Merry Christmas!!

Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!  As I look at my children, hear them talking about how gifts are not what Christmas is all about, I am overwhelmed with gratefulness.  Grateful that God gave me these two amazing gifts to love and nurture and raise, and so very grateful for the gift that was given to each and every one of us in Jesus Christ.  A King was born to ultimately die so we didn't have to.  That dear friends, is a love that I can't even find words for.   

I hope you all have a blessed day....and take time to reflect on what the day is really about!  Love you all!

Fun break

Instead of writing about the craziness around here right now, I thought I'd take a fun break!

I want to thank Amanda over at Bumber's Bumblings for tagging me in the Versatile Blogger award.  Amanda introduced herself at my blog one day, so of course I had to run over and say hello to her!  I have had fun learning about her and her perfectly created by God family via an open adoption.

So here's the rules....
~Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award.
~Share 7 things about yourself.
~Pass the award along to 7 other blogger's who you discovered and think are fabulous. 

Now here are 7 things about myself....

1.  I was never going to have kids, and if I did I surely was NOT going to be a stay home mom.  Now I can't imagine my life any other way.


2.  I  LOVE to travel.  I have been to Mexico, England, Spain, France, Italy and Morocco and have a million more places I would love to see.   We take road trips whenever we can and I cant wait until we can afford to travel more.

3.  I have mastered the 5 min clean up, so I can procrastinate all day long, then clean 5 mins before hubby gets home from work and he'd never guess I was a bum all day!  ;)

4.  I LOVE doing crafts but am the least creative person I know.  I can recreate a craft but could never think one up myself.

5.  I am slightly OCD about some things, though I have greatly relaxed since having children.  The one that lingers is my obsession with even numbers and having to have things grouped together by color. 

6.  Before I met my husband, I couldn't cook to save my life.  Seriously.  Now I could spend all day long in the kitchen and browse recipes for hours before shopping day.

7.  I LOVE to listen to music I can sing along to.  (though I am horrible...haha)  Whether it's my iPod, music in the car, Pandora from the TV, or something from my computer, I can pretty much guarantee I am singing along at the top of my lungs. <3  

I am passing this blogging award on to the 7 following fellow bloggers....some of whom I have been following for a while, and some who are new friends, but all of them are amazing!

Lara at The Farmer's Wife Tells All 
Melissa at Along the Narrow Road 
Karly at  Two Worlds, One Home 
Kym at Stringbean 17 
April at Immeasurably More 
Marcy at Smith Family...Off to Ethiopia
Lauren at Living By Faith

Katie Davis speaking

I have shared my heart many times about Katie Davis' blog, the wonderful things happening through Amazima Ministries, and how the journey of this young woman to follow her heart to caring for God's children in Uganda has been a huge inspiration in my life to strive to follow Jesus and take care of the least of these. I found these videos the other day over at a new blog I follow, and was moved to tears. Spend a bit of time and listen........

World AIDS Day

"History will judge us on how we respond to the AIDS emergency in Africa....whether we stood around with watering cans and watched while a whole continent burst into flames....or not." ~Bono

"Every minute of every day, a child under 15 is infected with HIV - the overwhelming majority of children under 15 who are HIV-positive get infected through their mothers at birth. Without treatment, half of these children die before they reach their second birthday." ~ Gabriel Byrne

"No war on the face of the Earth is more destructive than the AIDS pandemic." ~Colin Powell

“AIDS is no longer a death sentence for those who can get the medicines." ~Bill Clinton

Today is World AIDS Day. I have been one of the many who have remained uneducated about the disease over the years, but I am working on changing that. I am working on becoming educated. HIV/AIDS is no longer a guaranteed death sentence. It is now considered a "manageable chronic disease". But minute by minute we sit by and let millions upon millions of  children become orphans when their parents could of been saved.  We then let these millions upon millions of orphans be sentenced to DEATH when there is no need for it. There are around 30 million AIDS orphans in Africa alone and that number is rising dramatically.

