Father’s Day weekend is always an amazing time at RiverTree. Rather than our attendance at our services “tanking,” it actually climbs. We work hard to make everything “guy friendly.” In fact, our front sign at the Portage Campus actually says throughout the week: Men actually like it here!
One of the things that we did this year for the first time was to incorporate the Junky Car Club. In the past we’ve had classic car shows (lots of fun and great for dad’s and their kids to enjoy). But this year we asked members of the Junky Car Club to bring their vehicles and put them on display.
To be a member of the Junky Car Club your vehicle has to be paid off and you must be sponsoring a child through Compassion International. In other words, you have made a conscious decision to “live with less so that you can give more away.” For more information check out http://www.junkycarclub.org/.
Throughout Father’s Day weekend 34 more families joined the Junky Car Club and of course more Compassion children were sponsored.
Julie and I belong to the Junky Car Club. Our 2003 Saturn VUE was paid off this spring and we sponsor four Compassion children around the world.
While I was enjoying my time looking at the vehicles in the Junky Car Club and reading their bumber sticker, “Living with less to give more,” I was struck with a thought. We should have another bumper sticker printed: LIVING WITH MORE SO I CAN GIVE LESS!
At the heart of every purchase I make I am making a choice. Is this purchase necessary? Sometimes it is. But sometimes it is simply a frivilous indulgence driven by slick marketing. Every purchase I make determines my ability to give more or to give less.
It’s the choice we all face . . . Will we choose to live with less so that we can give more or will we choose to live with more so that we can give less?
*To sponsor a child, go to www.compassion.com.
This is awesome, and it is humbling to us here at Compassion to see people putting the foot to the pedal (in a junker) for the cause of Christ and his children.
I am inspired, they get it better then I do, and I work here.
We talk about money in our house on a daily basis. There are good things that money can provide and there are things that take you in the wrong direction. We have always driven junky cars and shopped at Aldi’s and Marc’s. I take my daughter with me and show her what it takes to be frugal. There is always joy in our hearts knowing that we saved and therefore we have more to give. The hard part of this is that it is a lifestyle you have to choose to live and it encompasses every area of living. We have our daughter write the tithe check every week (she’s ten). It helps her to learn math, see how much money we make and most importantly, what we decied to do with our money. She had an interesting comment for me a couple of days ago. She asked me, “do you know what money is like sometimes?” I asked her what she meant. She said that money can be a “paper satan” if you are not careful. WOW!! I was floored and we talked a whole lot about that. She is right. She is 10….I pray that she continue learning about how to use money in a loving way and how to be resposible with it. We are not perfect and we certainly have more than we need, but we are on a road together, challenging and daring ourselves to use our resources to share what we have in the name of Jesus. My prayer with her every night is for God to present us an opportunity every day that challenges us to give. He is answering ……..with many challenges every day.
LINDY
Thanks for posting this about Junky car club & Compassion int’l
i meant to DO something with both of these the last time you mentioned them.
Good intentions sometimes get forgotten with busyness.
This time we did something!
i have decided to keep my current vehicle & not update it & we sponsored Pedro from Mexico yesterday!
thanks again for your posts