generosity.

generosity |ˌjenəˈräsitē|:  liberality, openhandedness, unselfishness, benevolence, altruism, big-heartedness, bounteousness; the act of being kind and generous.

In the first week of each month we receive a report from the Partners US office that details the donations that were made into our account. In seeking to be responsible adults with adequate records, we save these files as well as post them into our database.

And with time, I have grown to love the time it takes to repost all of the donations into the database. It creates a moment to take each month’s donation, each person, each dollar; and be thankful for it.  And without fail, each month I am amazed–genuinely awed–at the generosity. In a world of so much heartache and sin and selfishness, I have a record sent to me each month of selfless people sacrificing for the Kingdom.

It generates a heart of gratefulness and hope while bringing me back to my knees. The Lord is using people from different sides of the world, different ethnicities, different stories to provide for us. To provide for our rent, our vegetables at the market, the eight trips to the doctor to have my ear looked at, a delicious Western meal in Chiang Mai, internet to Skype our families, and the lemonade we can serve to the neighbor children.

I was a big fan of Ray Boltz as a child, and I’m actually still recovering from missing his concert in Peoria due to a miscommunication on who was Ray Boltz, who was Accapella, and who I actually liked. But all that aside, Ray Boltz’s song comes to mind–with my dad singing it for special music at Eureka Bible Church, “Thank you for giving to the Lord; I am a life that was changed.”

So cheesy. But so true. How many people will be able to sing that as a result of each dollar given–to us, to different families and non-profits around the world?