Why I'm Doing This

Back in May, I read this post by Ann Voskamp about her trip to Iraq, and my heart was absolutely wrecked. PLEASE go and read it in its entirety, but here is an excerpt... "Why in God’s holy name are we born into North American ease? Why aren’t my kids being gunned down and shot in the bloody streets? Why do we get to go through our days with no one hunting us down to put bullets through our backs or hack off all our rolling heads? Why in God’s name do we get to be safe…. and they get to be killed, raped, displaced, destroyed? We aren’t where we are, to just peripherally care about the people on the margins as some superfluous gesture or token nicety. The exact reason why you are where you are — is to risk everything for those being oppressed out there. You are where you are — to help others where they are. The reason your hands are where they are in this world — is to give other people in this world a hand..." Days later, I was still so burdened by what is happening to these women and children in Iraq. As a mom, as a friend, as a follower of Christ, I just could not unlearn what I had learned. As I cried out to God asking what I could do, what I kept hearing from Him was "use your gifts." So there began my plan to make 2 quilts to raffle off to raise money for Preemptive Love Coalition. I learned about PLC through Ann's blog, and love that they are going into the hard places to help women and children whose lives have been devastated by ISIS. I hope you will visit their site and support their efforts if you are able! 100% of the proceeds from this raffle will be donated to PLC, to give microloans to women so they can start businesses to support their families. Originally I had a goal in mind for fundraising, however our God is able to do immeasurably more than we could ask or imagine, so I'm just trusting Him with it all.