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Nelson is nine years old. He lives with both parents, but they are not able to provide enough food for all four of their children and themselves. The HUGS feeding program has been providing Nelson with two meals every day for many months, but now we would like to help even more by asking you to consider sponsoring him. Your support will not only continue feeding him, but it will also provide him with clothing, medical care, and school fees, so he will be sure to receive all that he needs to thrive. This will also help Nelson’s parents by alleviating some of their financial burden. We greatly appreciate your consideration of sponsorship for Nelson.
This is Pauline. She is eight years old and comes from a large family. Her parents both do temp work to care for their own children and some of their nieces and nephews. She obviously adopted their generous and sweet hearts because Pauline wants to be a nurse when she grows up. We want to help her achieve that goal by getting her a sponsor, which will guarantee her food, medical care, and education so that she can thrive. She’s a bright girl and a very good student. We expect great things from her. Thank you for considering Pauline. Your support will open up her future to a world of possibilities!
John Is in Malawi
We’re about one month away from meeting our first grandchild! (Notice how I said “first” because we’re going to expect more?) Also, our project to raise money for travel to Malawi on DonorSee recently funded. When I posted that project it was a request for two plane tickets, and John and I planned to go together. But when I posted that, two things were different than they are now. (1) Lauren was not pregnant, or she wasn’t very pregnant, or we didn’t know she was pregnant. Whatever the case (I can’t remember) it wasn’t going to be a problem for us to leave her. (2) Plane tickets were about half the cost they are right now. Yes, half. I know inflation is blamed for all kinds of stuff, but it is really hurting us in so many ways. So, after all of your generous donations to get us to Malawi, we could only afford one ticket, BUT we could only use one ticket, so it worked out just fine. John is there right now and I’m here with Andy and Lauren and Ben in case Baby Kora decides to come early.
John’s only there for a couple of weeks, and there’s so much work to be done. We talk every day and he sends me pictures and videos. I hope you follow us on social media so you can keep up with what’s happening during his visit. In case you’re not seeing it, I’ll fill you in here.
As we kick off a new school year, in which our original preschool students from 2017 are now in the fifth grade, we’re super excited to have just completed construction on the newest building on the HUGS campus! Thanks to some very generous donations, we finished it just in time to promote all of our students into the next grade. As we advance each class to the next level, we’re honored to welcome twenty-one new preschool students. John is meeting all of those kids this week.
My Short Career in Real Estate
We just sold our house in Nebraska, so I was reminiscing with our kids about when I was a real estate agent. John and I were young and broke, and God came through for us in a big way. You may find this story encouraging, especially if you’re struggling financially right now like so many people.
Most of you know that John and I were married and baptized on the same day in 1996, but what you may not know is that I was also a brand new real estate agent and quite the go-getter. Every morning I would make one hundred cold calls, where I would introduce myself and ask if the person on the other end of the line might want to sell his house. Of those hundred calls, only three people on average would say something like, “Why, yes! How did you know?” and I would set up an appointment to discuss the details of putting his house on the market. Of those three appointments, two people typically said they weren’t quite ready, and just one ended up in a listing. The other ninety-seven people I had bothered that morning would either politely decline, hang up on me, or hurl an unimaginative insult. I got comfortable with rejection.
My broker offered bonuses for recruiting new agents who produced income for our office. Since I was full of energy and hope and had several listings on the market, it made sense to take a break from all those calls one week and add recruiting to my tool belt. So, I went to the local real estate school and stood outside, waiting for class to be dismissed so I could intercept any bright-eyed potential agent who didn’t already have a broker. I was new and hadn’t made much money yet and may have gotten a little ahead of myself. The first and last girl I drafted never made me a dime, but she did impact my life in a way that money can’t buy. I will call her Pamela.