In a book I read recently, Peter Singer presents the following thought experiment…

Imagine you’re walking across the park, past a shallow, ornamental pond, and you notice that a small child has fallen in and seems to be in danger of drowning.  You look around — where are the parents? the babysitter? — but there is no one in sight except you and the child.  You realize that if you don’t rush into the pond, the child will likely drown.

What do you do?

Of course, you think, “I must rush in and save the child!”  There is no danger to you, as you’re familiar with the pond, and it’s less than waist deep.  But then you remember that you’re wearing your brand new (and quite expensive) shoes, which will get ruined if you enter the pond.

Is that a reason for not saving a child?

You probably think that question is silly, even offensive.  What are shoes compared to the life of a child?

But Singer asserts that most of us, on a regular basis, choose the shoes over the child.

The book is called The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty, and clicking the image or title will take you to the Amazon.com page for the book, where you can learn more and see a video of Peter Singer telling the above story. (I checked it out from the Valparaiso Public Library, so if you want to try before you buy, you can!)

According to Singer, this is one of the ethical dimensions to our shopping.  The money we spend on “extras” could be given to groups that are working to bring medical care, safe drinking water, and other life-saving necessities to children around the world.  The amount of money you might spend on a nice pair of shoes, or a night out at the movies, or eating dinner in a restaurant, could save the life of a child (or two).

We experienced a bit of this when our church took the H2O Challenge this past Lenten season, giving up lattes, soft drinks, etc., for two weeks and giving the money saved to Living Water International.  I wrote about it here.

I’ll write a follow-up post sharing more from the book soon.  But for now, I’d love to hear your thoughts…

Our church did something different for Lent this year. (Lent is the 40 days or so leading up to Easter.) Many Christians traditionally “give something up for Lent” as a way of identifying in some small way with the sufferings of Jesus Christ on our behalf. Some give up alcohol, or chocolate, or coffee — something that actually feels like a sacrifice.

So this year, I encouraged our folks to take the H2O Challenge presented by Living Water International.  Here’s how they describe it:

Sometime during Lent (February 25 – April 11), take the H2O Challenge. For two weeks, make water your only beverage. Save the money that you would normally spend on sodas, coffee, juice, milk, and sport drinks. At the end of the two weeks, send the money you saved to Living Water International for the drilling of wells in needy communities.

What difference can you make? If you saved just one dollar a day for two weeks, you could provide three families with clean water for a year. If you got your friends, your church, or your youth group to do it with you, you could reach a whole village. Or more. Every bit really does make a difference.

So we did it.  Some for two weeks, some for all six.  And when it was all said and done, our little group gave $1,000 to help dig and repair clean water wells in Haiti (more on the results here).

On average, $1 provides clean water for 1 person for 1 year (see onedollarwater.com).  So we helped 100 people have clean water for 10 years.  Or 200 people for 5 years.  Or however it worked out.  I’m just amazed that there are people who will be able to avoid the life-threatening diseases they would otherwise have caught from drinking dirty, infected water… all because I skipped my soft drinks for two weeks.  Wow.

Hop over to www.water.cc to learn more about how you can make a difference, too.

Those of you who follow me on twitter (or facebook) may have noticed that I tend to eat at Panera a lot.  Since our church doesn’t have a building of its own yet, Aaron and I have to get together for our weekly staff meeting somewhere… so why not Panera? 

Here’s what makes Panera a good place for us to meet:

• Good food
• Free refills on soft drinks
• Free wifi (wireless internet)
• Chance meetings with people we know and people we don’t

It’s that last one that seems to set Panera apart from some other places we’ve met.  It seems like half of Valparaiso comes through Panera between 11:30 am and 1:30 pm.  We usually plant ourselves somewhere near the doors, and it seems like every other time we’re there, we end up talking to someone.  And that’s a really good thing for a couple of church leaders trying to make sure that church connects with ordinary folks where they live!

Of course, if you know someplace else we should try that meets those same criteria, I’m open to suggestions! 

Parkview Elementary School (where Stacey is principal) had their annual Friday Night Live event this past Friday night. It’s an overnight reading event for 4th and 5th graders that just happens to involve a LOT more than reading.

What makes it fun is the creativity that goes into each year’s theme and the energy and participation of the school staff and parents. This year’s theme was a combination of Wall-E and Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium… but that’s really just a jumping off point for whatever sounded like fun to the organizers.

So this year, Stacey and I were dressed up as Mary Poppins and Bert the chimney sweep. Supposedly there’s a video online somewhere of the dance we did to Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. But until I find it, you’ll just have to be satisfied with a photo…