These children can be SAVED.  They can live a full long life.  With proper medication they can reduce the HIV virus in their blood to levels that are UNDETECTABLE.  These children need US.  Project Hopeful is an organization dedicated to educating people and helping to find HIV positive children homes where they can thrive and get healthy.  Take a minute to watch the video.  Then help spread the TRUTH!

Meet Christie

I would like to introduce you to my new friend Christie from COMPASS IN MY HEART.  She took a trip to Uganda, fell in love with a village where they still practice witchcraft, and came back here to the US determined to make a difference for them.  She has helped get the village people clean water, helped build a new school so that 100 more children can attend school than were able to before, took on the task of finding sponsors for the 120 children who were already enrolled in school who had their sponsorships pulled this year (plus the 100 NEW students the school will have), and did I mention she has given up everything here in the United States to MOVE to that village in Uganda?  In fact...she leaves TOMORROW!  I am giddy with excitement for her....it's not an easy path to follow and go to the hard places for Christ.  But she is doing it.  And we can help her.  AND we can help the 103 children that still need sponsored for the school year that starts sometime after the first of the year. 

First off....go to her blog and spend a few minutes reading.  Get to hear her heart yourself.  Other ways you can help is with her jewelry.  She is selling Ugandan bead jewelry as fundraising for the village.  Currently she is giving some away for FREE!!!  Definitely go learn how you can do that.  The next thing you can do is sponsor a child for the school.

Sponsorship is only $100 for the whole year.  That will give the child education, school supplies, uniforms, new shoes, medical and dental care (for the first time ever for most of them) a chance to hear the gospel and how much Christ loves them, and best of all that child will get HOPE.   

HOPE that they can do something with an education to hopefully help impact the poverty they live in. 

HOPE that they can change the country and world they live in.   

HOPE for an amazing future.

Don't have $100 to spare?  Do you and 9 others of your friends have just $10 each?  How about at work?  Think you can get enough co-workers on board for $5-$10 each to sponsor a child?  Make this Christmas count.  Invest in a life instead of investing in something that you will need to keep buying batteries for every month or two....or something that will end up in a closet never to be looked at again....or something that will just end up being re-gifted because the recipient never really wanted it in the first place......  

Invest in a life and give these wonderful children hope.

 

And the winner is.........

Hello from Seattle!!! 

We had to leave about a day earlier to come visit family for Thanksgiving because of BAD weather conditions, so sorry I didn't get a winner posted this morning.  Now that we are here and settled in, my beautiful nieces helped me pick a winner.  I can post pics once I get back home, as I do not have a USB cord with me.....but after putting all the names into a shoe box (and I threw one extra entry in for everyone just because...haha) my dear Monea pulled out.............

LARA from The Famer's Wife

Congratulations Lara!!!!  Let me know whether you want the LOVE or the BUY LESS.  Also chat with me about size/style!

Recycle Love Orphan Sunday

I just wanted to share a few of the videos from our Recycle Love Orphan Sunday event over the next couple days. This is Aaron and Marcy and their two amazing treasures. We were blessed by this wonderful family coming to share some of their story and heart. And as many times as I have seen this, I am moved to tears every time...... Take a few minutes and listen to how God worked wonders in their hearts as soon as they let Him. (and no commenting on bad the camera moves around....I was multitasking....haha!)

Give-Aways and Shopping!

Have I ever said I love give-aways?  Hehehe...if not, I DO! 

First off, a reminder about the RECYCLE LOVE TEE give-away here on my blog....GO HERE for a refresher about it and to ENTER!  Only a few days left to enter and it is SO EASY!  Your choice of the Orphan Sunday tee or the Buy Less Give More tee.

After entering that give-away, hop on over to my friend Lara's blog...The Farmer's Wife.  She is doing an AMAZING give-away to raise funds for bringing their little one home from Ethiopia.  Seriously, the amount of stuff being given away is sheer craziness!!!  Go. Enter. Now!  :)

Now about some shopping.... Erica, over at The Road Less Traveled is hosting a "Shop Hop"....there are links there for adoptive families that are selling things for fundraising.  Go do some Christmas shopping there... not only do you get your shopping done, you help bring an orphan one step closer to their forever family!!

