What an amazing night. Our group of volunteers came out and hosted a craft night for the kids and families staying at the Ronald McDonald House in a Camden, NJ. We saw some familiar faces and it was so great to catch up with families we’ve met there on previous trips. One family, in particular, has a little boy that we were able to meet who was born with his organs outside of his body. Doctors had told his parents that they should abort him and they refused. He was back for yet another surgery now that’s he’s 2 and his parents are hoping that this will be one more closer to the last. As you can imagine, being in a body cast as a 2 year old boy is very challenging. His twin sister is such a big helper and loved making her brother pictures and playing with beads.

Another family we met tonight was so grateful for our volunteers. Mom mentioned that her four (of 8) children that were with her on this trip were asking to do crafts and they were so happy to see the supplies that we were able to bring. It’s amazing how something so seemingly small can really brighten a day of a little kid. Not to mention, the lessons we can learn from them. When decorating a door hanger a little girl just 10 years old wrote “God had a plan” on it and truly impressed us all.

Finally, mom had mentioned that her little boy had just had another surgery and was on a long road to a day when hopefully he would be able to walk for the very first time. He is 8 years old and has never been able to walk. He had undergone numerous surgeries and they are hopeful that one day he will run around with his brothers and sisters. Mom shared that she holds her son every time they stand to sing at church and as you can imagine he’s getting heavy. She swore she would hold him for as long as she had to until he was able to do it on his own. She is looking forward to the day when her son stands beside her to sing in church.

Please be in prayer for these little lives. They are so precious and so brave.

I hope you all had a great holiday and are on track for a very happy new year!

Our first opportunity for 2020 is here and I am so excited.

Gwynedd Mercy University is sending some of their nursing students to the Dominican Republic over spring break to minister and care for approximately 400 residents of La Romana. A friend of mine, Meghan Suiter, is giving up her spring break to head into this under-served country and provide medical assistance and training to the residents.

In order to make this trip a success they are asking for donations of some necessities: children’s medicine, adult medicine, creams/lotions, and other supplies. Please see the attachment for specific needs. (We will not be accepting any medication that is not listed below).

If you wish to donate directly to Meghan you can do so by visiting:
https://commerce.cashnet.com/gmciapay…
and entering her name “Meghan Suiter”.

All donations are due by January 31st. Message me for delivery options.

In an effort to keep everyone up to date and not overload your inbox I wanted to give a quick recap of all of our December events in one post.

First, the women of Fellowship Capital City purchased socks to go into a gift bag including a blanket, hygiene kit and Christmas Eve invitation that was given out to the women in the Rescue Mission of Trenton. We were able to assemble 25 bags and deliver them in time for Christmas.

Next, we collected Angel Tree gifts for 24 children in Trenton, NJ. Each child got a gift on behalf of their incarcerated parent with a hand written note from that parent. Our delivery team was able to make all of the deliveries on Sunday, December 22nd.

We also sponsored 11 children in Camden, NJ through the Angel Tree ministry to purchase gifts on behalf of their incarcerated parent. The delivery team went out and made all the deliveries on Friday, December 20th.

We sponsored a family through Foster the Family this year. This particular family now has 7 children. The caretaker was caring for 2 children when she also got custody of her son’s 2 children as a result of his battle with addiction. Shortly after, she also gained custody of her daughters 3 children after she suffered a stroke. Within a year this (grandmother) caretaker went from caring for 2 children to 7! With your help, we were able to lighten her load and make Christmas enjoyable.

We were also able to give out boxes of homemade cookies to 15 neighbors and were able to open up the door to communication with one in particular that was very distant in the past.

We can’t thank you enough for all of your help in donating, volunteering, praying and supporting this ministry! 2019 was a great year and we look forward to 2020.

Thanks to everyone who donated their unwanted Halloween candy, we were able to give out tons of bags of candy, water bottles, blankets and the remaining 40 pairs of shoes in Love Park. This time, with much different expectations, I just put everything out at once and waiting for the crowds to come. Again, it didn’t take long for the word to spread and we were out of supplies within the hour.

 

We receive so many generous donations from people in our community, small businesses, churches and neighbors and it is so amazing! We couldn’t do any of what we do without people like you.

I just love this place. They are so great at what they do. We were able to serve a hot meal to over 100 homeless people in Camden.  Everyone had a different job, but we all worked for one purpose: spreading the love of Jesus. If you ever need to get a little perspective on life- volunteer. It can really open your eyes to just how blessed we are.

