PROVISION!

I JUST GOT THIS EMAIL THIS MORNING!!! PRAISE GOD!!!

~~~

Dear Chantelle,

Got some great news!!!!! I truly believe your mobilization of prayer and action helped bring this to pass. We have got the food for OREA/HNAV (Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association/Hunger Needs a Voice) that will be providing the full shipping cost to ship a full 40 foot container to the Childs in Niger. So, 1x40 foot FMSC 'Feed My Starving Children' (270,864 meals) will most likely be loaded out this Thursday April 1, 2010 for Niger.

Truly, God's timing is perfect. This container came released because of a situation not allowing us to send it to another country. Thanks Chantelle for all you are doing and have done!!!!

Bill Meyer

~~~

I then got a second email from Bill...

~~~

I forgot to mention…if you can raise the funds, we could possibly send another 1x40 FMSC container to Niger to the Childs perhaps in May, June or July…perhaps. The need is great and the hours is now…what do you think?

~~~

This means ONE container is going to be shipped on April 1, not because of funds NourishNiger has raised, but just because of God's amazing provision!!!

So, the question is... can we match that? Can we continue to raise the money to send a SECOND container?! I say we should!!! Please, comment here on the blog or on the discussion board on the Facebook group with your thoughts, questions, concerns, etc.

The need is SO great there... http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/africa/People-in-Niger-Heading-Toward-Capital-in-Search-of-Food-89261457.html

Please, KEEP PRAYING! This is a HUGE answer to prayer, and God is SO good, but there are still so many needs. May God continue to bless this project, but most of all bless the people of Niger and provide for their needs.

Blessings, Chantelle

Day 42: DONATIONS

Here's how you can make donations! Make checks payable to Reach Now International, but put NourishNiger in the memo line.

Here's the address:

NourishNiger

c/o Reach Now Intl.

PO Box 35133

Tulsa, OK 74153

Every little bit helps! Remember - our goal is $13,000. And that's for ONE container - God can do more! Thanks again for your prayers and your donations!

Blessings,

Chantelle

Day 38: Reestablishment

Today was a great day.

1) I had an interview with some Resident Directors to follow up in my application to become a Resident Assistant in a dorm here on campus.

2) I finished my book in time for class

3) The class on this book was fantastic

but mostly

4) I got a large box in the mail with the second shipment of NourishNiger bracelets (here's a picture!)

and

5) I spoke on the phone with Bill Meyer of Reach Now International!

Speaking with Bill on the phone was so helpful and SO encouraging. Things have been topsy turvy lately and talking with him really reignited the passion and energy for this project. You know how it goes - one thing leads to another and your priorities get mixed. Really, I have many 'priorities' at the moment, and they all NEED to be priorities. Figuring out how to make that work is difficult at times, but God is good and he's showing me how to do it.

Here's what was established today -

DONATIONS - Anyone wanting to make a donation can make their checks payable to Reach Now International. State on the check that it is for NourishNiger, and it will be held in an account for Niger food relief. They are a 501c3 organization and donations are tax deductible.

PAYPAL - the PayPal donation button that was on the side of the blog is no more. Making the account myself was much more complicated than I had originally thought and it turns out that it's just NOT that simple. Reach Now is going to be looking into getting a PayPal account set up for us. You WILL be notified once that is up and running!

TEXT MESSAGING - what? Say WHAT? Well, you know with the Haiti relief, the Red Cross has set up the way to text 'Haiti' to 90999 and donate $10? (Go for it by the way!) Well, we may be able to come up with this sort of option for NourishNiger! How AMAZING would that be?! Still in the process though, but again you'll be notified when that is up and running.

After this phone call, all I could do was sit for a little while and bask in the amazingness of God. My roommate said I should just scream and get it out, but I didn't want to. I wanted to hold it all in and bask in what I TRULY believe was the light of his blessing! I felt so many things - peace, joy, excitement, passion. God has REESTABLISHED this project in my heart and given it a place of resistance - it's not moving, it's unyielding, it is FIRM!

Prayer Requests

- Biola's Missions Conference is this next week. Hopefully NourishNiger can have a table-booth-area-location SPOT that we can advocate for this and make it known on the Biola campus (and also sell some stuff to fundraise). Pray we would be given this location and that people would respond and we would make progress!

- Pray that Reach Now would continue their amazing work helping the poor and needy of this world. Pray also that they would be able to help us in the midst of everything they already do!

- Pray that the passion for this project would not DIE! Niger is in NEED. The country has just publicly announced their destitute state, and are requesting international aid. That's us!

Blessings,

Chantelle

Proverbs 31:8-9

"Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,

for the rights of all who are destitute.

Speak up and judge fairly;

defend the rights of the poor and needy."

Day 18: Speed bump #1

Just a quick update: we're hitting a small speed bump at the moment. I've been trying to create a bank account that we could use to pool the funds raised from all the different locations - so far it is too complicated to just DO that. Things are involved like Tax Identification Numbers and such stuff I as a college student have NO knowledge of. Eep. SO - PRAY ABOUT THAT! We're still working on it, but this is kind of problematic.

On a happier note, our Facebook group is GROWING! As of this moment there are 392 members!!! Amazing!!!

Prayer request for me - I'm feeling a bit frazzled by the magnitude of this project. This, on top of school and work and LIFE in general, it's starting to get heavy. Pray for guidance for me as I'm working through the technical/business areas of this venture. God is good, and I know he'll guide me. Remember to keep the country of NIGER in your prayers!!!

