I was blessed to be able to respond to Jesus’ call to give these last couple weeks, and I ended up donating more than I had originally planned!

My first donation was made to Brooklawn Child & Family Services in Louisville, KY. The organization was brought to my attention through a blog comment from a friend. Brooklawn is a psychiatric residential treatment facility for children. You can find more information about them, as well as how to make a donation, at http://www.brooklawn.net.

My second donation was in response to a woman’s plea for help at my church. Fasica Christine Shiferaw, an Ethiopean native, has a dream of opening a boarding school for Ethiopean Orphans who parents have died of AIDS or Malaria. She is currently seeking donations to secure the land in which the school will be built. You can learn more about Fasica Christine’s mission at http://fcethiopianorphans.org/MISSION.html.

Third, in response to the tragedy in Haiti, I have made multiple donations to different organizations that have been brought before me by numerous people. First, I was able to give to the Red Cross by simply texting the word HAITI to 90999. Donating was quick and easy, and the money is simply added to my phone bill at the end of the month. This is by far the easiest way I have heard to donate so far. Second, through a collection at my church, I was able to give to Catholic Relief Services. CRS has been in Haiti for the past 50 years and has pledged to raise $5 million dollars for earthquake relief. For more information, or to help them reach their goal, please visit http://www.crs.org. Third, I was inspired to donate to CARE due to a post on a blog I follow, What’s Next God (http://www.whatsnextgod.wordpress.com). CARE particularly spoke to me, as they believe in empowering women to promote change. You can learn more about their efforts at http://www.care.org.

Lastly, I was able to donate to my church’s building campaign.  St. Peter Claver is extremely important to not only myself, but also to the entire Lexington diocese.  As the only African-American Catholic church in the area, St. Peter Claver promotes an environment of diversity, acceptance, love and respect for all its members.  Donating to the building campaign was a huge leap of faith for me, because essentially you pledge to contribute a substantial amount of money over the course of the next five years, with 10% down, and quarterly payments following.  I was initially resistant to make such a commitment, but I turned it over to God in prayer and felt led to give something back to the church family that has given so much to me in such a short period of time.  For more information about St. Peter Claver, please visit http://home.catholicweb.com/stpeterclaver/index.cfm.

I look forward to seeing where I am going to be called to give over the next couple weeks as I close out the first month of this year long challenge. If you have an organization that speaks to your heart that you would like me to support, please let me know. The goal of this challenge is not only for me to give more of my personal resources, but also to educate and inspire others, and raise awareness of different organizations that are doing God’s work.