Rice Bowls soapbox

Today I talked to the nicest lady on the phone - not an unusual day for me. My job as Campaign Liaison at Rice Bowls entails making a lot of phone calls, getting in touch with our partners across the United States. Many times the calls are brief and end within a minute or two; most are more than pleasant if brief, but occasionally I'll reach someone like Ms. Frances, from Haymarket Baptist Church (Va.). Ms. Frances has been over Missions at Haymarket for the last few years and was over the last Rice Bowls campaign. We talked about different things for about 20 minutes last week - her love for missions and how important she feels missions are within any church, her desire for children to know that there are others in the world who are in need and that even the smallest of children can help another. Our phone call took an interesting turn when she mentioned her Associate Pastor. Turns out not only is he from this area, I grew up with he and his sisters, and his Dad performed my & Mike's wedding (both of his sisters were bridesmaids!). Just a reminder of how small the world we're in really is! But back to today ... I talked with Erin, the secretary at another of our partner churches. We ended up talking for about 15 minutes, laughing, and just enjoying a short conversation about (you guessed it!), Rice Bowls! I asked if she recalled how many bowls her church had ordered, "well, I'm pretty sure we ordered 25 bowls." "Well, you must've given out 25 because you can only order in increments 50." For some reason (I'm not sure why), this struck us both as immensely funny and led to our talk on missions and children and how exciting it is for children to have a hand in helping to raise others up.

I know I'm biased, but the concept of Rice Bowls is just such a great idea! We give you bowls (yes, GIVE - Rice Bowls are free!), you give them out (to friends, neighbors, family, church members, students, anyone!), then you collect them, count the change and send us a check. We distribute the funds to our partner orphanages to provide their food ... how easy?

That's my soapbox for today ... my El is sleeping, we've had rain, my DJ is at the beach and Mike is still in Reno (six more days 'til Reno time is OVER!) ... time for me to turn in ... signing off ...