Those who have read my posts before have surely read about how much God has changed my heart. It's isn't that before I knew God so intimately that I was completely unkind, selfish, or unloving - though I am sure that could be said of me then and even now at times.
Rather, beyond God crafting me into a more humble, yet still imperfect woman, He has honored my prayer to give me a heart more like His. A scripture verse in Ezekiel 11:19 speaks of this so well. "I will give them (me) an undivided heart and put a new spirit within them. I will remove from them their heart of stone (selfishness, indifference, hard heartedness) and give them a heart of flesh (compassion, love and concern for others). Emphasis mine.
We sing a worship song in church that includes the following verse:
This song has really become my sincere prayer. Every time we sing it, especially when we get to that part, tears come to my eyes and my heart swells. You see, I know better than anyone does how much God has changed my heart. I feel the internal change.
My hope is that one way people can see this change tangibly is through my passion for sharing God's love and peace while ministering to the broken hearts of others...especially women. This leads me to my post today.
As I prepare to travel to Africa and South Africa in October for my very first mission trip, with a team of women specifically going to minister to and serve women, I wanted to come up with a creative way to ask for others support to help me raise my funds to go. I knew that beyond just asking a few close family members or friends to financially support me, I wanted to work to earn the money too.
One way I am doing this is through a fundraiser I created called Purses for a Purpose. Women...purses...seems like a natural fit, right? With the wonderful generosity of many women, many I do not even personally know, I was able to collect beautiful new and gently used handbags to raffle off. I ended up receiving around 160! I spent a significant amount of time going through them, cataloging then, photographing them...and about 140 of them are now visible in my online store for the price of a raffle ticket.
So with the first phase of the preparation effort done, I get to now see what God will do with this. He knows my needs and the needs of those I want to help. One way I get to partner with Him though is to make my need known to others. I've been on my own most of my life and asking for help has never been easy for me. I guess because it is ultimately not for me, it makes it easier to do this time.
Please check out Purses for a Purpose
