Children from Del Kramer Campus  in South Africa

I know, you might be wondering what cake, a $2 bill, St. Francis and Blessman International have to do with one another.

Remember the rocks you threw as a kid o and made ripples on the water? As a child, I had quite the fascination with these ripples. It seems like I spent hours at a time throwing rocks and watching the many ripples it made.  And now as an adult, I am even more fascinated and energized when organizations and individuals like members of St. Francis and givers and receivers of Blessman International connect and are ripplers for Jesus.

To see how cake fits into this, take a look at this precious YouTube video on a small act of kindness:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJtWA2n2C6I    –  I promise you will be moved by this clip.

The team each received a $2 bill at our November meeting encouraging them to listen to God and pass it on to someone they did not know – at just the right time.  And with Dr. Blessman, a superb ripple maker present as our guest, we shared cake and talked about how we were going to South Africa and creating ripples in some of these ways:

• Serving meals to school children that you, right here in Iowa, packaged through Meals from the Heartland.  Blessman Ministries helps build school children’s lives by feeding over 7,500 children a day with these meals.  See here for a great video from Eric Hanson, Channel 8 who traveled to South Africa: http://www.blessmanministries.org/videos
• St. Francis Days For Girls Chapter has volunteers that sew reusable menstrual kits — started by Deb Barry upon her return from her 1st 2015 trip.  Here is a website to learn more about this wonderful ministry where Blessman International supports lives of girls: http://www.blessmanministries.org/days-for-girls   Juliana Dreyer, who now leads this St. Francis Ministry and is a third time team veteran, along some of the women that helped sew the kits, and the other female team members will be helping distribute the 100 kits to girls in need.
  

  Days for Girls Chapter, St. Francis

• ENVIROLOO project.  St. Francis took up a collection in October for this project that provides safe toilets for children in schools: http://www.blessmanministries.org/enviro-loo

Thank you for taking a moment to reflect on the ripple effects we can each make through giving of our time, talents and treasures.  If after you read, watch and reflect  you are inclined to be a $2 dollar cheerful giver or in  any other way, if you wish please write in the comments how you were inspired to give of your time, talent, or treasure.

Now go eat some cake!

Now, go eat some cake!

Create ripples with time, talent and treasure.