This is a guest post by my friend Jonna. We made our 1st trek to South Africa together.
Do you recognize this fish?
If you grew up in the Christian Reformed Church, there’s a good chance you will. This orange, plastic fish is known as a Peter Fish. These Peter Fish are given out to children in church for a period of time each fall so that they can collect money to fight world hunger. Their name comes from the Bible story found in Matthew 17, where Peter is sent by Jesus to go fishing and the first fish he catches has enough money inside of it to pay the temple taxes.
While our own church does not participate in this program, we are the proud owners of two Peter Fish, which my children call Sophia’s fish and Papa’s fish.
Our first Peter Fish is named after the teenage girl who we sponsor through Compassion International. When my husband and I started sponsoring Sophia, she was a tiny 5 year old. On August 31 she will be turning 16! The money that we collect in Sophia’s fish is used to provide a birthday or Christmas gift for Sophia or to make a monetary donation for her family to use for the needs they may have. Sophia lives in Haiti, so these needs have multiplied since January 12, 2010.
Papa’s fish is named after my dad, who the kids call Papa. He didn’t know that we already had a Peter Fish of our own, so he brought one out with him when he came out for a visit last year. A few months ago we used the money from Papa’s fish to purchase a goat and school supplies through the Christian Reformed World Relief Commitee’s gift catalog. The goat will be given to a family to provide milk for them to drink and meat to eat. At the time we purchased these gifts, my son was just entering Kindergarten, so he was especially excited to give school supplies to other children who would not be able to afford these items on their own.
My kids love filling up Sophia’s fish and Papa’s fish with loose change that they find in our van or on their dad’s dresser. They have also eagerly taken money from their own banks to fill up these fish. I love opening up the fish when it is full and counting out the money to find that, just from our spare change, the stuff we’ve taken out of our pockets and purses that would normally be spent on a coke at the gas station or pack of gum, we’ve collected between $40-$50 on average.
I love that my kids are seeing that you don’t have to have a lot to make a difference in the life of someone else. I also enjoy the conversations that we’ve been able to have as a family about helping people in need and listening to my kids explain why it is so important to give. School supplies, birthday gifts, and a goat. All of these and more have been made possible because of two orange fish. I love it!
Jonna is a stay at home mom to 2 children.
Jonna is a stay at home mom to two children and wife to Darin. Darin and she traveled with Matt and I in 2002 to South Africa. All four of us fall in love with the people and children of South Africa. She blogs of at fe FEY foe fum with such honesty about her life. Her passion for following Christ and caring for people pushed to the fringes is amazing.
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