – and that absolutely blew me away. I initially thought that the “mission experience” would start once I arrived in Cambodia, but the response from these families showed me that it begins well before that.

The mission trip itself was absolutely one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I was so blown away by the love of Christ that these orphans displayed and I swear to you that walking into that orphanage was like experiencing a small glimpse of heaven on earth.

I’m going to now fast-forward to Sunday, May 31and tell you about the $2.

When the kindergartners were promoted to 1^st grade, I moved up with them and am now serving in the coach role. I am also co-leading a mission trip back to Cambodia that will provide me with the opportunity to serve at the same orphanage I was at last year. And I just recently sent my support letters to the UpStreet families.

I’m standing at the table last week checking in the kids and up come my friends Bob Ostholthoff and his seven year old son, Joseph. Bob has an envelope in his hand and before he gives it to me, I know exactly what it is. As I begin to thank Bob, he tells me that he and his wife, Anne, read my letter to Joseph right after they received it. As soon as they had finished reading, Joseph went into his room without a word…and came out with a pair of one dollar bills to put in my envelope. Bob and Ann have been teaching Joseph that whenever he receives money, it should be divided in three ways: God, Savings and Me. In order to help Joseph fully understand this concept, they actually have him use a different bank for each. Bob shared that when Joseph handed them the money, he and Anne assumed that it was from the ‘God’ bank. When Joseph told them it was from his ‘Me’ bank, they explained to him that it would be okay to take the money from the ‘God’ bank because my mission trip was for the church. But he wouldn’t put the money back in his ‘Me’ bank…he provided for me the only dollar bills that were truly his to spend.

I mean, how absolutely incredible is that?

Although I will never forget any of the generous donations that have been made towards my trip, none will ever have as great an impact as the $2 I received from Joseph Ostholfhoff.

I apologize for the length of this message, but I wanted to try and share how incredible my volunteer experience has been. I am blown away by how God planted a simple seed in my heart to volunteer and then nurtured it into amazing relationships with families at our church that I would have otherwise never come into contact with. And He then used those relationships to open up my heart to the realization that I was being called to serve children in another country. And He has now given me the wonderful gift of $2 from one of the UpStreet children and is entrusting me with the responsibility of using it to help provide for a child in Cambodia.

All this resulted from me “innocently skimming” through the weekly announcements one Sunday in 2007.

Our God truly is an awesome God.

Alex-UpStreet Coach

This entry was posted on Monday, June 15th, 2009 at 11:38 am and is filed under Family Ministry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.