chris rouse

In less than a month I’ve had two relatives die from various forms of cancer. My Great-uncle Richard died a few weeks ago. He was my mom’s uncle, my granddad’s brother. Last night my Uncle Buddy died. He was my dad’s brother. I didn’t really know either of these men very well.

So how am I supposed to respond to this? Both men were family that I knew. It’s been a couple years since I’ve seen my great-uncle and the last time I saw my uncle was probably in middle school at my grandma’s funeral. I wasn’t close to either of them, but they are family. So how am I supposed to respond? What emotions should I feel?

Sure, I’m saddened at the loss of two of my family members and, of course, wish I had gotten to know each of them better than I did. But because I didn’t know either of them very well, I’m more saddened by the loss my granddad and mom felt over Uncle Richard’s death and the loss my dad and Uncle J.C. are feeling over the loss of their brother.

Thank you in advance for your thoughts and prayers for my family as they deal with these losses and the details that have to be finalized.

Recently my boss did something for his birthday that I really liked (although I didn’t participate at the time). He gave up his birthday to raise money to provide clean water through Charity:Water.

Here’s how it works: someone signs up for the site, picks an event to attach to the donations to, sets an amount, then starts spreading the word to get people to donate to their charity fund. It takes $5000 to build a water project. The projects include wells, rainwater collection systems, pond filtering systems, and tapping and protecting natural springs. The process takes one year. That includes the time required to build the water system, as well as establish the community involvement, create a community leadership team who will be responsible for the water project, provide sanitation and hygiene training, and testing of the water to ensure it’s safe to drink.

So what can I do about that? Nothing. I don’t have $5000 to build a water system by myself. But I do have a lot of friends and acquaintances. If everyone donates $24, it will only take 204 people to fund a project. We have 90 days to raise the money (by April 8). In 91 days, I turn 24. I believe we can do this. Some people may only be able to donate $24, others only $2.40, some of you may be able to donate $240 or $2400, or any other amount. All I ask is that you donate. I will also be adding to this effort with my own money within the 90 days.

Watch the video at the top if you haven’t already to hear more about the story of charity:water. If you want to donate to my birthday charity fund, click here or on the charity:water image on the side of the page.

A week ago I posted about what my family was going to do for Christmas. If you missed that post, you should check it out before you read this one. I promised to follow up after Christmas, but due to some technical issues on my side of things, I wasn’t able to follow up until now.

So here’s what happened: My original idea of helping one family with Christmas turned into helping three difference families. These are their stories: Continue Reading…

This year my family is going to do Secret Santa. No, I’m not talking about the normal Secret Santa/White Elephant/Yankee Trader game, but we’re going to make Christmas morning happen for a family.

We’ve never done this before as a family. Sure, we’ve done the Angel Tree thing and the Operation Christmas Child shoebox and we’ve helped some families with cash at Christmas. But we’ve never bought the toys, wrapped them up, and delivered them on Christmas morning to a family in need. And I can’t wait!

Continue Reading…