{"id":2558,"date":"2010-08-12T08:16:50","date_gmt":"2010-08-12T13:16:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thewaterproject.org\/community\/?p=2558"},"modified":"2017-11-28T10:54:57","modified_gmt":"2017-11-28T15:54:57","slug":"north-way-christian-kidz-gig-raises-over-9000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewaterproject.org\/community\/2010\/08\/12\/north-way-christian-kidz-gig-raises-over-9000\/","title":{"rendered":"North Way Christian Kidz GIG Raises over $9,000"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>This June, North Way Christian Community, a church in Wexford, Pennsylvania, hosted their annual \u00a0summer camp, Kidz GIG.\u00a0\u00a0 The objective of the week-long camp was to teach kids about the importance of service. The result: kids modeling true service to the entire church.<\/p>\n

Kidz GIG, accepted an ambitious challenge. Inspired by the Water Project (www.thewaterproject.org<\/a>), 330 kids and close to 200 leaders, agreed to drink only water for 5 days and collect the savings to build a well in Africa. We set a considerable goal of $6,000, enough to build a complete well, and believed that God was going to accomplish this through the hearts of our children.<\/p>\n

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Such a lofty goal needed to be attacked from all sides. We took advantage of the terrific resources provided by www.thewaterproject.org<\/a>: bracelets, pictures, and videos. Additionally, we created a Donation Destination that featured those resources and a sign with Matthew 25:35 \u201cI was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.\u201d\u00a0 We also put that verse on water bottles and sold them for $10 each.\u00a0 Likewise, we created cups for children to collect the money they saved.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>We knew that our challenge needed to speak to the head and the heart, so Monday\u2019s lesson was from Matthew 5:41, and asked kids, \u201cwhat in the world are you doing above and beyond.\u201d We had no idea, however, just how far above and beyond these kids were willing to go. God\u2019s word seized their hearts and the Spirit prompted them to live it out, not because we told them to, but because they wanted to. Kids came to camp on the second day with not only money from their water drinking sacrifice, but with money that they earned selling lemonade and going door to door in their neighborhood.\u00a0 One child purchased the water bottle, encouraged her dad to take it to work and ended up selling 10.\u00a0 Entire families got engaged and set up water stations in their driveways and sold tap water.\u00a0 A four year old made brownies and sold them at her swim class.\u00a0 Children would not even put milk on their cereal! One child told his dad how upset he was at the \u201cwaste of water\u201d in the decorative water fountain across from our church.\u00a0 The energy built as we asked \u201cwhat in the world are you doing to help the rejected (Luke 10: 30-37) and \u201cwhat in the world are you doing to put others first\u201d (John 13:1-7).<\/p>\n

By the fourth day, an anonymous donor offered to match the donations for the final day.\u00a0 As God would have it, the lesson for that morning was from Matthew 6:1-4 and asked, \u201cwhat in the world are you doing that only God knows.\u201d God used that person to model true service to the kids and to demonstrate how He uses regular people to serve His purposes.\u00a0 By the end of our last day, the children and families had collected $6,055, the donor match was $3,000 for a total of $9,055!!!!!\u00a0 Glory to God!<\/p>\n\n\t\t