things i believe in: flatirons church

so a couple sundays ago the pastor at our humongous church was talking about giving and serving. obviously encouraging the congergation to give and serve at the church (flatirons). they were in desperate need of child care helpers...understandably, there are 2,000 kids at flatirons! The pastor, Jim Burgen flat out said - IF you feel that your CANT serve here - you dont feel comfortable serving here - you dont belive in what flatirons is doing. FINE. by all means GO. in fact - we could use your seat. but please, find somewhere else to serve. find something you believe in. to give to. just dont be one of those people who keeps it all to themselves.
ouch.
he was not sugar-coating anything. he was not trying to make us feel good about ourselves. in fact, it felt like he was yelling. at me. it was a wake up call, which i basically need every morning - to stop living selfishly with my time and money. i am single with no kids. believe me, i know how to live my life selfishly - ive been doing it my whole life.

its about finding things i love. things im passionate about. things im kind of good at (or want to be good at).
and making a difference.
plus its not completely selfless...it makes you feel a little bit good :)

things i believe in: kiva

my mom told me about kiva several years ago. i think she had seen it on the news and knew it was something i might be interested in. since then it has been called the "hottest non-profit on the planet" by FORTUNE magazine and a Top 50 Website by TIME. Kiva (www.kiva.org) is the world's first person-to-person lending marketplace for the poor. "In just 5 years, Kiva has raised close to $200 million for nearly 500,000+ entrepreneurs in 60+ countries. Kiva combines the culture and approach of an internet start-up with an intense focus on alleviating global poverty. Kiva is poised to take its initial success to a whole new level - targeting $1 billion in loans by 2015 and expansion into new areas (e.g. student loans, climate change, etc). Headquartered in San Francisco, Kiva's team has 75 employees and 500+ volunteers."

basically im obsessed with this organization. and the concept of microloans to releave poverty. many of times ill go to the site to reloan a donation and i get distracted and click on the "jobs" button. how cool would it be if your job was to go around and interview people for loans, taking pictures and doing follow ups in say...southeast asia. and as i looked today they are accepting applications and i am sooo very interested in being the portfolio manager for southeast asia and pacific region. "The Portfolio Manager will be responsible for ensuring healthy, impactful growth of Kiva's portfolio in the region by driving and coordinating partnership selection and development as well as performing desk and on site due diligence and monitoring of current and potential partners," sounds great...AND you get to spend %30 of your work time in the region. the only problem is financing is not my greatest strength, nor do i have a MS in economics. maybe, when it comes to working with microloans, "wanting to help people and travel" isnt enough :)

well, maybe ill work on that degree and in the mean time - you can give as little as a $25 dollar loan that will go back into your kiva account for you to reloan to someone else. its literally the gift that keeps on giving. and you are changing lives. how great is that?

things i believe in: couchsurfing.

i have been a member of couchsurfing.com since 2008 (although i have been surfing couches long before then). for those who are unfimilair, couchsurfing is a social network (like facebook) where you create a profile and answer questions about yourself - people can see your friends and most importantly your references. you can also become "verified" through the site. the vision of couchsurfing is simply: "To envision a world where everyone can explore and create meaningful connections with the people and places we encounter. Building meaningful connections across cultures enables us to respond to diversity with curiosity, appreciation and respect. The appreciation of diversity spreads tolerance and creates a global community."
until this year i have only participated by surfing on others couches...this includes london, hawaii, denmark and paris. i have had such good luck with the people i have stayed with and keep in touch with most of them! now that i live in the vibrant downtown area, my roommate and i are happy to announce that we are now accepting surfers. it is finally our turn to host :)
so far its been a blast getting to know different travelers and showing them our favorite places in denver. we have strolled the 16th street mall with a couple of girls from denmark. made a guy named seth from the east coast come out of his shell by singing karaoke at star bar. some swiss guys were able to experience the art walk and the fine dinning at big game resturant. took some ski bums that were passing through to breakfast at snooze. and celebrated cinco de mayo with a quiet kid from texas. we get a lot of request and definitely arent able to host everyone but next time im out and about, it is possible i will have a couple travelers tagging along.

if you are traveling soon or are able to host i recommend getting involved it this community! it makes the world a little bit smaller. its fun. and its free.