• I took the bus to an appointment I had to keep. I hadn't taken a bus since I was 12 years old. I noticed every person on the bus had "something going on" -- he or she was either homeless, mentally disabled, elderly or speaking a language other than English. I definitely did not see anyone I knew.

• At first I thought it was so fun to spend all day with my friends, hanging out at the beach in the sunshine. I didn't think this whole thing was that hard. Then I realized that if I truly was living on $2 day, I would not be lying around on the beach. I would be working in the hot sun, even though I was really hungry.

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• A bunch of us spent the night at (a girl's) house. We rode our bikes there and laughed the whole way. When we arrived we said, "So what are we going to do now?" One girl said, "Let's go to the movies! Oh, wait, we can't do that…" "Let's drive to the mall… oh wait, we can't do that either…" We listed several things and realized they all involved spending money or using expensive electronics. It took us 15 minutes to figure out we could just go watch the sunset! Even then, one girl said she wished she had her cell phone to take a picture of it. I was so shocked to realize we did not know how to hang out and create our own fun simply by being together.

The litmus test of effectiveness for me was whether students bring up an event later. I am thankful that throughout the school year several students regularly asked when we were doing To Whom again. Out of the event, some of our small-group Bible studies took up various social justice issues because their awareness had been heightened by To Whom. Best of all, some of our youth want us to put on To Whom again, but this time as an outreach, because they had several friends who are not believers who were very interested in the whole thing.

Let's not forget: "To whom much is given, much more will be required." I pray we will continue to look for ways to be stewards of the profound gifts we have received.