Crazy Love Tour

Did you know that there are 963 million people in this world who are hungry today? In fact, one child dies every five seconds from hunger-related causes. Hunger is not only felt in developing nations. It's present in our own backyards. For instance, recent news articles have reported people in Mendota, CA boiling out-of-date milk to save money (according to The Fresno Bee and The Sacramento Bee). Mendota is a small city in Fresno County with an unemployment rate of 41 percent! The unemployment rate during the height of the Great Depression was 24.9 percent. Even Second Harvest Food Bank of San Jose has experienced a 15 percent increase in requests for emergency food aid over the last six months. They now serve 205,000 people every month! 67 percent are families with young children; 12 percent are senior citizens.

So, what can we do? The answer: We can make a difference.

This summer, we're calling all young people to start living their lives 4 others! On August 3-9, 2009, we will be conducting the Crazy Love Tour: a seven-day "serve-a-thon" to provide meals and medical supplies to the poor both here and across the world. Each day during this Tour we will be travelling to a city in CA to help meet the needs of the poor. For example, on August 8, we will travel to Mendota to provide a lunch for 500+ people and inspire hope. The following day, we will conduct a city-wide food drive in San Jose to benefit Second Harvest Food Bank. These are just a couple of the ways that we will be serving others on the Crazy Love Tour. For more details, look under CURRENT PROJECTS or GET INVOLVED at 4others.org.

While we'll be serving locally, we'll also be raising funds to fight extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, where people are living on less than $1 a day. 100% of the funds we raise will go to our Tour's four partners to provide access clean water, relieve hunger, provide medical care, and alleviate poverty. Our partners are: African Water Project, Children's Hunger Fund, CURE International, and Opportunity International. (To make a donation, go to GET INVOLVED at 4others.org.)

But here's the thing: we can't do this alone. It's our desire to partner with young people, youth ministries, and churches throughout CA (and especially in our hometown of San Jose) to make an even greater impact! Some groups may join us on one of the days of the Crazy Love Tour. Other groups may decide to conduct their own service project/fundraiser before or during August 3-9, in conjunction with the Tour. Our goal is that at the end of the Tour, we'll be able to post the results (both from the Tour and your own service projects) and see just how much love we can show to the world around us in a short period of time.

Ready to make a difference? Numerous resources and opportunities are available under CURRENT PROJECTS or GET INVOLVED at 4others.org.

Together, we can change the world one place at a time!