NYWC

I am at the National Youth Worker's Convention in Sacramento. I love this event- these are my people, you know?

However, riding up the elevator last night I had a bit of a revelation. You see, I was carrying all my "free stuff." If you know anything about Youth Workers, you know that our hearts skip a beat at the mention of a free CD, t-shirt, water bottle... whatever. I was doing a quick inventory and calculated how much all my schwag* was worth. The total? Well over $100. Yes, you heard right, my 45 minutes walking through the exhibit hall netted me over $100 worth of the good stuff. Three t-shirts, a backpack, a pair of Etnies flip flops, two CD's...

Then I started thinking about how much these vendors are going to spend on trying to woo all of my fellow YWs to take their groups missions trip, buy their "cutting edge" curriculum, buy/sell their t-shirts...

At the risk of being excommunicated by my fellow YWs, I'm going to share where my mind went next:
1-How many kids are going to die tonight for lack of proper nutrition or safe drinking water? (Some statistics say 30,000 in a 24 hour period. You read that right: THIRTY THOUSAND PEOPLE WILL DIE IN THE NEXT 24 HOURS BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T HAVE ENOUGH TO EAT!!!)
1b-How much of a difference could we make if we gave up our free stuff and focused our resources on meeting physical needs of the hurting/dying.
2-Does any of this stuff really equip me to be better able to point kids to Jesus?

Back to reality.

I still love this event.

I will still go to seminars telling me how to run crazy games.

I will still go through the exhibit hall for another round of freebies.

But maybe...

Maybe next time I will pick up a Compassion Child to sponsor.

Maybe I will encounter someone today who needs a smile or kind word.

Maybe today I'll remember that I am a child of the King, and live for what really matters: Loving HIM and pointing others to HIM.