are you ready to party

are you ready to make a difference? are you ready to have a purpose? are you ready to party? we are going to show you how you can have a party and make a difference at the same time.

since this is the first post we will stop and make sure this is all working. be back soon

Results of the Baby Shower

At the "baby shower" which was our Party with a Purpose for May, it was so funny when I saw our friend, Lucas (the bmx rider whom I blogged about the other day) and his friend who is a tattoo artist (both single guys) going through the registry trying to choose a good baby gift. The tattoo artist asked what a snugli was and I told him that I'd been advised from one of my friends who is a mother that it is really good. Then, Lucas said, "I bought them the gate. Think about it! What if the baby starts to crawl down the stairs into the basement...Think about it!" Who knew that the same guy who back flips his bike several feet in the air would be so concerned about safety?

While Brock was out in L.A., he stopped by Travis and Delaine's house (the ones that we had the baby shower for). Brock took a few clothes and stuff given to us by one of our friends whose baby has outgrown the clothes. Delaine was blown away by the generosity of everyone. She showed him notes from people who said that they heard about the need on this blog and decided to give. She pointed to something and said that she didn't know whom that was from but she thought that it was a cool gift...it was the gate from Lucas! Thank you so much to everyone who contributed!!!

Not Your Typical Baby Shower

Last night was wonderful. It was a smaller group, but we still had 17 in attendance. We made our own pizzas and I made a couple of fruit pizzas for dessert. At the beginning of the night, we went on ichat with Travis and Delaine. They are the ones whom we were giving the shower for. It was so special to be able to talk with them. They were almost tearful at some times because they were so appreciative of what we are doing for them. They were really encouraged that strangers on the other side of the country would provide for them. Travis kept saying that this was "all God." I liked being a part of something that is all God.

After we prayed for Travis and his family, we continued making pizzas and people got online to order gifts for the baby. I had four computers set up to order. After that, we all watched movies since Travis is in Hollywood. I had four different movies set up in four different rooms of our house. It was fun!

Baby Shower Online

Imagine that you and your family consisting of two little girls and a beautiful wife are living a great life in Alabama surrounded by friends and family. The Lord asks you and your family to uproot and move to L.A. to be an evangelist to Hollywood. Would you do it? What a culture shock! That's what a friend of ours did a few years ago. Travis is influencing the influencers with the gospel in Hollywood.

We felt as if the Lord was telling us to do a party with a purpose for him, so Brock gave him a call. We found out that his wife is going to have another baby...Surprise! They have two beautiful daughters and thought they were done. Well, the Lord had other plans for them, and now they are having a boy. Brock said that we could give them a baby shower as our party with a purpose. Travis told him that this was totally God because they don't have a strong community around them like they did in Alabama...at least not one that gives baby showers.

So, this Sunday evening, on Mother's Day I might add, we are going to have a baby shower for Travis and Delaine at our house. We are going to purchase items from Target and have them shipped to them. If you want to be a part of this, simply go to target.com and click on the baby registry. The mother's name is: Delaine and the father's name is: Travis Crim. The baby will be born in California in July. Make sure that you send it to their address that's already in the registry.

Chocolate Tasting

The chocolate tasting went well Saturday. Only 20 people showed up as opposed to 60 that committed to it, but that was okay. Twenty people were easier on my nerves. Out of 20 people (a few of them being children), 4 Compassion kids were sponsored. That's successful! I learned a lot during this tasting. Here are some pictures:

Hosting a Chocolate Tasting

Please pray for me today!!! I'm hosting a chocolate tasting for the women at a church in Murfreesburo, TN. There are going to be 60 women there! I feel confident about the actual chocolate tasting, but I'm not too sure about speaking about Compassion after that. Brock usually does that part. Please pray that my passion comes out and that I don't get too nervous.

This is the plan: Everyone will congregate around four different tables (approximately 15 at each one). I will lead everyone through the tasting on the mic. Then, everyone will sit down in the center of the room as I share about my experience with Compassion International. After that, the women can mingle around. We will have two chocolate fountains set up, a table with Compassion children that you can sponsor, and a table where you can actually buy the chocolate bars that we used in the tasting AND a chocolate tasting kit (yes, we have those ready now).

Please pray that despite me and my fumbling words, that lots of Compassion children get sponsored. I am so passionate about this! I saw how much it can change their lives. Now, in my head, I add the number of Compassion children that are sponsored to the number of people that get saved at our show. That's how strongly I feel about it. I believe that this program is another way that the Lord is getting the gospel out to other parts of the world. We can each be a missionary to one child.

Pictures from Easter

Tullips!


Food!!!










Emily made a bunny cake


Easter egg hunt




Lucas won again!


Steph shared about Soles4Souls




78 pairs!


We took some pictures of Stephanie with the shoes


Our village took pictures with the shoes


Then, some hung out


Some slept...I guess that he was all tuckered out after the Easter egg hunt.


These are the shirts the girls gave us in our Easter basket.

78

78...that's how many shoes we collected for Soles4Souls. Isn't that amazing??? I was hoping for 50 pair, but 78??? That more than exceeded my expectations.

I love our group! We had a wonderful time talking about the ministries that we are being a part of when we have parties. So far, over $700 has been raised for the family in Ecuador. Then, Stephanie shared about the Soles4Souls. One of the guys who was new to the group and obviously didn't know what was going on, took off the shoes that he had on his feet and added them to the pile for Soles4Souls.

Later on, the girls that were here that are in my village went into my bed room and prayed over one of our girls. Her mom died in May 2006 and Sunday was her birthday. We knew that it was probably hard on her. It was a very sweet time.

