Eugene Cho

Thursday, November 10, 2011 • 5:30 am 1

thanks for believing in us…

These have have been tough but such meaningful years.

Minhee and I have been married nearly 15 years, have three incredible children, recently celebrated the 10 year anniversary of our church, pursued a dream to start a non-profit cafe and music venue, and recently celebrated Minhee’s graduation from grad school.

Today is also a very special day as we’re marking the 2nd anniversary of One Day’s Wages at our Annual Gala. It took us nearly 3 years to start ODW as that’s how long it took to save up the equivalent of our year’s wages. Numerous times, I kicked myself for going “public” with the vision here on my blog.

But here we are…

Since it’s launch, we’ve built a great following on Twitter and over 640,000 people on our Facebook Page. We’ve established some great partnerships with artists, musicians, small businesses, organizations, and with individuals. More specifically, we’ve had 7438 donors who have partnered with us to raise Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: , , , ,

Thursday, March 3, 2011 • 12:01 am 20

how to start your own non-profit cafe

 

One of the most common emails I get is about Q Cafe and it goes something like this:

How did you start Q Cafe?

and then it escalates into about 50 other additional questions. Q Cafe opened its doors in 2002 and during that time, there weren’t many folks to ask simply because there weren’t many who were doing these kinds of things. In the first couple years, I genuinely tried to be a good dude and attempted to answer those questions but eventually, I couldn’t sustain it. I stopped responding to most of the emails or at best, I responded with my infamous “Haiku Emails”…

Hey.
Your vision is cool.
Go for it.
Hard work.

And indirectly, I ended up being a jerk not because I’m a jerk (or at least, I hope I’m not) but I just couldn’t answer all the emails and our other cafe staff are stretched as it is. This is why we’ve tried to pull some resources together to be of some small assistance and encouragement to folks.

I ended up videotaping a Q/A session Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: , , , , ,

Tuesday, January 19, 2010 • 12:01 am 11

an interesting visual guide to “charity”

This is a fascinating graph and analysis of “giving” from Mint. If you haven’t seen it, take a few moments to study . Would love to read your thoughts and observations. And in case you were looking for venues to donate, One Day’s Wages has a Haiti Relief and Rebuild Fund. We’re raising $100K to our partner orgs and all of it (mins c.c. costs) go directly to the efforts.

Americans lead the world in charitable contributions, giving $300 billion a year to charities. Sounds like a lot right? But this is just a drop in the bucket compared to the over One Trillion Dollars needed to keep US charities in operation, more than the US government collects in taxes. The rest comes from their own assets, government support, and foreign investment. Our visual guide to giving shows who’s paying and offers some tips on how to pick a charity of your own. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: , , , , ,

Thursday, January 7, 2010 • 1:01 am 15

how this blog community is changing the world…

Please read this as I want to take the time to properly thank all of you for your support, encouragement and prayers. If anyone has ever had doubts about the possibility of world changing impact of blogging…this is proof.

I started blogging about three years ago and eventually grew a rhythm to blogging: Why and How. I initially started blogging, amongst other reasons, to process some of my thoughts, struggles, and dreams. Most of these are just my vomitaceous thoughts but as a recovering extreme introvert, blogging was therapeutic but along the way, the blog not only drew an “audience” (ranked 28th amongst Christian blogs fwiw) but started forming a “community” of sorts.

My blog community is diverse – ranging from folks from my church, friends, curious inquirers from the larger blogosphere, other pastors and leaders, Christians, skeptics, and cynics, fellow Seattlites, and perverts with a fetish for “orientals” that search for “Korean Beauty” on search engines.

And while many of you know that the past 12-18 months were one of the most difficult times of my life, it was also a meaningful time as we heard, experienced, and felt – people encouraging us with letters, emails, prayers, scriptures, and acts of kindness.

In addition, I used this blog to dream, incubate and launch the vision of ODW. It began with this three / part / series on extreme global poverty and shared our pledge of donating our year’s salary. As we geared up for the launch of One Day’s Wages (that took a little longer than we anticipated), I invited (via this blog) people – in faith and trust – to give and help raise funds for the administrative costs of ODW and I was so humbled by the numerous that gave – especially the quiet blog lurkers and stalkers!

Do you know how much you gave and raised? Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: , , , , , ,

Sunday, November 8, 2009 • 3:24 pm 8

odw featured in the seattle times!

picture by Jim Bates of the Seattle Times

Thanks for your support. Only together – literally – can we ensure the end of extreme poverty. I know there are so many worthwhile causes.

Let’s celebrate, support, and cheer on these efforts and the people behind them.

We’re not here to compete w/ others. We want to celebrate the work and efforts of so many different causes and the people and communities behind them. And so with that, I hope you can help support, cheer on, and even celebrate the work of One Day’s Wages.

Here’s the article: Local Charity Based on Donating a Day’s Salary (or click on image above).

The compelling aspect of ODW is that 100% of your donations (minus transaction costs) go to projects on the ground YOU CHOOSE to fight extreme global poverty. While we may not be able to fix the world, our investments can help change the life of a child, a mother, a father, a family, and even a village.

Here’s three other 5 PRACTICAL things you can do to give us “a bump’: Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: , , , , , , , ,

Wednesday, September 9, 2009 • 12:02 am 2

ODW: we’re hiring, launch date, and iPhone app


Thanks for your support, prayers, encouragement, and patience.  Whether we’re ready or not, we’ll be launching One Day’s Wages on October 20 - which happens to be my birthday. Minhee and I are working, saving, and doing all that we can to make our 2009 salary donation on that date and we’ll be asking people to join us by donating their respective one day’s wages.  More info and video to come.

