Guatemala Update: What’s The Big Deal About Lunch?

Last week, I shared about our upcoming trip to Xenacoj (see last week’s post titled, Another Leap of Faith).  I also shared about an opportunity to build something bigger again in this small town (click here for more details).  I shared that for just $0.35, one child can receive a hot lunch in this town.  To you and me, this doesn’t sound like a big deal.  But it’s huge.  Watch this video from the organization we’ll be serving with this summer to get an idea of why one hot lunch can make a huge difference.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtwSTVyjApU]

Now, here’s the question.  Would you be willing to make a small sacrifice to change the life of one child in the town of Xenacoj?  Imagine with me for a minute.  Do you go out for lunch at work?  Say you go out for lunch once a week and the lunch costs $8.75 (that sounds about right).  If you gave up one of your lunches, you could feed one child 5 weeks of hot lunches (or 25 hot lunches)!  That is truly amazing!

As promised, I wanted to give you an update on our support to date.  So far, we have collected $1,121 towards our $5,000 goal required to go on this trip (this is for our travel, lodging, food, etc. expenses).  But we also have a goal to help feed 200 children in Xenacoj.  For $8,750, we can feed 200 kids hot lunches for half a year.  And for $17,500, we can feed 200 kids hot lunches for a whole year (this is the STRETCH goal).  I don’t know how this will happen, but I’m reminded that with faith the size of a mustard seed mountains can be moved.

Help us close the gap on these targets!

If you are interested in giving, it’s pretty simple.  To give to the “Stolpe Feeding Program Challenge”, go to goministries.info.  At the bottom of the page, choose option 3.  After you enter your payment information, enter a special note to the seller.  The note should read “Stolpe Feeding Program Challenge”.  This will ensure that your donation is counted towards the goal.  It will also ensure that your donation is registered as a tax-deductible donation.  (You can also give money to us, which we would turn over to GO Ministries towards this target.)

Once we start seeing money donated towards this challenge, I will post a target “thermometer” on the side of my main page to give you an idea of where we stand in meeting the goal (and the STRETCH goal).

To give towards our trip expenses, go to goministries.info.  At the bottom of the page, choose option 1.  After you enter your payment information, enter a special note to the seller.  The note should read “Stolpe Family Mission Trip”.  This will ensure that your donation goals towards our GO Ministries expenses.  It will also ensure that your donation is registered as a tax-deductible donation.  (You can also give money to us, which we would utilize for our airfare or we’ll turn over to GO Ministries to pay for our expenses in Guatemala.)

When was the last time you went out for lunch?  What did you get to eat?  How much was your bill?

(My answer:  I went out for lunch on December 31, 2012 with my wife.  We went to Subway and picked up two six-inch subs a bag of chips and two drinks.  Our bill was right around $8.35 (after someone gave us a coupon).)