Also, three of our friends that we are closed to gave us an Easter basket. They bought us some chocolate, some food that we like, and they made some t-shirts for us (you will see those in the pictures). They put it all together with a cute story that they made up. What a wonderful community that we have here!

Easter Party

The party was so wonderful yesterday. We had 27 people total. First, we had some great food. Brock and I got to cheat, so it was fun to eat all the dessert and stuff that we wanted! Brock cooked some yummy chicken and pork loin. I made two blueberry cream pies with my mother-in-law's recipe. Everyone loved them!

Then, we had the easter egg hunt. Lindsey got the "golden" egg which wasn't really golden at all. It was a real egg (not even boiled) that Brock spray painted orange. She won a chocolate bar from Manabi, Ecuador that was everyone's favorite at the chocolate tasting. The winner of the easter egg hunt got a big basket of really exclusive chocolate from all over the world! The winner was Lucas, again, and he won because he had the most amount of points. If you got a regular egg, you received 1 point. If it was hot pink, it was worth 2 points. If it was camoflauge, it was 3 points. If it had a penny in it, it was an extra point. A seashell was worth two extra points, and a button was worth three. Some of them had questions in them. If you got them right, you received an additional 2 points. The questions were about the people in the room. For example, one question was, "Who was a guest on the Jay Leno show?" That would be our friend, Jas, from Atlanta. He was on it when he was in the group Marvelous 3. Nobody in the room knew him except us, but you could make an educated guess because none of us had been on that show. It was really fun!

One girl got the question, "Who starred on one of our video blogs?" The girl who was answering the question, Mandy, was the one who starred on it and didn't know it (remember her talking about those little wiener dogs?). Another person got the question, "Who thought that she was receiving a myspace message from Corey but it was really from Brock?" The answer was Mallori, but she found that out for the first time here yesterday and this happened over a year ago! Brock was playing on Corey's computer, and when he went on myspace, Corey was still logged in. So, he went to the first girl's comment and commented her back saying something about going out on a date with him. A few weeks later, that girl moved from Colorado to here. She never knew that it was Brock and not Corey until yesterday. I'll will tell you more about the party tomorrow...

The "Purpose" in Parties With a Purpose

I knew that the Lord wanted us to have these parties with a purpose every month, but how would I know what the "purpose" would be? Lots of people had ideas. Then, we determined that we wanted to center it on missions.

To make a long story short, the Lord keeps showing me what He wants us to do the next month. At our chocolate tasting, one of our friends asked us if we wanted shoes. Brock is several sizes bigger than this guy, but he told him to leave it with us and we would know what to do with it. The next day, another person gave me a pair of shoes. Then, we knew that we were supposed to be collecting shoes for soles4souls. It's an organization that collects shoes for people who are without in other countries www.soles4souls.org. Our friend, Stephanie, is a spokes person for them. She is going to share more about it at our party on Easter. So, everyone is coming over to the house on Sunday and bringing some shoes and a side dish. It's going to be great! I'll tell you all about it next week!

Therefore, I am looking forward to Sunday in order to celebrate the Ressurection of my Lord and Savior, hang out with friends, and collect shoes...oh yeah, and to eat chocolate!!!! Pray for us today and tomorrow as we perform and speak three times at this conference in Camp Hill, PA and fly back Saturday night.

Pictures from the Chocolate Tasting

The chocolate tasting table




We had a chocolate fountain


and some hors d'voures


We also had a picture taking area...






Then, Brock shared with everyone.

Emily Singing

This is the youngest child, Emily, from the family in Ecuador singing for us.

Isn't she so cute?

Party!!!

The party was a HUGE success! Thirty-one people were in attendance. We raised $391 last night alone. Plus, with all of the pledges we got, we are going to be able to pay off the family's house!

In the kitchen and hallway, we had hors d'oeurves and a chocolate fountain donning Valentine decor. We even had a picture taking area in the hallway. We took polaroids of everyone at the party.

Then, in the dining room, hiding behind a Valentine's curtain was the chocolate tasting area. We had people go in there in groups of about 4. They would take time to taste each piece of chocolate and record their thoughts as well as rate the chocolate. It was truly an experience!

Chocolate Tasting

To raise money for this family in Ecuador, we are going to have a chocolate tasting at our house tonight! I've ordered chocolate from all over the world. We even got some apples and bread to cleanse our pallets between tastings if we want! We were going to have people over at our house this weekend anyway (you know us), so this time, we are charging a cover charge of $10. That's how we are going to raise the money!

Today is February 8th, and I remember it because it's my sister's birthday. However, it's also a significant date for me. The Lord has often had me start new things on Feb 8th. I first began having a consistent time with the Lord daily on Feb. 8, 1993. I remember praying really hard for a friend on this particular day one year. I even know that on Feb. 8, 2005, the Lord told me to begin writing this blog. That's why it's no surprise to me that we are beginning this chocolate tasting tonight!

I have so much to say about it that I don't know how to begin. This party has two folds. With our particular community, we are going to have a party at our house about once a month. At these parties, we will continue to make great food for everyone and have a great time. The only difference is that we are going to charge at least $10 per person which will go toward some kind of mission or ministry. We are all so excited about this! Michawn said a while back that we have the most parties! Well, we will continue to celebrate...we're just now having parties with a purpose!

The second part of this is that we are going to offer chocolate tasting "kits" to people so that they can have their own chocolate tastings in their houses or churches to raise money for Compassion. I'll go into detail about that more later. I am just so passionate about this right now!!!!

If you want to help out with this particular family in Ecuador or Compassion International, email me at aunygill@yahoo.com.