Texas Chick-fil-A & Silent Auction

Chick-fil-A Spirit Night might be the easiest fundraiser I ever participated in. All we needed to do was invite our friends and family to enjoy dinner at Chick-fil-A on our Spirit Night, March 25th, and our team received a share of the profit from the sales we brought in. Setting up the Sprit Night only required a few phone calls with a manager at our local Chick-fil-A. Many of our friends and family were able to drive thru and support our trip. Other friends and family joined us at the Chick-fil-A for dinner. The best part of the whole night was the opportunity to share with those friends about our trip and awaited adoption. I really appreciated the support we received. I enjoyed meeting a few of the Wilson's friends and family. It was a great night.

Another fundraiser the Texas part of our mission team organized was an online silent auction. We used Facebook to promote and conduct a silent auction with donated items. The Wilson family and I approached our creative and local business owning friends for donations of crafts, art, and gift certificates to auction off to benefit our trip. Since all of the items were generously donated, all of the profits went directly to benefit our trip. We had 43 items to auction off, and we were so appreciative off all the donations. I approached a craft boutique in town, and several of her vendors that don't even know me donated several items. It was humbling to know that people I didn't even know were supporting our trip.

The auction was held on Facebook. We posted pictures of the items, and anyone could bid on an item by commenting on the picture. The highest bid at the end of the weekend was the winner.

My friend Pam Cavitt, who adopted her daughter Abby from Ethiopia six years ago, crocheted some baby hats and shoes for our auction. Abby was so excited about the hats and shoes being used to benefit the children in the Ethiopian orphanages.

Many of my friends had a good time bidding on items on our auction.

Two particularly "hot" items that got lots of bids were the mother/daughter apron set and the hand-sewn chair.

After our first silent auction, a friend of mine donated two Pandora bracelets to auction off in a second silent auction. The Wilson family and I gathered a few more items and held a smaller, second silent auction on Facebook. Since Mother's Day was approaching, we decided to auction things that would be great gift items.

After the second auction, I was so surprised to find that my trip was close to being paid for. The first conversation I had with our team leader, Cindy Douglass, she asked me what I was most worried about of all the things that might be worrisome about our trip. I replied that my biggest worry was affording the trip. We were in the process of saving money for our adoption from Ethiopia. Paying for the mission trip on top of saving for our adoption was something I was going to have to trust God to do.

After the fundraisers, the trip was completely not a burden at all. It was a blessing to see God provide for my mission trip and the trip for the rest of our team. It was also a blessing to include others in our trip, allowing them to have the blessing of being a part of our mission to Ethiopia.

Written by Jennifer Lane