Randomness: We're still here

Whoa...it's been a busy couple of weeks!  I've been working at a new job.  We had a really awesome weekend in Calgary with our church.  Then, I came down with a wicked flu, which I'm still fighting off.

So here's where we're at.  Our online auction seems to be wrapping up.  It appears next week may be the last week.  We have a few more generously donated items.  I feel as though the auction is just naturally winding down.  So, we'll accept it and leave it at that.

In the meantime, Lacey and I have been busy making our preparations for the trip.  Lacey received a crazy amount of immunizations on Wednesday.  Ouch, ouch and ouch!  She's a trooper, though and got through all
of them.  I'm up next on April 12th.  Yay.

Both of us have a tonne of physical donations to take with us to Rwanda and Kenya.  I want to say thank you to some special Angels who made that happen for me.

We're constantly going through experiences of faith, which is amazing.  We've had a few emotional moments and have been working hard to battle against the negative spirits that are trying to shift our focus from doing His work.  Please remember to keep us in prayer.

Little Akida and his mom Valerie

Lacey is still accepting cash donations for her immunizations, visas, etc.  I'm still raising funds for Home of Hope and, by now, you know how you can donate for that if you so choose.  Please just keep us all in prayer.  Remember our families, too.  They are sacrificing a lot for us so that we can go do God's work in Africa.  Please also pray for the other donors like you.  We want to make you proud and be an extension of your hands in Africa.

Thank you so much for reading our story and for all of your help and prayers!

Love,
Michelle

The Time is Drawing Near! Please Help.

I know that many of you may be getting tired of my pleas for help, but please read the caption of this photo. This is why I am going to Kenya!!! I have been placed on a medical team as well as a women's ministry team to assist these at-risk expectant mothers. I still need to raise $1194 to be donated directly to Home of Hope in my stead.http://homeofhope.ca/sponsor/onlinesponsorshipform I only have a few more weeks before the deadline! Please help me go to Africa. For these women, their babies and for all of those who have donated for me already. I don't want to let them down!

We want to REACH them before they need to be rescued:
One of  Home of Hope's FAVOURITE projects right now is helping starving, 
pregnant prostitutes in Kenya who see the sign to not throw 
their babies away. You can partner with us to help women and save their children.

Love,

Michelle

Gee, It's Another Update!

A little princess from the Dream Centre

Yes, it's time again for another update.  Thanks to the success of the online auction, our flight taxes are now paid off!  Thank you for your help with that!  As previously mentioned, Lacey has completed all of her fundraising for Home of Hope.  She is now raising funds for her immunizations which are coming up soon.

I am still raising funds for Home of Hope.  I have a current total of $1006 into Home of Hope and cash donations in the amount of $280 which are going toward my immunizations.  I have also recently acquired a part-time job, which I hope will assist me in accruing funds for the trip.  I still require $1194 to be donated directly to Home of Hope no later than three weeks prior to our departure, so by approximately April 9, 2013.  My immunizations are scheduled for April 12.

That is all for now.  Thank you so much for your help and prayers!

Love,
Michelle

Cost Breakdown - An Update

Sigh...as you can see our total $ to raise has increased as we have received updated information from Home of Hope on what we owe them after flights, then we've been told about visa costs, and have to cover flight taxes and immunizations.  So, I thought I would provide you a breakdown as to what we owe and what we have each received thusfar.

	HOH	Taxes	Immun	Visas	Incident.	Total Ea.
Lacey	2200.00	400.00	500.00	80.00	500.00	3680.00
Michelle	2200.00	520.00	500.00	80.00	500.00	3800.00
Total						$7,480.00
Earned Thusfar
Lacey	$2,640.00
Michelle	1267.00
Auction	885.00
Total	$4,792.00

The Auction totals are going toward the Taxes, so we're nearly there for those!  If you would like to make a direct donation to Home of Hope for myself, please do so by using the "Donate Now" button above and be sure to enter my name in the "Comments" box.

Thank you so much to everyone who has donated!  You are so amazing and we are praying for all of you to be richly blessed!

Please pray that we can be spiritually and emotionally ready for this trip.  I have been so busy with all of the upkeep and logistics of fundraising, and now I have a new job (thank you for your prayers about that!) that I feel I really need to spend more time on preparing spiritually.  Please pray that I am able to do so and not allow the stress of all of the logistics to keep me from it.

