“Hilarious Giving” was Pastor Lee’s sermon title one Sunday morning at our church in NC,not long after we were married.  Of course this message stemmed from the scripture;

“So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity;

for God loves a cheerful giver” 2 Cor. 9:7

The word ‘cheerful’ in the passage above is ‘hilaro’ in the original Greek. We loved this teaching and if I remember correctly, laughter broke out in the congregation and lingered every time hilarious giving was discussed (I still have that sermon cassette tape somewhere). Though I had already learned principles of tithing, and the discipline of doing so, from then on I loved the concept of carefree and generous giving.

Fast forward 16 years or so, and guess what the name of an organization VOB has recently aligned with for getting food to the poor in Mexico?    Hilarious Givers!  That’s right! And what hilarious joy it has been.  I found myself smiling and chuckling all day today as I delivered the first truck load full of nonperishable food that we have had the privilege to deliver.  As you know we have had bread, various sweets, occasional fruit and more often produce.  But today, along with these usual items, we carried in dried soup mix, rice and protein meal packs, bottled sport drinks, bottled Muscle Milk, canned tomatoes, jarred sun dried tomatoes, nut snacks, dried fruit (fruit ban at the moment prevents regular fruit from crossing) candy bars, cookies, vitamins and even a case of bar soap.  It actually was quite hilarious wondering what the Aduana agents were going to make of it all.  But above all, it gave glory to God because it is in HIS name that we GET to give.

HilariousGivers.org collects overstock nonperishables. Remember those dinged or mislabeled canned goods?  Those are collected as well, but by the semi truck loads!  These items are stored and then matched with other groups, such as ourselves, who are able to carry it into Mexico to the various needs.  And get this: these items are donated exclusively for the poor in  Mexico!  What a great, great blessing.  So our garage has now become a VOB storehouse week to week, as things are dispersed each day with trips to the border.  We are realizing that a real storehouse may be a coming need for VOB.  Would you join us in praying about that?