The F Word

Fundraising.  Ugh.

Honestly, the thought of fundraising just turns me off.  I have no problem helping others do fundraising activities or supporting financially other projects, but I hate asking for money.  Hate it. 

But, in order to make this trip a reality, I have to fundraise.  As do many who do these trips.  My friend Becki assures me that the fundraising is part of the journey.  If going on a trip to love on orphans is God's plan for me, the money is just a barrier in my mind but certainly not in His mind.  

So, gulp, I asked friends and family if they'd consider financially supporting this trip.  Many of you have so generously donated.  Each time a donation comes in, it's a reassurance that this is what I should be doing.  Thank YOU for letting God work through you in that way.  

The other thing I've been doing is looking for other ways to make money.  Elise and I have loved making cheesecakes for the past few years.  Elise is always on the hunt for new recipes.  Her newest creation was a Heath bar cheesecake for her dad for his birthday.  I wondered if anyone would be interested in buying a cheesecake for Easter.  I posted the offer on Facebook and thought maybe 2-3 people would be interested.  We ended up making 22 cheesecakes!  That was over $500 towards the trip just for doing something we love to do.  It was so fun working with Elise on making and delivering the cheesecakes.  

 Our Easter cheesecakes were yummy white chocolate raspberry swirl cheesecakes.  This is probably my most favorite cheesecake.  

We decided to extend the same offer for Mother's Day and Father's Day.  God must have known I'd have a lot of my plate this week as the interest was not as huge as the Easter cheesecakes.  But, we are still raising another $250 for the trip...just by spending time in the kitchen doing something we love.   This time we offered two options; key lime or chocolate chip.  

We anticipate doing this again for Father's Day with some guy friendly flavors like turtle and peanut butter cup.  As we look forward to a trip again next summer, we'll continue to do what we love and offer cheesecakes or other yummy treats for certain holidays.  Elise is currently hunting down an egg nog cheesecake recipe!

What I've learned on this F-word journey is that it's not as scary as it seemed at first.  Yes, asking friends and family was nerve wracking and I wanted to crawl inside the mailbox and retrieve all the envelopes I'd dropped in  But the kind words from friends, the prayer support and the financial gifts have gone beyond what my expectations.  God really does work in some mysterious ways.

Including through cheesecake. 




If you are so led to support this trip financially, you may do so at:
https://www.awaa.org/give/general_donation.aspx?us_designation=ACT%20Missions

Please indicated ACT Missions under designated fund and list my name as the participant.  

(Sorry, I had to include a shameless fundraising plug in this post.)