Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Running & Cookies for Haiti

About Alan and Jackie Perez
Alan and Jackie are full-time missionaries living in the Dominican Republic.  Alan is a part of the Sports Ministry Team that teaches kids how to be a part of a team & trains adult men to be Christian leaders in their communities. Jackie is the Director of the Short-term teams overseeing nearly 50 teams a year that come to the Dominican Republic and Haiti to serve. They are equally passionate about God’s restoration to His people and His creation.

In case you didn't know, I've been selling my cookies to raise money for I Run For His Glory! This is a running team put together by Alan and Jackie and a team I'm blessed to be a part of. As my next race approaches soon, I decided to kick off my fundraising by selling my Homemade-from-scratch chocolate chip cookies.

The cookie selling has taken off!! Last week, between sending some to hubby's work, my work, Thanksgiving and all the orders, I baked over 600 cookies!! I feel so blessed to be able to do so many things at once - helping raise money for the great work God's doing through Alan and Jackie, and I'm able to bless others with homemade yummy goodies. Everyone has gifts. Giving and helping are my Godly gifts. I can tell this by the immense amount of happiness I feel when I get to do things for others. Combine that happiness of giving with my love of baking, and this project God has me assigned to right now is PURE JOY!!

That's not to say it isn't a lot of work!

Over Thanksgiving dinner, a friend suggested we buy a Kitchen Aid. And now I totally get the name - an actual Aid in the Kitchen! I love it. It only takes me a few minutes to whip up the dough by hand, but the hand mixing gets tiring. I really do like doing things the old-fashioned way, using a minmal amount of modern accessory help, but this is one time where I think I'm perfectly content with the idea of a handy dandy aid in the kitchen! So my eyes are peeled, I'm on the hunt. I will find a Kitchen Aid for a good price. And together God, the Kitchen Aid and myself will spread the love of homemade cookies with lots of monetary needs met in Alan and Jackie's life!

Alan and Jackie have sacraficed their life to the Lord. They are the hands and feet in Haiti and the Domnican Republic. And I'm blessed that I can help by doing things I love as well - blessing others, baking and running!

If you want to order cookies, just contact me anyway you can - email, comment here, call me, facebook me.. you get the point. And if you would like to just make a donation, you can do that on the running team blog safely through Paypal.

We all need continued prayer as we venture through the journies God has us on. For this, I ask for prayer that orders would continue to come in for cookie sales, that I would stay injury-free as I prepare for my 5th 1/2 marathon January 8th, and that as Alan, Jackie and their twin girls travel here for the holidays and to also run the 1/2 Marathon, that their travels would be safe and event-free as possible.

I also ask of you to be open to whatever God lays on your heart is a way you could help sponsor me in my next race. There are plenty of ways to sponsor me and we can make it fun:
~Per mile - for every mile I complete you can pledge a certain amount.
~My time - I'm goaling for a 2:30, my time last year at this same race was 2:50. You can sponsor me a certain amount for every minute I shave off that time.
~You could long-term sponsor me by committing a certain amount per 1/2 marathon I run or even per mile I run in races throughout 2011.

There are so many ways to help and I'm so very grateful for whatever you decide!

I thank you in advance for your consideration, time, and prayers!
God Bless ♥

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

A Virus Has Hit Our House

And no, I don't mean the flu virus. (Which don't you feel bad for the people who make a special trip to get the flu shot and are yet again scammed?)

What I'm talking about is a computer virus - ack. I haven't been able to access my netbook in over a week. We have this ancient desktop - that I'm oh so grateful for - but it's sloooooow. And it has issues. We'll make due though... too many families don't even have access to one computer.

So, anyway, I'm sitting here making our dinner menu for the next 2 weeks. Yes, I admittedly look up recipes online and make my family try them. It's good to try new things!

Does your family try new recipes? How often - weekly, monthly? Where do you get those new recipes from?