Kim Sorrelle is an entrepreneur and the director of a humanitarian organization. She splits her time between her home in Michigan and the countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
In a world that uses the word ‘love’ to describe our connection to everything from people close to us to our favourite food or TV show, Kim decided to look more deeply into what love truly means. Her book, ‘Love Is’ tells the story of her year-long experiment of truly living out love.
The minute you want something in return for your love, it is no longer love. It is something that you’re doing because there’s something that’s in it for you.
Kim is my guest on this week’s episode of my podcast, Bleeding Daylight.
You can hear her story wherever you find podcasts or click play on the audio player below.
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We’re living in an age of delay, interruption, deferral, postponement, and cancellation.
The things we want to do are often out of reach. Travel, spending time with those we love, gatherings, concerts, sports events. They’re still being disrupted due to a pandemic that many of us thought would be gone a few months after it started, and yet, here we are.
One of the biggest consequences for me has been the necessary yet heartbreaking decision to postpone Ride for Compassion Coast to Coast.
This Saturday, I should have been joining around 30 other cyclists and an amazing support crew to begin a journey of over 4,000 kilometres from one side of Australia to the other. It was all about raising money for children living in extreme poverty. Over a month ago we saw the writing on the wall and rescheduled the ride for September/October 2022.
It’s Too Important
While it’s incredibly disappointing that we can’t take to the roads this week, the cause behind the ride is too important to give up. Thousands of children living in extreme poverty are depending on those of us making this journey and making it count. They don’t know we’ll be riding across the continent, they’ll probably never know, but it’s an important cause all the same.
There are children, through no fault of their own, who are living in the most unacceptable circumstances. We plan to make a difference for as many of them as we can by offering them a hope more powerful than poverty.
A United Nations report looking at the effects of the pandemic on the world’s poor was released in July. Some of the findings are hard to fully comprehend.
In addition to over four million deaths due to the coronavirus, between 119-124 million people have already been pushed back into poverty and chronic hunger, and the equivalent of 255 million full-time jobs were lost, the report indicates.
“The pandemic has halted, or reversed, years, or even decades of development progress. Global extreme poverty rose for the first time since 1998”, according to the UN Under-Secretary-General.
Millions of children risk never returning to school; while rising numbers have been forced into child marriage and child labour.
“The poorest and most vulnerable continue to be at greater risk of becoming infected by the virus and have borne the brunt of the economic fallout.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has also adversely affected progress towards gender equality. Violence against women and girls has intensified, child marriage is expected to increase, and women have suffered a disproportionate share of job losses and increased care responsibilities at home.
It’s a grim picture.
This statement in the article really hit me.
“We are at a critical juncture in human history. The decisions and actions we take today will have momentous consequences for future generations.”
What decisions and actions will you take today? What decisions and actions will you take to assure a child in extreme poverty that even though we’re facing our own hardships, we hear their cries?
If you’d like to assist children living in poverty by supporting my ride you can do so in two ways.
I am personally seeking to raise $25,000. I really need your help to make that a reality.
You can make a direct donation to my fundraising page. Your donation will touch the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in our world, children living in extreme poverty.
So far, I’ve received donations from $10 to over $1,000 from some generous friends. All donations above $2 are tax-deductible in Australia. Your contribution, of any amount, will put me closer to my target of $25,000.
The other way you can help to boost my total is to sponsor a child living in poverty. By visiting my fundraising page and clicking the yellow SPONSOR A CHILD button, your sponsorship will count towards my fundraising goal while releasing a child from poverty in Jesus’ name. Every child sponsored through my fundraising page counts as $1,000 towards my fundraising goal.
Sponsorship gives kids safe places to play, the chance to see a doctor when they’re sick, education, and the opportunity to discover Jesus’ incredible love for them.
Sponsor a child. Give them a brighter future so they, and eventually their own children, can live free from poverty.
Whichever way you choose to support me and however much you choose to give, your contribution will not only help push me closer to reaching my target, you’ll also change the life of a child or children living with the devastating effects of extreme poverty.
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It’s R U OK? Day. It’s the day that we’re encouraged to ask friends, family and colleagues if they’re OK. It’s an acknowledgement that a conversation could change a life.
Of course we’re encouraged to ask the question more than just once a year and this year we’re being asked to dig a little deeper to ask if others are ‘really’ OK.
I wonder though, how would you react if someone you asked admitted that they weren’t really OK. What if you asked if they were OK and they said, no? Would you know how to help or at least walk with them towards some kind of help?
Do you know how the people in your world are really going?
Life’s ups and downs happen to all of us. So chances are someone you know might be struggling. Your genuine support can make a difference whatever they are facing, big or small.
So, don’t wait until someone’s visibly distressed or in crisis. Make a moment meaningful and ask them how they’re really going.
Are they really OK? Ask them today. Your conversation could change a life.
Thankfully, the R U OK? website has resources to help you have those conversations.
Asking others if they’re OK should be a year-round conversation. I’m grateful for a particular friend who often digs a little deeper beyond the ‘how’re you going?’ kind of conversation. While I haven’t had cause to share any deep pain with this friend, his questions let me know that if I’m in trouble, I’ll have somewhere to turn.
Do you know how to ask someone if they’re doing OK? Do you know how to check on their mental health and then be the support they need today and throughout the year? Maybe the best thing you can do for those close to you on R U OK? Day is to visit the R U OK? website and learn how to ask and where to go from there.
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From being the girl to struggled to learn to read in school, to the woman who has read thousands of books and authored over a dozen of her own, Marnie Swedberg is remarkable.
Marnie Swedberg is an international leadership mentor, the author of 13 books, the host of her own radio talk show, a media expert, and a keynote speaker for organizations around the world.
Fun and fast-paced, yet peaceful and approachable, her history includes fires, floods, a tornado, car wrecks, business set-backs, a burglary, lightning strike, ambulance rides and more. She models come-back behavior, possibility thinking, and profound faith.
She owned and operated businesses in the restaurant and retail industries for over a decade and is now the webhostess of the largest online directory of Christian Women Speakers in the world. The website connects event planners with speakers from every experience level, fee range, and denomination and currently features over 1000 speakers.
As a public speaker herself, Marnie recently solo-circumnavigated the globe, speaking 26 times at six conferences in four countries. She has presented for large corporations including Honeywell, Prudential, and Pillsbury; for non-profit groups including Chambers of Commerce, Professional Women’s groups, colleges and libraries. and for Christian women’s retreats, conferences, and other programs.
I had the honour of speaking to Marnie recently on my podcast Bleeding Daylight.
You can hear our conversation by finding Bleeding daylight wherever you listen to podcasts or just click play on audio player below.
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Rodney is a husband, father, cyclist, blogger and podcaster from Perth Western Australia.
He previously worked in radio for about 25 years but these days he spends his time at Compassion Australia, working towards releasing children from poverty in Jesus' name.
