3 Weeks Out

Let me just start off by saying that the Lord is sill amazing me every single day.  Whether that be by a little brown box with a smile on it at my doorstep, an encouraging word from a friend, watching children drop handfuls of coins into the jars for Change 4 Change at Apex, or an email offering gift cards to purchase items for Ebenezer.  I told house church on Tuesday, with tears streaming down my face, no blog post, Facebook status or words can express our appreciation for all of you coming alongside our family in this process.  ALL of us are seeing the hand of God work in this journey!  Quick story...
Sunday morning we went to church and as Rob and I were checking the kids in they went and looked in one of their Change 4 Change jars.  They immediately started calling for Rob and I.  We looked up and saw absolute shock and joy on their faces.  As we walked over they began to say, "There are 2 $50 bills in the jar!  That is $100 Mom and Dad!"  They, along with Rob and I, could not believe this.  That brings our total for Change 4 Change to over $200...AND WE HAVEN'T EVEN COUNTED THE CHANGE YET!!!!!!

In the book, Finish the Mission by a lot of wise men, John Piper says, "God gives his people material wealth for the sake of the world's spiritual worship.  That is, he blesses his church with riches for the sake of reaching the nations.  He gives a bountiful wheat harvest for the sake of a bountiful world harvest.  He gives us more money than we need so that we can meet the world's greatest need-the need to know God through Jesus Christ. We are blessed to be a blessing."

Thank you to all of you that have used your material wealth to be a blessing to our family.  And most importantly to being a blessing to the nations.

We are only 3 weeks away from getting on that plane and flying across the pond.  AAAAAHHHHHHH!  (That is a scream with a little bit of panic and a whole lot of excitement!)
Okay...I feel better.  Broderick keeps asking me...every day..."Can we leave tomorrow?"  Well no, my dear child we can't.  There is much preparation still and our plane tickets clearly say March 21.
That being said I wanted to give you all an update of were we are and how you can still help.

-Pray.  Seriously...I can't express enough how important this is.  There are a lot of details involved in planning and preparing to take your family to Africa.  I read a quote on a friends Facebook page that said, "Your greatest contribution to the kingdom of God may not be the big things that you do – but the little ones you love. What God’s graciously given you is always enough to be abundant grace for someone else." from Ann Voscamp.  We do not want to get caught up in those details.  We want this trip to be about sharing the grace of our God with every person we come in contact with.  Pray for us.

- We are still collecting change for Change 4 Change.  This is the Broderick and Carys' fundraiser.  They have decided to use the money for food and/or school supplies while we are in Uganda.

-We have reached our first goal of $10,000 for the building of the school!!!!  Praise the Lord for this.  Now we only have $20,000 more to go.  If you would like to give to the building of the school you can go to Equip1 and select the donate tab.  You can also give me a check.  Don't let the big number intimidate you...every penny counts...seriously!

Classroom now

 



Future home of Ebenezer Children's Ministry and Primary School

 



-If you would like to support our family financially you can email me at robnamy2000@gmail.com

-Pray.  Oh wait...I already said that.  But for real...pray for us!  We have started a Facebook page to share a little more intimately with people who want to pray for us.  You can go here to check it out and follow it.

Cheerful Giver

Not only has God totally blown me away with the generosity of my friends and family, but now he is blowing me away with the generosity of children!  Like I mentioned in my last post, the kids are doing their own fundraiser, Change 4 Change.  The kids shared this weekend at our church gathering with about 100 children about where they are going and what they will be doing.  (You can watch the video here.  It's a little long but worth the 7 minutes!) They sent home flyers about the Change 4 Change fundraiser for all the children.  Here a few stories about the generosity of children:

- One little girl was at church Saturday night and heard the Broderick and Carys share.  She was coming back Sunday morning to serve with her family.  She told her mom she wanted to take her change to give.  She didn't even think about it!  She was there Saturday and gave Sunday!

- A 5 year old girl told her parents she wanted to give ALL her savings to Broderick and Carys.  I know what you are thinking..."how much savings does a 5 year old have?"  First of all it doesn't matter.  What matters is she wanted to give it ALL.  It could have been $1 or over $100 (which is was over $100 by the way!!!!)  I also give huge credit to her parents for allowing her to give it all.  If one of my kids wanted to give over $100 I think I might talk them out of it.  Way to go mom and dad!!!

- A little girl gave me 4 pennies.  She found them and wanted Carys and Broderick to have them.  (Again, I think of the 2 copper coins)

- Almost every child at our house church brought something last night to give.  And again, the amount doesn't matter.  These children are taking what they have and asking who needs it. 

Every child that gave had a HUGE smile on their face.  It is so humbling to watch a joyful child give what they have. 

2 Corinthians 9:7
Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
I can not wait to get back and share with all these sweet children the amazing ways God used their change.

Time to Crack Open Those Piggy Banks

The kids have been so excited to hear how God has been working through all of you that they wanted to get involved with their own fundraising.  Rob and I feel this is a great idea because they will be able to see God working through their friends as well.

As a family we came up with the idea below...

 

 

I have spoken with the director of our children's ministry at church and this weekend the flyers will go home with each family AND the Broderick and Carys get to talk in front of ALL the kids at our church!  As if that wasn't enough, both kids asked me if they could tell their class at school and send papers home with all their classmates! 

 

My heart is bursting with joy!

I love that this is truly a family thing!

 

Sure I am excited to watch the change come in (not so excited about counting it) but I am most excited about God working in the lives of all the people that will receive a flyer. 

Especially the ones from school.  I am also so excited for Broderick and Carys to see God at work. 

 

So...like the flyer says, look in your couch cushions, clean out your car, and crack open those piggy banks!  You know you have change laying around.  (or is it lying?)  Anyway, I would LOVE for God to use you to bless my kids!