Will You Be One?

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."
-James 1:27

Yesterday, we were given the opportunity to give a presentation at Mill Creek Foursquare Church. Our pastor there, Chris Manginelli, and entire church family are incredibly welcoming and passionate about helping today's orphans. The message given by Pastor Chris was about caring for the weak - the widows and orphans around us. At the end of his teaching, he invited a woman named Shannon up on stage. My dad met Shannon a couple of months back, and wow, she has an incredible story. She grew up in the foster system after suffering abuse while living with biological family. After bouncing from home to home for years, she was taken in by a family who didn't give up on her. Her foster parents gave her the unconditional love and support that she had not been given, and they brought her to church on Sundays. Now, as an adult, she is a beautiful wife and mother. Shannon's story was incredibly inspiring to me and I am so in awe of the amazing person she has become despite the hardships she experienced in her childhood.

The main message that Shannon wanted to get across was this: All it took was ONE family to save her life. One family took in one foster child, and in turn changed an entire generation of people. We were challenged yesterday to think of what we can accomplish as one person or one family in today's foster system. Not every person may be in a position to foster, but everyone can do something.

The audio for the service yesterday is not posted online yet, but I will post the link when it is available. In the meantime, take a look at this video, and ask yourself if you can be "one". 

Hand-In-Hand Video

(Thank you to Heidi and Johannes Happonen for putting this video together!)

-Katie

Eastern Time is Not My Friend

A little after 9pm on May 31st, I logged into the Pepsi Refresh website and found that they were no longer accepting entries for the month of June. I was incredibly confused, since you can't enter your idea in until midnight. As you have probably realized by now, I neglected to realize that Pepsi was operating on Eastern time! While I am a little sad (and quite frankly embarrassed that I missed this detail!), I think that this could be a good thing.

This blog, the facebook page, and our website are brand new, so not too much is on any of them. By having another month to get some "followers", we can more effectively spread the word during the month of July. In addition, people browsing the Pepsi entries (who don't know about us) will be directed to a blog with more than one entry, which could also work in our benefit. Hopefully we get the opportunity in July! As Eddie Carter says, it's all in God's timing!

Also, a blog will be coming soon to update you all on the process. We are hoping to start construction on the facility in July and have recently begun the process to become licensed! More details will be coming soon! Thank you all SO MUCH for your support of Hand-in-Hand!

-Katie