But, can you keep all this in prayer? And knowing that people’s personal finances are tight but can you take a step of faith with us and prepare to make that donation as we launch One Day’s Wages?

Here’s three simple updates:

Filed under: , , , , , ,

Monday, August 17, 2009 • 12:02 am 6

1 million people for one day’s wages

Thanks for dreaming with us and our vision with One Day’s Wages – a movement to end extreme global poverty. We hit a pretty cool milestone yesterday (August 16). Our Facebook Group surpassed 1,000,000 people.  Pretty amazing. I’ve never been so excited to be $1,000,000 in debt but I really believe that once we get ODW off the ground, we’ll be able to raise those funds and more.

Here’s a quick video update. Please take 2 minutes to check out some recent news:

So, please mark this date. While the website will be made public before, we’ll be officially launching ODW on October 20. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: , , , ,

Wednesday, July 15, 2009 • 12:01 am 64

couch surfing is not what i envisioned

Eights years ago, I endured through one of the most difficult seasons of my life.  I left my (then) current pastorate in hopes of planting a church called Quest but everything I had envisioned didn’t immediately come to pass. Instead of planting a church, I was working as a custodian scrubbing toilets, vaccuuming and struggling to provide for my (then) one child and pregnant wife. I still remember bitterly sobbing in my room one night and saying  a few choice words to God:

I am so angry at you. I feel like I lost control of my life.
(the PG version)

I learned through that experience that (again) I don’t have ultimate control over my life and prayed I would never go through anything like that again…

Well, I guess life has its seasons of unexpected turns. Nearly two weeks ago, I had to make one of the most difficult decisions of my life. It was a painful decision but consulted with my wife, and then informed our kids that because of some financial situations (and investment with One Day’s Wages), Dad & Mom had chosen to sublet our furnished home for couple months to some strangers and within 72 hours, we’d have to pack up some stuff and stay with some friends.

And for the past couple weeks, we’ve been “couch surfing” Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: faith, seattle, , , , ,

Wednesday, June 10, 2009 • 1:15 am 6

double tall vanilla latte and a goat?

Q Cafe

Let’s first get the coffee espresso snob question out of the way:

What’s “your” espresso drink? Or are you a tea person?

In the face of some incredibly shocking statistics about extreme global poverty, it’s easy and understandable to feel paralyzed. I’ve often felt this way but instead of feeling the burden to change the world, just think about making an impact on one person, or one family, or one small village.

As some of you know, I also serve as the executive director of a non-profit community cafe called Q Cafe. I’m joined on the Advisory Board by Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: justice, non-profit, Q Cafe, , , , , , ,

Friday, May 15, 2009 • 12:01 am 35

introducing: One Day’s Wages

One Day's Wages: a movement to end extreme global poverty

After years of dreaming and conspiring, we’re very excited to share the name and vision of our poverty organization:  One Day’s Wages.

What is our vision?

One Day’s Wages is a grassroots organization and movement by which we hope to inspire millions of people to give their “One Day’s Wages” to fight and end extreme global poverty. 100% of your donations will go directly to fund grants, projects, & organizations that are doing amazing work amongst the poorest of the poor. Our purpose is to promote greater awareness about global extreme poverty, invite simple financial giving, and to provide sustainable relief and empowerment through strategic collaborations. Our vision is to change global issues of injustice affecting millions of people, regardless of race, culture, sex, age, or religion.

Here’s our two minute video intro & vision:

What is our commitment?

We are committing our one year’s salary ($68,000) to launch this movement and invite you to join us by donating one day’s wages. Other donations to help with the initial operations fund are needed and appreciated. Imagine what we can accomplish together! [Here's why we've gone public with our pledge.]

What can you do to join the movement? Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: , , , , , , , , ,

Wednesday, May 13, 2009 • 12:15 am 32

$700,000 in debt and never been so excited to hear from the IRS

eugene matrix

Last week, I shared a post about fear entitled, Do Not Be Afraid: Dream, Pursue, & Jump.  And one of my readers, Matt S., doctored one of my photos to give me Neo-like skills.

For the past year, my biggest fear has been this burden and conviction that I feel God has placed upon my soul to engage the fight against extreme global poverty through the birth of a new organization.

I have been kicking myself for going public with the vision about a year ago. There’s been hiccups, setbacks, criticisms, and plenty of self doubt but after a year since sharing our vision and starting a group on Facebook, I’ll finally be sharing the name of our organization, current logo, and our vision and fundraising letter this Friday.

As usual, I’m both excited and scared and covet your prayers.

I came home yesterday having doubts if I was ready to share the vision but lo and behold, Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: seattle, , ,

stuff, connect, info

one day’s wages | video

my tweets

  • "Anxiety is the reason why many young people are not just afraid of death, but are already afraid of life." - Juergen Moltmann || 3 hours ago
  • "Talent is God-given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful." ~ Coach John Wooden || 14 hours ago
  • Kinda LOL and kinda NOT -> "What kind of Asian are you?" - youtube.com/watch?v=DWynJk… #education101 || 1 day ago
  • As as follower of Christ, the moment we think we have finally arrived is when we're furthest away. We're all works in progress. #stayhumble || 1 day ago
  • Don't underestimate what God can do through your life. God has a long history of using foolish & broken things for His glory. || 1 day ago
  • My attempt to be a pro smartphone photographer: "May there be peace on the Korean peninsula." - instagram.com/p/ZquHSeyWYe/ || 2 days ago
  • Hello Seattle! ... and it's raining. :( || 2 days ago
  • Thank you, Korea. You will forever be my goh-hyang - my heart home. I'll be back in December. instagram.com/p/Zpii-TSWRh/ || 2 days ago

advertisements

Blog Stats

  • 2,611,978 hits
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 631 other followers