How to Best Spend Your Charitable Donations
By: Ida Adams
Tags: Charitable Giving, Christianity, Philanthropy, Childhood Hunger, Decisions

It was a big decision; for me, it was. For years now, I’ve been supporting an International Ministry that does incredible work. I have a limited amount set aside for my various charities. This one, one of my favorites, was a lifeline during a tough time in my life.

And I’ll always be grateful, no, make that super-grateful. I sometimes considered giving less, as there is so much need elsewhere, but then just carried on.

Until the morning, when one more column in my local newspaper set me thinking. A local philanthropist had started an organization called Food for Hope.

“Food Brings Hope, Inc. founded in 2007 by local businesswoman and philanthropist, Forough B. Hosseini, is a 501(c)3 public charity dedicated to providing collaborative solutions for families with children who experience hardships due to homelessness, poverty, or unfamiliarity with community resources.” www.foodbringshope.org

More and more, each day as I read the column, something tugged at my heart. Until, one day, I mentioned the column to my husband. I marveled that for $40.00 a month, they could feed a family of four for a week. He comes in with our weekly grocery shopping, having “not bought any food at all,” to paraphrase him, and the bill could run over $100.00.

“How do they do it? “I asked

Patiently, he explained. They probably buy direct from farmers who have surplus aftermarket days that would go to waste. They had contracts with supermarket chains that support them. I nodded yes and yes and went away, scheming how I could add this program to my already stretched charity donation plan.

Then came the comment

“Why don’t you change the donation from that international organization to this local one?” he asked.

He surprised me as he never utters a single word about my charities. I guess if I sprung a couple of thousand-dollar weekly donations on him, he’d squeak. More likely keel over. But for the rest, this lovely man I married let me be. Knowing how close to my heart works of charity and goodwill are.

I chewed over it, and I slept on it. I thought some more. I so wished Father Peter from a previous lifetime was around the corner. We’d have coffee and a speculoos, (I’ll buy some for him, knowing how much he enjoyed those) talking about those long-ago days in Belgium. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speculaas

I wish my BFF lived a couple of miles away. Not in faraway NC battling COVID-19.

I wish I had a closer relationship with our local priests, so I’d feel comfortable talking over my problems.

But no, there’s only the husband and I.

Until the Holy Spirit smacked me a few times

Why go around and around and around with humans and then take your issue to God? Don’t I know any better?

Go to Him

I did. On my knees, before I even left the bathroom at 6.00 am. It’s one of my favorite places for prayers. I have a nice thick rug in front of the toilet, with the seat covered in the same dense red fabric.

So yes, this spot is perfect. It also has memories. Growing up in a farmhouse with one toilet, you waited your turn. And one morning, thinking the bathroom was empty, I pushed open the door to find my father in prayer, on the toilet mat, one knee bent, one knee supporting him. Hands clenched in a fist, his elbows resting on the closed seat, his face raised to the ceiling, eyes tightly closed –

Yes, there’s nothing reverential about praying at a toilet seat for me. It has memories.

What to do, God, what to do?

“And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things.” (Luke 10:41, NKJV)

And thus, it was there, on my knees, that the answer came.

“Work locally. You can pray for your former recipient. And you do support another International Charity through your church. But your present duty lies here at your doorstep.”