Fundraising Update

Our first fundraising events were scheduled for August 2^nd and 3^rd. I took Friday the 2^nd off of work. The first event we had a shoe and handbag sale from 7-10:30 am. The weeks leading up to the event we gathered gently used shoes and purses from friends, family, and coworkers. We also went around to two neighborhoods and passed out flyers asking for shoe donations. We asked if they wanted to donate that they leave their shoes out by the front door and we returned the following day to gather donations. The support that we saw for this event was unbelievable.  I had friends that worked so hard and helped gathered items from their friends as well. We were blessed with Sydney’s grandparents letting us have the sale in one of their vacant office spaces. This made things so nice to be able to set everything up in Bentonville and we were able to have close friends and family stop by before the sale to shop. We also gathered some gift certificates from local restaurants and businesses such as: Las Fajitas, Applebee’s, Colton’s, Bonefish, Steak n Shake, Red Lobster, Massage Wellness, Vintage Glam and Junque in downtown Rogers and raffled them off. This was by far our most successful fundraiser. We gathered so many shoes and purses that we actually had to extend the sale to the following weekend and we still have so many left over that we are planning on having a yard sale the first weekend in September.Here is a picture from one of the tables inside the shoe sale. We had 4 tables set up seperated by sizes and another room full of purses. 

After the shoe sale, we quickly moved on to a bake sale outside of Sam’s Club from 3-8 pm. Sydney and her dad made an awesome poster board sign together with a picture of Uganda on it for the sale. I love to cook, but I do not bake. Jared made some cupcakes and Sydney and I made brownies. Once again with this event we saw amazing support from some our family and closest friends. We set up outside of Sam’s Club with a table, ice chest, and tons of baked goods such as; zucchini bread, no-bake cookies, pumpkin bread, apple cake, stuffed jalapeños, cinnamon rolls, lemon poppy seed muffins, blueberry muffins. We had so many baked goods and sold everything, except 3 things that we ended up giving away at the end of the sale. This was by far Sydney’s favorite event! She is a social butterfly and enjoyed people just stopping by and sharing their mission trip stories with us, some had even been to Uganda before! Sydney and Marlana helped a few people take their groceries to their cars and we had one man stop by with his children and said that he didn’t want to purchase anything, but gave a donation and asked if he could pray with us all. We all gathered in a circle with him and his children as he prayed over us as we go on this journey. It’s the little things like this that we will never forget!

Saturday, August 3^rd we had a pancake breakfast at Beef O’Brady’s. Matt, the owner of Beef’s was gracious enough to allow us to have this event at his restaurant. We tried to pre-sell tickets and then had the breakfast from 8-9:30 am. Sydney and I waited tables and served pancakes, sausage, and coffee/orange juice. It was great to see all of our friends and family come out to eat breakfast and support us on our journey as we try to raise money for our mission trip. Among our closest friends and family I was pleased to see our friends from our fostering class who came from Fayetteville with their newborn baby they are fostering, some of my co-workers, and a friend from high school I had not in years with his mother and daughter.

In the midst of all of our fundraising efforts we got a call from DHS to care for twin 3 year old little girls temporarily. We received the girls on Thursday, August 1^st, the day before the weekend of our 3 scheduled fundraising events. I didn’t know how we were going to get through that weekend, but we did. The girls left this past Friday the 23^rd, but they definitely changed our lives forever. One day I was in a hurry to go to the store and hollered, “Come on girls we have to go!” They both ran into their bedroom. I followed them to see what they were doing and they were packing their suitcase!!! Last week, Sydney won a prize out of a jar in her Spanish class at school and she picked a nightlight and brought it home for the girls. They were so excited and when they said their prayers at night, they thanked God for their nightlight! We knew we were only going to have them for a short period and we tried to continue to care for them, but it just didn’t work out. As we told the girls how much we wanted them to stay, but they had to leave, one of the girls looked up at Jared and said, “You’re not my daddy anymore?”  Things like this broke our hearts every day. We got balloons one night and had the girls write their prayers on them and then we went outside, let them go and sent them up to Jesus! These girls will forever be in our hearts & prayers and hands down made our lives better in this short amount of time we were blessed to have them in our lives.

Here is a note I found in Sydney's room recently to our first foster child. Made my heart happy that I have such an amazing and thoughtful daughter.

Krispy Kreme Fundraising Cards

To start our fundraising efforts off we decided to do Krispy Kreme fundraising cards. Krispy Kreme sells fundraising cards for $6 per card, you have to purchase them in a bundle of at least 25 cards, and can turn around and sell the cards for $12 each. The back of the cards have 10 stickers you peel off and offers when purchasing a dozen donuts, you will receive a dozen glazed free. Also, these cards never expire which is really nice. I wasn’t sure how well these were going to sell, but we went ahead and purchased 50 cards two weeks ago, praying that we would sell them all. Sydney went around door to door in her grandmother’s neighborhood and her cousin’s neighborhood. It was extremely hot outside, but after two weeks and lots of hard work she sold all 50 cards!

