God's hand is in it all

Wow....I can't end the fundraising part of our missions trip story without telling SOME of the ways God used us to touch his children and them to touch us . What a personal God we serve! He is sooo one on one isn't he! Of course raising the money, not just for 1 of us but for both, a month before it was due is amazing enough ,but there is so much more to the story than that. I told you of the letters we wrote and how we were blessed with different amounts of money..but I didn't tell you that while my aunt and mom were praying for our finances to be met God laid upon my aunts heart that someone was going to give us a check for $1,000.00. Sure enough it came to pass. No, they do not know each other,they even live in different states. The only way they are connected is they both know Chas and I.....and no, the family who gave us that check had no way of knowing what had been said. We do worship a supernatural God. Soo cool. While egging we had 2 older ladies invite us in...they had no cash to give , except coins in jars, of which they poured out into plastic bags to give to us, insisting we take it. They also took our names so they could pray for us and the trip:) WoW. Do you not think of the poor woman giving all that she had,although it wasn't much ? How Jesus saw it and had it written for us all to read in his word. How pleased he had to be on this day. Pure Love. Having so many people give to us in small and huge amounts was so amazing, and warms my heart to think about it now..I'm sure it always will.We had a family invite all of us up on the porch, while egging, and they had everyone in their family come out of their home and we all held hands while the husband/dad of the family led us in prayer. What a blessing in itself, but his prayer was confirmation of the devotion I had done with Chas on the sacrifices she was making for God, for this trip, and he truly touched on it the same way I had done, again that supernatural way that only our God can orchestrate. After leaving a man's home who refused to egg us,(still gave us a $5 bill ) we started on down his road. Turning back at the end, we saw him walking towards us. You could see he was not in walking shape. He walked slowly and deliberatly. He gave us a $20 bill and come to find out, he was an evangelist who was no longer able to get out, he said God brought us to him so he could give his offering to the Lord. I always tear up when rembering this. What an amazing, amazing love our God has for us. And we thought we were just fundraising for our missions trip.The plans God has for us are soo much better than we could ever ever dream of!!While selling our mixes in front of wal-mart, I was able to speak with a young lady about her own dreams of being a missionary, yet feeling she wasn't good enough.I felt like we were placed there just for her. A older gentleman was also able to reach out to us for help, because he knew we were Christians. God set us there for his child, who had no one,after losing his wife.Just because we are Christians. With great power comes great responsiblity. There were countless others who would not just give their money , but words of encouragement, that truly blessed us and gave us what we needed to get through those draining days that seemed to be so hard at the time. BAM, God would use one of his children to speak to us at just the right time with just the right words. Being told that a lady didn't have any money to give but that she would put us on her missionary prayer list was sooo cool. Just being called a missionary set both of our hearts on fire, making us ready to go to the next door and the next...until there were no more doors! This happened alot. In person and even in prayer over the phone. May we all allow God to work through us as well as to us! Thank You Thank You Thank You My GOD!!!!!! We kept a coffee can with all our missions money in it. After paying our first payment it left our can empty. It was such an overwhelming feeling to think we would have to fill it again, and again, and again. My sister talked to me right after the can was empty for the first time. After praying, she said she was sending us a check to get it started. Even better was her god given idea to take a piece of paper and write REPLENISHED on it, because that is what God does for us.I did it, (on a heart shape actually) and everytime the can became empty I was reminded of how God would fill it again.It would start out a paper heart on the bottom of an empty can and end up being on top of a pile of bills,checks, and coins making up all we would need everytime.. I will let God use that same lesson and word in other areas of my life. It, like the other wonderfully God touched things that happened during fundraising ,will be carried on in our everyday walk. And I thought we were just raising money for our missions trip. Just the tip of the iceburg......Praises and thanks to you Father God :) !!!

And we end our fundraising with Letters, Peelers, and a Skate Party!

Finishing up our fundraising was much easier than starting it! We mailed letters telling about our trip, to see if anyone would want to support us. Such a great response! Our first Sunday at church , after mailing the letters we were given 3 checks....all for the same amount. I thought God was laying the same amount on everyone's hearts. (At such a large amount it would have been over soon)! No, the amounts did not stay the same for everyone! We received checks from $10.00 to $1,000.00 . It was such a blessing. One of the Sunday school classes took up an offering for us and gave us $100.00 in a card. They all signed the card. It was so encouraging to us:) We have such warmth, support, and love from our church family. We are truly blessed to have them all. Peelers came next. They are coupon cards. We, along with my Daddy and my church family, sold these quite easily! My dad never allowed us to sell things door to door. He believes people would feel obligated to buy from you , and then you to buy from them, and on and on, ending up with stuff you don't want and without the money you cold use for stuff you do want.But, MY DADDY sold these cards for Chas and I ...Must be LOVE! :) Our final hurrah came in the form of a Skate Party. Soo cool! Our church rented the rink for a Jr. Church outing. I had asked if we could do this, because we hadn't had one for our younger kids in a long time. I also was hoping we could use it as a fundraiser at the same time. God is good. It was a GO for both. Chris, who is in charge of Jr. Church, said we could open it up to all ages.(Jr.church is 1st-5th graders) He wanted us to have as many people as possible. Praises to God!!!! It was a success in every way. It was just like I had imagined it would be....Christian music playing, people skating, having fellowship, and eating. Laughter and smiles all around. It was such a wonderful environment ! We sold lots of snacks and had soo many people come (easily 170..maybe more). We made over $800.00! Again, my friends and Daddy jumped right in to help. Poor dad never had a break! He started at the concessions stand, went to "working the door" and never stopped! We were busy, busy, busy. I am not complaining though, it is a Praise! There is Pics from the Skate Party at the end of this page. I don't know how to get them up here :).....Beth !!! I need Help!!!

