in their journal. At the end of the drive, the child with the most happy-face stickers gets a reward. Go with them to knock on doors. Introduce yourselves,
In America they teach children to earn money, not beg for it
but let them do the selling themselves. I promise you, they will have a lot of fun.” I hated it – never liked asking people to p art with money – but I did it. I took my kids out to the neighbourhood. Watched their little faces sparkle with excitement when they made the first sale. Soon they were going out by themselves to sell. I also answered knocks on my door and bought chocolates from other kids. Soon I started to enjoy the sticker-counting sessions and the competitive spirit this thing was building in my two boys, then in pre-school and standard one, respectively. By the end of the funds drive, my kids had not sold all their chocolates. I was persuaded to buy every single chocolate left. They never won the prize, because evidently there were more aggressive kids and parents out there. But I was stunned by the lesson. During the fund drive, my kids learned useful social skills engaging complete strangers on a simple transaction. Soon they learned by themselves how to describe the chocolates. They started describing how their mum and dad had bought five bars, and how they had helped themselves to one and how it tasted like heaven; my little boys being introduced to marketing skills. Almost everyone they approached was happy to buy a bar of chocolate. No customer gave out money for free – and the letter from school told us that the children should not accept free money. Three years after their first fund drive, my firstborn started thinking of how to make money for a video game I had refused to buy. He came up one day and asked whether I would pay him a dollar if he washed my car, or if he could make home juice to sell out in the street! I said, yes! Kodi Barth is a journalist and an entreprenuer
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often criticise America for a lot of things, but once in a while I run into refreshing things that I wish we had
(whatever that is!); or the scouts are going to camp. The children always look sad, hopeless and pitiful, but driven to raise even twenty shillings from you. You can tell that somebody has coached them to work on your emotions. I got quite upset the last time this happened to me. I felt blackmailed. I was angry not at the kids, but at whoever engineers these schemes and put our children through them. This is wrong. It is extortion, period. Sending a school child to appeal to my emotions so that you can raise money is no different from what street mothers do. They come to town and sit at a street corner, hidden from view. They send a pitiful looking child with a bowl and a tall story to beg for money. Every single time, it breaks my heart. And that is the effect intended by the mothers. Let me tell you why doing this to our children is wrong, and how they do it differently in America. Each time children beg for money and get it, they get the message that they can actually get easy, free money. Think about it. The child didn’t have to part with anything. They simply asked for your money; you gave it and got nothing in
return. Yes, it may be for a worthy cause, but what lesson do the children learn? Yes, charity giving is a noble thing. And when we give for a charitable cause we should expect nothing in return. But I think that children should not be used to raise money for free. They do not see the whole picture. They only see the part where they begged for money and you gave it. Somehow, it is planted in their little brains that in future they can ask for money, not work for it, and they will get it. That is dangerous. These children will grow up thinking that whenever they run into trouble someone else should help – for free. Now let us look at what they do in America. I have children, so I know. There, fundraising with children starts at home. Teachers and parents work together to do it right. The first time it came to my home it startled me. One day the boys came home with a carton of chocolates and a letter from the class teacher. The letter said something like this: “Dear parents, it is another fund-drive season. The Parent Teacher Association wrote to you at the beginning of the semester about teaching our children how to raise funds for worthy causes. Today they bring home a box of chocolates, which are donations from companies that we partner with to teach our children useful skills. Please help your child sell these chocolates. For every bar of chocolate they sell, I will put a happy-face sticker
Jesus teaches us about hell
By Fr Joe Babendreier Many parables in the Gospel tell us about God’s kingdom. They also describe a place called hell. The word hell is used in two different ways in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. To speak of hell, the Old Testament uses both Sheol (pronounced shay-OL) and Hades (pronounced HAY-dees). It is the realm of the dead. In the Creed, we use the word hell with this Old Testament meaning and say that Jesus “descended into hell”. Before Christ redeemed us on the cross, everyone who died, even those destined to be saved, ended up in Hades. Eleazar, in the Book of Maccabees, was the pious old man who preferred to die rather than disobey God. He told his persecutors that they should “send him at once to Hades” (2 Mac 6:23)—that is, make him a martyr—because he had no intention of violating the Law of Moses. The psalm composed by King David for the Messiah has Christ saying: “My body will rest secure, for you will not abandon me to Hades or allow your holy one to see corruption” (Acts 2:2627). Jesus died and descended into this place of the dead but could not stay there. He left Hades by resurrecting, opening the gates of heaven for all those destined for eternal salvation. Even Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had to remain in Hades waiting for Jesus to All those condemned to eternal punishment go to hell immediately after dying. Should we be afraid of hell? God does not want us to live in fear. Still, the Holy Spirit tells us that “fear is the beginning of wisdom” (Ps 111:10). Besides, remember that it takes faith to believe that any one of us could end up in hell by refusing to repent after committing a mortal sin. It takes faith because no one can prove that hell exists. We know about it only because Jesus has revealed it. Christ’s teaching on hell reminds us to foster a healthy concern for the 53 die on the cross and rise from the dead. This is the reason for the Transfiguration on Mount Thabor, when Moses and Elijah appeared while Jesus showed the apostles his glory as the Son of God (Lk 9:30-31). Our Lord gave the two prophets a mission. They had to return to Hades and announce to all those waiting for the Messiah that the time of their redemption was close at hand. In the New Testament, the word Hades can also be used to refer to the “eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Mt 25:41). Jesus used this word when telling Simon Peter that the “gates of Hades” would never prevail against the Church (Mt 16:18). To refer to hell, Christ also used the word gehenna: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; fear him rather who can destroy both body and soul in gehenna” (Mt 10:28).
in Kenya. Example: attention to what children learn. Have you been ambushed by a school kid aggressively asking, “Antie, utani-sponsor?” Or “Unko, ni-sponse please, please!” They push in your face a typed out form with space for your name, phone number and the amount of money. I find it a jarring experience, every single time. You could be walking in town, getting out of a shop, sitting in a matatu or taking lunch at a kiosk. The child, usually in uniform, will appear suddenly. Often they will not even say hello. No, they get straight to the point. They want money. You don’t get a lot of information on what the money is for; just a lot of aggressive begging. If you prod a little, you will be told that the money is for a very “worthy” cause: desks for school; or the kids are going for a heart run
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THE SEED - VOL 25, No. 7, JULY 2013
THE SEED - VOL 25, No. 7, JULY 2013