Movember

During November each year, Movember is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces, in the US and around the world. With their Mo’s, these men raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men.

The Movember Effect: Awareness & Education, Survivorship, ResearchThe funds raised in the US support prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men. The funds raised are directed to programs run directly by Movember and our men’s health partners, the Prostate Cancer Foundation and LIVESTRONG, the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Together, the three channels work together to ensure that Movember funds are supporting a broad range of innovative, world-class programs in line with our strategic goals in the areas of awareness and education, survivorship and research.
For more information on the programs they are funding please visit the following:Prostate Cancer FoundationLIVESTRONG, The Lance Armstrong FoundationAwareness & EducationGlobal Action Plan



Even TOMS is getting in on the Mo-ness!
Check out the Limited Edition Movember TOMS!

Check out the Movember site for more fun!

Half Birthday

Well... I just got home and saw that Taylor didn't post anything and now she is asleep.

hmmmm.....

Well, for today we will just wish the love of my life happy HALF Birthday!!!

I love this girl :)

Orphan Sunday

November is Adoption Awareness Month and today is Orphan Sunday! The Christian's calling to help the orphan is clear. This video says it all!

Why Love Orphans? from Christian Alliance for Orphans on Vimeo.

Sunny Saturday

Sorry no photos for this Sunny Saturday... instead we'll just have to tell you how we enjoyed the day!

Taylor has class on Saturday mornings so I went to Devine to spend some time with the family. Mom, Kathy, and I headed down to the Devine Fall Festival Parade with some family and friends watching the floats, cars, trucks, and bikes pass by. It's a small town so everything is about the same each year but it is still fun to go out and see everyone. Plus, people walk next to the floats handing out candy...Yay, free candy!

After the parade we headed to Pleasonton to visit my grandparents and to have lunch. Then my sister and I went to see a movie.

Taylor had some fun girl time with Mom and Teddi after her midterm!

The day ended with a quick game of basketball between me and Brogan and then a fajita dinner! Yum! Then we all sat down to watch Cars 2!

Not a bad day. :)

Now I have to go wake Taylor up from her spot on the couch.

Hope your Saturday was good, too!

Thank You Notes

It's Friday and this is when we like to catch up on a few personal things... check emails, return calls, and write thank you notes. I hope you don't mind....

(James can we get some thank you note writing music, please.)

Thank you Halloween,

For being the one day of the year when it is okay to play with your food.

Thank you Texas,

For cutting back during the recession and letting fall go. Who needs fall? It's not like he did anything anyways.

Thank you Pinterest,

For being Facebook's good looking best friend.





Thank you Five Guys,

For making me feel like I am actually the size of 5 guys...




And last but not least

Thank you Midterms,

For reminding me that the semester is only half over. :(

Thank You Notes is a product of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. We just liked it so much that we decided to do our own version. :)

We love CHF!

I know, we must have said it a million times, but they are just so great! They are a bunch of really cool people with enourmous hearts of love that pursue God and His love for the poorest children. Children's Hunger Fund fights hunger, malnutrition, abuse, neglect, and disease, but most importanlty they provide hope! Hope found in the promises of a God who is bigger than the poverty they are facing and even better than canned foods and medicines.

It's exciting to share with you this update from Dave Phillips about how CHF is growing and expanding to reach more children in His name in our own cities (and families!) and across the nations. What great news!

(This is the somewhat shortened version that was emailed. Click the link after Dave's name to read the little bit longer but more exciting letter!)

I am very excited to share with you a HUGE development for Children’s Hunger Fund. For several years, we’ve quietly searched for a new building to use as a launching point for greater impact in the lives of suffering children. I am happy to announce that we have found the building! Yesterday, we officially took occupancy of CHF’s Global Distribution Center in Sylmar, California!

If you’ve ever visited our cramped Pacoima facility, you can imagine how much more we could accomplish with more space. This move will double our current warehouse capacity to ship and receive product for needy children. This may be the most exciting growth opportunity we’ve ever pursued, and it is also our greatest step of faith. We are completely dependent on God to move in the hearts of friends like you to fulfill this vision.

As we step out in faith, we NEED you to join us! With worldwide Thanksgiving and Christmas distributions of food and toys ahead, we are facing our greatest financial challenges yet.Will you help?
For the children we serve, Dave Phillips President of Children's Hunger Fund

So neat to see CHF's dependence on and trust in God. Their faith is inspiring! And the cool part is that we can claim the same when we too pursue "God-given visions".