That's all for now!!  <3

Win a free Recycle Love shirt!!!

I am so excited......it's the very first give-away for this blog!

This is your chance to win a Recycle Love shirt!   The shirts are American Apparel and printed on their SUPER SOFT and comfy tri-cotton blend.  You will have your choice of the Orphan Sunday "Love" tee...or the Christmas "Buy Less Give More" tee.

 

I am new to this give-away thing, so bear with me...haha!  I've tried to make it really easy to enter for you.  Here are the ways you can earn entries.....

• Facebook about the give-away. For each day that you do it, you get an entry.  ( I will need to be your friend so make sure you friend me...)
• Blog about it and get an entry
• Become a follower of this blog and get an entry.  If you already are, you get an automatic entry.
• Buy a t-shirt and you get 5 entries for a chance to win an additional shirt. (that way you can have one of each if you want..haha!)

Leave me a comment about what you have done/are doing so I can start adding the names to the hat!  :)  This give-away will run until Monday the 22nd of November.   I am so excited to see who wins and meet new people!  <3

T-Shirt Reveal!!

Okay, not really....haha.  The shirts are already on the Recycle Love website, and I have been posting them for days on Facebook....I just liked how exciting that title sounded! 

Here is the deal....shirts are only $10 again!  WooHoo!!  They are currently only on a pre-order basis.  As soon as we have sold enough shirts to fulfill the printing requirement, we will have the first set of shirts printed up.  Hurry over to www.recyclelovefestival.com to order one, or two, or three....  Great and VERY affordable present idea that gives twice!!  (and those who order more than one shirt will have some of the shipping charges refunded back to you!)   If you are local and won't need anything shipped, contact me and we will get you taken care of!

The "Love" shirt that is representing our Orphan Sunday event will have proceeds go to the Visible Grace house and school in Kenya for abandoned children, and Show Mercy International to sponsor children in Uganda.   The "Buy Less" shirt representing our Advent Conspiracy event will give clean water to 3 children in Africa for a year with each shirt sold.   Here are the designs....

Adoption Spotlight......Starkey Family

Meet the next family in my series of Adoption Spotlights. I first stumbled upon the Starkey Family blog when they were in the process of getting their homestudy done, and have been following along ever since!  Here is what April had to say.......

~What led you decide on adoption? What role did your faith play in that process?

We had known since before we were married (we had dated since we were 15) that we wanted a family and could not wait to have children. We got pregnant a month and a half after being married and were delighted and even got to see Jeremiah's precious heart beat but right before heading into the second trimester we miscarried. We went on to have three more miscarriages and go through multiple doctors, tests, months of waiting for the next 4 1/2 years. We finally found out from a doctor in Chicago why I kept miscarrying but at the same time God started working on our hearts. We started praying that He would change our desires to match His desires for our lives. That is when He started laying adoption STRONGLY on our hearts. So we spent time praying and researching about it and finally made a decision weeks before the end of 2009 and decided to officially begin our journey on January 1st, 2010. Our faith had the BIGGEST role in our journey because we decided that we wanted God's plan for our family and gave it and surrended it completely to Him. It was VERY hard and I remember the day, I remember the tears as I gave it over to Him and said here Lord, even if it means me never having children, I want your plan for my life. God knew all along the plans He had for us and for Isaac and because of His amazing plans, we are now united as a family and give God all the glory for orchestrating it all out. In the beginning of the journey He gave us a verse that carried us through the whole way and He proved it to us time and time again...Ephesians 3:20!

~Did the fact that there is an orphan crisis have anything to do with deciding?

A little bit. It didn't make the beginning/first decision for us as only God working in our hearts did that but after we said Yes to adoption and started the journey, we found out more and more about the orphans, how many there are and from there on until this day God has not stopped breaking our hearts for the orphans.

~How long did you "contemplate" it before actually starting the process?

I would say a few months and then when we really started praying about it, probably weeks to a month or so!

~If you were to give one thing of advice to someone *thinking* about adopting, what would it be?

