FindingJoy4Eternity Blog

What better time to share God's love than on Valentines day!?  Chaeli and I handed these valentines out as we shopped at Walmart.  It was so much fun!  We were sad when we ran out.  People were just genuinely happy to randomly receive a valentine.  The last two ladies that I shared these with loved that they were about Jesus.  One of them shared that just that morning she had read that John 3:16 was the real valentine.  Sure enough.  And that's what we wanted to tell people on Valentines Day.

Our youth group, the Pathfinders, is starting an outreach fundraiser combo!!  Win-win situation.  They are starting a GLOW-a-thon in which they are looking for sponsor.  It's like a bike-a-thon or a read-a-thon where people make pledges per GLOW tract or a set donation if the group makes their goal.  All the money received is going toward a week long campout this summer. The group goal is 3,000 GLOW tracts in two months (Feb 16, 2019 ((that's tomorrow!!)) to April 13.  Below are pictures of us making GLOW tract packs for the first 1200 GLOW tracts.  If you want to sponsor the kids, let us know!

You are the apple of God's eye... and Orange you glad Jesus loves you?

A fun little activity to help the kids think of others.... We gave them each a dollar and they drew a name.  Their goal was to spend only that one dollar on the person they draw.   Now what would that person like that only cast one dollar.... silly putty, a grapefuit, a hotwheels car or truck, and a mango Fun!

For quite a few years now we have ventured out on Christmas morning to places that remain open.  These places include gas stations, convenience stores, hotels, and Walgreens.  We usually take muffins, cider, and a GLOW tract pack. This year we changed it up a bit.  We live in a small town with a small hospital so we decided to take our song and our treats to the hospital.  This year we used small gift bags and filled them with store bought treats just in case anyone would be leary of homemade things. We filled 24 bags.  The responses!!  They were great!!  People loved getting a gift at work on Christmas morning.  They loved the song.  And we LOVED doing it!  24 was the perfect number of bags! WE gave these last two away as we were walking back down the hallway toward the lobby. This is the best Christmas tradition ever!

Our youth group went caroling one cold winter evening just before Christmas.  We wanted to have a gift for kids of all ages and the adults.  We wanted to remind them of the reason for the season. Playdoh for young kids.  "DOH-NOT forget how special you are to Jesus."   A candy cane for anyone who feels they are too old for Play-doh.   "Jesus is the sweetest gift of all."  A book for the adults.  We went up and down streets knocking on doors but the best place of all that we stopped was the homeless shelter.  We sang in the front room and if they wanted the people could come out to see what was going on.  Some did and they LOVED the gifts and the singing.  They were excited about what we were doing and it made us even more excited about what we were doing!

In December I celebrated my 42nd birthday and I spent time giving away 42 gifts.  These are just some of them!  What a fantastic day!! Little snack gifts for a travel bag for hubby  Donations for the Marcellus Food Pantry Cookies for friends  Soup for friends and family  A poinsettia for my mom  This was the most fun we had all day!!  We purchased four DQ gift cards.  Just 5$ each and then prayed that God would lead us to the right people to give them to.  He did!!  One of them stands out in my mind.  She was a young mom of two kids.  She was in the parking lot of her low income apartment building strapping her kids in the back seat of her car when we saw her.  We were going in to visit someone else and on our way I stopped to give her this small gift.  She beamed when she saw what it was and gave me a huge hug.  We parted as she said, "God bless you!" The BE...

We had a Christmas open house during December for our church families.  ALong with fun and food and fellowship, we also offered an opportunity to help those who really needed our help.  The Camp Fire had just ripped through Paradise, California so it was a perfect opportunity to give back at Christmas time.  We collected over 200$.

Every year the kids have their Christmas piano recital at a local nursing home.  What a lovely idea!!

Fun Christmas gifts!  :)  We put these in gift boxes that we entitled "A Quiet Evening at Home."  The boxes also included things such as a book, puzzle, candle, popcorn, a game, etc.

This past Thanksgiving we tried something new.  We made an open invitation to both of our church for anyone who wanted or needed a place to spend Thanksgiving.  From about 12 until 5pm we opened our home for fellowship, food, and games.  We had 12 people in all and it turned out to be such a lovely day!  We really enjoyed spending time together. Playing guestures :) 

Chaeli collected lots of supplies for a missionary who is ministering on the island of Ebeye!  There are lots of needs there and she was so excited to invite others to help her help them.  :)  We hear that the money she collected is the start of their greenhouse fund.  The total cost will be 900$ so this was one third of what they will need.  It truly is more blessed to give than to receive!!

See November 2017 for all the details of this gratitude calendar.  Our November has totally changed with the entrance of an intentional way to show gratitude to God and others.  On the underside of each of these cards is an activity and they all have to do with gratitude and fall fun.  A fun way to count down the day to Thanksgiving!

Send snail mail!  It makes people happy! :)

Every year the youth of our church (Pathfinders and Adventurers) are involved in a campaign to collect nonperishable food and other necessities for the low income families in our community.  People are so generous and we love dropping off bags and especially picking up the filled bags.  We sort the food and divide it among the family names that we get from Social Services.  We use the food to help make Thanksgiving and Christmas more enjoyable for those who need help.