Won't you please HELP?

UPDATED (posted Fri Nov 20)

My quest to raise a few dollars to buy rice has gone so much better than expected. We are now up to $475 and still climbing. There is still time for you to get your donations in, the last day I'll be collecting is Fri Dec 4.

I found this photo of some of the school children sitting on all the sacks of rice...I just fell in love with this photo!

Maurice & Dianne just received an update from 'New Missions' about the price per sack. A 110 lb sack of rice, will feed about 360 meals. The price of a 110 lb sack has gone up from $30 to $42. So far, we have 11 FULL sacks (and 1 1/2 sack) of rice which equates to feeding about 4100 meals. WOW....

THANK YOU so much.

There is still time to donate. Please contact me if you wish to donate, or pay through paypal (top right corner of the blog).

UPDATE (posted Thurs Oct 29)
So our new goal - of $300 - was met last night. I actually had someone (a lady on a same committee as me who I don't know all that well) come up to me in the grocery store and hand me money. She said, 'it's for a great cause'. I was in tears and so very thankful, as I am with each dollar that is coming in.

To be honest, God is showing what he can truly do. I NEVER expected to raise much more than 2 or 3 sacs of rice (or $90), so I set our goal HIGH (at $180). But, I guess God had bigger plans for me that what I did for myself. Isn't that always the case!!!

In 1 week only, I have collected enough money to buy 10 sacs of rice to feed 100 families for a week. HOW encouraging is THAT!!!

Maurice (Dianne's husband) told me a story last night (forgive me if the details are a little off, but the main point and truth will be told): So last year when the rice was being handed out, this shy little boy came from school to get rice with his little back pack on his back. The person handing out the rice, looked at this shy little boy and filled his container with a little extra rice for his family. When the person put the rice on the little boy's back pack, he FELL OVER!!! When Maurice told this to Noah, Isabelle and I - we laughed so hard. Such a cute story! God Bless his little soul and of the people donating to providing this little boy and his family food for over a week.

I just don't know where t

UPDATE (posted Mon Oct 26)
As of this morning (in just 4 days), we have reached $200 and surpassed our goal (of $180 or 6 sacs of rice). You guys ROCK....THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for all your generosity.

Any new ideas for our next goal??? For now, I'll do $100 at a time. But does anyone dare to challenge me???

ORIGINAL MESSAGE (posted Thurs Oct 22)
I want to tell you about one of my dearest friends.

Her name is Dianne. We met last year at church. Our hearts connected. She is one in a million. Lately, we have been growing closer over a few common interests we share. First and foremost, our love for Christ, crafts and dreams of helping the poor by going on a mission trip.

Not only me, but our family has been spending more time with her. When I go to visit and we knit and talk and giggle and chat. It's weird, I never thought I would say one of my dearest friends was so much 'more mature' than I - but she is.

Just the other day, I decided to take over the Rubbermaid of clothes & shoes for her to ship to her sponsor daughter in Haiti with a friend of hers who was going to her village in December.

The following day, she told me 'guess what - I think I may be going with my friend to Haiti and I'll get to meet my sponsor daughter and her family'. She called me on Monday to tell me that she was going for sure. WOW...she was so excited, I was so excited, my kids have been so excited....we are all SO excited.

Since Monday....look at ALL she has done to help her sponsor family and many other families in their community - ALL BY HERSELF. She has shopped till she dropped. She's made all little parcels for families including one BIG hockey duffel bag for her sponsor family and hundreds of other items for all the other families. Things like crackers, suckers, hair clips, face clothes, shampoo, toothpaste, undies, maxi pads, socks, shirts....and SO many more items.

When I asked her if I could do a vitamin or medicine drive for her - she was surprised herself to find that she didn't have any more room in her bags (and she doesn't leave for another 6 weeks). Maurice, her husband, told me that in one week she has stuffed 2 - 50 lb bags of items to help the families in the community. He said 'she stuffs the bags, then steps on the scales, over and over to fit every last item that she can'. She is even planning leaving ALL her clothes when she leaves Haiti for the women of the community.

Look at ALL the items she has bought, carefully packaged and will be donating:

Dianne has the BIGGEST heart you could ever imagine. She has the will to do God's work, to help the extreme impoverished people of this world. She is about to live a dream she has dreamed of doing since she was a little girl..... (and selfishly, I get to live through her experience something that I too dream of doing one day). I am SO excited for her and want to EVERYTHING and ANYTHING I can to help her help the community she'll be helping in.

So when I asked her how I could (or our family could) help, she told me that she couldn't ask for any other help. I told her she didn't have to ASK, because I was offering!!! I've since found out that she is collecting her loose change to buy sacks of rice to distribute. These sacks of rice cost about $30 each and will feed over 30 families for about one week each. Food is scarce and hunger is high in this community. It broke my heart when Maurice told me that their sponsor daughter gets her lunch at school (that Maurice & Dianne's sponsor money pays for) and only eats a fraction of it to take the leftovers home to feed her hungry family. NO 7 year old should have to go hungry to feed their hungry family. This just tore me apart when I heard this.

When I told Isabelle & Noah about this, they both wanted to help (bless their little - or shall I say 'big' hearts). Using their own earnings from their allowance and Isabelle's job, they have both told me that they would like to give $1 / week for the next 6 weeks (until Dianne leaves). I was SO proud of them for OFFERING to do this without me even asking. I told them I would MATCH whatever they donated. This means, they will donate $12 from their money and I will match $12 (so I bumped it $8 more which means that our family will donate $30 in all and buy ONE sack of rice). So how much is $30?? It's our weekly snacks that we usually buy for our family movie night. This week, we'll have some homemade popcorn and some water - rather than chips, licorice, chocolate & pop.

This is where I'd like to ask for your help. Could you spare $1 this week to feed a family for 1 week? How about $2 or $5? Could you live without your Tim Horton's or Starbuck's coffee for one day to help a family eat for a week?

If you would be interested, PLEASE click the donate button on the top right corner of our blog to pay through paypal. I am also offering.....any fees related with paying through paypal will be paid by me. So 100% of your donated money will go directly to the purchase of rice.

When I told Dianne what I was going to do....she was in tears. She said she will take lots of photos while in Haiti and distributing the rice so I could post on our blog when she returns to show you just what this little donation can do for a community.

So won't you please help?