Church's one-day offering to help locally, globally

COEUR d’ALENE — Someone who makes $10 an hour will gross $80 in a normal eight-hour work day.

A worker who earns $10,000 a year makes about $41 in a day.

For many people around the world, that's a lot of dough.

"I think that just growing up in America, if this is all we’ve ever really known, we are so blessed beyond anything we can even wrap our brains around. We’re among the wealthiest people in the world," Lake City Church lead pastor Mike Rima said Friday. "Unfortunately, we don't feel like that. We compare ourselves to the small percentage of people who have more than we do."

Every year, the weekend before Thanksgiving, Lake City Church reminds its members and community to really think about how truly lucky people are in the Inland Northwest. The One Day Offering tradition encourages those who are able to donate just one day of wages to help the less fortunate.

"This gets our eyes off of us during Thanksgiving to say, 'I have so much and I am so thankful that I have the food that's available, the clean water, and I want to remind myself that not everybody has it as good as I've got it,'" Rima said. "Let's do our part."

Half of the proceeds will be sent to the humanitarian nonprofit Convoy of Hope to help with its feeding, agricultural and women's empowerment initiatives. The rest of the funds will be divided between global and local initiatives with which Lake City Church is engaged.

"100 percent of what comes in goes beyond the four walls to help people all over the world," Rima said.

Doree Donaldson, the co-founder of Convoy of Hope, will be visiting the Coeur d'Alene Lake City Church, 6000 N. Ramsey Road, and speaking about Convoy's female empowerment initiatives at 9 and 11 a.m. Sunday.

Those who would like to give for the One Day Offering are welcome to bring donations to the Coeur d'Alene and Rathdrum churches on Sunday. The Rathdrum site is inside Lakeland High School, 7006 W. Highway 53.

Donations can also be made online at www.lakecity.church under the "everything else" and "online giving" tab.