$450 BILLION

So I realize that it has been forever since I have posted anything my bad...oh well it is just a blog. Last night I preached a message about Christian Consumerism, that was especially focused at our spending habits and trends around the Christmas season. It was interesting and fun to talk about, more fun for me and interesting because some of the reactions on peoples faces when I would read statistics were priceless, jaw dropping kind of reactions. Here are some of those stats, most of which I borrowed from Rob Bell's new book Jesus Wants to Save Christians.

America controls nearly 20% of the worlds wealth, while only comprising 5% of the worlds population.

One billion people in the world lack access to clean water while Americans use 400-600 liters (105-157gallons) of water per day.

Every seven seconds, somewhere in the world a child under the age of five dies of hunger, meanwhile Americans throw away 14% of the food that we purchase.

40% of the people in the world lack basic sanitation while Americans dispose of 49 million diapers a day.

One in seven children (about 158 million) has to go to work each day to survive.

Americans spend more annually on trash bags than half of the world does on all goods.

A stat from Advent Conspiracy.

Americans spend $450 billion on Christmas.

Some more stats that I shared last night to show what $450 billion could accomplish.

Population of Earth Approx. 6 Billion

The majority of the world lives on $2/day

Approx. $60/month

If the every human made $2/day in a month that would be $360 billion.

THAT IS STILL LESS THAN WHAT AMERICANS SPENDS ON CHRISTMAS

$450 Billion would do what

It could...

Repair nearly 3.5 billion wells in the world @ $130/well

Drill over 128million wells subsequently providing clean water for 89 billion people year round.

Sponsor 1.25 billion children for a year

Sponsor 45 billion malnourished children in a feeding clinic for 3 months

Provide a cow for 900 million families, who then pass the offspring to another family

This year Steph and I decided to spend less on gifts and give our money where it could actually be used. So somewhere in the world, for $130, a well is going to be repaired providing a community with clean water, lowering the risk of disease and death because they have clean water. Interested? Check out World Hope International, Samaritans Purse, The Heifer Project, or you could go to your local shelter or mission and give them money to help them at one of their busiest times. As Americans and more importantly as Christ Followers we need to realize the futility of the gifts that we give and their uselessness and what that money could have been used for instead.