FUNDRAISING – A couple weeks ago, Pastor Hector called a meeting about this confraternidad that will be taking place at our little outreach church, La Gloria, at the end of November. This is where we’ve been building the new church building (which will be finished by then). Hector had a great idea that he wants to do a special foot washing ceremony at the conference, but that would require getting water pitchers, large basins, towels, etc. We also will need to have more seating (the benches that are in the old building right now will not even be enough to fill half of the new building), plus provide food for everyone who comes. Now, the people in our congregation are very, very poor and can barely afford to feed and clothe themselves and their families, let alone this big conference. So we decided to brainstorm. I asked about doing a fundraiser, maybe a bake sale or something is what I was thinking. So we decided to start off by seeing how well bags of cookies sold. I baked 2 batches of cookies and Judy pitched in some muffins and Rice Krispy treats to start. We sold them 10 pesos (about $1) a bag for either 4 Rice Krispy treats, 3 cookies, or 2 muffins. They sold like crazy! I also decided to see if I could help fundraise by making some fabric flowers to sell for 25 pesos each (about $2.50). After baking a couple rounds of cookies (whom Andres, Rocio, Hermenia, and myself have helped sell), we’ve had quite the success. We’ve just past 800 pesos (about $80) without breaking a sweat. We wanted to raise 1000 pesos before we tell Pastor Hector about our success and hand over the funds.
This is Arnulfo. He goes to La Gloria as well. This past year, he’s given his life over to the Lord, started coming to our church, and been baptized (you can see his picture in the post below about baptisms). He’s in a wheelchair because he was a victim of some sort of crime in Florida a few years ago. Since he’s become a Christian, his life has changed dramatically. He’s become a wonderful, loving father and we’re hoping to make him a deacon in the church soon. He and his family are some of the dearest to me among that congregation. They are faithful and hard working. It’s been difficult for him to find work though to provide for his family. We’ve been brainstorming with him things he could do, Carmen even taught him how to crochet! 
On Friday I was blessed with the opportunity to go with another kid, Jesus (from Las Aves), to pick out school clothes and supplies. A group from Canada met him a year ago when they built a house for his neighbor and have committed to supporting his schooling last year and this year. It really is fun to get to do school shopping again, especially when it’s not your money!
Another fundraising idea I had (but this time to raise money to get little tables and chairs for the kids classrooms, paint for the walls, a whiteboard, markers, maybe a cabinet for supplies, etc.), was to get the kids involved! I wanted them to help earn money and put work into making their classrooms their own. So I decided to have them create bookmarks. If anyone would like to donate money towards their classrooms, we’ll send (or hand) you a bookmark as a thank you and to remind you to pray for the children. I had each kid color the front and back of the bookmark and then write on it “Pueden orar por mi por favor. Please pray for me.” and then sign it. Also each bookmark is complete with a beautiful picture of the child (compliments of my sister, Elissa, who came to visit me 2 weekends ago). Next time I go home, I’m going to get them laminated and then they’ll be ready. If you are interested in donating (any amount will help, even $1), please shoot me an email at christina.j.harris@gmail.com and I’ll be sure to set one aside especially for you!
Lastly, I’ve been redecorating my house! Enough of this old lady stuff. It’s time for my house to look like someone young lives in it! So I’ve been spray painting and sewing up a storm these last couple weeks and look what I’ve done so far!
You’ll have to come over to get the real feel of it and to see all the other little things I’ve done and changed. But yeah, the really cool thing about all this is that I’ve probably not even spent $20 redecorating. THANK YOU GLOBOS!! Also a few things are compliments of the clothing room (i.e. I sewed the curtains out of old burlap curtains that were too short and an old, stained bed sheet that I cut up, another set of curtains were really dirty and stained, but I just scrubbed and washed them and now their as good as new!). So come visit me and see for yourself! 
