Do you know about Benny’s Bills? In Salem, Oregon, where my sister lives, some man known as Benny leaves $100 bills lying around for people to find. So far, he’s given away over $55,000. A friend’s relative has found three of these bills that have the word “Benny” written on them. There’s even a website where people can go to share their story of finding the money and what they plan to do with it. Often they pay it forward.

Wouldn’t it be great to be as rich as Benny? To be able to give so extravagantly? Here's the secret: You ARE rich. Compared to most people in the world, we have A LOT. For example, if you have a car, you are in the top 3% wealthiest people in the world. So why don't you give like it?

This month, our church is having a Be Rich campaign. We have been challenged to:

1.) Donate an extra $25 per person in the household to a charity

2.) Give 1-2 cans of food per person to the food bank

3.) Volunteer 1-2 hours per week

4.) Put our change in baby bottles to donate to a pregnancy crisis center

I really appreciate this challenge. I love volunteering beside my teenage girls. I love writing a check with my husband. I love knowing that we are making a difference.

So I’m extending this challenge to you, as well. Let's all be rich! What can you do this month?

Here's one idea: If you’re in Boise, you can donate your shoes. For my volunteer hours, I’m collecting shoes that will be re-purposed and sent to third world countries. If we are able to collect 1,000 bags of 25 shoes, it will also raise $10,000 for Inside Out, a ministry that fights human trafficking.

I honestly would not have thought human trafficking to be a problem here in our clean, family-friendly little city, but in speaking with the founder of Inside Out, I sadly realized how wrong I am. We just don’t see it because it’s all done online or through apps. Girls are sold 4,000 times a day in Boise alone. Some girls are sold so their families can get drugs, and they are sold up to fifteen times a day for prostitution. When police set up a sting operation with a fake profile recently, it received hundreds of hits in the first hour. Now that I’m aware of such a heinous crime, collecting shoes is the least I can do.

I AM rich. And I believe giving will make me richer. Won’t you join me and get richer too?