Don't hesitate, don't wonder if this is something you should do or not and don't worry about the finances because there are over 147 million orphans in the world and if God has laid them on your heart it's for a reason. If His plans are for you to adopt then He will provide. When we started our journey we had NO money and had to come up with $27-$30,000 and God did it all. First we got a $13,500 grant, second we had amazing fundraizers and support from our friends and family, third friends of ours lended us the $10,000 we needed to get on the waiting list so we didnt have to get a loan and have interest and told us we didnt have to pay them back until we get the adoption tax refund back and fourth another person who we had never met sent us a check for $600 to cover the attorney fees we needed to finalize Isaac's adoption. God definitely did what Ephesians 3:20 says!

~If you were to give one thing of advice to someone who has just started the process, what would it be?

Cling to God, ask for a verse from Him to carry you through, seek out other adoptive families to walk the journey with, start a journal or blog to share your thoughts and feelings as you go through the journey and know that the waiting will be long sometimes but OH SO WORTH IT!

~What else would you like to share?

I feel like I love Isaac more than if he would have came from my womb...that is how special, how great the love that we have for him because of Gods plans to put Isaac in our family. Isaac was going to be aborted, that was his birthmom's original plan but God has greater plans for Isaac and they included life and we feel so blessed and are so grateful to God for choosing us to be Isaac's parents!

Meet Suzanne!

I LOVE the blog world and how people are so easily connected! Suzanne stumbled upon my blog one day last week, so of course I had to check hers out....and I LOVED what she is doing! I just had to introduce you as part of my series of adoption spotlights!  :)  Here is her story in her own words......

Hello! We are Phil and Suzanne and were soon to be empty nesters, my youngest is a senior in high school. WERE is the operative word here! While most of our friends our age are looking forward to their kids going off to college, becoming empty nesters, and retirement, we are starting all over again! About 12 years ago the Lord placed adoption in my heart [Suzanne] and I knew that I knew that I knew that I had another child, perhaps children, somewhere on the other side of the world.

As life sometimes does, a curve ball was thrown at me and my family as I had known it was changed forever due to infidelity. Our family was destroyed and I became a single mom to my two boys. Yet the desire to adopt never left me. I’d pray, ‘Lord, if this is not from You, please take the desire from me.” The desire never left, it only became stronger. But I had no idea how to make it happen. I was a single mom - that is hard work!

Then the Lord brought a wonderful man into my life and we fell in love. We talked of marriage. I was completely up front about adoption and how I felt the Lord placed it on my heart. I told this wonderful man that adoption was in my future, and if this wasn’t something he was interested in, that was ok, it’s not for everyone, especially at our age. But I wouldn’t be able to marry him – I needed to follow where the Lord was leading me. He liked the idea of raising another child, but he felt strongly that he needed to finish his military career before we adopted. He missed a lot of his children’s growing up years due to deploying all over the world protecting our country and he didn’t want to miss out on another child’s life.

We married on Christmas Eve 2005. My husband finished serving our country in April 2010 and we’ve started our journey to find the little person the Lord has hand picked just for our family. When we crunch the numbers and see in black and white how much this adoption will cost, it is mind boggling. We serve a mighty God and we are stepping out in faith and following Him on this journey.

I feel led to pay it forward as I fundraise for our own adoption and started a fundraising blog onelessbrokenheart.blogspot.com where I plan to partner with another adopting family and help them raise funds for their adoption also. My first highlight family that I am working with are Bryan and Kim Young. Their dossier has been in Ethiopia for five months now. One Less Broken Heart is having it’s first give~away and is also selling Family Values canvases and aprons. Will you join with us and help us bring our little guys home?

~Suzanne

Team One Less Broken Heart

Bringing them home, one orphan at a time.

 I love how they haven't even adopted yet, nor have they finished fundraising, yet they are already paying it forward!  Go check out her blog and enter the fabulous give-a-way!  There is some great stuff up for grabs!