Love,
Michelle

You are Amazing, God!

Peter Tumaini was found abandoned and nearly suffocating...
He was rescued by HOH & has been living
in the Dream Centre for almost 2 years. He is a living miracle ♥

Wow!  Praise be to our Lord!  We've had so many miracles occur over the past few days.  The online auction is going so well.  You are all so generous!  We've had quite the "battles" over a few items and it has been really fun to watch.  We've also had some wonderful friends offering to donate their time and talents to our cause.  It's so touching and has brought me to tears of joy and thanksgiving so many times.  I want to say a special thank you to Sarah, Corrine, Dawn, Tina and Dwayne for their thoughtfulness and their amazing ideas!  Thank you to everyone who has reached out to us and who has spread the word about our cause.

I will post updated auction totals on Monday.  Remember, we do not run the auction on Sundays as we observe the Sabbath.

I wanted to share with you all this insightful video from 2011, when Home of Hope opened one of the Dream Centre homes for children.  Take a tour and learn about the wonderful work they are doing to help save babies!

Thank you again and love to you all!

Michelle

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

Since we began this blog, I have striven to keep it a positive place.  Whatever goes on behind the scenes has never made it's way on the screen.  Today, though, I can't help but be honest and bring up what has been on my mind.

One of my main struggles has always been trust.  I'm terrible at it.  I have two extremes: either I trust too easily (this happens with people) or I try to trust and end up taking my concerns back for myself (this happens with God).  So here I am, facing my trust issues again.  Oh, and then there is fear.  I'm not afraid of things you can see, the obvious like flying across an ocean, possibly getting a mosquito-born illness or being in a foreign country far from my family.  Nope.  Not afraid of those things.  I'm actually excited at the prospect...well, ok, not the mosquito-born illness; but, I digress.  I am afraid I may not have the funds to be able to go to Africa. There, I said it.

I've had numerous conversations with my husband, my friends, and pastors.  I've been prayed over, prayed for and given a stern talking-to.  Problem is, that doggone fear keeps rearing it's ugly head and I'm not doing my due diligence to trust the Father to take care of it all.  In theory, it should be easy, right?  Take a look at the old "fall back and your friends will catch you" exercise.  It sounds so simple.  Just give it all up to God.  I'm really trying and it's really hard.

I keep feeling down.  I'm working really hard with the blog, organizing the online auction, contacting churches, service groups, and media.  Yet, here I am worrying like crazy that I'm not going to reach my fundraising goal and be able to go to Rwanda and Kenya.  I'm in a unique situation, trying to establish my practice here in a new town (we moved to Lethbridge from Medicine Hat in October). My husband works a couple of jobs with crazy schedules.  It's not conducive to me finding work, though I have tried and tried.  Folks have told me to be patient, that it will come.  (Yup, you guessed it!  I also have difficulty with patience.  Oy!)

Don't get me wrong, we have been so blessed!  The support of my church family has been awesome!  I feel so indebted to those who have donated in my stead already and, of course, to our auction sponsors. I'm also so grateful for those in the media who have wanted to share our story.  The fact is, we all have those down days.  This is one of mine.

I'm thankful that I've been blessed to even know about what Home of Hope is doing in Africa.  I'm thankful that I have been able to share the plight of the widows and children there with more people.  Even if I can't go there to touch them personally,  I have to be thankful that maybe, just maybe I was able to make a difference by sharing their story and praying for them.

I don't exactly know how to close this post.  It's not the greatest piece of literature you will ever read, but it's from my heart.  I had to be honest.  Please continue to pray for us and donate if you can.  Most of all, please share the story of the women and children of Home of Hope.

Thank you and God bless you!
Michelle

Stand By Me

It takes one person to make a difference.  It takes a village of support to get them there.  Will you stand by us?

We can't do it alone.

We'd like to extend a special thank you to those who have recently joined us in our mission to raise funds for our trip to Rwanda & Kenya.  Thank you to our newest sponsor, Impact Nutrition of Lethbridge.

Thank you to my friend, Connie Livingston, of Birthsource.com for also sharing our story. 

Thank you to all of you who have bid on our online auction items.  Your support means so much.

If you haven't donated, yet, please do think of us.  We have about a month to finish raising funds to go directly to Home of Hope (Lacey has finished this portion) to ensure we are able to go on the trip.
God bless you all!

