A HEART FOR ORPHANS

The past couple of months have been so exciting  and crazy busy.  We have made some major changes around here and God is doing BIG things. I had been praying for a while that God would give me a new business model, a way to sell jewelry as more of a ministry than a business. Through a series of events and conversations with friends He gave us the idea to do adoption fundraisers. One morning, when the idea was still new, Matt (my husband) and I went to hear a guy speak on doing business as missions. Afterwords Matt told me he had been praying and that he felt like God was telling him to sell his business and that we were supposed to be doing the jewelry business together. It's pretty funny if you know my husband. He's a contractor who likes hunting, football, Nascar, and Duck Dynasty. But that is just God :) So we took a couple steps that felt like leaps and started moving in that direction. Since then we have had so much confirmation that God is leading this. He has continued to turn our hearts to orphan care in bigger ways. He has blessed the business like crazy. Orders are pouring in. And he keeps surprising us with the coolest connections to people and ministries that draw us deeper into His adventure and His work. One such connection is with a ministry we LOVE LOVE LOVE. Lifeline Childrens' Services. Not only do they facilitate adoptions, they partner with the foster care system here in town reaching out to the children, parents and workers. They help birth moms domestically and abroad. They have a ministry called (UN)adopted that helps orphans all over the world that either aren't available for adoption or are hoping to be adopted. They help the local churches in these countries start sustainable projects to help their own in their communities. And they advocate for children who need life saving surgeries who otherwise might not receive it. I was sitting at the Know More Orphans conference reading their brochure and one of the points on it really caught my attention. $1,000 can give a baby in China life-saving heart surgery. The same surgery over here in the U.S. could cost half a million dollars. Some of the surgeries cost more. Some cost less. But they are all so much more affordable than they are here. And they are all reachable goals. It's crazy to think that someone's child's life hangs in the balance over $1,000. Many children born with severe illnesses or defects are abandoned at orphanages because the parents are desperate to get them the help they can't afford. Matt and I couldn't stop thinking about it. So after meeting with friends at Lifeline we felt compelled to try to help fund at least one of these surgeries. So here it is...For the month of November 75% of the sales from heart necklaces at Rebekahblocher.com will go toward helping a precious child through Lifeline.

 

We are selling them in bundles too so you can take care of several gifts at once and save money.

I'll update this blog post on Monday with some more information about the kids awaiting surgery but I wanted to go ahead and get the word out. So please help us by posting on FB, tweeting, and pinning!

Journals for Preemies

I just finished my first journal for Footprints Ministry. I found a couple great hardback journals in the Dollar section at Michaels that are perfect for recovering with scrapbook paper. I wrote a couple verses throughout the inside on the cover and left a little blank spot for the new mommy to put her little one's name. This is a really fun project and a great way to support a cause that means so much to moms who have new babies in the NICU. This project is perfect for church groups, womens' groups, scrapbooking clubs, etc. I think it is also a fun thing to do with your kids to show them a tangible way to love others. Our next Footprints meeting is coming up soon so get them in as quick as you can. Thank you to everyone who is participating! Check out www.NICUfooutprints.org

A New Direction

So, I have been praying a lot about my business lately. I have been trying to come up with a new model in which the whole thing runs more like a ministry and less like a business. At the same time, of course, I still need to help support my family. I was intrigued by the idea behind TOMS shoes where every time a pair of shoes is purchased, another pair is given to a person in need.  I'm about half way through the book "Start Something that Matters" by Blake Mycoskie, the founder of TOMS. Check out his blog http://www.startsomethingthatmatters.com/

 So, inspired by the idea of business as missions and following what I believe to be God's direction, here is the idea I have come up with...We want to help people who are raising funds for mission trips and couples who are raising funds for adoption. Adoptions can cost tens of thousands of dollars.  If you are interested, we will send you 20 pieces at a time. You sell them for $24 each and send us back half. No money up front and you can return pieces that don't sell. After selling your first 20 you can request a special verse or message on the back of your next batch like "pray for Haiti" or a verse about adoption. (You can check out our jewelry at www.rebekahblocher.com.) I have had 5 or 6 people do it so far with good success. I'm planning on completely redoing my website to accommodate these changes. I'm so excited about this!! So now all we have to do is get the word out...Please share, pin, repost, etc.
Thank you!