Adoption Spotlight......Lara

**November is National Adoption Month.  With Recycle Love putting on an Orphan Sunday event on November 14th, we thought we'd start a series of adoption spotlights.  The idea is to hear about different families and their thoughts, feelings, experiences, and different stages of the journey to their child.  Our hope is to raise enough awareness, feed a passion for orphans, or spark enough curiosity that people will come to the event.  For those who aren't close enough to come to the event, hopefully it will still start them on some sort of journey because their hearts have been stirred.**_________________________________________________________________________  ~Adoption Spotlight: Lara~

~What led you to decide on adoption? What role did your faith play in that process?  Where are you in your adoption journey?  Adoption was something that my husband and I always thought would be neat to do "someday." We talked about it from the time we were dating. For us, it made sense that there are children who do not have parents and we are parents who want children, therefore, we can fulfill a need while doing something we want to do anyway (i.e. having children.) Our faith played a huge role in our process. Without our faith in God, we probably never would have taken the leap and begun the adoption. Faith is how we knew God would provide for us to bring our child home, even when it seemed mathematically impossible. We are currently a waiting family, meaning our paperwork is complete and we are now waiting to be matched with a child.
~Did the fact that there is an orphan crisis have anything to do with deciding?  Yes. The orphan crisis became something we could not, as Christians, ignore any longer.
 ~How long did you think/pray about it before actually starting the process?  We initially discussed adoption 7 years before beginning the process. At that time, it was discussed in very far-off terms. Through the years, it would periodically come up but we always felt like we would just never be able to afford to adopt. About 7 months before beginning the process, we decided we were going to begin. At that time we started saving and praying to prepare ourselves.
 ~If you were to give one thing of advice to someone *thinking* about adopting, what would it be? My advice would be to know that adoption is fulfilling a need, but be wary of the "rescuer" mentality. Your adopted child should have the same right to someday hate you as your biological children. I would just say to make sure that you are prepared to parent a child who has been through trauma. Don't expect them to spend their lives thanking you for adopting them, just as you wouldn't expect a biological child to spend their life thanking you for carrying them and giving birth to them.
 ~If you were to give one thing of advice to someone who just started the process, what would it be? Be patient. Adoption is a marathon, not a sprint. Don't take it personally when people make rude comments or just don't understand your motivation to adopt.

~What has been the most beneficial book, class, blog, or website to you in the journey? Our adoption agency has a listserv (Yahoo group.) Being able to get to know the other families has been an enormous blessing. Our agency is really like a family that rejoices together and carries each other through difficult times.  To read more about Lara and her family and their adoption, go check out the family blog at The Farmer's Wife Tells All.  If you are interested in seeing the fabulous t-shirts they have designed and are selling to help them go get their child, go HERE. They would make wonderful Christmas presents!  Give a gift that serves a purpose!

Give away time!!

Have I ever said how much I LOVE give aways?  In case I haven't....I LOVE THEM!

This first one is from Melissa over at Along the Narrow Road....they have been officially placed on the waiting list for their child from Ethiopia.  She is giving away the chance to win $150.  Yep... $150.  Definitely worth a trip over there!





This next give away I am *kind of* involved in...haha! Rachel is giving away a Custom Blog Header (by me) to celebrate how excited she is about her blog makeover! So if you are looking to jazz up your blog a bit....head on over to Love With Abandon and enter!

Coming soon!!

November is National Adoption Month.  On Sunday Nov 14th, Recycle Love is putting on Orphan Sunday here in Lebanon.  More details to follow very soon....but for now....mark your calendars!!  (Oh, and T-Shirts coming soon!!!)

The Blog Guidebook

Ever want to find some good blogs but looking for some organization?  Looking for Giveaways?  How about some Linky parties to join?   The Blog Guidebook is fabulous!!  You must check it out!!!

Urgent Prayer Request

Here I am humbly asking for prayer. As this is a public blog, I need to keep details pretty non-existent since it isn't my story to tell, but I am asking you to pray and to trust.

A very special person in my life needs prayer. They are struggling with more issues than I could even list right now, and if they were to just open their heart to God, He would sustain them. I know He would. I have been praying for what seems like forever. I have a couple friends here and there who sometimes pray with me.

