 |
Sitting in the chancel area behind Epiphanie as she got up to speak.
Full house in our sanctuary - incredible! |
Thank you, thank you from the bottom of my blogging heart for all of the emails, texts, calls and blog-world/facebook-world support after my last post. Your prayers really were the rock to my sanity this past weekend. And guess what? I still feel overwhelmed! However, like I said in my last post, I am in total awe of how smooth the event went, how well the women received Epiphanie and the best news... we raised over $10,000 for ZOE Ministry. I had a few more checks come in today so when it is all said and done, I think we will be pretty close to $11,000. Amazing!!
From the second I picked Epiphanie up at the airport, I started to feel at peace. She is a beautiful person and she exudes joy. She spoke at The Journey on Sunday morning and Emma kept holding her hand and calling her "Mommy's friend" throughout lunch that afternoon. I worked like a mad-woman all weekend finalizing details, making phone calls, etc... I only had to deal with one mean lady on Sunday during the set-up. I was very happy it was only just ONE!
The night of the event was perfect. It really was. All of the tables were decorated so beautifully and everyone - even the men who were are waiters! - were on time. Grayson, our chef at church, made an amazing meal and the women kept complimenting the timing, service, the food and atmosphere. I thought I would be a rambling mess (I can talk very fast) but God's peace reigned over me and I really felt comfortable and confident.
God really amazed me during the second half of the event. All 340 of the women walked over to the sanctuary to hear Greg Jenks - founder and director of ZOE - introduce Epiphanie and then Epiphanie shared her testimony and talked about ZOE. As she shared her story, I could tell she had every person in there fully captivated. It was amazing. At the end, I urged the women if they haven't made a donation, to please consider it... and they did. 340 women came together to donate $10,000. I still get goosebumps thinking about it.
I'm so thankful the event was a success and I'm so thankful the 60 something orphans we support in Kenya will have animals supplied to them for the next 2-3 years. Incredible! Here are some pictures of the event so you can an idea of what we did:
 |
| all the women at this table wore pink boas |
 |
| this was Sandra's table - she sold her pumpkin centerpiece for $100 which went to ZOE |
 |
| I thought this was the cutest idea - how fun would this be for a children's birthday party? |
 |
| "Etch a Sketch" place cards - LOVE IT |
 |
this table had gone to Kenya to work with the orphans and made a
mini-replica of what one of the "stores" looked like |
 |
some of my MOPS girls with Mahan who is our nursery worker
and keeps our kids when we meet on Tuesdays! |
 |
| our MOPS table - we did a baby safari theme |
 |
Dr. Simmons speaking before he prayed over the meal...
and me watching the waiters to make sure things were running smoothly, ha! |
One last thing, Claire does NOT have scabies... which I figured she didn't, but we did the treatment on her anyway... Claire actually has what I thought all along - a horrible eczema flare-up, cough probably caused by asthma/allergies. She spiked fever on Sunday night and has been going up and down between 102-104. We finally went to the doctor for a third time today and on top of her crazy eczema rash and cough she also has Hand, Foot and Mouth. Awesome. More poor, sweet baby girl. At least Dr. Emma Irving is able to take care of her! It does look like we are on the up and up. Claire is now on Claritin, Rx strength eczema cream, inhaler, Motrin and we've switched her bath soap and lotions. Emma started to get fever today and has a runny nose. With twins, it never ends. But, hopefully everyone will be sick-free by church on Sunday!
