Mom with a Mission

Fundraising Update

momwithmission — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 19:02:01 +0000

So far we have turned in $500 to the church for the mission trip to Haiti. We have $160 more ready to turn in. So that means we have 6 weeks to raise the next $1440. We don’t exactly know how we are going to do that, but we are going to do everything we can think of. I am going to continue to bake Treats for Haiti for donations. We are also going to send out a letter to friends and family asking for support. If you are friends and family and you are reading this, consider yourself warned! A friend suggested to me that I send treats into offices of friends with some information and a donation box, so I think I am going to try. If you think you could bring some treats in to your office, please let me know and I would be happy to supply you with some yummy treats! Or, if you can think of any other ways we can raise money please share! I will continue to keep you updated!

Let the fundraising begin!

momwithmission — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 18:42:35 +0000

So here is the breakdown of the cost of the mission trip to Haiti:

Total cost: $1850 per person – $3700 for Andrew and I combined

Due October 5th: $500 for both of us

November 21st: $1600 for both

December 19th: $1600 for both

I wish that were in the position to be able to pay for this trip out of pocket, but there is no way. So we are left to beg and plead from our friends and family and find any other way that we might be able to raise money for this trip. The only marketable skill I see in myself is baking. I LOVE to bake. Cupcakes, cookies, breads, cake pops, you name it, I will bake it. So I started posting on Facebook that I would bake for donations and was able to make $100 in the first week. Tuesday of this past week Mr. Wonderful called to tell me the neighborhood is having a garage sale on Saturday and we should put one together – in 4 days! So we scrambled around and pulled together a garage sale at the last-minute. I didn’t have time to price anything, so I just told everyone to name a price to donate toward our trip. I put together an information board from one of smarty pants’ old science presentations and set it up with a donation jar and some cookies and muffins.

Now we didn’t really have anything that great in the garage sale. We had some friends and family donate some things that really helped, but over all, we had a lot of junk!

Anyone who has ever put together a garage sale knows that they are a lot of work. Mr. Wonderful and I were up late the night before trying to pull everything together and I had a little bit of a melt down. I was so stressed out and had been so busy all week, and I was terrified that I was somehow going to fail. Mr. wonderful reminded me that it was really not in my control and that I just needed to have a little faith, and that was all I could do.

We weren’t expecting to make much money, but we needed to turn in $500 on Wednesday, and we had only raised $100 so far. So we get to the end of the day and bring in the donation jar and dump it. The bills just kept falling out. I counted the money and started to cry as I realized that there was exactly, to the dollar, $400 in that jar. God could not have given me a bigger brighter sign. I am truly amazed! So I guess, we will keep putting forth the effort, and have faith the God will keep delivering!

About the Trip

momwithmission — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 11:04:29 +0000

So I am excited to tell everyone a little about the mission trip to Haiti. Stones Crossing Church is partnering with 410 Bridge and Chadirac, Haiti for at least the next 5 years. The church is planning on having at least two trips a year to Chadirac, so that a good solid relationship can be formed. This is a week-long trip at the end of February in which our primary goal will be creating or repairing a system to get the people of Chadirac clean water. This thought struck me last night as I was bargaining with Mr. Wonderful about who would go downstairs to get filtered water from the refrigerator because I don’t like the taste of our perfectly clean tap water. Wow! I think I choked a little bit on that dose of humility!

410 Bridge is an organization that facilitates the relationship between churches and communities, and seems like a really great organization that is very forward thinking in how they operate. I urge you to check out their website, as I’m sure that I won’t be able to adequately explain their philosophy, but here is what impressed me. When they sit down with community leaders to discuss the possibility of a partnership, they ask the community leaders to take the lead in the partnership. After a lot of years of mission trips going to developing countries and the people handing out clothes and food and books and toys, we have discovered that those are limited resources that make little difference in the lives of the people we are trying to help. Instead of helping a community, those types of trips leave them dependent on “wealthy Americans” to take care of their most basic needs. So instead, 410 Bridge sits down with the community leaders and asks, what does your community need, and then how can we help you get there. So here is what Chadirac has identified as their primary needs:

Clean water
A school for their kids
Re-planting coffee trees to create a self-sustaining industry
Health Care

Mission trips from Stones crossing, as well as other churches across the US that have partnered with Chadirac, will follow their lead over the next several years to help them in these four areas. We will offer the education and training, support and guidance, helping hands and feet, and most importantly Christ’s love, until they are able to support themselves in these things. Our goal is not to fix their problems for them, but with them. Our trip leader told us that the poverty-stricken people of Haiti don’t view themselves as poor because they don’t have the things that more wealthy countries have, but because they don’t have the ability to better themselves. Our goal is to bolster them to give them that ability, so that they can in turn bolster the people in and around the community to do the same.

Where did that come from?

momwithmission — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 09:58:37 +0000

I think the decision to join the mission trip to Haiti may have surprised us as much as it has our friends and family, so let me tell about where this came from. The Haiti trip is being put together by Stones Crossing Church, which we have now attended exactly three times. Yep, I said 3 times. We have been part of Emmanuel Church of Greenwood, a near-by sister church, for three years. We have been in a small group through Emmanuel and quite happy there – we aren’t church shopping. But a couple of months ago Mr. Wonderful and I took part in the Amazing Race for married couples that was put on by Stones Crossing Church. In spite of my high hopes of winning the Grand Prize and our ultra-competiveness, we came in 354th, but we had a great time, and the experience really helped us pull through some hard times we had been having. So we decided to go check the church out. On our second visit, the minister told the congregation about the mission trip they were planning to Haiti in February. It was just the normal announcement time that most churches seem to do at the end of a service, and Mr. Wonderful was shuffling through the bulletin as usual, but I was captured. As I sat and listened to the minister tell us about the town of Chadirac and what the church hopes to do with there I was overwhelmed with this intense need to be a part of it. I turned to Mr. Wonderful and simply said, “I’m supposed to be on that trip!” Now, you have to understand, I’m not one is used to, or really even particularly likes to ”step out on faith.” I, like probably most mothers, really prefer to be in control of things. I make lists and plans about how to make my lists and plans. I want everything to make sense, be practical, and come in a nicely tied package. So taking something like this on is not in my nature, and I have second guessed this a million times over. But after going to the informational meeting, Mr. Wonderful began to feel called to this mission as well and somehow it does make sense. It was never in my plans to go to another church. It was never in my plans to join a mission trip. If I were to plan a mission trip, I would choose a country that spoke Spanish, where I could at least rely on whatever Spanish phrases I remember from college. But every step I take toward this mission trip, I grow more and more confident that it is God’s plan. So, I am prayerfully stepping out of my carefully organized comfort zone, and trying to discover God’s plan for myself, my family, and Chadirac, Haiti. And I have faith that even if I can’t see it now, God’s plan will be the prettiest tied package I have ever seen!