Charity

In addition to giving at church, each month we set aside some money for miscellaneous charitable giving.  In the past, we've used this money to help support a missionary friend, for disaster relief, etc.  Now that our missionary-friend is back stateside, this year we've decided to sit down together as a family each month to decide together where to donate the money.

To say that the boys are interested in video games is quite the understatement.  Therefore, when I came across the Child's Play charity, it struck to me that they'd be able to relate to this.  From the web site:

Since 2003, we've set up and organized Child's Play, a game industry charity dedicated to improving the lives of children with toys and games in our network of over 40 hospitals worldwide. In four short years, you as a community have answered the call and come together to raise millions of dollars.

Through the web site you choose a charitable institution (we chose the Children's Hospital of Michigan) and then it takes you to an Amazon wishlist for the organization.  We bought an X-box and Madden 2008 and had it sent to the hospital.  We hope the kids understand what our family has done and that some sick kids will have a hospital stay that is quite as bad as it would have been because of what we've given.

Another site of interest is the Charity Navigator.  It's a place where you can do some homework about a charity ahead of time.  Unfortunately, the few that I've searched for so far did not have any info there.