Saturday, March 05, 2011

WANNA HELP?

I'm still sick today so I'm going to keep this short and hopefully sweet. As most of you know, our three teenagers are all going on missionary trips this summer. Betsie is spending 2 months working with Northern Thailand Impact Ministries, Anna is going on an Adventures in Missions Ambassador trip to Thailand for a month, and David is going on an Ambassador trip for three weeks to Peru.


They are still raising funds for their trip. Betsie is nearly to her goal and needs just a few hundred before she leaves next month. Anna and David still need a couple of thousand dollars a piece.

We are going to start holding online auctions to raise money for their ministry trips. We are asking friends to donate items for us to auction. If you don't live by us, you can still participate. Just take a photo of the item, send it to me, and I'll post it. Then when we have a winner, you just mail the item straight to the person with the highest bid. We'll add a few dollars to the sales price to cover shipping and handling. If you live near us, you can just get the item to us and we'll do the rest.

Some idea of items you can donate include;

*Handcrafted items (scarves, knitted hats, cross-stitched pictures, hair bows, beaded jewelry, bottle cap necklaces, pottery, macrame, purses, etc.)
*Artwork of various mediums
*Gift certificates and gift cards
*Hand-smocked/embroidered baby clothes or bibs
*Home-baked/homemade goodies to eat including complete meals cooked and delivered
*Jewelry
*Home accessories
*Antiques
*Collectibles
*Sports team themed items
*College themed items
*Cd's or even old, vintage, vinyl records
*Books, especially ones signed by authors or special editions
*Hand-stamped stationary or stationary custom designed for the winner
*Certificated for services to be rendered such as babysitting, yards cut, tires rotated, hair cut and styled, etc.
*New t-shirts or other clothing items
*Cosmetics and perfume
*DVDs and video games
*Photo session
*Holiday themed items...especially for the upcoming ones such as Easter, St. Patrick's Day, and 4th of July
*Items from other countries bought home from trips
*A custom-written song videotaped or put on a download
*Home-grown veggies or fruit straight from your garden
*The autograph or some other "famous person" memorabilia
*Past issues of popular magazines
*Custom-designed blog banner or other tech design
*Houseplants, flowers, or fruit trees/bushes
*Cookbooks...maybe your church or other organization is selling them to raise money? This is a double win! You buy one and it benefits the group. Then you sell it and it benefits my kids!

And I'm sure there are many, many other things I'm not thinking of. Maybe you've been wanting to do something to help but didn't have extra cash? This is the chance to donate that ring you never wear anymore or give away that boxful of old records you no longer have a record player for listening to them on. Or maybe you love doing artsy things and your house is overrun with your creations. And don't forget that gift you got that is really nice but just not you. All these things can be redeemed for the cause of taking the message of Jesus Christ to places that need His love and life.

Thanks in advance. We couldn't do what we do without you!
Elysa

P.S. If you give us something related to your business or cause/organization, we will be glad to make note of that when we post the item and link back to your website or blog.

2 comments:

Erin said...

Hey Elysa- I got your message. As you saw from my etsy stores filled with nothing but cobwebs, that part of my life has been pretty quiet. But I'll make up something. It'll be a couple weeks until I can get to it.

Elysa said...

I bet even your COBWEBS are creative! ;)

But that would be absolutely lovely if you made up something for my kids' trips. And whenever you get it done is fine! Betsie leaves in a few weeks but Anna and David don't leave til June. We are going to start the auctioning, hopefully, in a few days, but will not be trying to post everything at once but spread them out over the next several weeks.

Thanks for your support! It really is encouraging.

Elysa