The purpose of these emails is to make this leap year a LEAP Year. (Living to Educate ourselves and others About Poverty by spending 1% of our day on the subject or 14.4 minutes.) After 29 days we hope to have 29 kids sponsored, $29,000.00 raised and a new way of thinking and good new habits formed.

Ways to LEAP
Still looking at your lists of "luxury items"? Here are some of the suggestions we have received to help people get started stretching out that
"hunker" into a LEAP: 
 
Throw a party and invite all of your friends and take up a collection, charge them for the food/beverage, just as if you were all going out to eat. How many
times is the 29th of February going to be on a Friday Night? Be creative, you know you’re your friends would find entertaining and still communicate the
worthiness of the cause. Have everyone from your hobby group bring a few bucks to the next meeting. Hold a competition for who has raised the most money and give trophies/bragging rights to the winner. Auction or raffle off your services/items to new or old clients and get your friends to donate theirs as
well. Have a garage sale with your neighborhood and give all the money to your charity. 

And I think this is my personal favorite: Swear or Workout jars. Remember those New Year’s Resolutions? Put money in a jar for every time you keep, (or
don’t keep) your resolutions. I even saw on the news the other night that a man was going to get his friends to help the poor and him to lose weight at the same time. For every pound he lost, the food bank got that many pounds of food donated to them by the dieter and matching donations from all of his friends. 

So here is my proposal. My resolution was to be caught up in my scrap-booking before I forgot what was in the pictures. Let’s do it together this Friday
February 29th at 6:00pm through Saturday March 1st at 10:00pm … For every 12”x12”page finished by me or anyone who drug their “scrap’n” to my house, I
will donate $1 to Show Mercy, ($.50 for each 8”x 8”page.) Who will join me? You will be able to see many of my Uganda pictures, too!!! 

If you come over, you will need to bring a folding table. I have 10 chairs and 2 tables. Bring your own snacks. I will cover drinks. Email me if you need
directions and/or me to have the house available the following weekend as well.  

Actually, it may sound like more of a triple jump than a leap. Spread the word. Sponsor kids. Raise project funds. But that is when we all work together.
Who knew the triple jump could look more like Leap frog. Have fun! 

Can’t wait to hear about your weekends/See you at my house! 
Lia

The purpose of these emails is to make this leap year a LEAP Year.  (Living to Educate ourselves and others About Poverty by spending 1% of our day on the subject or 14.4 minutes.)  After 29 days we hope to have 29 kids sponsored, $29,000.00 raised and a new way of thinking and good new habits formed.   

How Do You Begin to LEAP?
How would some one begin to Leap? Well first they hunker down. Can’t jump from a straight stance, or at least not far. To get the most spring, we compress and then stretch out and reach as hard as we can with our whole body in the direction that counts the most. Isn’t momentum interesting? So how do we figuratively “hunker” to prepare for our L.E.A.P.? (Living this year to Educate ourselves and others About Poverty.)

I have an idea that might propel the whole family towards more awareness. Grab a piece of paper for each family member, a pen, and the family. Let’s go to
each room and put a tally mark down for every item we have that would be considered a “luxury item” to the children of Uganda (and most of the world.)
Put a second mark down if this item’s status as “luxury” was surprising to you or one of your children.

The House: Is there a floor above the dirt? Does the floor have carpet? Is there glass in the window holes? Is there electricity? Running water? A roof
that doesn’t leak? Gutters? A locking door? Is there heat or air conditioning? Do you own cleaning products/utensils? Is it full of bugs or rats?

The Bathroom: Each beauty products, soap/ wash cloth and towel, the sink, shower and the toilet. 

The Kitchen: Food beyond rice and beans, or anything over a one day’s supply. 

Clean water. Stove. Sink. Refrigerator. Dishes/cups beyond one a piece. Pots and pans. 

The Bedroom: Bed/mattress/blanket, clothes beyond one shirt, and one pair shorts. Anything that is new, anything that is clean, anything that is not torn, any underwear/socks at all. Any pajamas at all, any toys at all, a dresser or desk?

Now put another check mark down if it surprises you to know that many, many children do not have even the items we listed as “basic” that you didn’t have to
count. Tack your list up on the fridge to help the whole family consider gratitude and compassion. Besides, we may be revisiting it before the 29 Days
are over.

Being stretched right along with you,
Lia

showmercy.org

I want to introduce you to our good friend Lia Horton. She went with Show Mercy to Uganda back in September. She is a wonderful woman with a lot of spunk. She has presented so many ideas to Show Mercy of things that we can do to help the children even more at Hope Children’s Home; however what sets her apart is that she is taking action. Her heart of compassion is very evident by the time she is taking to get the word out about LEAPing this LEAP year! She spent a few extra weeks at Hope children’s home after our team left. She gave me sheets and sheets of information she collected about each child - that would be over 100 children, so you can just imagine how much time that took. She has moved our hearts by her love for the kids at Hope. She emailed the following letter out to her friends. She is an inspiration to us and I believe if you read her blog, she will be an inspiration to you. ~Lori

It’s Leap Year…Not Step Year

I have heard that J. Paul Getty said, “I would rather have 1% of the efforts of 100 people, than 100% of my own efforts.”

I decided after going 100% for awhile and then giving 0% that smart person was probably right. I need some help. So I did that math for 1% of my efforts… It is 14.4 minutes a day. Could I give 1% of my day to change the world? What about 1% of my income? What about both? What about you? I am only asking that we ponder the question… for now. Would you be willing to try for a little while?

It’s leap year. Leap. Not step year. Leap. What if we leaped into action? What if for just a little while we Lived to Educate ourselves and others About Poverty? Leap.

I have also heard that it takes 21 – 28 days to create a new habit/way of thinking. February has 29 days, 29ish days left in the Lenten Season (till Easter), I know more than 29 kids in Uganda who need some serious immediate help and $29,000 could sure make their home, Hope Children’s Home, a much safer place.

I will send out emails until Easter to share just a little about what I have seen with my own eyes from spending time with these amazing kids. Please consider taking the time to participate in the daily readings/activities and/or forward the information. Or… perhaps use this as a template to share with your friends, family, and associates the charities that are on your heart. What would you turn a L.E.A.P. into? 

I will put 29/29/29 in the subject line so if you don’t want to participate, you can just delete them, or just reply to this email with "remove" in the subject line and I will remove you from the list. This will rarely take you 1% of your day (14.4 minutes), but if you take the time, I guarantee it will change more than 1% of your outlook. It has mine.

Today, please log on to showmercy.org

Show Mercy is the Oregon based charity that began Hope Children’s Home in 2004, the last leap year.

Just poke around and see what there is to see and what has been accomplished from one Leap year to the next. Then, consider what could be accomplished from this Leap year to the next. 

Much love and blessing,

Lia Horton 

Show Mercy International
www.showmercy.org
541-905-0791
info@showmercy.org