................................................................27................................................................

Today, bridesmaids dresses, a child in need of love and sponsorship in Ethiopia, and a random comment at a church group tonight hit me in the face with LOVE.  And it came in the form of the number 27.

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Love to live and Live to love

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Have you ever seen 27 Dresses?  A girlfriend of mine and I both have.  Over a dinner conversation one night the topic came up of dresses and the movie.  It just so happened to come up around the time I'd told my friends about the idea to financially sponsor an Ethiopian child in need of love and support.  Through a friend's suggestion and encouragement, I'd decided to invest in an organization founded by a Georgia Tech professor and his wife that were doing mission work in Africa.  The decision to sponsor was easy ... the decision on which one to sponsor was the hard part.  There were close to 40 children that still needed sponsorship.   And so, in a very random way, we decided why not the 27th child on the list?  I'm sure there was more to the decision behind 27 (maybe .. ?)  But, in the end, it made it easy to select the 27th child on the website's list and go with that child, whoever it may be.  It would save me the heart wrenching decision of picking a child myself.  Sooooo.... that is how 27 entered my life:

TSEGAYE MEKONEN MEGERSA

'27' as we lovingly refer to him is a 5 year old boy who does not attend school for financial reasons.  Until now.  He lives with his natural mother and runs errands for the family.  And now, he has an extended family of American 20-something's who will send him love and support from the States in the hopes that our sponsorship will have a positive impact on his life and future.  Maybe, just maybe, the love and pictures we send him of our smiling faces will put a smile on his.

Because of Kennedy, the organization that we're sponsoring 27 through, is a Christian based group that shares Christian teachings with the kids.  Tonight, in the midst of studying and work and research and other of life's craziness, 27 was far from my mind.  I was sitting with a group from a local church talking about 'Walls' that we put up inside ourselves and between others around us.  Someone randomly brings up a stat he'd heard about it taking someone hearing about Jesus 27 times before they start to  respond to the Church and to Jesus.  Yep - 27 times.

It takes three seconds for me to make the connection to 'my' 27 and the dinner conversation about 27 Dresses I'd had several weeks before.  It's a weird coincidence that a chick flick movie about a gal after true love leads to the decision on which child to sponsor that leads to a stat I hear tonight about it taking 27 times for a person to truly start to respond to talk about  Jesus.  However random it all may be, my heart swells when I think of the ONE thing they all have in common.

Love.  Love in marriage and between friends.  Love of children and the future.  And love in your faith.  

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"If I have the gift of prophesy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing".  

My Own Little World by Matthew West

Challenge yourself to think outside your world.  Would you be satisfied with your impact?