Saturday, I made a very green attempt at an interview. After significant technical difficulty, and then losing the first ten minutes of intro and backstory, I managed to get a recording. (We have a nice setup for recording interviews, as Vern has done several software interviews in the past. But due to some miscommunication, I didn't have access to the equipment. Next time.) I really appreciate Paul & Brent's patience and grace as I picked my way through creating my first podcast, recorded via cell phone. Most important: it's intelligible and has great info on this particular cause.
Time is of the essence with the Giving Tree project, and so I'm going to post it, counting on my listeners' understanding that this is about content. Maybe someday I'll add an opening and closing jingle. Or maybe not. Those usually annoy me. ;o)
Without further ado, I'd like to present to you Dr. Paul Benson and Brent Hansen. I've known Brent for a while now; he is a good man and good friend. These two have a shared love of the Philippines, both having served 2-year church missions there. Brent also has family ties, as his wife hails from the Philippines. During their missions they saw first-hand the desperate level of poverty, the real needs there, and joined forces a while back to help bring economic support to the Philippines. This brand new endeavor, Giving Tree Medical Missions (link to come) exists to provide medical care and support to those who need it most, and is an extension of a budding new charity, Giving Tree.
The Giving Tree campaign, hosted over at Tilt, has the awesome goal of raising $1,000,000 in just foruteen days. The approach is to ask folks to take just one minute, donate one dollar, and tag ten friends. Like a phone tree, this requires just a little from each of us, and allows us to make a tremendous difference. As of this posting, the campaign is just over $26,000. It has to reach $100,000 in order to "tilt" (or fund), so if you'd like to help, you can go to the Giving Tree tilt page to make your donation and tag your friends.
If you want to do more, you can put in a bit more effort and make personal contacts until you've found ten people willing to contribute. I've watched this effort skyrocket over the last few days, and am going to keep on trying to do what I can.
