Fundraising and Training

Fundraising:
On Saturday, I was driving down the road with my support letters and brochures next to me. Even though I wasn't hungry, I had the urge to go visit a friend who owns a restaurant in Oakwood. Since it wasn't a busy morning, we had the perfect opportunity to sit and talk. After about 30 minutes, we got on the topic of Japan, which led to Haiti. He asked to see my support letter and brochure; after taking a look, he got out his checkbook and wrote me a $500 check! I sat there and stared at the check (which may have been rude) and thought to myself, "God, thank you for blessing me with such a wonderful friend. You are SO good!" I sent it off to WHI just a few hours later. It was my first (and only) donation so far.  :D 

Hope for Haiti:
This Wednesday, North Georgia College & State University is doing their 2nd annual Hope for Haiti.  They're going to have a bunch of water related activities to raise awareness about the cholera issue in Haiti. Their goal is to raise $3000 which will buy 100 water purification filters in Haiti. The event hasn't even happened yet and they already have enough money to buy 14 water filters! I remember in December, I was giving a presentation on these water filters to the leadership department and walked out of the room after the presentation on the verge of tears. I thought I had blown the presentation. I was absolutely positive that NGCSU would never help Haiti again because I had butchered the presentation so badly. Then in January, I got a call saying that the leadership department wanted to have the 2nd Hope for Haiti and they wanted my powerpoint and statistics so they could show it to a few different classes on campus. Yet again, God was looking out for His people in Haiti and my nervousness, rosy red cheeks, and stammering couldn't get in the way of that. It was God that placed Haiti on the hearts of the students at NGCSU and now they're doing bigger and better things than I ever imagined!

Training:
After Hope for Haiti on Wednesday, I'll catch a flight to Washington D.C. for a weekend training session at World Hope International.  I'll be meeting Rachael for the first time! She is picking me up from the airport and allowing me to stay at her place for the weekend. I'm pretty sure she knows most of the people at WHI because she's been there before, but this will be my first time in the office. There are certain people that I've been emailing for anywhere from a few weeks to almost a year. I've got a picture in my head of what they all look like based on how they email, so I'm interested in seeing if they're at all what I've imagined. While we're at training, Rachael and I may be getting a finalized breakdown of our budget. It's housing that has the cost of living so high and the budget breakdown on hold. Haiti isn't like the USA, where we can get a tiny book of all the apartments and houses for rent in every restaurant in every city. WHI is sending their Haitian employees to search for apartments and houses for rent for Rachael and I. I'm sure that's difficult with teams coming in to the country week after week. With just 3 months until our trip, Rachael and I are doing all we can to get ready and relying on God for the rest. There is no possible way she and I could earn $24,000 apiece in only 3 months. When July comes, I know we'll both look at the accounts and know it was God who did all of that, not us.

Total money needed to go to Haiti: $23,500 :D
Prayer Requests: Haiti- NGCSU's Hope for Haiti- WHI and the training session- WHI staff- Rachael and I-  housing in Haiti- my support letters and potential donors