MIXES and BRACELETS and EGGS....OH MY!

We spent soo much time fundraising. Our goal was to raise $6,000.00 Yes, $6,000.00. My favorite saying during this time was " Not alot if you remember God owns every penny on this earth". We made Brownie mix and Orange spiced tea gift jars, peppermint cocoa, heart and Candycane charm bracelets, and we went EGGING. What is egging? First let me say this idea came in the mail as part of our fundraising packet. We would go door to door ( Tori and Luke being pulled in our blue wagon ). Chasity would say " Hi, my name is Chasity and I am selling eggs to go on a missions trip.You can buy one for a $1, or for $2 you can crack it over my head, or... for $5 you can crack it over my mom's head ! (we added the last part) Crazy but true! We actually made ALOT of money doing that. Lots of eggs were used too. Everyone in our family(except Daddy),cousin Kassy, and friends Hilary and Morgan all had egg heads! It also caught the attention of a writer in our neighborhood and she wrote an article about it for the Indiana Weekly. It comes out this month.Prayerfully it will be something that brings God glory:) We laughed alot. It would also wear us out..lots of walking. We even wore out one of the wheels on the wagon! In soo many ways it was its own outreach and so encouraging to us spiritually.(It will be it's own post.) It is amazing what God can and will work through. We sold the mixes and bracelets in front of our house (busy corner), in front of K-mart and in front of Wal-mart. We were blessed to be able to set up tables(and not be there) inside Curves ,our optometrist's office, and at a friend's Jazzercise business! Sooo cool for them to do that for us ! It was very VERY cold. Our full blown fundraising months were Dec, Jan, and Feb. It seems like everyday was full of numb fingers, toes, ears, and hot cocoa. It was also a time full of strength, growth, bonding, encouragement, and love. Yes, sacrifices, tears, and " I don't want to go " was also part of it. The hours upon days of making the mixes and bracelets will not be forgotten. We made soo much of everyhing. Larry was really fast at it. He helped in all ways. (He was much faster at packing the brownie mix into the jar.) He went egging, but no way it was being cracked on his head! Seeing his big fingers making dainty bracelets for us to sell melted my heart:). Such a loving Hubby and Daddy.OOps I forgot more on that later, plus on the other fundraisers we did...Peelers and our Skate Party!

OUR ACCEPTANCE LETTERS

Before the oh so exciting day that these arrived, there were the oh so long applications from Brio/Focus on the Family to fill out. Our pastor even had a short page to fill out. Yes, references too. It was soo cool to read Chasie's application when she was finished. Being able to read of how she believes God has given her a heart for children and how she wants to reach those who don't know him sooo touched me. My eyes fill with tears now.....Thank you God! Yes, there is no greater joy than to see that your children are walking with the Lord. Not my words :). Of course my acceptance letters came too. Although weeks after hers. It was funny, because one of the questions on my application (to go as a leader) was what my weakness was in working with teens. I truly believe my strength is with this group, so I asked Chasity what weakness she saw in me concerning teens. Her answer, after much thought, was "You don't have one, are you allowed to put that". Awwww soooo many brownie points for my Chas. After prayer I did answer the question. Not with Chasity's answer. She didn't know what I wrote. The days grew more and more between her getting her acceptance letters and mine not coming. She finally came to me and said "What did you put on your application!" It was soo funny. My letters did come (an e-mail acceptance too)
and it was official....WE were going on a MISSIONS trip to PERU. We had already started fundraising. We both believed this was what God wanted for us, so was walking in faith. :)More to come on fundaising things we did! Almost time for school .

Hi

We thought this would be a great way to keep in touch with everyone! Be patient as we try to figure this out....I say we..right now it is just me and my caramel/chocolate coffee! Larry is working on the "big truck" and the kiddos are still asleep!! They sleep this long only because Tori and Luke have been sick and Chas and Van stayed up late. Sooo many things to figure out...can I erase after I post? Can I make spaces for the girls to have their own spots? I have many more, but will not ramble on..that is for later ; ). Ok, drum roll and post!