Team Prayer Calendar

We hope many of you will use our team prayer calendar as a way to pray for specific needs for our trip. Prayer is a vital part of any mission trip and we hope you will pray with us as we seek to love His children.

August

2014

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
					1	2
					Pray that God would be preparing the hearts of each team member for the work He intends to accomplish in and through them.	Pray for the team leader, Cindy, that she would lead with wisdom and integrity and be granted discernment in all circumstances. Prov 2:7
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Pray for the team that they would be reminded that God will not leave them until all the work for the Lord is finished. 1 Chron 28:20	Pray that the team members would be surrendered fully to the Holy Spirit and therefore overflowing with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and self control.   Gal 5:22	Pray that the team members would not worry over their weaknesses but be reminded that God’s power is made perfect. 2 Cor 12:9-10	Pray for the team members that they would put on the whole armor of God. Eph 6:10-18	Pray for the team members, that each day they would be concerned with making His name known and not distracted by their own needs, desires, or fears. John 3:30	Pray for the team members as Satan tries to tempt, distract, and discourage them that their faith would not fail. Luke 22:31-32	Pray that the team members would rely heavily on God and that He would lead their every action for His glory, not their own.
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
Pray that the team members would not be consumed by the hardship they will witness but instead take hope in God’s compassion and salvation.	Pray that Berhanu and Emily Mekonen, the couple running the guest house, will be encouraged by the team members and their service.	Pray for the city of Addis Ababa.  Pray that the light and truth of Jesus Christ would bring natives out of the darkness of Islam. John 8:12	Pray that God would remove fear and remind team members that He will strengthen and uphold them. Is 41:10	Pray for safe travel to Washington DC for the Texas team members.  Pray for connections to be made and luggage to arrive for all team members.	Pray for safe travel to Ethiopia for all team members.  Pray for endurance and peace during the long flight.	Pray for the team who will be tired and jet lagged upon arrival, pray that God would strengthen their bodies and spirits. Matt 26:41
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
Pray for the team as we worship at a local church.	Pray for the team members’ ability to communicate clearly. Pray that God would remind the team that He is able to cross all language barriers!	Pray that as we work to meet the children’s needs that they will look to God as the one who provides.	Pray for the children that we will meet. Pray they feel the love of Jesus through our time together.	Pray that the team would be diligent in sharing Jesus with the children knowing their need for salvation is the most important need we could help meet.	Pray that the team would be able to share words of encouragement and give acts of service to the caregivers.	Pray that as team members are weary and heavy laden they would find rest and comfort in God’s Word and His love! Matt 11:28
24	25	26	27	28	29	30
Pray for the team as they travel home. It is a long flight with several connections.	Pray for the team as we navigate how to process what we have experienced and how to share our trip with others.	Thank God, along with the team members, that He who is mighty has done great things on the trip to Ethiopia! Luke 1:46-50
31

Pray

James 5:16- The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

Help Us Meet the Needs

$45= 1 mattress for a child

Tonight, when we lay our heads down on a pillow in our comfortable beds, ready to  drift off to sleep and dream of the possibilities of tomorrow, we should all know how blessed we truly are for many reasons. There is an orphanage in Ethiopia, just a few thousand miles away, where young girls are without any bed to call their own. If they are lucky, they will sharing a foam pad, and more than likely, they will be sleeping on the cold floor. Many will not have blankets to cover with and will huddle together for warmth.

Our mission team that is traveling to Ethiopia in just a few short weeks has the privilege to make a difference. We will be working alongside many orphanages as we go to do the work God has called us to do. In particular, our goal is to meet the physical needs of the 350 girls at this orphanage to give them a space of their own and provide each girl with their own mattress.   Everyone deserves to have their own personal space, no matter how small, and we thought by getting each girl a mattress, at least it is somewhere they can retreat to and call their own.

We have raised enough money for 225 mattresses for this orphanage, but we are short for the last 125. Can you help? Each mattress costs approximately $45. This amount will probably not make a huge impact on many of our monthly budgets, but it will most certainly make a difference in the life of a child in this orphanage. Please prayerfully consider partnering with us to meet this important goal.

We must raise $5,700 by August 10. 

If you are interested in helping, you can make an online donation at http://www.awaa.org/ACT/donate.aspx and click the “Donate” button. In the “Notes” section of the form, please write “August Ethiopia 2014- Cindy Douglass- Mattress Project.” 

 Our team wants more than anything to love the Ethiopian people and to tell them in spite of their circumstances, that above all else, God loves them. Thank you for your prayerful consideration.

Psalm 82:3- “Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.”

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

Mother Daughter Tea

One of our most memorable fundraisers was the Mother/Daughter Missions Tea at Grace Community Church. We were privileged to be the guest speakers at the event and addressed more than 40 girls, ages two years-old through fifth grade, plus their mothers and grandmothers, about the orphan crisis in Ethiopia and the work we will be doing on our trip.

Several of our team members spoke to the group about some of the statistics of Ethiopia and the orphan crisis, why it is important to be the hands and feet of God, and also about some of the urgent needs of the orphanages in Addis Ababa. There even was a little African dancing! The portion that seemed to affect the girls the most was when we asked each of them to look under their chairs for pictures of items on the orphanage's urgent needs list. The preschool and elementary aged girls were really struck by how some of the items that are easily accessible to them every day, such as vitamins, socks, underwear, games, puzzles, Band-Aids and medicines, are not available to the sweet children we will meet at the orphanages.

At the conclusion of the tea, team member Keri Bosch shared final thoughts with the group on how there is a God that knows and loves each and every one of those orphans we will meet, and if these children have no one in the world to love them except for Jesus Christ, they have enough. That's why it is imperative that Christians bring the good news of Jesus Christ all over the world.

After our presentation, the girls were invited to the church's atrium to do a mission project. Each girl filled two 1 lb coffee bags with delicious smelling Ethiopian coffee. Each girl also decorated coffee filters and made them into flowers, packaging the coffee bags quite beautifully! All the participants at the tea were invited to the church service on Sunday to sell the coffee to the congregation. All proceeds from the selling of the Ethiopian coffee went directly to our trip and the work we will be doing in Addis Ababa.

The tea was such a fun night of fellowship and such a blessing to our team. A special thank you goes out to Grace Community Church for partnering with our team on many different levels. We truly appreciate your support and encouragement.

Psalm 82:3- "Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed."

Written by Suzanne Ward