Giving Up Bottled Water: The Friesens

For the whole month of January Dustin and Bethany Friesen have been Giving Up bottled water so they can Give to Giving Back to Africa. We love this idea! I will let Bethany tell you more about it in her own words.

Why are you Giving Up To Give?

We admired the communal aspect of the project - it's one thing to privately give, and another to put together a huge project like this that brings together many families and individuals.

Do you have a personal connection to the Congo?

We have laptops and cellphones. And connections to the Browns, and other friends who are personally connected to the Congo.

What are you Giving Up?

We decided to give up bottled water for the month of January and drink tap water instead. To make it "easy" to be healthier, we'd gotten into a bad habit of spending a lot of money on bottled water (to replace pop cans). So it's an opportunity to retrain ourselves as well as give to a good cause. It hasn't been too hard to avoid bottled water while I grocery shop, but it's a lot harder to avoid buying just one bottle at the movie theater or mall - but worth it! Even if it's a long trek down a shady hallway to find the drinking fountain.

What would you say to encourage others to join Giving Up To Give?

It's so easy to do, and feels so great to be a part of this community of people - to know that you're not the only one giving up to give - that other families all over are thinking of ways to do the same thing - it connects us. And it's such a small thing for us to give up - and to give to people who have such a greater need.

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Making A Difference with PB&J

We are so excited to see the days on the calendar filling up with people willing to Give Up To Give. There have been so pretty creative ideas and we are looking forward to highlighting all of them--they are inspiring and challenging!
Today's Giving Up To Give Donation has been filled by the Flora family (Mike and Jennifer and their boys Isaac and Grant). I will let Jennifer Flora tell you in her own words what they are Giving Up To Give and why.

Why did you joing Giving Up To Give?
We signed up for Giving Up To Give for a few reasons...1.) It offers a simple way to help others as a family. 2.) We love the idea of giving something up in order to send the funds we've pledged. We live daily with comforts and conveniences that we constantly take for granted. Giving up something that we usually would do keeps us mindful of our blessings, as well as the ones we want to be a blessing to. We hope this is something that our sons will be able to understand and experience a little bit better than if we simply donated some money in our family's name.
Do you have a personal connection to the Congo?
We have a personal connection to the Brown family... so they are our "Congo Connection" :)
What are you Giving Up To Give?
We're giving up a drive-thru dinner... we are traveling to see loved ones this evening, and when we're on the road we often go through a fast food spot for dinner. Finding someplace other than the 3 or 4 places we have in our hometown is a treat. :) Tonight we'll brown bag it.
How would you encourage others to join Giving Up To Give?
Giving in this way is about as simple as it gets! Our gift isn't huge or monumental, but it's from our hearts. We're hoping to have some fun with our boys finding a new way and a new day to "Give up to Give" every month or at least every other month. This will keep the Congolese children present in our minds and hearts, as well as be a consistent reminder to us of all we have and need to appreciate! Mike and I came up with this one on our own, but we are hoping to have the boys brainstorm ideas for what we can give up in February. Anytime we can look outside of ourselves and try to help meet the needs of others, we end up being the ones to feel blessed! I hope that doesn't make our participation selfish - ha! We certainly feel consistently challenged to guide our sons to think of others before themselves...it seems that our present culture works against being unselfish at every turn. I would encourage any family to take this on as a fun challenge and get their kiddos involved!

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