Breaking down their mission explains why some of the reasons I like them.

• Indigenous: they empower local people to help other local people, which is both more practical and more effective than “shipping in” people from other regions, meaning that money I give goes a long way
• Christian: the mission is more than just physical health, but is also concerned with eternity (because what’s the point of being healthy now only to miss out on eternal life and health for, you know, infinity?)
• health professionals: their ministry is more than just words, however powerful they may be—they also help relieve suffering in the here and now

One of the other things I like about the Luke Society is that they seem to genuinely value prayer, and not just cash. I originally started working with them when I saw they were looking for people to pray. They have a monthly newsletter that talks about answers to prayer and prayer requests. I’ve received the newsletter for a couple of years, and it’s neat how I’ve gradually “gotten to know” the various doctors.

The prayer aspect is important to me, because while many Christian organizations encourage prayer, it’s rare that they seem to truly believe it’s more important than money. Being on the Luke Society mailing list has shown me over and over that when they are facing a crisis (for instance, the current persecution in Pakistan), they look for prayer first.

Further evidence of their belief in prayer is found in the current ministry of Dr. Peter Boelens, the former Executive Director. He and his wife now spend their time researching, reporting, and applying healing prayer to hurting people.

One of the other strong points, which I’ve already alluded to, is they are excellent communicators. Many organizations mean well but forget to ask for help and, probably more importantly, to follow up after they are given help.

The Luke Society sends regular updates in a variety of appropriate formats (a PDF or print newsletter for the monthly news, with occasional emails with urgent prayer requests relayed from their doctors). They don’t waste my time (or money!) with gimmicky “gifts,” either, which I consider a big plus.

Even if you’re not a Christian, I believe the Luke Society offers a great ROI thanks to their willingness to serve people who really need it in places very few others will venture. If you’re so inclined, you can sign up for their mailing list or donate online.

Compassion is a Christian organization that takes a holistic approach to helping children. They operate in 25 countries and are currently helping over 1 million kids. They work with local churches (I’m a big fan of working with local folks who already have a burden to help) to provide the kids in the program with food, education, and an introduction to the Gospel. They also help parents with everything from parenting skills to vocational training.

Uwitonze Sarah

I first started sponsoring Sarah in the summer of 2005 in response to an invitation by Caedmon’s Call, one of my favorite bands. Their Share the Well album is very focused on social justice, so it wasn’t a surprise that they support Compassion’s mission of “[r]eleasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name”.

I picked Sarah because we share our given name and because she was one of the kids who had been waiting a long time for a sponsor. Compassion strongly encourages sponsors to write to their sponsored children, and it’s been very cool to see, even from such a great distance, how she is growing up. She used to just color the pictures that were pre-printed on the stationary, and now she’s writing her own letters in cursive.

A couple of years ago, a local Christian radio station did something unprecidented and asked their listeners to sponsor a whole Compassion project in Honduras (usually when a radio station does this kind of sponsorship drive, the kids come from all over the world, but KTSY wanted one project where they can go visit—they’ve been down there twice and have a third trip planned for next spring).

Lauren Yohana Monje Tróchez

At the time, I wasn’t in a position to sponsor another kid, and when they were all sponsored, I was a little sad that I wasn’t able to be involved. The following year, though, some of the younger kids who had previously been too young joined the program, and the radio station sought sponsors for them. That’s when I started sponsoring Yohana.

I haven’t had a chance to go visit my kids yet, but hearing the stories from my friends at the radio station is both awesome and heartbreaking. The incredible poverty that these kids suffer through only emphasizes the incredible love and hope that they have.

Now that I have a son of my own, I want to start contributing to the Child Survival Program to help babies his age. I can’t imagine the universal challenge of childrearing with the added stress of poverty, illiteracy, unsanitary birthing and living conditions, and a lack of knowledge about parenting. Becoming a parent has made me more empathetic in general, but I’m especially moved by the plight of other, less fortunate mothers.

When Benjamin is a little older, we will sponsor a boy his age. My hope is that, in addition to helping someone who desperately needs it, sponsorship will also help develop empathy, compassion, and an awareness of the world in Benjamin.

I’m planning on featuring a child who needs sponsorship as part of this site in the near future, but don’t wait for me! If you want to share the blessings, you can sponsor a child today.

The statement does make me think, though. I give little bits to a lot of causes, but only a few consistently receive my dollars (and my love). Clearly, I have some kind of criteria, even if they’re mostly subconscious.

First, the easy one: I give because of who’s asking. This isn’t a strong enough factor for me to commit to ongoing or long-term giving, but when one of my friends asks me to sponsor their charity walk or tells me about organization they care deeply about that needs a one-time gift, I’ll usually bite.

