A month !?!

Posted by ericbarb on September 15, 2011 · Leave a Comment 

I cannot believe that it has been a month since we’ve last updated on our marathon training and fundraising … SO sorry!

It has been a busy time around the Barb home as a new school year has started as Southeast Missouri State University – which means students are back in town, and ministry is in full swing on campus again.  We started the semester out with a bang by participating in the university’s welcome back picnic, held a picnic and scavenger hunt of our own, helped during campus move in day and capped the first week of classes off by taking our annual float/tubing trip to the Current River in Van Buren with 48 students … many of whom were international students and had never experienced anything quite like that before! Our weekly worship gathering “theWELL” meets every Thursday on campus, and we have 4-5 small groups meeting each week as well . . . God is doing a great work in and through the lives of the students at the BSU!

In addition to that, Kelly has started a new job . . . drum-roll please … at Chick-Fil-A!!  I knew this was a match made in heaven, but seriously . . . could the Lord have picked a better match for me?!  Seriously though, as a result of applying on a whim, Kelly was hired pretty much on the spot and is working as a manager at the newly opened Chick-Fil-A in Cape Girardeau.

All of this has made training for the marathon even more difficult, but committing to training for and running this marathon means you discipline yourself to make it happen, and we’ve been able to move training runs around new schedules and squeeze things in when we can . . . even if it means running at 5 am on Sunday’s before church or in the afternoons between other planned events!

We are 5 weeks away from the St. Louis Rock N Roll marathon!  It is hard to believe that it is coming up so quickly, but we are excited for it to be here as well … we will enjoy having our weekends back!

We are currently at 22% of our fundraising goal, but have some exciting news on that front … we have a donor who is willing to match any donation we receive until the end of September, up to a total of $500!  What a great blessing, and a great opportunity to have your gift doubled by giving before the end of September!

The other day Kelly and I were at Starbucks using the wi-fi and of course I got a drink . . . I sorta like the pumpkin spice latte, even though it isn’t a very manly drink.  Anyhow, after paying I began thinking about how mindlessly I just spent $4.80 . . . let’s say that I do that once a week, that is $19.20 a month.  Or how about going out to dinner.  It isn’t tough for Kelly and I to spend $20-30 on an average meal out (no, not at Chick-Fil-A) and that is just for 2 of us . . . once a week … that is $80-120/month.

Would you consider up one coffee drink a week or one meal out a week for the next month and give that money to help support His Voice Global in their efforts to reach the hurting and the needy across the globe.  Many people think they don’t have much to give, or that they don’t have ENOUGH to give.  Anything helps!

From our friends at His Voice:

In south Sudan we have 3 orphanages and are working on the 4th orphanage. Each orphanage is fully staffed by Sudanese people. Two orphanages have primary schools, which feed into the third orphanage which has a secondary school. Between the three there are over 200 orphans and 80 workers, this doesn’t include the 28 widows who care for the orphans, the 8 cooks, the pastors, the farmers and the guards. The sites include schools that are also a ministry to the community, as you do not have to be an orphan to attend. All of the people on site receive meals as a part of their care.  

So the needs met for $30,000 are schooling, food, water, care, housing and the Gospel for 80 orphans, 12 widows and jobs for 42 local Sudanese people.

His Voice has also started a trucking company in southern Sudan and the profits from that trucking company is what pays for the day to day running of the orphanages.  His Voice is just raising money to build the orphanage and then it becomes a self-sustaining ministry in southern Sudan.  Would you consider helping us, help His Voice in building the 4th orphanage?

You can check out our giving page here … and pass it along to your friends!

http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/eric-barb/stlouisrocknrollmarathon

And check out the His Voice page here:

http://www.hisvoiceglobal.com/

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Filed under BSU, marathon, missions, running · Tagged with fundraising, His Voice Global, marathon, missions, running, St. Louis Rock N Roll Marathon, sudan