How God Provided the Money for This Trip

Abby H. (and her mom, Janice) wrote the following report of how God worked in big ways to help her earn money for the trip to Cambodia. Abby is the youngest member of our Cambodia team.

          Abby's story: I’ve wanted to go to Cambodia for several months, but I wasn’t sure how I was going to pay for it.  $2000 is a ton of money to a 12 year old!  Mom helped me brainstorm about some practical ideas of ways I could raise the money, and that started the ball rolling. God seemed to open peoples’ hearts to being willing to share $ and things help me go to Cambodia and to bring hope to the people of Cambodia.

            First, a friend of Dad’s just gave my dad some money to give to Caleb and me, so we both decided to put that gift towards our missions trips this summer. (My brother is going to Cleveland with the 9^th graders from church.) Then someone from school asked me to take care of their precious doggie over spring break in order to raise some $ for the trip. God is so good…because I got to take care of a dog in our house (non-shedding of course) for about 10 days and loved every minute of it! They were very generous to donate toward the cause too. 

            Then Mom and I started making greeting cards with lots of photos she and I have taken of flowers and other naturey-type things.  I decided to call the cards “C4C”, which stands for Cards For Cambodia, since all the profits go towards this mission trip right now. My grandma had given us a bunch of blank cards, paper, cutters, etc. last summer, so that got us started very inexpensively! See how good God is to plan that even last summer!  Again, people have been very generous in buying the cards and we’ve sold a bunch!!  Some even keep coming back for more.

            The other big way God worked it out for me to be able to go was a HUGE garage sale in spring.  I mentioned it to all the kids in 6^th grade at school, neighbors, and friends at American Heritage Girls, while mom got the word out for me to some of her friends at school, MOPS, Bible Study, church, our hair stylist, etc. People began doing their spring cleaning and filling boxes and bags to donate to the cause. In the end, there was a ton of stuff from about 24 families all set up everywhere in our garage—we even had a big furniture department! It was fun to see the stuff pour in and to start to sort it all, although that was a lot of work!  Mom and her friend priced most of it and ran the sale while I was at school on Friday, but then I was in charge with a friend on Saturday. Between the garage sale/bake sale and some items that were left that we’ve sold on Craigslist, God raised almost $1200!  WOW! 

            He even raised more than I needed for my part of the trip, so we used it to buy small gifts for the children in Cambodia. Some are for the students Dad and I will have in our English Camp group and the rest are for all the orphans at Place of Rescue 2. I’m excited to bring them the toys/gifts and see the children enjoy playing with them. 

            We plan to keep selling the C4C cards and use that money to support God’s work in Cambodia in some way.  I’ve heard about a ministry that educates poor young girls so that they can get good jobs rather than be sold into slavery. Dad and I will learn about different ways that money can be used while we are there, and we’ll decide later what’s best. 

            Thank you to everyone who has donated in different ways toward this trip.  

The first of our team members will depart from Rochester International Airport, headed to Cambodia, on this Wednesday, July 13. Abby and her dad will leave for Cambodia on July 25, along with many others on our team. Please keep us all in your prayers!