Six Weeks Away!!

Our summer has gotten off to a very busy start, which is why I haven't had a chance to update our blog in awhile. We had a short vacation, cub scout camp, and several June birthdays we are getting ready for, including our little Reece Bear turning 5 this Saturday!! But the other day I looked at the calendar and realized there are only 6 weeks left until we leave for Africa!! Wow!!

First I wanted to say that we made it through Jadon's first soccer season!! Yay!! And Jadon had a great time playing and learned a little more about the game. The best part is that at the end of the season, we ended up raising a little more than $1,000 with Jeremy taking photographs for the Mansfield First Baptist Upward teams! We put all that money in our fund for Africa. 

If you read my blog last time, you might remember how I had a lot of items left over from the garage sale we had in May that we were trying to sell. We have been slowly selling more of those things, so that is a big praise! So with that money, along with a few more personal donations we have received, I am happy to tell you the total amount we have raised so far just for my portion of the trip is $2452.56!! If you remember I am going on the mission trip with my sister, so she is also trying to raise the money for her trip. I don't know her exact total, but I think it is more than $1,000 raised so far. 

The good news is I only have $1847 left to raise for my portion of the trip. The bad news is that I only have 6 weeks left to do it!! If I was only relying on myself, I might be concerned, but since I am relying on a God who can move mountains, I know it will work out in the way only He knows. 

Coach Fundraiser

We have another fundraiser we are starting up this month, so please be praying for us about this. We have received a generous donation of two coach purses, so we decided we will have a raffle with a drawing where we give away these two purses.

We haven't finalized all of the details, but we will probably start selling raffle tickets for this next week. We only plan to sell 150 tickets to keep the chances of winning higher, and if we can sell all 150 tickets we can raise $3,000!! This would finish funding my trip and get my sister so much closer to her goal as well! Please be watching for more details. We would love your support and you could even get a coach purse out of it! You can't beat that for $20!!

The other thing I am trying to get done this week is getting the shots I need to travel to Africa. I need to get immunized for Hepatitis A & B, yellow fever, and Malaria and to get it all done by the first of July. It's going to be busy the next few weeks finalizing all of these details, but the closer we get to this, the more I really feel God's hand in all of this. 

Collecting Donations

I also wanted to share that we had a planning meeting for the VBS part of our trip to Kenya and found out we will be trying to collect some items as we get closer to leaving, so I will keep you updated on how you could help with this. I know one thing we will need donations of is deflated soccer and kick balls. We will take them over there in our luggage and inflate them once we get there for the kids to play with while we are there. Then once the VBS is over the kids get to keep the balls. 


We have another planning meeting July 9 where we will find out more on what other stuff we may want to bring, so I will let you know more on how you can help once we get that information. 

I wanted to end this post with just a little simple reminder of why I am doing this. Our pastor at church has been talking about being genuine and how important it is as Christians. He also has reminded us what it says in Matthew 6:1 about being hypocrites and doing good works "to be seen by them," meaning doing things just to boast about what a great person you are. 

This really made me realize I need to be careful with this blog and make sure I watch how things come out so that anyone reading this realizes that my trip and even this blog has nothing to do with bringing glory to myself or saying,"hey look how awesome I am for doing this Mission Trip!"  It is only to bring God all the glory. And I realize He doesn't need my help to do this, but I am honored he would choose to use me for this. Because I am not anyone who has it all together or at all figured out. I am just the opposite, a real person with real problems who just happens to have Jesus guiding me along the way. And I love children so I feel this is how I can help spread his message of hope. 


It is not about me, but about Him. By the end of the trip, I really feel I will probably say I gained more than I gave. Or as John says in John 3:30 "He (God) must become greater; I must become less."