day 27: my favorite three ways to love a stranger

(View all the 31 Days of Deep Love Diving posts here )
 
On Thursday, I dove more deeply into the idea of loving strangers.

And buying fair trade is becoming one of my favorite ways to love someone I may never meet this side of heaven. Or ever. If you're new to buying fair trade, allow me to introduce you to Delicate Fortress Creations*. I love their mission and I hope you will too. (Read what I wrote about DFC here)

Here are a couple other of my favorites in case you're looking for ways to expand your love too:

Favorite way #2: Sponsoring children through World Vision. Plus shopping their gift catalog. And reading their magazine. The needs of this world can be overwhelming. Thankfully, organizations like World Vision make it easier to help others in need and make us aware of their plight. And maybe, just maybe, if you sponsor a child (or two or ten), strangers will become friends.     

one of our sponsor children

Favorite way #3: Donating food and needed items to our local community service center. Hunger is a growing issue in the United States too. Our local community service center is seeing an increased number of people turning to them for food support. I love that I can donate items from my garden, my kitchen and purchased non-perishables to people right in my community.

But this is just a first step in learning to love well. Through this whole loving others deeply process, God is showing me that to really love I need to step out of my comfort zone and turn strangers into people that I know. To learn their stories and to lean on God to provide the means to love them. Because without Him, I'd just be a "resounding gong or clanging cymbal." 

*As an ambassador, I receive some perks for promoting DFC's items. However, I would do this regardless of whether I received anything from them because I believe in their mission and I try to buy fair trade as much as possible. If you'd rather go through the regular DFC site, you can click this link.

 

This week I'm learning to love God with all my strength and loving strangers. Want to join me? Please click here for this week's challenges. 

*Images for the Deep Love Diving banners and buttons were courtesy of this site.