Tuesday we had our biggest and best adoption fundraiser to date. Thanks to donations from Montalbano’s Seafood & HPC’s Cooking for Christ, volunteers who worked their buns off, and lots of people selling orders to everyone they know, we made over $2000 with our jambalaya sale! It was a huge success… Truly, thank you SO much to everyone who played a part in making it happen. It couldn’t have been done without each and every one of you- and that includes all you prayer warriors from across the nation!!
On Sunday morning, we went to church and gave our Miracle Offering… Once a year, the people of HPC gather together and give an offering that God lays upon our hearts individually. It’s supposed to truly be a miracle… Something that could not be done without God. Something that will stretch your faith to its limits… Every year we have done it, but this year was different. This year we were scared. Really scared. We are about to bring another child into our family, and things are already tight. But, I am happy to say that through our jambalaya fundraiser & donations given at Moses’ shower, God has already multiplied our Miracle Offering 5 and a half times over! And that doesn’t even include donations we received last week… We are still not quite to our financial goal yet- but we have no reason to believe that God won’t provide it. HE IS FAITHFUL!
Speaking of provision and multiplication, the jambalaya sale did a lot more than just provide for our needs. God pulled a loaves and fish moment there- Louisiana style! We ordered 375 servings of jambalaya, and when it was all dished out, we had a LOT leftover (more than three large pans). Our little fundraiser turned into a Baton Rouge Dream Center homeless outreach when I called up some people from the church & they went out and fed the homeless and hungry of our community. What a truly humbling feeling to know that I got to be a part of something like that.
(One of the AMAZING people who serve our homeless is Carole Turner- a fellow adoptive mom. She wrote a blog post about the experience. Check it out here.)
With the holidays approaching and the air cooling (even here in south Louisiana), my heart constantly aches for those people without a home and/or a family. They all have a story… Some are veterans, some just made one poor decision (how many of us have done that?!), some lost their jobs, some live in cars, some live under overpasses, many are little kids, but they are ALL children of the Most High God. And since we are His children, too, that makes them our brothers and sisters. We MUST take care of them!
Let’s get creative. Let’s be bold. Let’s sacrifice. Let’s spend time serving others. Let’s give up things we don’t really need. Let’s buy a few Christmas gifts that will better someone else instead of buying tons from wealthy corporations. Let’s pray for someone else’s needs more than our own. Let’s watch God move mountains in our own lives whenever we surrender to His plan for helping others. Let’s live an out-loud, radical Christian life that points people to the one and only living God who is SO GOOD to us!!
That is wonderful! We are holding a bake sale for our church’s adoption/orphan ministry (and Mercy) on Sunday. Please pray it is successful and people are led to give.
meghan…this is AWESOME. i love that you raised so much for moses’ ransom AND got to be Jesus to those who needed a meal. so, so wonderful.