Save the date!!!

I am excited to say that on May 20 & 21 there is a great opportunity for you! We need help re-decorating a children's room at "The Children's Home and Aid" in Bloomington. I know this is an AWESOME opportunity for many to act upon what we all heard at the Light the Fire event. (Even if you weren't at the event.....you can just jump right in and get involved!!)

Kelly and Jami both spoke about how we should be reaching out to our own communities and ministering to those in need. Welllllllllllllllllllll...here's your chance....to help make many children feel special.

The Forgotten Initiative's mission is “to bring joy and purpose to the foster care community”

"We do this by partnering with our local foster care agencies to understand their needs and then we partner with churches (the Body of Christ) to bring awareness to the needs and connect the two! We want to mobilize the Body to be the Hands and Feet of Jesus to the forgotten in our communities! All that we do is because of Jesus and for His glory."

Monetary donations are needed and even "fun" donations are needed as well. :)

If you are wanting to make monetary donations to help with costs for this particular room-checks may be made out to Lifesong for Orphans and please mark going towards-The Forgotten Initiative!
If you know this is something you WOULD LOVE to be apart of....or if you have questions send an e-mail to info@theforgotteninitiative.org -Kathy will answer your question(s) or direct you to the right person! :)

Pass the word on about "The Forgotten Initiative" or "like" it on facebook! Also, be looking for the Initiative's awesome website that should be up and running the first week of May! :)

Light the fire....

...and the fire was lit!

Well, not sure how to put the event into words...(but I'll try!) ...the most important thing was that God was glorified and people's hearts were moved...and some were even moved to action!

"And if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your LIGHT will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday." Isaiah 58:10

Our Called2Care's goal for the evening was simply to bring awareness to Ordinary Hero, the needs in our own community, to support Kelly Putty and Jami Kaeb, and to spread the word about the 240 children who are orphaned PER HOUR!!!!

We wanted people to know that there is ONE (or two...) out there waiting for them....needing them....not only to be taken care of...and to have their physical needs met...but to share with them JESUS loves them and died for them!

Isn't that our ultimate goal as believers...to share God's Word?!?!!?

We are excited to hear how God has/and will touch hearts for the fatherless and those in need as the days and months go on....

We've already heard of one family that had adoption on their hearts....and after the event they left saying, "who is our one?", they then got a call on Wednesday(4 days later...)

and NOW HAVE THAT LITTLE BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

How GREAT is our GOD?!?!?!

We've heard of a few other families that have said they will be starting the adoption process! I can't wait to watch God guide these families to their little one! :)

If you weren't able to make it to the event...I pray that God will give you a burden for those in need. That doesn't always mean....ADOPTION....as much as I would love to bring one home in July for myself and every other family.....I don't believe that is what God has for me right now:)....but yet, He can still use me and YOU to serve others in the same town we live in!

I'll be posting pics in the next few days...:)

Shoes....

Well, I don't have a lot of time to blog right now...but just wanted to post a picture that I took at the event!

We thought that it'd be awesome for our church family(and kids) to get involved before the event arrived. So, we asked those in our church to bring in shoes for children in need to jump-start our event! We then had the children bring them up to the stage the Sunday before the event.....to show that 240 children per hour become orphans! 240!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HUGE reality check!

It also was a great way to get the children involved and for them to realize the need right in our own town and around the world!

Thank you to those that brought in shoes! :)

We already gave some shoes to Jami Kaeb. Jami said that Lifesong could use them for a missions trip that was coming up! So yay! We also will be looking into giving some of the shoes to some area missions/shelters around here and I will of course be taking a lot to ETHIOPIA! I can't waittttttttttt! :) Ok, more pictures to come about the Ordinary Hero---Light the Fire event we had last Saturday! What a great evening it was....listening to Kelly Putty and Jami Kaeb! :)

Oh, and my friend Whitney sang...so talented!

Soda Cans!

Do you want to know how much money my church family, students at PCS, friends, & amazing family all gave me by saving SODA CANS?!?! You ready?????

$374.86

I'm not even sure how I can express my thankfulness for everyone that has given money towards my trip(and last trip). Whether you have literally given me money, bought an OH shirt, or saved cans for weeks! I appreciate it soooooooooooooo very much! I truly am blessed to know all of you! :)

Here is a break down of items that got me to $374.86

Aluminum extrusions-shower stuff----$75.48 Painted Aluminum clip-gutters----$172.80 Shredder Tin-chalkboard----$2.67:)

Aluminum Cans----$123.76!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you so much Tim Cole for donating his time and all the gutters from CSI Exterior Solutions, Inc.!!! Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Keep saving those cans! I am hoping to take one more trip back with more cans before I leave in July! I also will STILL BE SAVING FOR KORAH even when I come back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, and a side note-if you didn't know already my church is having an Orphan Care event on April 9th! Kelly Putty from Ordinary Hero will be speaking!!!! Need more information go to cbcmorton.org and then to special events! HOPE to see you there! :)

A HUGE Thank you!!!!

So thankful for someone that saw a need and acted upon it....awhile back I had put on my blog that some blogs I follow....were collecting cloth diapers! They were then sending them to Ethiopia! I thought I would put it on my blog(for the 2 that read) that I could take some when I go back in July with OH....so a friend of the family that lives down in North Carolina told her friend Amanda Shore about my cloth diaper call-out! Sooooo......just last week I recieved 2 boxes of cloth diapers for little ones in Ethiopia! I was SO- SO- SO- SO- SO thankful and EXCITED for these cloth diapers...and just to think how many littles ones will be blessed! I can't wait to give these to the nannies and the BABIES when we visit the orphanages!!! Yay! :)
So, thank you Stephanie and Amanda...for seeing a need and doing something about it! I can't wait to show you pictures of the many little ones in Ethiopia that you will bless by acting on a need! :)

"The most satisfying, God-blessed giving is that which we do and then forget about. We do not wait for or want recognition-we're not even concerned whether the recipient is grateful or not."

-John MacArther

Ordinary Hero founder coming to Morton!

I am so excited to announce that Kelly Putty is coming to MORTON, Illinois! Yes, Morton! :)

I was able to finally meet "the Kelly" who is the founder of Ordinary Hero when I went with the OH team to Ethiopia this past July. I can't believe that so many are finally going to be able to meet Kelly and hear her huge heart for others.

It is going to be an awesome night! You won't want to miss out on hearing how Ordinary Hero began, Kelly's family adoption, Praise & Worship led by Whitney Winkler,hearing from other families that have adopted from our area and how we can reach out to those in need in our own COMMUNITY!


Please be praying as we "plan" the event, for those attending, and for Kelly as she leaves her family to help us spark this fire for the need of orphan awareness

in the Central Illinois area!!!
Will you help me spread the word?

Please tell friends and family and sign up at cbcmorton.org! (Go to special events)

If you know someone you want to invite but they don't feel led to ADOPT this event can still be for THEM!:)

A need....

Cloth diapers are needed!

If you have cloth diapers, know someone with cloth diapers, or would like to donate cloth diapers for babies in great need.....let me know!

Here are two blogs that describe the need for CLOTH diapers in Ethiopia. As you can imagine there are MANY...MANY...MANY babies and young children without diapers or underpants. Here are two amazing ladies who have taken on a mission to make sure these children have something on their bottoms! Take a minute and read these two posts...you'll see how many are READY to help this"Covered in Hope" project! Will you act upon this need?

I can also take cloth diapers with me when I go in July! :)
http://weloveourlucy.blogspot.com/

http://knowingnobounds.blogspot.com/



"Generosity does not include giving away something you will never miss."