Keoni Ching is like a lot of boys his age. He likes to create things, and he likes to help people. But during a recent school event, he combined those likes to make a big difference at his school.

He was inspired by NFL cornerback Richard Sherman, who recently donated over $27,000 to help pay off student lunch debts in Santa Clara. Ching wanted to help erase student lunch debts at this school. So, by selling handmade keychain bracelets for $5 each, he raised over $4,000--enough to pay for the lunch debts at his school, and six other area schools.

Ching came up with the idea as part of the school’s “Kindness Week,” and said he selected key chains because “I love key chains. They look good on my backpack.” With the help of his parents and grandparents, he sold over 300 of them.

His mother, April Ching said, “We have sent key chains to Alaska, Rhode Island, Minnesota, Arizona, all over the country. There was one lady who said she wanted $100 worth of key chains so that she could just hand them out to people. ... There were several people who bought one key chain and gave (Keoni) a hundred bucks. It was absolutely amazing how much support the community showed for his whole project.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

God gives each of us opportunities to use our gifts to bless others in need; it's also part of the redemptive cycle of shalom that those enslaved by debts be given the mechanism to be free from those debts.