"Dame una monedita, mi amiga." "Give me a little coin, my friend."  Perhaps you've heard this phrase in another way; "Can you spare some change?" I hear it every time I stop at a certain intersection on my way to the office, spoken by the same skinny, disheveled beggar who has worked this same intersection for the last five years that I know of.  Will my 100 colon coin really make much of a difference in his life? My packages of crackers or bags of peanuts haven't seemed to bring about any major changes over the years. He's still there, still begging, and still calling me friend. Perhaps the change is meant for me. Perhaps I'm the one who needs to spare the change in a manner of speaking. Have I noticed God's face in my friend on the corner? Do I place my everyday going-to-work life before God as an offering? Am I paying attention to God and allowing Him to change me from the inside out?  As I ponder these questions, I am reminded of two friends who didn't just spare some change, they embraced it and it made all the difference in the world. 

Robin and Larry Sweeney, retired elementary school teachers from a small town in northwestern Washington state did exactly what Romans 12:1-2 says. They placed their everyday, ordinary lives before God as an offering and God changed them from the inside out. In late December of 2009, we joined our friends from the Baptist Church in Santo Tomas de Heredia in Costa Rica in saying thank you to the Sweeneys for the 2 1/2 years of walking- around life that they shared with us as volunteers in mission. Thinking at first that they could spare a year of their retirement lives teaching English as a second language and helping their sister church in Costa Rica reach out to it's community, they surprised themselves and all of us when they decided to stay for two and a half. We're all glad they did. They came as friends and left as family. They grew in their faith as they learned to worship in Spanish, serve in a culture different than their own, and adapt to a different way of living that continues to impact how they live now back in the US. Their offering of their everyday lives changed our community for the better here in Costa Rica, but I suspect it also changed them forever as well. We were blessed by their willingness to serve wherever God would have them and honored to receive not their spare but God's very best change in and through them. 

Can you spare some change?