
11:50pm A week ago, because of the funds donated and raised from our 1st Let Your Light Shine Family Mile Walk & 5k - with Silent Auction, we were blessed to have 26 cases of children's bibles delivered to our front door. Each case contains 16 children's bibles. You do the math. :) That's A LOT of bibles! And on top of that (still with funds from donations & our race), our good friend Ron allowed us to have 26 additional cases sent to his shop in downtown Spring Hill to store them for us for a while. The past few nights I have been placing our story - which was printed on stickers by our good friend Ben - on the inside covers of each bible. I am so thankful to say tonight I have completed putting stickers in the 26 cases of bibles at our house. Praise God! I kind of started a game with myself; I think my fastest time was completing one case in 17 minutes. Ha! :) Now we just need to make the switch with Ron so we are able to get the stickers in the other 26 cases, as well.
What to do with these bibles? As our mission states, our goal is to get children's bibles into the hands of as many children & families as possible. We have the "lots of children's bibles" covered (for now :) )...now it's the "children's and families hands" we need. :) We are blessed to say that from the bibles previously ordered with Avelyn's memorial funds (before our 1st Let Your Light Shine Family Mile Walk & 5K in May), God - via the work of His people - has helped place these bibles into many hands such as: children @ VBS in Kentucky on our church's youth mission trip, family & friends across the state of Kansas, an organization that spoke @ the Royals Faith & Family Day, a young couple staying at the Ronald McDonald House in downtown KC - for their daughter staying @ Children's Mercy, our friends in Colorado, a Kansas senator has ordered more than one case of bibles, local businesses in our small town including children/families at Spring Hill Family Medicine, and we know one bible was personally delivered to an orphanage in Thailand. Hearing these stories and especially seeing pictures of God's children receiving these bibles makes my heart so happy!!
And the journey has only begun. As I said, those bibles were delivered before our most recent shipment of over 800 bibles arrived!! We pray God has big plans for these bibles, as well. We have no doubt He does. :) A few places we have on our hearts to send the bibles: the local food pantry, local churches, Children's Mercy hospital in downtown KC, shelters in KC, foster homes, the Ronald McDonald House, to friends/families/strangers across the US - and around the world. :) If you have ideas that you feel God is leading you to share with us to give the bibles, please let us know!!!
This has definitely been a journey. With both of our big girls starting school a couple weeks ago, on my days off I have been trying to go through different areas of our house trying to better organize things to make life easier. Some things I have needed to organize for several months now, but just have not had the time (I'm sure at least some can relate :) ). One of the days I stumbled on some cards we received shortly after Avelyn passed. I have read them all at least one time before, but looking over them and reading them again last week reminded me of all the love and support we received during such a difficult time in our lives. These letters/cards, your prayers, and our faith are what got us through and gave us so much peace as we dealt with the loss of our daughter. I know I've said it before, but I will say it again, thank you. This really did me good to read through those cards and letters again. So much love. So much support. And we continue to feel it.
Since beginning our Avelyn SonShine Journey, we have ordered over 1,000 children's bibles total thus far - thanks to God's grace and YOU. If you have yet to see one or get one and would like one, we would love for you to! Let us know how we can do this. God is doing big things, and we know this will continue - one child, one family at a time.
What to do with these bibles? As our mission states, our goal is to get children's bibles into the hands of as many children & families as possible. We have the "lots of children's bibles" covered (for now :) )...now it's the "children's and families hands" we need. :) We are blessed to say that from the bibles previously ordered with Avelyn's memorial funds (before our 1st Let Your Light Shine Family Mile Walk & 5K in May), God - via the work of His people - has helped place these bibles into many hands such as: children @ VBS in Kentucky on our church's youth mission trip, family & friends across the state of Kansas, an organization that spoke @ the Royals Faith & Family Day, a young couple staying at the Ronald McDonald House in downtown KC - for their daughter staying @ Children's Mercy, our friends in Colorado, a Kansas senator has ordered more than one case of bibles, local businesses in our small town including children/families at Spring Hill Family Medicine, and we know one bible was personally delivered to an orphanage in Thailand. Hearing these stories and especially seeing pictures of God's children receiving these bibles makes my heart so happy!!
And the journey has only begun. As I said, those bibles were delivered before our most recent shipment of over 800 bibles arrived!! We pray God has big plans for these bibles, as well. We have no doubt He does. :) A few places we have on our hearts to send the bibles: the local food pantry, local churches, Children's Mercy hospital in downtown KC, shelters in KC, foster homes, the Ronald McDonald House, to friends/families/strangers across the US - and around the world. :) If you have ideas that you feel God is leading you to share with us to give the bibles, please let us know!!!
This has definitely been a journey. With both of our big girls starting school a couple weeks ago, on my days off I have been trying to go through different areas of our house trying to better organize things to make life easier. Some things I have needed to organize for several months now, but just have not had the time (I'm sure at least some can relate :) ). One of the days I stumbled on some cards we received shortly after Avelyn passed. I have read them all at least one time before, but looking over them and reading them again last week reminded me of all the love and support we received during such a difficult time in our lives. These letters/cards, your prayers, and our faith are what got us through and gave us so much peace as we dealt with the loss of our daughter. I know I've said it before, but I will say it again, thank you. This really did me good to read through those cards and letters again. So much love. So much support. And we continue to feel it.
Since beginning our Avelyn SonShine Journey, we have ordered over 1,000 children's bibles total thus far - thanks to God's grace and YOU. If you have yet to see one or get one and would like one, we would love for you to! Let us know how we can do this. God is doing big things, and we know this will continue - one child, one family at a time.