Sydney has been helping out with vacation bible school at the Bentonville First Baptist church all week and leaves Monday for choir camp, so I have been trying to get as much done as possible while she is in town as well as trying to organize some other fundraising events for over the

 summer. My mom went and purchased 50 more Krispy Kreme fundraising cards and picked Sydney up from VBS this week to go sell some more cards. This time Sydney and my little sister Marlana targeted some local businesses to try to sell the cards and had a huge success! The girls said that O'reilly of Rogers and Nissan of Bentonville were some of the nicest businesses that they went to. They were excited to help out, wanted to hear all about the mission trip, and bought several cards. I am happy to say that they sold all 50 cards in two days! With this fundraiser alone, we raised a total of $806! I would definitely recommend anyone trying to raise money for an event to try selling fundraising cards from a local business. We had a huge success with Krispy Kreme, however after doing the math this totals 24,000 donuts that will be consumed in NWA from these cards we sold! J That’s A LOT of donuts! We have a partial payment of $1000 that is due on July 23^rd, so we have to keep moving and on to the next event!

Christine’s Personal Testimony

As some of you may know, I had a rather rocky childhood. When I was 4 months old my father went to prison and remained there for 14 years. I grew up in home with my mother, step-dad, and two younger sisters. My step-dad was an alcoholic and later on struggled with a drug addiction. When I was just a little girl, I remembered lying on my bedroom floor reading the bible, not even understanding what I was reading, but just trying to block out the yelling and screaming. I remember praying, but not knowing if God ever heard my prayers. I used to pray and pray that my dad would just get out of prison so I could go and live with him. I thought that if God just answered this one prayer everything would be better.

Growing up we lived in the country, our nearest neighbors were about half a mile down a dirt road from us. Our neighbors on one side of us, was a police officer. I remember having to run to Officer Garrett’s home several times in the middle of the night when my step-dad was drunk and hitting my mom. I continued to pray for God to take me out of this environment, but he didn’t. The neighbors on the other side of us, was Pastor McKenzie and his family. Pastor McKenzie and his wife picked me up for church on Sundays, vacation bible school, I was saved at 12 yrs. old, and baptized. I questioned myself for years and years if God ever heard my prayers and why he didn’t answer. It wasn’t until I was older that I realized God did answer my prayers. As I was getting older and would soon be out of the house, I needed to be there for my sisters and my mother. It wasn’t until this year that God pointed out to me that he did hear me all those years and he sent me the officer for protection on one side of our house and a pastor on the other side to lead me closer to him.

At 14 yrs. old, my world got more complicated. I was about to enter high school in Bentonville. Had a good group of friends, my father was released from prison and I had just spent the summer with him. My mom was also getting a divorce. Then October 18, 1993 my world came crashing down. My mother picked me up from a football game and informed me that my father was being charged with the murder of an 18 yr. old woman in Little Rock. My hopes, dreams, and plans, were all crushed. With so many mixed emotions and frustrations I couldn’t understand how my dad could say he loved me and then take a woman’s life that had her entire future ahead of her. To make things even worse, the victim’s mother took her own life on Christmas morning leaving behind her husband and son. I didn’t want to think about anything going on in my life; I was too embarrassed and ashamed to talk about anything with my friends, so I soon lost most of them, starting skipping school, and became pregnant with Sydney at the age of 15.

Having Sydney was the best thing that ever happened to me. It forced me to grow up really fast. I didn’t have time to think about all of the things going on in my life. I soon began working at the sheriff’s office where I continued to work for 10 years. While working at the sheriff’s office I knew I didn’t want a career in law enforcement. A friend of mine told me about Single Parent Scholarship Fund of Benton County. This organization made it possible for me to go back to school while working full time and earning my Bachelor’s Degree.  However, this journey was a constant struggle. I chose to continue to have a relationship with my dad over the next twelve years until he was executed in November of 2005. Then, I lost my grandmother in 2007 and my 2 yr. old nephew in 2008. I know that God put Single Parent Scholarship Fund in my life to help me through this time in my life. They offered so much support, encouragement, and counseling services to me. I seriously don’t know where I would be without them in my life.

I’m finally at a season in life that I love and can look back and see that God has ALWAYS been there for me even when I felt so distant from him. He always provided and answered my prayers in his time. I couldn’t imagine where I would be without God or the people that he has put in my life. As my relationship with the Lord grows, he reveals to me that his plan for my life is so much bigger and better than I ever could imagine. I graduated last year from JBU and work for an amazing company where I love going to work every day. Sydney is going into the 10^th grade, a straight A honors student, in the choir, active in her youth group, and so passionate about God and her relationship with him. I could go on and on about what a beautiful young lady she is growing into. I am in a positive and stable relationship and we are about to have our home open to become foster parents. I am so excited to see what God has planned in my life!