On December 17th we headed off to Bali for what was a mixture of family holiday and church trip connecting with the various orphanages we support.

On the Sunday before we left an older couple in church gave each of our kids $50.00 each. But they gave it to them to give away as they saw fit. They asked them to watch and pray and see what God was doing and to use the money for whatever they felt was appropriate.

I was inspired by their creative initiative. They didn’t just give $100 to someone – they gave our kids the opportunity to reflect, to pray and to manage money wisely. They helped someone out, but they also helped form spiritual awareness in younger people in their community.

As you can imagine it created some interesting conversations and discussions about what would be the best use of the money. And surprisingly, in a country where there is no shortage of poverty, it wasn’t a straightforward decision as to where to give the money.

We spoke with them about discerning need, about wise giving, about how God may be speaking.  It was a valuable exercise in many ways and in the end a need arose that both kids felt was suitable and the $100 was given to one person – a month’s wages for her and a massive help to her family.

The point though is that the choice by this older couple to creatively use their funds meant that they actually achieved far more than they would have just by giving the money to a fund.

Someone in need got the money, our kids got to work thru the process, we got to disciple them in that and of course you are reading about it now and thinking ‘we could do that…’