 

I LOVE to read! My husband cleaned out my car once and found 13 books. I usually have 2 or 3 going at once with a backup list after that and an audio book in the CD player. Right now I am reading Start Something that Matters by Blake Mycoskie (founder of TOMS shoes), Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother by Xue Xinran, Among the Betrayed by Margaret Peterson Haddix, Heaven by Randy Alcorn, and listening to And Then They Came For Me by Maziar Bahari. I get most of my books from the library, but every now and then I find one that I know I am going to want to mark up and underline in so I splurge a little. I feel like I learn more from them that way, but then they end up sitting on a shelf forever. So I thought it might be fun to start doing small book reviews on my blog and then give them away. I will be happy to send my used copy to the first person to show interest. Just be the first to make a comment on the blog and send your address to me at hello@rebekahblocher.net. And I would love to hear your feedback after you read it! One book per person please, 18 and up (unless it's YA) and no mailing them internationally. So here is the first one...

I just finished this fantastic book called Growing Grateful Kids by Susie Larson, but I think a better title would have been Becoming a Grateful Person. It was one of those books I decided to read slowly so I could soak it up. It was so convicting in an "Aaah I really needed that" sort of way. Every single chapter had something so good that I decide to make a list of all the quotes that stood out to me and put it up in my bedroom. The quote, though, that summarizes the central idea is...


"What's the best thing you can do for them (your children)? Be serious about your own relationship with Jesus. You love them best when you love Him most" Page 45

The best way to teach gratefulness is to simply BE grateful. But being grateful isn't always simple. You have to constantly guard your heart from things like pride and discontent. The table of contents alone in this book create a meaningful list of what it takes to develop heart that puts the focus on God as the one who meets all our needs and helps us see ourselves rightly as undeserving receivers of all His goodness.


One thing I loved about this book is that at the end of each chapter Larson gives several ideas for personal application and parental application. One of her ideas at the end of the chapter called Embrace Contentment was to create a gratitude journal and write notes in it often. I love this idea and found tons of cute samples on Pinterest.

Peyton's Gratitude Journal

So I got my son busy making one and I am going to make one too. I want to re-train myself to recognize blessings and not take things for granted. It has started several good discussions between us and we looked up some good verses on giving that we have decided to memorize. I want my kids to be able to find happiness in small things and not feel entitled to have every new thing that comes out on the market. I hope they grow up to be adults who are able to live simply and humbly consider the needs of others before themselves. I want them to enjoy giving freely and radically because they know they have already been given so much by God and that He loves them and has promised to meet their needs. To do that they need to see me tell myself no more often to things I may want but don't need and hear me voice out loud the things that I am thankful for. This one page in the book really stood out to me...here's a little excerpt from the Live Humbly chapter (pg. 110)

If our kids see

us shaking our fist at people more than they see us praying for them

They'll learn

that people shouldn't get in the way of what we want. That's pride.

If our kids see

us responding humbly to the rude person in line at the grocery store

They'll learn

that we are alive to reflect the character of Christ. That's humility.

 If our kids see

us dissecting other people's flaws more than they hear us honoring them in their absence

They'll aquire

an exaggerated view of their own importance and the idea that it's okay to gossip. That's pride.

If our kids see

us speaking well of others, giving people the benefit of the doubt, and believing the best about other's motives.

They'll learn

not to be quick to judge or to assign motives; they'll learn to believe and hope for the best in others. That's humility.

If our kids see

us striving and straining in our own strength and neglecting to give Jesus the credit He deserves

They'll learn

that more rest on our shoulders than on His. They'll come to believe that they are stronger than they really are (and that God is weak in some way). That's pride.

There's another page of this in the book and it's really good but I don't want this to go too long. So I will wrap it up with 3 last quotes from Larson..

"You cannot impart what you do not possess." (pg.16)
"God's promises are almost always linked with our obedience." (pg.42)
"When our strength is unequal to the task, we see the strength of God come to bear in our lives" (pg. 28)

If you like this book, you will also love...

Journals for Footprints Ministry

 

Learn more about this incredible ministry at www.NICUfootprint.org