Looking for new ideas to spark your creative interest? Tired of the same old Sunday-school contests to raise money for world missions? Here are 10 practical tips to consider:
1. Prayer
Use a world map or globe as a focus for prayer. The Internet or your local public library can provide current information on each country. Get the family involved in the research.
(Resource suggestion: Maps from Every Home for Christ world literature crusade can be ordered at www.itbeginswithme.net.)

2. Fasting
Fast one day a week during the six-week Partners in Mission Appeal at your corps. This could be as simple as giving up the noon meal and using the time to pray for our partner territories or fasting for the entire day. The money you would have spent on meals could be part of your Partners in Mission offering.

3. "Walking for Water" Fundraiser
Water is precious in the developing world. Women and children often walk for several kilometres to find a new source, with no guarantee that the water is fit to drink.
Raise awareness through a 'Walking for Water' event. If the weather is not suitable for an outdoor walk, consider arranging the use of a gym or shopping mall. Have participants sponsored for a walk that includes carrying a large bucket of water a distance of six kilometres or more. (Carrying the bucket on your head is not required.)

4. Cultural Dinners/"What the World Eats" Dinner
Invite a newcomer to Canada to teach a cooking class based on a simple meal from their home country. Tickets could be sold so that others can enjoy the meal the cooking class has prepared. Alternatively, invite chefs from local restaurants to contribute one of their signature dishes as part of a gala feast. Sell tickets for an "all you can eat" buffet.

5. Education
This year's Partners in Mission resource kit provides material on human trafficking. Invite your divisional representative from the territorial human trafficking committee to address the issue at a corps event.

Start a reading club with David Batstone's book Not for Sale: Return of the Global Slave Trade as one of the books to be discussed.

The resource material also includes information on Fair Trade. Find out about Fair Trade products available in your community. Invite representatives to share further information on Fair Trade. Write to Captain Elizabeth Nelson (elizabeth_nelson@ban.salvationarmy.org), a Canadian officer serving in Bangladesh, to learn more about The Salvation Army projects to help women escape from human trafficking through Fair Trade opportunities.

6. The $2 Challenge
Millions of people in the world survive on less than $2 a day. Invite corps families to take up the challenge to live on a budget of $2 a day per family member for one week. The money saved would be included in your Partners in Mission offering. Be sure to share the experiences and insights gained.

7. Travelogue
Invite someone who has returned from ministering overseas or someone who has recently returned from a short-term missions trip to share from his or her experiences.

8. Living Simply
Take time to re-assess your lifestyle. Most of us have "too much stuff." Sort through your closets and cupboards and hold a garage sale. Make it a corps event with various families participating. All money raised can go directly to the Partners in Mission Appeal. Seek the Lord's wisdom for other ways in which your life can reflect your concern for vulnerable people in the world. Why not have a topical Bible study series on stewardship?

9. Rich/Poor Dinner
Sell tickets for a corps dinner. Serve some guests a three-course meal and others a bologna sandwich and glass of water. Distribute the meals randomly as a means of demonstrating the inequality experienced by people living in different lands. Follow up with one of the Partners in Mission videos to create awareness of global poverty.

10. Prayerfully Prepare for Your Corps' Partners in Mission Ingathering
'Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give ... for God loves a cheerful giver" (2 Corinthians 9:7).

What Your Dollars Can Buy
Most Canadians enjoy a comfortable life-style. We may complain of too few hours in a day or the price of food and gas, but we still have so much for which we can be thankful. The vast majority of the world's population work long hours for little pay, spend hours each day walking to find water, have no choice in what they eat and live in substandard housing.

The good news is that we can make a difference! Nelson Mandela said, "Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made, and it can be overcome by the action of human beings." It only takes a few dollars to bring much needed hope.

The exchange rate for one Canadian dollar is roughly 40 Indian rupees. A loaf of bread costs 10 rupees, 10 eggs cost 23 rupees and one kilogram of various local vegetables costs 13 rupees. Think about it--one Canadian dollar could provide a family with food for a day.

For the cost of a $5 movie rental, you could protect a child from malaria, the silent killer, through the purchase of a mosquito net.

Literacy programs are always looking for ways to encourage continued reading. For the cost of coffee and doughnuts for two, a book could be bought for a small local library. A selection of 10 books would be $50.

A $10 quarter-chicken dinner with choice of potatoes, roll and drink could buy a child a new school uniform and school supplies.

The cost of a night for two at the movies, including refreshments, would provide a family with all they need to create a kitchen garden. This would help add variety to their meals, give them fresh produce to sell and offer a little independence.

More than one billion people don't have access to clean, safe water. Just $30 can provide a family with safe, clean water for life.

Thirty-five dollars would ensure that a woman learning to read could get her eyesight tested for the first time and provide her with glasses if necessary.

Quality name-brand running shoes ($80) could provide a family with two goats, the beginnings of a small herd that will generate income through the sale of milk and meat.
These are just a few ways your dollars can give hope today.

by Major Gillian Brown
Associate Director of World Missions THQ Business Administration

Reprinted from Salvationist, February 2008