For bigger or longer commitments, I weigh a few more factors:

• Is the organization effective? This goes a lot further than just having low administrative overhead. I want to see great results.
• What kind of impact do they have for eternity? There are so many needs in the world that many charities can all work to meet them without overlap, but my money isn’t unlimited so I give preference to those that address spiritual needs as well as physical, mental, social, and emotional needs.
• Am I needed (and do I know it)? There are charities who may be doing great things, but if they feel impersonal or don’t seem like they need my gift, I don’t give again. I’m not looking for a big public awards ceremony or anything—just a sense that my contribution matters.
• How far does my money go? Thanks to radically different costs-of-living around the world, the same dollar amount can go much further in other countries. I do give money domestically (for instance, to my local church), but I like how much my money can accomplish when given strategically. I especially like projects that are self-sustaining—projects where today’s successes set up tomorrow’s victories.
• How urgent and important is the need? Again, there are so many real, important needs in the world that I have to prioritize. I usually go for concrete projects rather than abstract ones as a result.

These are just guidelines, obviously, but they help narrow down the vast field of good charities doing good work in areas that need good solutions.

I’m going to write about some of my favorite charities over the next few days, but in the meantime, I’m curious: what makes you give to one charity over another?

I love that no one knows what to call this decade.

Since losing a hard drive this summer (and my sister losing hers last month), I’m pretty obsessed with online backup services.

I also love funny or conversation-inspiring t-shirts, so when I heard about Mozy’s hilarious Back The F:\ Up t-shirt promotion, I put the brain to work on getting me one of those shirts.

As it turns out, the Mozy folks liked my preggo belly-painting idea, and fortunately I have the nicest sister in the world (though she insists that I’ll need to share the t-shirt with her), so behold: the branded belly.

We used the projector to make it easier to outline the logo (though it did result in some skewing, which actually looks pretty cool) and then Leanna painted it all in with face paint (more typically used for sporting events, but whatever).

I think she did a great job (and truly, I should probably just give her the shirt since all I really contributed was the painting surface)!

A few weeks ago, I came across the Stocking Advent Calendar instructions on BurdaStyle.com and decided to make some of my own.

If you know me, you can probably guess at the difficulty I had in actually creating 24 little stockings (24!) and finishing the project, but shockingly, I did finish it. (Knitters talk about the “2nd sock syndrome”… try the 23rd sock!)

I pretty much followed the instructions from BurdaStyle.com, with a few exceptions:

• I used a different pattern for the stockings [download the pattern (but ignore the instructions on it!)]—it’s rough but I liked the shape better. If you use it, know that I added a ½” seam allowance. If you’re better at sewing than me, you could reduce this and eliminate the seam allowance trimming step.
• I cut out the numbers and applied them applique-style (new to me, and I really like the effect, though I might recommend starting out with a smaller project for the first attempt!). If you’re interested, here’s the pattern for two styles of numbers, ready to print backwards for tracing.
• I used different ribbon for the bows than for the top edge.

I’ve uploaded photos of the whole process to Flickr, so if you’re interested in seeing it pretty much step-by-step, start there. If you have questions, ask them in the photo comments or leave a comment on this post and I’ll do my best to clarify.

As a side-note, this was my first project on my new sewing machine and I love it.

photo credit: orangeacid

I’ve slowly been building up more and more resistence to my daily update post (as evidenced by its recently-spotty appearance), so I’m going to try something else for a while.

You’ll notice that there’s a couple of new sections on the sidebar: one is my list (now maintained at my favorite online list site, Remember The Milk), and the other details my reward and progress. The idea is that it will be even easier to update these things (I can even update my RTM list from my iPhone) so maybe I won’t put them off.

We’ll see, but it’s worth a shot.

Most Important Tasks

• Tweaks for one client
• Write back to theme-creation inquiry
• Tweaks for another client

The reward

Subscription to All You magazine, which I’ve been tempting myself with for several months.

photo credit: moonhouse

It’s the dreaded first business day of the month, which means… invoicing day. Oh, well. As much as I hate the paperwork, invoicing (sometimes) means getting payments, so there you have it.

Had a fun weekend, am feeling much better (and hopefully will be sounding good enough to sing this weekend—it’s our band’s “on” week). Just did one of my new yoga DVDs and am happy I purchased it—I think it will help with labor and delivery (assuming I keep doing it! ).

Never heard back about the pumpkin contest, so that’s an assumed “no.” Was hoping it would pay off, but in the end it was really just a $7 gamble (well, you know, plus the hours and hours of carving but those were fun).

Most Important Tasks

• Invoicing
• Style my small WordPress-based gallery plugin
• Make a couple of small client-requested tweaks

The reward

Play time with colors, themes, and Twitter backgrounds. Or sewing.

photo credit: t.e.m|photography|

Every day feeling a little better. Still napping like a… um… cat. Aren’t you glad I just have a cold and not something actually serious? I could be moaning about that for months!

No word yet on the pumpkin contest but they were expecting some entries to come in late last evening and to do the judging this morning. Sounds to be some other entries that are very good, so we’re definitely not a shoo-in.

No big plans for Halloween. I’d thought about wearing basketball clothes and painting my belly as a ball, but after something like 13 consecutive days of having something to do every night, I’m ready to just lay low and do nothing. We have candy to hand out and I’ll just concentrate on not eating that.

Most Important Tasks

• Respond to a particular client email
• Start to create a small WordPress-based gallery plugin

The reward

Play time with colors, themes, and Twitter backgrounds.