You Can Choose How to Donate!

When I was young, like maybe 7 or 8 years old, I pulled a little table out to my front sidewalk, made a pitcher of lemonade, and hung out a sign for cups of lemonade, only 25 cents a cup.  It was a pretty hot day, so I got a couple people that bought some. I think I made maybe three or four dollars total.

I was just a lil guy then!

When I showed my mom what I did that day, she was proud of me – and she also taught me a little bit of what to do with that money. I could spend most of it, but she also told me to save some of it and to give some of it to God. I did that and felt very grown-up putting my quarters in the offering plate.

It's a good feeling when you give money that you earned yourself, and what's especially cool is that some nonprofit organizations give you the choice of exactly where your money goes to when you donate!

Compassion International puts together a gift catalog every year. They have gifts you wouldn't normally think of, like goats, chickens and cows; or like water wells, water filters, even electricity!

When you pick out a gift from the catalog, the gift doesn't come to you (I'm not sure what I would do with a goat!), but instead the gift goes to a family in need, often in a whole other country. For example, a family could use a goat for its milk to drink at mealtime, or they could sell the milk to earn money that they need.

Another nonprofit organization you could donate to is Samaritan's Purse (you might have heard of them because they do Operation Christmas Child). Instead of having a gift catalog, they have many projects all around the world that need support, like building schools in Ethiopia, providing medical care to Venezuelan refugees, or helping families recover from violence in northern Iraq. 

And of course, you could support Keys for Kids Ministries! You might already read our daily Keys for Kids devotional, listen to Keys for Kids Radio, or be helping spread the Gospel with the Keys for Kids Storytellers. It's awesome that you're already that involved with our ministry! When you choose to donate as well, you're helping kids just like yourself learn about Jesus all around the world (we even have hundreds of listeners in CHINA!).

No matter where you choose to donate, know that you're making a difference for someone, and that could be all the difference in the world to them!