More good news

We just heard from Julie, our Buckner representative, that Buckner has decided to go ahead and have mission trips to Kenya this summer, unless, of course, something else comes up. But that could have happened at any point in time. Julie will be going on the trip with us. This is exciting news. Now we can focus on the mission at hand.

UPDATE: Ken Hall's blog for the 29th confirms this: http://bucknerprez.typepad.com/ken_hall/2008/02/may-god-bless-k.html

Part II

Well, the first phase of our planning is over. Although we have a few small fundraising activities left, we are in the planning for what we will be doing phase. We finally know exactly who is going as the $250 deposit was due. Here is our team: James Brillhart, Louise Brillhart, Terry Dykes, Shelley Dykes, Sharon Horton, Linn Lewis, Erin Lewis, Blair Lewis, Kevin Scantlan, and Naomi Scantlan. We'll try and post pictures of the team later.

I also read good news on Yahoo news saying that a power sharing agreement has been formally signed by the parties the 2 parties that were in disagreement with the election results: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080228/wl_nm/kenya_crisis_dc . Please be in prayer that the good news continues and that our team will be able to go.

Hopeful news from Kenya

If you keep up with the news from Kenya, you know there are political discussions taking place to provide more power sharing between the various parties. Pressure is being exerted from various places to make sure that these changes are real and not window dressing. So, with this in mind, the going sometimes appears to be going slow. However, there is some hopeful news. If you keep up with Sam Harrell's blog ( http://africaexchange.org/KenyaNews.htm ) , you'll know that he made a trip to western Kenya without incident. Keep checking this blog and Ken Hall's blog ( President of Buckner ) for any updated news.

Auction is a Success

We were more than pleased at the outcome of the Fundraising Auction at church yesterday. About a week ago, we were not so sure. We did not have a lot of people who had signed up for the pre-auction dinner. We had a meeting and hashed things out. We had a good attendance from the team and we had our discussions. We decided that we were not going to loose any money and rescheduling it was really out of the question. As one member put it, "let's just go on with it and have some fun!" And fun we had. We have a professional auctioneer who attends our church and our pastor was able to approach him to call the auction. He and his wife volunteered and in my opinion, he made a big difference. You can tell that he's good at what he does. He knew how to coax the bids without offending, but making it fun to give. The whole team pitched in and it was great to see everyone working so well together. At the end of the day we had estimated that between the dinner and the auction, we had raised $5,000. It was a lot more than some of us had guessed. If you were a part of this, we want to thank you!

Fundraising 101

This year has been an education about fundraising. At first my approach was that this was a neccessary evil in order for some of our team members to be able to make the trip. But as we are about to have a Dinner and Auction this Sunday, I've discovered that the process that we began back in August has useful in ways other than just raising money. We've learned some important things about each other that we may not have found out until we got to Kenya. We've learned about our different personalities and how to adjust to one another in order to reach the desired goal. We've learned that we need to listen to each other even though we know that our idea is better. We've learned to laugh with each other. We've learned that we are different, but yet we can work together for God's Kingdom; that each of us have strength and weaknesses. I think we've been able to open up a little to one another and talk of our joys and our disappointments. I'm sure I drive some people crazy, but they have shown me God's grace to let me be who I am. Sometimes you don't find that out until you have to work together in a close situation.