Goal #73 COMPLETE (plus an Uganda update)

Another goal checked off my Project 101 in 1001 list. Read about my journey here.  

It's two-for-one day and today you'll get not only an inside scoop on the 28th of 101 goals to be checked off my list - but also receive a quick update on our Uganda trip!

Goal #73 COMPLETE:  Make beaded crosses to sell at Easter and Christmas

This past Easter, my super-cool cousin Marla (the author and speaker - I'm a little proud to be related to her) allowed me to leverage her cyber popularity and host a beaded cross giveaway on her blog. A sweet lady named Gail won and I received a quite a few Easter orders from those who needed to sooth their giveaway losses by purchasing a cross anyways. 

The coolest thing about this giveaway was that God totally used it (along with our respective blogs) to heal a long-standing... shall-we-say "bruised" relationship between Marla and myself. And my, oh my has He helped our friendship to blossom since then! God is awesome and I love that He used modern technology to bridge such a gap. 

Then, just before Christmas, I started offering the crosses again, but this time used one of them to raise money for our trip to Uganda and to raise money to feed kids in Africa through Amazima Ministries. The We're All in This Together cross (pictured left) uses beads made by women in Uganda, Africa and when one sells, I send 50% of the profits back to Amazima to help feed the children of those same women. (You can read more about how that works here). To date, the crosses have provided - 765 meals for a child in Africa!


The process of completing this goal was far more satisfying then I ever dreamed it could be - healed relationships, food in the tummies of some precious children, and support of our Uganda trip. Wow - all glory to God and His amazing ways! 

Quick Uganda update: Thanks to many generous donations from our friends and family (and even some complete strangers), along with a number of odd-jobs (some of them truly odd), we have raised about 56% of our support! God is so good to provide and I have been blown away by how generous so many people have been.

(Edit: 1-21-11 - I made a mistake on the above calculation (I'm an artist - math was never my strong point). We actually just now have 48% of our total funds raised. God is still just as good though and we are still just as blown away at everyone's support!)

We'll soon be having a team phone conference with Visiting Orphans to discuss more details of our trip, so we'll continue to post updates here. Thanks to everyone for your support - both playfully and financially. We appreciate you so much!