So excited about the plans we are working on to help CHF in the next couple months! Hopefully we can bring awareness to our community of the beautiful work that CHF does and how they can be a part of God's work loving the poor.

"...The LORD is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does. The LORD upholds all who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing."
Psalm 145: 13-16

more sweet faces touched by CHF SouthWest

Kaitlyn's Blood Drive

For those of you who follow us on Facebook you may have seen a little bit about our cousin Kaitlyn.

Kaitlyn and her mom Veronica

Kaitlyn is 11 and recently found out that she has scoliosis. We have been praying for her as she went through the surgery to correct her spine and are happy to announce that after just a week she is home walking around. She is one tough girl! A lot went into getting ready for her surgery, such as a blood drive to provide all the blood that would be needed for the long procedure, another even that will take place is a plate sale to raise money to help pay for it.

While Taylor was not able to be there to give blood, I was. It was scary. For those of you who don't know I have a bit of a fear for needles, and blood... but I have a great love for my family and was going to give it a try.

Here is a video of the day, please forgive the shaking of the video... I was very nervous! Oh and keep an eye out for my mom, she gave with me!

The turn out was so great! At the end of the day they had two trucks with 44 units completed, and we had to turn a few people away because we couldn't fit them all into our time frame. But everyone got a chance to help out. Thank you everyone for your donation, and your prayers. I am sure we will have the same great support when we come around to selling tickets and plates for our great cousin!

We got to visit Kaitlyn in the hospital on Monday just in time to trick or treat floor to floor with some of the kids. It was good to see her and her mom and our uncle Juano! She had tons of balloons and animals and even made a few new friends! This girl has a big heart filled with lots of love!

Praying for you Kaitlyn! And hoping you have a great recovery!

Almost there!

So exciting! Just updated our water project update over there on the sidebar --->
and guess what is happening in the next few months...

THIS!!!!!

Our well should be finished between now and January! Oh my goodness! When you really think about it, it's incredible. God allowed us to be a part of changing a community forever. Families will experience clean water for the first time. Children will be able to go to school instead of walking miles a day in search of dirty water. Babies will live!

After this phase is completed we should be receiving GPS coordinates of the project. Then we'll know just where it is! How cool, right? Can't wait for that confirmation! Check out our sidebar to see what else will be happening in this process over the next three months!

Memorial Box Monday - Anonymous Blessings

Linny at A Place Called Simplicity started Memorial Box Mondays.
"In Joshua 4 Almighty God tells the Isrealites to collect stones and set them as a Memorial to remind them of God's power and provision. He then tells the Isrealites to use those stones as a memorial; that every time they see them to tell their children and their children's children the stories over and over again, continually reminding them of God's faithfulness."

To read the full idea and an introduction to Memorial Box Mondays
go here and read Linny's "How about Memorial Box Mondays?

aka We will remember..." post.

So last week we did a few speaking events. The first was at another campus of our church and the second was with a group of kids at CHF. We love sharing God's story and how he uses us to do his work to encourage others, hence the blog... so we had fun!

After a few times of sharing with people we get used to getting asked questions, and even one lady had said that she read our blog during the Food Pak challenge! But last week we were blessed with something that has never really happened before. And we hope that the person doesn't mind us sharing this (we don't actually know who it was). But last week we got a call from our friend Jesse at CHF asking if we were around the office because he had something for us that someone dropped off. Since we live in San Antonio now, it is a lot easier to just hop on over to the the warehouse. :)

When we got there we got to see some of our friends- Char, Paul, and Jesse- a blessing in itself! Then Jesse made us work just a bit...pppsshh typical Jesse. But when we left we got a sweet card, no name signed, but in it was a hundred dollar bill! Someone who was volunteering at CHF when we shared our story was just really blessed and wanted to share their heart with us.

As an unemployed couple this is a huge blessing! But not as a means to pay bills or anything... During the time we were raising money for the well last year we opened up a savings account to keep the money in. After we met our goal we left this account open and continued to put extra money in it creating a "Projects Fund". We did this so no matter what was going on in our lives we would always have money to do the things we love. Like help sponsor someone's mission trip, or donate to an adoption, or buy $200 in toys to hand out for Christmas... just little things like that. ;) But after 6 months of no income that fund has been long depleted.

