Fundraiser Follow up

Greetings All,

This journey of raising $7100 since Feb. is nothing short of a miracle especially in light of our economy. At the time of the Fundraiser at Celebration Church, Jennifer had about half of her funds raised from personal monies and other contributions. Now she needed to finish up the rest of the amount to raise by Apr. 13th, yesterday.

With everyone working together, meeting each Sunday, and telling friends we were able to see around 50 precious people attend the Pot Luck on Apr. 4th. Then we estimate another 18-20 people who came just for the Dance. Those who were not able to attend, sent bake sale items and silent auction donations. We had more than enough of both. We seek to find homes for 13 silent auction items yet - maybe for the missions trip at church. On the day of the fundraiser, we were blessed to receive $1400. Wow, that is amazing. People gave more for the silent auction prices, we had a successful Kid's Zone raffle - thank you Brookh for the beautiful items you prepared and the tall covered Oatmeal containers, and we sold many bake sale items. Thank you, A.J. for inviting your group of dancers to come and help and enjoy the dance. Mindy, A.J.'s son's girlfriend, did a fantastic job wrapping at least 100 potatoes before the event began. A.J.'s team also set up the tables. We had the potatoes donated by an usher friend and the toppings were from the Lyons - Thank you.

We see that the Lord does work best in small numbers. People were sorry that more people could not attend, but this is how we may see that it all was from the Lord's hand to be so blessed by using the amount of people who could come. We are content and there are no regrets. Dan Lyons did a perfect job emceeing. He asked if we could sell the rest of the bake sale items the next day on Sunday. This was a great help. $500 came in and we sold out - Palm Sunday was a perfect day to have 2 tables full of delicious treats.

The week after the Fundraiser/Benefit, Jennifer needed another $1000. We prayed and waited on the Lord to show us how He would provide again. Dear people asked how much she needed and again a few came through with varied donations. We turned down a possible church's donation in Sobisky when we had enough. The Seroogy sales went well on Good Friday. She has 2-3 boxes left to sell. I hope she can sell these soon since I love chocolate so much that they are slowly being enjoyed at our home :-).

Thank you, thank you for all of your participation. It was alot of fun and this was a beautiful event. It took many hours in a short amount of time available. You all were wonderful. Another thank you for Bill Eck who offered a deal with cellcom phone services at the Benefit and another thank you to Melinda Eck who helped do the dishes which enabled us to be done in the kitchen by 8:30ish PM. If there were any other thank yous missed, I thank you for anything unseen. The Lord saw and you will be rewarded.

I also want to mention a big thank you for Jennifer who has chosen to practice Kindness and Truth through her life (Prov. 3) of which made this successful since we see God's and other's favor. We are so blessed and humbled to have His favor. And so, the greatest thank you goes to our Lord Who has answered our prayers and again, has been as always, trustworthy and full of blessings.

Have a Wonderful Spring! PTL!
Lois Graham