But I am here crying, literally begging for prayers. I KNOW what happens when a group of people stand united in prayer. I have seen miracles. I know it is possible. Please pray with me for the Lord to open their heart to Him. Pray that this person allows the Lord to carry their burdens for them and help carry them through this next phase of life. And please pray that the Lord so completely changes this persons heart, that they are invigorated with a new passion for life. That they no longer feel so beat down and ready to give up. Please join me in prayer for this.

Thanking you for your help, and trusting in the Lord.

Time for a change

I have a few different posts in the making right now...but thought I'd start off with the name change of the blog.  :)  When I originally started blogging, I had not really started my walk with the Lord yet, (though I was just going to church to go to church), I was suffering a bit of depression and the lack of a personal identity mommies can sometimes get, especially when they are stay-home-moms, we had just up and moved to an entirely new state with not a single friend or family member around, and husband was laid off.  It was  a difficult season of life, and I felt like I needed an outlet to try to reclaim my "old self".  I called the blog "A Little Bit of Me" because by blogging my thoughts and such, I was ultimately trying to find myself.

Now, 2 years later I have been on the journey that all started in the blogging world.  And I have started to find my own identity again, though it is a far cry from my "old self".  I have started to find myself first and foremost walking with the Lord, I have found a new appreciation of the gift of my children (though they always were my life...), I have found I have a true passion for the orphan and the least of these, and I have realized that the time is right now to truly live.

I have decided to call my blog "Live. Love. Matter."  I want to live right now, today and every day, a life that is full of love, a love that matters and makes a difference in someones life.  I want to strive daily to love as Christ loved us.  Whether that be by loving my children, my husband, my friends, parents, strangers, orphans, outcasts, or whomever. 

This quote by Mother Teresa sums it up pretty well....  "Spread love everywhere you go: First of all in your own house.  Give love to your children, to your wife or husband, to a next door neighbor...Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier.  Be the living expression of God's kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting."

Love to Junk Posse!!!!

A few months back I had the opportunity to FINALLY order something for myself for Mother's Day from JUNK POSSE! And I LOVE LOVE LOVE her work!!  We worked together and she came up with this design for me.  The back charm says "LIVE LOVE HOPE PRAY"

Knowing how kind of a heart she has, and that most of her work goes to orphans and adopting families and such, I ventured out and asked about a possible donation to raffle off a necklace at our Recycle Love Festival.  I have to say how amazing she is!  First off, she didn't just send one necklace....she sent TWO!  Above and beyond what we had asked for.  Secondly.... I am IN LOVE with the necklaces she made!  Her are pics of what she did for us.... the first one is perfect and simply has our "Love is not for sale" that we used as part of our motto for Human trafficking awareness, and the second one has the dove the we used on our Beloved Be Free design and prayer team t-shirt, and on the back it says "Set yourself free and fly".  I am totally going to order a dove necklace!!  :)

Anyway....head on over to Junk Posse, look at her AMAZING stuff and help orphans and adopting families in the process!!! 

Recycle Love Festival 2010

At the end of the night on Saturday, a dear friend asked me how I felt. The word that came to mind was "humbled". That one confused her as it was the last thing she expected to hear. She was thinking I'd be breathing a sigh of relief that it was over, and excited that it went so fabulously, (and I did feel those) but first and foremost I felt humbled. The whole day we could just feel the Holy Spirit working and it was humbling. God doesn't need any of us to do things for Him. But He loves us so, and CHOOSES us to do His work. Well over 300 people showed up and hearts were stirred. People were in tears from the words of our musicians and speakers. The worship at the end of the night had a TANGIBLE feel of God's presence. Saturday nights Festival was an event not soon to be forgotten, and it had nothing to do with us. And I couldn't be happier!!