But now with the opening of our LOVE shop and a sweet $100 blessing, we can start creating some of our ideas for products to help more people- like the hungry, the sick, the orphaned, and the enslaved as well as continuing our LOVE shirts for the thirsty- all in time for Christmas! We are so excited to use this blessing to keep sharing God's love and to continue living to love others!

This is what the card read: The Lord has touched the lives of so many through your service. As you give of your time so lovingly, it's easy to see His light shining through you. May God bless you as you continue to impact lives and light the way to Him.
"Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father in heaven." Matthew 5:16 (The same verse we shared in our last MBM post!)

Into our Memorial Box will go a $100 bill! Ha, ha, not the real one - that's gonna be put to use! So thankful for God's blessings lately and to be able to continue to serve Him with our lives.

Tailgating!

We had a great time tailgating this morning at church and celebrating team spirit! :D Breakfast was complete with sausage wraps, kolaches, tacos, donuts, and yummy muffins! It was nice to be able to just hang out for a while and enjoy the beautiful weather on the church patio. We love our church family!

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

I am so excited!!! Look what we got in the mail today...

We won!!! I sent in pictures of Brogan and Teddi with a huge Yellow M&M Frankenstein at the Commissary on base, and we won! So cool!!!

So thankful that the Lord is blessing us with the means to bless others when our funds are limited.

Dun duh duhhh...

We purposely skipped our last blog post... yeah, on purpose... cause we wanted to build suspense... ha, ha. (Oops again.)

Ready for the update?! The 10 Days project so far has raised $62,260!!! How amazing is that?!??!?!? That's enough to fund 6 new wells in Rwanda!!! (Plus, they are leaving the giving line open for one more week so that everyone has time to get all their monies in.)

Visit their website at 10days.cc.

10 Days!

Teddi and I just finished drinking water for 10 days along with 100s of others across 50 college campuses! We raised money by not buying other drinks throughout the 10 days and donated it toward Living Water's efforts in Rwanda! Their goal was to drill 10 new wells after these 10 days and they are releasing their update tomorrow!!!

Watch the video.

Be challenged.

10.10.11 from Living Water International on Vimeo.

Stay tuned for the update!

2 months 'til Christmas!

The holidays are near! (With Texas and it's trickery weather, you would never know it!) Thanksgiving is next month then Christmas! I know we just posted about it, but now really is the time to start planning! Before all the hustle and bustle - you know what I'm talking about... Frankie is asleep so we aren't actually planning right this second, but it's on our to-do list!

What are you going to do for Christmas this year? How bout Thanksgiving?

Any special celebrations? Trips? Relatives coming in?

What will you choose to let your holidays look like? feel like? be about?

Our mission to fund a well last year touched the hearts of our family in Michigan who decided to do family projects to help us raise funds as well as all together, forgo less gifts and instead put usually gifting monies toward the water project! This year, the project is food!!! Talks are we may be having a contest to collect non-perishables and build sculptures...

We'll keep you posted for sure! But in the mean time... start brainstorming!

"Christmas can [still] change the world!"

Advent Conspiracy

Annnd... enjoy this picture! :)

Caroline's Thank You

We got a thank you note today! Back in September charity:water sent out thank you notes and made videos and sent emails thanking people who donated in the first 5 years (How thoughtful!)... because we moved, ours came late. Thought we should share it with you. :)

We Walk Because We Can - Chita's Angel's

We had a great time walking this weekend at the ALS Walk to Defeat ALS!

Take a look at the group shot from the day.

Thanks to everyone who donated to Taylor's page!  She met her goal three times!

Books for Bloggers

We just entered a contest!

Blake Mycoskie, came out with a book earlier this year called "Do Something That Matters". And as a promotion they are hosting a contest for bloggers. Winner receives 2 copies of the book...

One to read and review.

One to giveaway on their blog!

For those of you who don't know, Blake is the founder of TOMS! And if you are a reader you know how much we love TOMS so we are super excited to be entered into a chance to get to read his book for free.

We will keep you posted when we find anything out.

Drumroll Please!!!

