Kristen Welch and I are sorta, kinda, soul sisters? As I’ve served on the board of directors of the ministry Kristen founded, Mercy House Global, and we daily serve together to dream up for you the best #FAIRTRADE beauty of The Grace Flame and The Grace Case that 100% supports the Kenyan maternity homes of Mercy House  — so I get to see it first hand again and again, what we can all do together to change the world for women, if we say our brave yes.  I am all in here with Kristen, with Mercy House Global,  I absolutely love this woman with all my heart — a grace to welcome my soul sister, Kristen, to the farm’s table today…

Guest Post by Kristen Welch

You haven’t really lived — until you’ve been given the last of what others are living on.

Hold up with me — because it’s happened to me more than once.

This time last year, I stood in the doorway of an apartment in Houston with bags of groceries. I was there on a chilly November day with my family on behalf of Mercy House Global to welcome a family from Afghanistan to my city. Due to a hiccup in the resettlement system, hundreds of families were in limbo and it created a massive food insecurity issue.

“You haven’t really lived until you’ve been given the last of what others are living on.“

There were smiles and nods and translated words as we were led to the only furniture in the entire home: a single twin bed.

We sat down, my family of five, lined up one after another and we looked at each other nervously as the host family left the room. The oldest woman in the family returned with one single orange on a plate with a knife. 

We watched as our host slowly and carefully cut the single fruit into 5 pieces and handed us each a slice on a napkin. She backed out of the room and we were engulfed with the significance of her gift of hospitality.

We ate it slowly and swallowed the understanding that we had just received the best and maybe even the last of this family’s food.

It’s the kind of generosity that has no words. Maybe that’s why it leaves you speechless…

I experienced this kind of generosity again two months ago when I was in Kenya, visiting the work of Mercy House Global and the 70 pregnant teens that are in some phase of empowerment in their freedom journey to hope. It’s a breathtaking sisterhood of second chances with a lot of diapers. 

I sat in the single room home that held more people than square footage and squinted in the oppressive darkness as my eyes adjusted to the lack of light.

“God prospers me not to raise my standard of living, but to raise my standard of giving… God doesn’t look at just what we give. He also looks at what we keep.”

~ Randy Alcorn

This home represented the 70^th miracle baby (!!) born at the maternity homes supported by Mercy House Global. We were visiting vulnerable families empowered with dignified work and every door we walked through gave us only the best.

What is it about the world’s “normal” that gives us an up-close look at our own?

Why does my everyday “normal” afford me with options and opportunities for more, when much of the world is forced to make desperate choices, because they have so little?

Here we are on the brink of another holiday season, where we will spend millions of dollars and a 2022 Gallop poll declares we are the unhappiest we’ve been in years.

Those who only spend their money on themselves are the unhappiest people on the planet, according to Giving is the Good Life by Randy Alcorn. So, if keeping everything to ourselves makes us unhappy, then maybe the Bible is correct when it says giving to others will make us happy.

“What are we saving for exactly when the world is dying to be saved?” 

“God comes right out and tells us why he gives us more money than we need. It’s not so we can find more ways to spend it. It’s not so we can indulge ourselves and spoil our children. It’s not so we can insulate ourselves from needing God’s provision. It’s so we can give and give generously (2 Cor. 8:14; 9:11).” Alcorn went on to say,“God prospers me not to raise my standard of living, but to raise my standard of giving.”

What are we saving for exactly when the world is dying to be saved? 

“It’s curious that the Church has become the most tightfisted at the very time in history when God has provided most generously. There’s considerable talk about the end of the age, and many people seem to believe that Christ will return in their lifetime. But why is it that expecting Christ’s return hasn’t radically influenced our giving? “ writes Randy Alcorn.

“Why is it that people who believe in the soon return of Christ are so quick to build their own financial empires–which prophecy tells us will perish–and so slow to build God’s kingdom?” Randy Alcorn said. “God doesn’t look at just what we give. He also looks at what we keep.”

Hands down, the best holiday memories in my family’s history are the ones where we gave away our time and money to others.

The best gifts we recollect are the ones that are tied to experiences helping others.

We are forever connected with the people we give to because God forever connects us all.

“The world has a need. But it’s no greater than our need to meet it.” 

If our quest is happiness this holiday season, the key is not illusive, or beyond our reach.

We stand at the doorway and we hold the key to happiness this holiday season. Jesus said: “Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you” (Luke 6:38). 

Today is Giving Tuesday.

It is a day that encourages all of us to give back because of what we have received. When we give to Kingdom work, we are giving to God Himself.

He accepts our gift, as if it was given to Him directly.

The world has a need. But it’s no greater than our need to meet it. 

We hold the keys.