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Christian Fund Raising,  Breaks & Gap Year Ideas

 

 

Christian projects at home and abroad.  For the young and young at heart 16 -70 (and more).

 

You may find it helpful to read the talk given by Liz Tilley

 

Sophie Revess undertook a project (2005) with Soap Box in Brazil, helping a school.

 

Jack Lewis, shall we say of more mature years, is an enthusiastic supporter of Task Force Romania, and each year in London helps with Crisis at Christmas.

 

Barbara Barter recently visited Ethiopia with friends from Prayer for Israel.

 

Charlotte Richards can help you look at spending time as a Gap Year with World Horizons, or for a shorter period.

 

One of the previous Gap Year students was Alex Ewart, who tragically drowned in Nepal, whose Fund (The Alexander Ewart Memorial Fund) is now doing great things in that country.   You may wish to read the The Alex Diaries, copies of which are available from our Bookstall.  It is planned for U-†urn to undertake a two week trip to Tanzania with CMS in Summer 2009 with the help of fundraising and the Ewart Trust – details to follow. 

 

Craig Taylor has been part of U-†urn and led the music at youth services; he is currently studying at a University in Dallas, returning in Jan 2008 and you may wish to check out Craig's Blog. We supported him financially and in prayer on a mission trip to Jimenez, Mexico May 2007 being coordinated through a Christian student organization at the university.  The team partnered with a local Baptist church in Jimenez through the Border/Mexico Missions to both serve and do outreach ministry to the local community.  As well as doing light construction work, for example building fences to make play areas safe for young children and leading vacation bible schools and after-school activities, they stayed in the homes of the families in the community. 

You may like to try DNA, which is a year of Christian discipleship and service.  It includes serving at events such as Spring Harvest with the children and has an optional mission track where students can go away for 3 months overseas.  Jon Noble did it last year and it was an amazing experience.  It was also part of how he was led to work with the young people in Wonersh.  The address is http://www.dna-uk.org/

 

Mission Direct is enables mission volunteers to travel and bring practical help to areas of desperate need.  It is supported by Harriet & Molly Foges who have both spent time with the charity recently in Uganda with AIDS orpans..

 

Retrak helps street children in Africa, including Etheopia, Kenya and Uganda. It is a charity with strong Wonersh connections through Tessa Auty and Brenda Williams, whose son Andy is the International Director. 

 

 

 

SPONSORSHIP

Church members are often happy to sponsor & support individuals who raise money for charity, especially those which are Christian based.   If you are considering looking for sponsorship you may wish to consider using www.justgiving.com to take out all the hassle of gathering up the money and getting the tax back; they automatically add 28% to the donation when it is eligible for Gift Aid.  They are a London based company who charge 5% for their service.  It looks like good value.

 

 

Al and Bex Metcalfe are having another go at the 2008 Keswich ½ marathon.:  If you want to see how they got on in 2007 or want to support them this year check out http://www.justgiving.com:80/alandbex.  They really appreciate all those who have sent money/gone online.  Afrinspire use the money in a number of ways which they really hope to get out next year to visit... one is a women's enterprise development scheme where a loan would be made to women who will be trained in skills so they are able to build a business and thus make money for their family.... in time their loan will be repaid back to Afrinspire - who can then look at other initiatives to employ the funds. Another use is that there is a really great training centre (that Al visited last year) who want to put on more training for local people/projects (in areas such as budget management, funding proposal writing etc) and our funds will be used to fund local individuals who run projects locally in Uganda and Rwanda - these skills will benefit their projects and their communities. If you would like to know more - have a look at www.afrinspire.org.uk for more information on the organisation. As for these proposals - there may be more specific projects that may be able to use the money - however these are the top of the list at the moment.

 

On 25th May 2008 Mandy MacVean is undertaking the YMCA Y2½ Sponsored Walk in aid if The Life Change Fund.  Join a group from Wonersh Church starting at Ranmore Common for a 12 mile walk. Last year, together with David Merritt Sue & Martin Down took part in the Y2Y North Downs Treck, a 22 mile sponsored walk to raise money for the Guildford YMCA Life Change Fund.  They raised some £2000.  The fund launched when Martin and Jeff Wattley sailed across the Atlantic 2 years ago.  .

 

 

Consider sponsoring a child trough Compassion ; Anne Heini-Charmichael who now works for Compassion has just returned from Peru.

 

 

 

 

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