priorities
Over the weekend my parents attended a meeting at their church about the new building the church wants to build. Phase 1 has been completed (offices, classrooms, a kitchen, bathrooms, fellowship hall) and they're discussing fundraising for building Phase 2. It will include a sanctuary, classrooms, and offices.
Estimated cost? $23 MILLION
For a building.
Keep in mind they have a perfectly good church building, they just want a nicer, bigger one.
Just for reference...
$23 million worldwide is:
- the average annual income for 85,185 families in Nepal combined
- the average annual income for 176,920 families in Somalia combined
- enough to provide health care for 9,200 people for a year in Kenya
- 3 meals a day for 76,500 starving children in India for a full year
- run 1,394 orphanages in South Africa for a full year
- run 2,082 hospitals in India for a full year
- protect 1,262,983 acres of rainforest
even here in the United States, $23 million can buy:
- chemotherapy for 52 cancer patients without health care
- care for 7,700 animals in shelters for a full year
- run FACETS (food, shelter and support for 2,500 homeless people in Fairfax County) for 12 years
- build an elementary school to help with overcrowding
- build 51 windmills, providing natural energy for almost 300 homes a year
- fund cleanup efforts in the Chesapeake Bay for over 20 years
- build 400 houses with Habitat for Humanity for low-income families
and instead of doing any of those, or numerous other things that much money could buy, they're building a church.
because there aren't enough of those for the upper-middle class families of northern virginia.
Estimated cost? $23 MILLION
For a building.
Keep in mind they have a perfectly good church building, they just want a nicer, bigger one.
Just for reference...
$23 million worldwide is:
- the average annual income for 85,185 families in Nepal combined
- the average annual income for 176,920 families in Somalia combined
- enough to provide health care for 9,200 people for a year in Kenya
- 3 meals a day for 76,500 starving children in India for a full year
- run 1,394 orphanages in South Africa for a full year
- run 2,082 hospitals in India for a full year
- protect 1,262,983 acres of rainforest
even here in the United States, $23 million can buy:
- chemotherapy for 52 cancer patients without health care
- care for 7,700 animals in shelters for a full year
- run FACETS (food, shelter and support for 2,500 homeless people in Fairfax County) for 12 years
- build an elementary school to help with overcrowding
- build 51 windmills, providing natural energy for almost 300 homes a year
- fund cleanup efforts in the Chesapeake Bay for over 20 years
- build 400 houses with Habitat for Humanity for low-income families
and instead of doing any of those, or numerous other things that much money could buy, they're building a church.
because there aren't enough of those for the upper-middle class families of northern virginia.