Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Pennies for Change...


So at first I thought it would be a great idea to take a friend who did not know Christ out for dinner, but that just did not feel right, I knew God had a bigger plan in store for that twenty dollar bill which sat on my desk. Finally after much prayer and discussion with my mom, thank goodness for moms, I knew what God wanted me to do with my twenty dollars. I decided to exchange my twenty dollar bill in for pennies, let me tell you that is a lot of pennies. Now you are probably wondering what on earth could you do with 2,000 pennies. Well you are about to find out my friends. On campus there are 1,550 who receive campus mail and each and every person will receive a penny. On the side with Abraham Lincoln's head, below the famous words "In God We Trust" there is a red streak of paint to symbolize the blood Christ shed so each and everyone of us can live free of sin. Yes, I painted 1,550 red streaks; it only took four hours on a Friday night, but I figured there is no one better to spend time with than Jesus, right? So this penny is attached to a business card sized piece of paper that is folded in half. On the outside of the paper it says "My story. Your story. How it is told in the end and what the story says depends on what each of us does with Jesus". On the inside, where the penny is attached it says "Christ's blood paid for your sins so you can be forgiven". Then there is an e-mail address, I created, pennies4change2009@yahoo.com,  that anyone can write to if they have questions about Christ's love for them. At the very bottom I wrote that if you have already accepted Christ as your personal Lord and Savior pass this onto someone who hasn't. After many many hours I finally finished this campus wide out reach project. Now to bring them all to the mailroom, so be on the lookout for yours.

This project has allowed me to spend a lot of time with Christ and has really been good for me. At first I did not want to take the twenty dollar bill. I made lame excuses like well I do not have time, what would I do with this huge responsibility? After a little shove from a close friend I walked up front and signed up. The devil has definitely been trying to stop me from doing this project. I mean why wouldn't he? I had a knot in my stomach for a week and just did not have the desire to work on it, but I pushed through it. I prayed as I worked on the project and afraid I would not get it done with the minimal time I had God provided... man God is good... I was given more free time than I could have imagined. God rearranged things in my life so I would continue to work. Sunday night at 10:33 I taped the last penny on to the print-out. It was a great joy to be finished and a huge accomplishment for me. I never thought I would be able to do something like this. I have always been the type of Christian to sit back and watch others do all the hard work. But I realized that we each are called to make disciples and sitting back and watching others do the work is not what I am called to do. So I stepped out of my boundaries and put my faith to work.  It is my hope that this project will not only change the lives of students on campus, but hopefully the ones who have accepted Christ into their heart will pass it on to someone on or off of campus that has not and they will be changed. If one person comes to know Christ all this work is worth it.

I hope that you do not take your twenty dollars lightly. You never know what God is calling you to do. He has big plans in store for all of us. So let us be the change this campus and community needs.

~Sarah Kramer

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