Introducting my first ever batch of rainbow cupcakes! They are for the Walk to Defeat ALS tomorrow and our team is Fiesta themed. Making these was so stinkin fun. I couldn't help but take a picture of every beautiful step!

mixing the batter

beautiful!

this reminds me of something

but I can't quite figure out what...but it's so pretty!

tada!!! amazing!!!

and dying the frosting!

Aren't they gorgeous?! Golly, I almost can't stand it!!

We'll have to post an updated pic of the insides with our walk update tomorrow after someone takes a bite!! Stay tuned!! lol!!

Oh...and these just may have to be the next baking adventure...

cookie bowls!!

58

So last week we went to the premier of the 58: The Film.
For those of you who don't know what 58 is, it's a global initiative to end extreme poverty through acts of true fasting (Isaiah 58).


Isaiah 58

¹Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.

²Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.

³Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.

⁴Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.

⁵Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?

⁶Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?

⁷Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?

⁸Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy reward.

⁹Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;

¹⁰And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon day:

¹¹And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

¹²And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.

¹³If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:

¹⁴Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.


The movie featured different stories of families from Ethiopia, Brazil, India, and Kenya. Each one telling of the daily struggles they face to survive.

One lady with four children lived in a part of the world that hasn't had rain in five years. She lives in a hut that is so bad that her husband left because he couldn't live there anymore. She collects sticks along with her oldest daughter to sell to have money for water and food. But as they collect more and more wood she has to travel farther and farther away from home, all while being 7 months pregnant.

Another story told of a man who works in a stone quarry. He works there to pay off a loan he took from the quarry owner. He is paid very little and when he is ill and cannot come to work his wife and children have to take his place. The physical work is making him sick, but to rest and heal he would get into more debt. He knows that he will die paying off his debt and so will his children and his children's children, all for the $600 that he owes.

Another story of a women who brings home discarded produce from a dumpster that she cleans and sells for money and what is not fit to sell she feeds to her own family. And another of children that are so far from hope that they have even given up on expressing their dreams because they know they will never come true.

Story after story of heartache and extreme poverty, but in the midst of all of these stories there is some good news.


Some 58 Facts

Think ending extreme poverty is impossible? Think again. Consider the following facts:

• Over the past eight years, the number of kids dying from measles has declined by 78 percent.
• Twenty-two countries have cut their malaria rate in half in only six years.
• In the 1990’s the number of children dying from preventable causes dropped from 40,000 to 33,000 per day. In 2008, that number decreased to 24,000. Today, it is 21,000. In one generation, we’ve cut the number of children dying from preventable diseases almost in half!
• The number of children dying before their fifth birthday has also decreased even while the number of overall births is increasing.
• In less than ten years, a third of children who couldn’t afford to go to school now can. And literacy rates are rising worldwide.
• The spread of HIV has been curbed. New HIV infections have been cut 16 percent globally.
• Two hundred years ago, the average life expectancy was about 30 years. Today, many of us have a life expectancy of 75 to 80 years.
• In the same 200 years, we’ve gone from over 90 percent of the world’s population living in extreme poverty to about 1.4 billion people there as of 2005 (the latest census numbers). That’s still way too many people. But here’s the good news: In 1981 52 percent of the world’s population lived in extreme poverty. By 2005, that number was cut in half down to 26 percent: All in one generation!

How can you help? What is 58 doing?

You can give yourself. Fast one thing. Make a change in your life to make a change in the life of someone else. Live Isaiah 58...

1) Pray. Align your heart with God’s over the suffering of the poor and seek His vision for the unique possibilities of our time.
2) Choose your fast. Commit to go hungry. You might simply forgo a meal, commit to a regular fast, or choose to give up something other than food. There are countless ideas and options.
3) Invite friends to join you or join an existing group to fast together. Grow your church, your fellowship group or other group of friends by fasting together. Sharing this experience with others will be valuable on many levels.
4) Offer whatever you have fasted for the benefit of the poor. If you saved $10 by not eating a meal, give it to help end extreme poverty. If you fasted from television, give that time to advance the cause or learn more.

What 58 does is they partner with organizations like Living Water, Compassion, Hope International, and many more. They ask you to pick your fast, pick your cause, and make a difference.



Here is the preview for the movie that we saw. Please visit the 58 website and read more about what they are doing. Global poverty is curable and it can happen now.

58: THE FILM Trailer from LIVE58NOW on Vimeo.

Wordless Wednesday - We Love CHF!