Our first ever “Get Your Kicks” event in Philly! We were able to bring over 75 pairs of brand new shoes, donated by Carl’s Shoes, to the homeless in Philadelphia. We brought along hygiene kits filled with toothbrushes, toothpaste, floss, mouth wash, deodorant, hand sanitizer, chapstick, lotion, a comb, feminine products, and nail clippers. We also included socks and blankets too!

For those of you that know me, you know that I like organization. I had this idea in my head that we would arrive at Love Park, set up the table, organize the shoes by size and color, and have the other items laid out just right. I imagined an orderly line of people coming up for shoes and being able to pray over the people and the shoes as they left. Let me just tell you- this is not, at all, how it went down. I don’t even think the table was upright before we were surrounded by people asking for shoes in all different sizes. By the time I had taken all of the other items out of their bins the shoes were gone! Fortunately, we did have some more in the truck so when Matt pulled around the crowd migrated towards the truck and the entire event was complete in about 40 minutes. Most of my time was spent rummaging through shoe boxes, looking for sizes, and handing them out over my head. Not exactly what I had envisioned, but it was perfect. We had some great interactions and opportunities for prayer. We were well received and able to bring some light to a dark world.

“We naturally evangelize about the things we love”.

I heard this quote at church yesterday. I don’t remember who said it, but it hit me… hard. “We naturally evangelize about the things we love”. Evangelize simply means to “share your beliefs” (more specifically, religious). If you think about it, we do this all the time about our kids, a new restaurant we tried, a book we’re reading, a show we’re watching. Anything that you’re doing or seeing or experiencing that you enjoy you tend to share it with the people around you. One of the things I’ve learned over the past few months as I’ve been working with my husband and trying to explore the marketing world is that a referral or recommendation is the best source of business. Why is that? Because people share about what they love. What was the last thing you bragged about?
Over the summer I go on vacation to the beach with my family. This year my aunt bought all the girls a Yeti 30oz Rambler Tumbler. For those of you who don’t know what this is- it’s a $40 water bottle that guarantees to keep your drink steaming hot or ice cold for at least 24 hours. Being at the beach this seemed like an essential item to have. The Yeti was the topic of discussion the entire week. We took boomerangs of us cheers-ing with them, pictures of all the girls with their Yetis and we refused to use normal cups at the dinner table because our drinks were still cold from that morning. That’s what we do. We post about and talk about the things that we get excited about and love. It seems like a silly example, but I can guarantee you that I spent more time talking about that Yeti than I did about God to my family that week.
This quote was a harsh reality for me. What are you evangelizing about? And what does that say about your heart?

09/08/2019

The Famous King of Pizza in Cherry Hill NJ was gracious enough to donate everything we needed to make a delicious pizza dinner for the families staying at the Ronald McDonald House in Camden, NJ. They donated supplies for about 20 pizzas- pre-stretched dough, cheese, sauce (homemade- of course!) and delicious toppings. They also donated a big salad with every dressing imaginable! Along with our individual donators we were able to make a delicious dinner and dessert for the guests. We did things a little differently this time. Instead of setting things up buffet style we had volunteers standing by to serve the guests their salad, pizza, drinks and dessert. As always, we had a great time and renewed gratefulness for all of the blessings in our lives. Be sure to check out our pictures and some recaps from our volunteers!

“A young lady with her 18 month year old son suffering from bones that fused too early in his head and faces surgery Wednesday expressed her gratitude for all that was done tonight and every night at Ronald McDonald house. She doesn’t have to worry about meals, just her son. We told her we would remember him before God in our prayers .. We are truly blessed to be used to show Gods Love.”

“Met a mother with her son who has Apert Syndrome. He is having surgery Wednesday. She loves having the Ronald McDonald House to come to. The boys sister started kindergarten and couldn’t come with them this time. She loves having the fun rooms and having meals made so she can attend to her sons needs. They are so happy to have this place to come to since Chop is there and they need a place that has experience with this particular disease since it is so rare. He is doing well !“

“This Pizza is a 10!”

Today we made about 50 lunches and brought another big bag of snacks and a couple cases of water into the city to give out to the homeless. It only took us about 20 minutes to unload everything and we were left wishing we had brought more. By our observation we assumed we would have needed nearly 200 lunches to service everyone we came in contact with not including those we passed while driving.

We were accompanied by our very own Spider-Man and he made quite an impression. Little did we know that it was the comic convention so he fit right in! He surely brightened a lot of days and along with his sister they shared the love of God with a lot of people today.

Today we interacted with the most appreciative recipients and they raved about the sandwiches and choice of snacks so we would like to thank everyone who had a hand in donating and preparing the lunches! They were a big hit!