Monday, May 23, 2011

I wonder ....


How many times have we stood in line at a grocery store, hearing people complain about waiting too long in line?



How must God feel when we grumble about not having anything to wear...



... and then stand in front of the mirror and whine that our "shoes don't match our outfit".




... when we open the refrigerator door and sigh that "there is nothing good to eat"...





... and we feel sorry for ourself that the economy is bad and we have to "cut back".




We grumble that our houses are not big enough because our children have to share a room...




... and we get grouchy because we "cannot stand what a mess our home is".



Father, forgive us and open our eyes so that we may see Your blessings all around us; show us how to be a blessing to others!


(pictures taken from another source)

Monday, May 2, 2011

Results of our Spring Fundraiser

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow!

Wow, what a great day we had with our fundraiser!! Our goal was to raise approximately $3000 for the purpose of digging a new well for our impoverished brothers and sisters in Liberia. This was the amount we had raised in past years; however, by the grace of God, we exceed this amount by nearly $1000!! On top of this, an anonymous donor heard of our well project and felt led to donate an additional $3000 to Hearts for Africa, so now we will be able to bless two villages in Africa with fresh drinking water!

It was a very busy few days, but in perspective, working hard for two days now gives two poverty stricken communities on the other side of the world fresh water for life! We are both humbled and honoured to serve our Heavenly Father in this way!!

Here are a few pictures of our day:




Setting up items for the garage sale the day before.


Pricing the garage sale items the day before.



Hanging up clothes for display the day before.



Our generous friends from Devan Greenhouses graciously donated many many beautiful plants for the sale. We sold each one of them!



Setting up the plants in the morning to sell at the garage sale.



Some of the car wash crew.



We washed cars continuously for 7 hours. Car washes were by donation and this portion of the fundraiser raised $500 alone, just through donations. We thank God for giving us nice dry weather for this event!



No car (or truck) was too big or small ....



Our volunteers at the BBQ stand. All the food was donated so all profits went directly to the well project fund.


A generous donor provided the funds to pay for the rental of these ideal premises.



We had so many items donated for the garage sale, for which we are very thankful.



The customers kept coming all the way until closing time.


So many bargains to be had ...


The cashier's area.


There were quite a few unsold items that we packed up at the end of the day and were able to donate to Value Village.


Thank you to everyone for pitching in at the end of the day to clean the building before leaving!


The Hearts for Africa team would like to sincerely thank all the volunteers and patrons who helped to make this fundraiser such a success! May God bless you richly and please continue to pray for those people whose lives will be touched as we proceed to begin our well projects as soon as possible. We will keep you updated on these projects as they progress.


Chris, our worker in Liberia, is currently fairly busy with building his own house so we are not exactly sure when he will be able to oversee this for use, but hopefully this can begin soon!