Originally Posted in February 2006
The story goes something like this:
A typical church in a well-to-do neighborhood is inspired by the stories shared by a visiting missionary. In an effort to contribute to the needs that the missionary has shared the church has a clothing drive and encourages members to donate their winter coats for those who don’t have a coat to keep warm. The drive is a wonderful success and the missionary sends word of how the coats have benefited the people she works with. This is a wonderful …

Below is the women and the academy that we helped provide a loan for, from your comments!
The donation for this month is up to you as well! I’m planning on donating to an organization that work’s with children, as I’ll have one of my own soon, and it’s important to remember there are those who might not have the same opportunities if we don’t spread our resources. Read about Margaret and feel free to subscribe to updates from her! Then don’t forget to vote on were this month’s donation should …

Let me start by saying I have been truly blessed to have people regularly stop by and read my thoughts. It’s been encouraging to me in a great many ways unique to the way writing and blogs can produce conversation. Here, I can share deep thoughts I’ve been reflecting on and not only have the opportunity to be listened to, but also to engage in a conversation that challenges my thinking and spurs me on to being a better person.
In an effort to encourage the conversation even further, and to …

I reposted about this topic in December, but I wanted to highlight the podcast, which I think is worth a listen. A while ago I chatted with my friend Nate about simple living and some discussion we had had on our blogs and others comments. It was quite interesting.
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For the original post, On Simple Living and living “a dollar above” the poverty line

Note: Okay, so I’m going through my old drafts of posts I started but never finished. I feel like I’m so removed from when I first wrote them that it wouldn’t make sense to complete them, but they are interesting enough that they might create some conversation, so I’m putting them up.
Financial clarification #1: It’s not about the money
I felt like it is important for me to address two points that were brought up by readers as to what they understood me to be advocating for: the pursuit of not …

One of my dear friends and Housemates, Josh, wrote a excellent post yesterday about Fashion. He went out on a limb and compared it to pornography in it’s perversion. Basically, pornography is perversion of sex, but do we pervert other things?
It is a commonly accepted idea that the human body needs 3 things to survive: food, water & shelter. To eat, drink and be clothed are all very natural and healthy things, much like sex (in it’s proper use) is. We have a word for people who …

Tonight, it’s Wednesday again, and for the past many weeks we are supposed to have a Book Study on the book by Shane Claiborne called the The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical. It’s a great book, and it was instrumental in three of our community (meaning the people I live with: Daniel, Josh and Chris specifically) members decision to radically change their life and join our little community venture in Christ-like living.
Anyways, back to the book study. The book study is part of Josh and Daniel’s church, it …

I just gave a loan to this lady, NANCY PEREZ TORRES.

You can click on Nancy’s picture to read more about her, but basically I had the great opportunity to join with 4 or more other people in supporting Nancy’s entrepenuership business in Mexico that is run by her with the help of her husband and sons.
This wasn’t a handout, it was a loan, one I except to receive paid back in full in about 6 months or more. There is no interest on the loan, and there is the …