Love,
Michelle

Insert Clever Title Here

As I write this, I'm rocking out to Toby Mac on KLOVE and trying to come up with another clever title.  So far, I've got nothing...though by the time you read this post, there will be a title - clever or not.

I'll start with a quick update.  Our online auction is in full swing!  We began on Thursday, February 21 and have raised $125 so far.  All monies earned through the auction will be divided between Lacey and myself.  We would like to thank all of our sponsors once again for their donations of products and services.  Check out the links to our sponsors on the left side of the blog.  You can visit our auction on Facebook here - https://www.facebook.com/groups/auction4momsmissionofhope/

Lacey is a ROCKSTAR!!  She has compiled the funds required to be donated directly to Home of Hope and her current total is $2080!  Way to go girl!!  Lacey is still collecting cash donations to go toward immunization costs, flight taxes, donations to be left in Africa, and other incidentals. If you would like to send her a cash donation, please email her at lacey.klassen@gmail.com to make arrangements.

I, Michelle, am still at my previous total of $448.22, but I'm confident the Lord will provide.  We're working hard to raise funds and the rest is in His hands. You can still donate to Home of Hope in my stead by using the "Donate" button on the top left of this page and putting my name in the comments box.  If you'd like to send me a cash donation, please email me at michelle.maisonville@gmail.com for my mailing address.

In other fundraising news, we're looking into doing a Tupperware fundraiser as well.  So if you or someone you know needs some kitchen goodies, please keep us in mind.  We'll make sure to post an update when the fundraiser is set-up.  

Children from the feeding programme in Rwanda

We are also receiving donations of baby items, children's items, bras, and other necessities from some of our wonderful friends.  Thank you so much for your generosity.  It touches our hearts and we know how much it will bless the people of Rwanda and Kenya.  We can't wait to see their faces when we give them these gifts.

On Monday, February 25, we will be featured in the BirthSource.com blog run by my friend, Connie Livingston.  Be sure to check it out.  If you are a childbirth professional, you'll also want to browse her online store for a large selection of childbirth education supplies!  Thank you so much, Connie, for thinking of us!

That's all the news for now.  Please keep checking here for updates!  Thank you once again for all of your support and prayers.  We appreciate it!

Hope you and yours have a wonderful weekend!

God bless!
Michelle

Lights, Camera, Action!

We're so excited!  As you can see, we've made some updates to our blog to help you see how we're doing with our fundraising as well as make it easier for you to donate.  Thank you so much for your donations thus far.  We are praying God's blessings for all of you!!

A quick update, Lacey is still at about $1681.78 and I, Michelle, have now raised $448.22!  Slowly but surely we are making it!

We will be starting our Facebook auction within the week and will post a link here.  We now have several more items for all of you to bid on including plumbing services, massage, doula services, and more!

The big news for today is that we will be on Global News Lethbridge tonight with Mark Campbell!  Check us out at 6:00 pm.  The broadcast will also be online.  We will share video here when it is posted.

We will also be appearing on the Miracle Channel program entitled INSIGHT.  We will be on-air twice in March.  Once earlier in the month and again on March 25th.  We will keep you updated you on that as well.

Finally, we'd like to leave you with the following video.  As you watch, let these children move your heart.  Look at what God can do!  Look at what you can do and are doing as you support us to reach these little ones.  We cannot wait to hold them in our arms!

God bless you all!

Love,

Michelle

FUN-draising!

Hello, All!

We've been having such a wonderful time sharing our stories with all of you.  Thank you so much for taking the time to read our blog and follow us on Facebook!  We are in the process of putting together an online auction, which most likely will take place on Facebook.  We have already received a donation of four massage gift certificates from Dawn at Living Earth Massage.  I will be donating gift certificates for birth doula services, good for services in Lethbridge and surrounding areas.  Lacey has been busy making amazing crafts such as princess gowns, boy's ties and children's felt alphabet magnets.  We're looking for other Lethbridge-area businesses who may be interested in donating an item or two to help us raise funds for our mission trip. Our hope is to have the auction take place in time for you to purchase gifts for your loved ones for Valentine's Day. If you or someone you know may be interested, please email either Lacey or myself by Wednesday, January 30th .  Thank you so much!!

Love,
Michelle