The generosity of God's people

There is little in the world better than having supportive family members and friends.

I appealed to family to help support my mission trip by donating money to me at Christmas, as opposed to giving me material presents. I received financial support from my wife, parents, sister, mother-in-law, aunty and uncle, both grandparents and a Christian work colleague. These donations helped partially pay for my flights to Bangkok, return.

You can always rely on family but what I really wanted to do was to also touch the hearts of friends, and to be able to show people who may not know me as well as they think, that there is another side to me.

A work colleague came up with the idea to host a Swan Valley Wine Tour, a day where friends could all enjoy a bus trip to the amazing Swan Valley region, famous for its wine, food and beautiful surroundings. Convincing people to come to this event has proved harder than I could have imagined, giving the efforts I have made to ensure this is a day they will never forget. Thankfully, I am now starting to receive orders for tickets and am looking like I will be able to fill the 24 seats on the bus.

Leading up to this event, to be held on January 21, I requested donations from local businesses and have found that more often than not, businesses want to support people who are making an effort to help people and to make the world a better place. I am really grateful for those businesses that came on board.

I also received a donated piece of art work from a talented young artist named Mark Youssef. After getting it framed for free from a picture framing business, I had intended on raffling it off. The picture was of a nun bowing at the feet of a statue of Jesus, and is an incredible piece of art. I truly believe what happened next was an act of God - a woman from South Africa, who I chat to regularly on Facebook, offered to buy the art work and donate it to a local college in Perth called La Salle College. I was so taken by this lady's generosity and cannot wait to see the art placed at the college. Her children attend a La Salle College in South Africa. The artist was also thrilled to see his work go to such a fantastic cause.

In the next week I should be able to determine whether this bus tour will be a success, but knowing my determination, and will, I am confident that it will work out.

Finally, on New Years Day, the five guys who are going on the trip, and some other members from our church, held a bbq at Bunnings to raise funds for the building project. This was a really successful day and those who visited Bunnings were pleased to see the money go towards such a brilliant cause, to help build the foundations of a community centre for two missionaries living in Thailand.