“Mom, I’d like to sell my potholders so that I can give the money away.” Tate, my 8-year-old said this rather nonchalantly as we were driving from school to gymnastics. She got one of those rite-of-passage potholder loop kits from the grandparents for Christmas, and she’s been a weaving machine this spring.

“I like that idea a lot, Tate. How much would you sell them for?” I asked. “Oh, something like twenty-five cents or maybe fifty cents or maybe a dollar,” she replied, quite the entrepreneur.

“What would you give the money to?”

She thought for a moment. “Well, I can’t decide between homeless people or tigers.” I tried not to laugh. “Tigers?” I asked.

“Yeah, there’s a certain type that’s endangered, and I’d like to give money to people who are helping stop that.” She’s always been an animal lover.

I loved her heart and her ideas, so I promised we would look in to how she could give her proceeds to organizations that helped both these efforts. And then I also remembered that we’re about to launch the second phase of fully-funding some work done in an Ethiopian village.

“Hey Tate, would you also be interested in giving some of your profits to work being done in a small village in Ethiopia? It helps lots of mamas with little babies, giving them supplies they need and teaching them how to take care of them.” One of our Compassion children lives in Ethiopia, so I knew she’d recognize the country.

“Ooh, yeah! I wanna do that, too.” Bless her.

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