No! Don´t worry. Your children don´t stink. (Well, not normally). It´s not a relationship that stinks. It´s different. The founder of the 'Love Stinks' campaign, a good friend of ours, was visiting his aunt in Africa. There he saw terrible things happening. People dying of sicknesses, infections, people getting killed, a woman was even killed by a crocodile and this witch doctor was rolling around bones to find out who should be punished. When our friend came back, he looked into his closet and started thinking about all that we have. We have sooooo much food. Many people in Africa suffer from hunger. A lot of people starve to death. We have sooooo many clothes. Many people in Africa only have one shirt or none. So, he started thinking. What if some of us wear one shirt for five days?If people in Africa have one shirt all year round and can hardly ever really wash, (never like we wash ourselves) why should we not try it? And so the 'Love Stinks' campaign was born! This is an opportunity given to school children and others in the community to spend five days wearing one shirt, completing various activities and reading a daily thought and Bible message, while also raising money for various local charities. One overall charity is chosen each year and over the five days other charities are also highlighted. This year the focus was on the elderly. All of these activities are aimed at prompting people to think about those in situations less fortunate than our own. Empathy and understanding are hopefully gained and money and other practical donations are given to these charities. So, no showering or washing and wearing one shirt for five days. That can (in some cases) get pretty stinky. If you are working hard and sweating it is harder.
If you are just sitting in front of a fire, reading a book, waiting for the maple sap to cook down to maple syrup, but doing nothing else, it´s easier. (More to the syrup later on). Every year in "Love Stinks" money is collected for a local charity. Last year it was the Brockville food bank. This year it was Brockville Palliative Care. But how do you collect money? Beforehand everyone finds sponsors that will pay you to wear the shirt for five days. But also some people walk door to door and ask for money. Now for Rebecca and I, (Jonathan here again) this was pretty weird, because in Europe nobody walks door to door for anything. We were a bit nervous at first, but after a while it went all well. Some let us speak, thought for a bit and then said yes or no. Others said no immediately before we could explain, and others found excuses like: 'I would like to, but the shower is running and I cannot give you two seconds of time', or, 'I was having a nap and now that I am up, I want to go to bed again and cannot listen to you'.
Every day there is a devotional to do and a 'Love Challenge'. On the first day it was fasting from everything (that is food and drink) except water. The second day was finding all the spare change around the house to support a Christian bus program (taking students to visit seniors in Senior's Residences). The third day was bringing clothes to donate to the Salvation Army. The fourth day was putting tape on glasses to make visibility worse. Putting ear plugs in to hear less. Taking popcorn seeds and putting them into your shoes to simulate aches and pains. And finally, putting on rubber gloves and wrapping rubber bands around your knuckles- all to see how it may be for some older people. I even tried to make pizza dough with everything on. Losing eyesight halfway was the hardest thing for me.
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Making pizza dough
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Almost every day there was a charity supported by doing the Love Challenge, but overall all the money collected went to our local (Brockville) Palliative Care. Syrup news next time!
Have a great week!!!