Being as we jumped into this head first with NO IDEA what we were doing....everyone rolled with the punches fabulously. Satan worked hard to deter us...as I posted about before. But by the time show time came along, we had everything we needed and MORE! We had vendors who were able to share about their organizations, fundraising, etc... Musicians were able to showcase their talents, and guest speakers we were so honored to have! Show Mercy International talked of orphans, starving children, lack of clean water and their Field of Dreams they are building. The Hope Center of Sweet Home was able to talk about how it helps LOCAL women in bad situations. I was able to speak up for 147 Million Orphans by running a table with the help of a couple of fabulous friends and helped to inform many of the state of the worlds orphan crisis. Jessica Richardson spoke as a former victim of trafficking and first truly stirred hearts, shocked almost everyone, and started the tears. Dr Bill Hillar, (who's story inspired the movie Taken) further stirred emotions. When he told point blank how his daughter was kidnapped, drugged, sold, raped, tortured, and literally mutilated for trying to escape, there was not a single dry eye or jaw NOT dropped on the ground. After all of that heart wrenching speaking, we closed it up with the most amazing time of worship ever that reminded us that we are all God's children and that he LOVES US!

The main goal going in wasn't to put on a great Festival....it was to raise awareness about Human Trafficking, the orphan crisis, and the unnecessary lack of clean water and food for much of the world. I would say that goal was definitely accomplished. And the best part is that it was all God. Gotta Love It!!!

Here are a few links to articles about the event, and some pictures to give you an idea of what it looked like.

Democrat Herald
Lebanon Express

Warfare

Time seems to be zooming by! There is less than a week and a half left until Recycle Love Festival! Behind the scenes EVERYONE involved has been hard at work doing their part. There have been car washes, speaking to churches, speaking with businesses, calling radio stations, giving newspaper interviews, putting posters and flyers up all over town and the neighboring towns, making those posters, a designer making us wonderful t-shirts, folding & organizing & selling & shipping t-shirts, meetings, networking....and I could still continue. But I think you get my point! ;) We are all busy. In the midst of all the "busy-ness" we are trying to take pause and remember....this is all God. It was His plan. He brought us together. It will be His spirit that will change hearts. It is only through Him that we are doing what we are doing. He is the one giving us what we need to make this happen. Without Him and what He is giving us to do what needs to be done, this Festival would not be happening.

While we are holding steady to the truth, there is warfare starting. We are being attacked by the enemy. People who have made commitments to the event are backing out, marriages are being attacked, friendships are being tested, expenses are piling up that were never supposed to be there, things are coming up that are preventing us from getting the help needed for things like car washes, people to help day of, etc... Satan is at work HARD trying to stop this event from being a success. The thought that Satan is working so hard in a way makes me rejoice.... proves that we are truly trying to love as Jesus loves us. This is now where I am asking for your help, though. Yes, I know I have asked you to buy t-shirts to give clean water to children. I have asked you to help spread the word about the event. But this is SO MUCH BIGGER! We need prayer. Prayer that through this all we stand firm in the truth. Prayer that everyone involved stays focused on what is important and is able to realize Satan is at work and not to let him in. Prayer that the Holy Spirit will be a tangible presence at the event and people will leave forever changed. Prayer that God's will be done. Prayer that hearts are changed. Prayer that lives are changed. Prayer that people who didn't know Jesus, come to know Him. Prayers over the speakers and musicians that they find just the words to use to truly make a difference in someones life. Prayer for our worship leader at the end, and the the Lord truly speaks through her and her amazing voice. Fact is...we need prayers. And I am asking for anyone out there to please join forces with us praying over this event.

Thank you for everything everyone has done thus far to support us! You are all fabulous!

Making a difference

In case you were wondering...we still have some T-Shirts left. :) I must admit, I am enjoying how widespread these shirts are getting shipped....California, Alaska, Florida, New York....very exciting!!! But what is even more exciting is that for every shirt sold, 3 children in Africa get clean water for a year!! If you are interested in a shirt that will make a difference in the lives of children, head on over to RECYCLE LOVE FESTIVAL and snag one!! Orders are shipped usually within 2 days, unless we are temporarily out of that size. In that case, you will get an immediate email from me letting you know, and also letting you know when we have that size expected back in!

In case you forgot how awesome the shirts are, here are some more pics! The pic of shirts getting ready to ship on my table is just to show the color difference. The crew and womens shirts are the darker grey, the V is the lighter. And I must add.... my shirt is totally my new favorite!! Seriously so soft and comfy! :)