Blessings - Chantelle

Day 15: Valentine from God

Can I just say how AMAZING God is? No, really. He is. Just SO amazing. And here's why...

I started a group on Facebook for this organization to raise awareness and bring more people into this project. The group started 4 days ago on Thursday - Since then we have had 157 people join the group. That blows my mind! And it just keeps coming! Also, I have created a PayPal account so people can donate to this cause. (Donate button is in the sidebar!!!) Responses to this so far - positive. I'm so blown away by the amount of people who want to be a part of this. PRAISE GOD! I now need to work on creating a bank account for this. Something tells me I'll be doing some phone calls tomorrow.

I talked on the phone with Tam today, and she's working on getting things started at Eastern U. in Pennsylvania. Suzy is also talking to people at Cedarville in Ohio. I have other friends who may be interested in forming 'branches' at their schools as well. Someone has offered to create a website for this! What keeps going through my head is this - with this much exposure, $13,000 is NOTHING! God can do so much more than that, and I have faith he will.

And so this is God's Valentine to me - the assurance that he loves me, but more than just me, he loves the people of Niger and hurts with them. God is not blind - he knows more than I do about the situation. He knows what needs to be done, and how and when it needs to be done. So with that, remember to pray for the people of Niger - they're hungry in more ways than one. Also, remember to pray for the people who are working on this side of the pond (our friendly term for the Atlantic Ocean) to help our brothers and sisters.

Blessings

Day 12: INFORMATION!

VERY exciting news! I have made contact with the organization Danette Childs directed me to! And this means we have a GOAL!

The name of the organization is Reach Now International, and I've been put in contact with Bill Meyer. He responded to my email in an amazingly timely manner, and has given me a very hopeful and possible plan! Reach Now packs and ships 40ft containers full of highly nutritious food-pack meals to countries in need of hunger relief. These containers hold 270,864 meals - that's a LOT of food! Bill has told me that they have the food, and could ship it virtually ASAP, the only issue is raising the money for shipping. Shipping one container can cost between $10,000-$13,000. But this IS a reachable amount! In fact, if we look at one container costing $13,000, that would make each meal cost LESS THAN 5 CENTS!

This is SO encouraging for me to hear, and it makes this whole desire to serve the people even more of a reality. And it is possible that shipping more than one container could happen as well. I may be reaching for the moon right now, but I truly believe that ANYTHING is possible with Christ. I was talking with one of my professors today and he encouraged me to not turn this into a guilt-trip to inspire giving, making people see starving children and think "Oh, this is so terrible, and it's the least I can do!" This is, in fact, harder than it sounds. Guilt is such an easy tool for motivation. But I'm praying about this and I think opportunities are opening up to make it a method of worship and service, not a guilty-giving trip.

Someone I was talking to today made an excellent point that in a commercialistic culture like the USA, simply getting people to donate is difficult. Giving money does not give people the gratification that other things do... like SHOPPING! So, I think we may need to set up shop... selling trinkets and key chains for $2-$5 would make a lot of money. I've talked to my mom, who is in Niger at the moment, and have asked her if she could send these sorts of things to me. We'll see how this works out... Also, I was given the idea that collecting bottles and other recyclable items would be a VERY easy way to raise cash for this cause. Trash to cash... catchy isn't it?

Also, I'm going to contact the director of the Film program here on campus. They have the ability to email all the film students and ask if anyone is interested in working on this project with me. I have pictures... and a general idea of what I want done. I simply lack the skills and resources, (and patience, and time, and other things...) to do it by myself. I've found a song that I think is perfect for this video - 'Something's Gotta Change' by Josh Wilson. I'll put a link or something up so you can hear it for yourselves.

Praise God for his faithfulness! It's so comforting to know that he KNOWS about the hunger and problems in Niger ALREADY, and that's he's a part of this whole process. By giving, and working to help his children, we are serving and worshiping him - things I was so timely reminded of in my Social Justice class today. Praise GOD and all glory and honor be to him through the work of our hands and obedience to his commands. Please continue to pray for this whole process, and for the people in Niger already.

Blessings

Day 8: God's Orchestration

Two days ago, I met with my friend Lacey to go over some ideas and planning before my meeting on Monday (tomorrow!). We were expecting Riley and Tim at 9:30, so we met a bit earlier to pray together and just give this whole plan over to God. I'm realizing just how much I need to be praying over this whole process, from beginning to end. For those of you who read this, please be praying along with me - for the people of Niger and the food insecurity there, and for those who will be working here to help the situation.

So the meeting began - slowly. Knowing the four of us, it's not surprising that we got sidetracked... a bit. (Tim - I want the These Are Not My Pants song from you!) But things were accomplished, including a list of people I should contact, beginning with mission organizations and people already in Niger. Not 10 minutes later, Danette Childs - who was on my 'To Contact' list - starts chatting with me on Facebook! (I told you I had gotten sidetracked.) I started chatting with her on Skype and she was a huge source of information. She asked me several questions about what my hopes for this project are, and she gave me the contact information of an organization they have worked with before. I emailed the man she told me about, and am hoping to hear back from him soon. I'm very optimistic about the possibility of working with this organization, however I won't post the information about the organization, since I'm not positive of anything working out. PRAY THAT IT DOES!!! I truly believed that God orchestrated my chat with Aunt Danette. If that hadn't happened, I wouldn't have nearly as much information as I do now.

So that's the most recent development. My meeting with the Coalition for Social Action (CSA) director is, as I said earlier, tomorrow. Pray that it goes well, that I would be organized, and that this would continue to develop here on campus.

Blessings.