I Couldn’t Have Done it Without YOU!

Thank you everyone for all your support in helping me raise the funds for my upcoming trip to the Arab World!

With your financial gifts, as well as your donations of items for our yard sale, the Lord brought in enough to cover all of my trip expenses, and then some!  I was able to pass along the extra monies to the Global Training Institute to assist others in the group who hadn’t reached their fundraising goal yet.

We had a great yard sale, even though it was over 100 degrees last weekend. Thanks to all of you who donated items for us to sell…you know who you are.  Special thanks to Terry and Diane for getting up before the crack of dawn to help set up and sell and to Chuck for helping to put stuff away in 100+ degrees.  This is what the garage looked like before we moved everything out to the driveway for the sale last Saturday.

We had a steady stream of folks on Saturday despite the heat so I didn’t have time to take any photos after things got started.  And although there were less visitors on Sunday, we still had some good sales.

On Sunday we set up our cashier’s table in a shady spot right by the front door of the house.  The quiet pace made it almost relaxing. The income from both days were a huge addition to the fundraising goal.  Thank you!

Shredder even decided to come out and hang with us for a while.  She couldn’t quite decide if it was too hot to lay in the sun.  In this shot she’s right next to my chair, half in and half out of the sun.

Also if anyone’s interested we still have a lovely 18 place-setting set of 1961 vintage Kayson’s Golden Rhapsody china for sale.  It has lots of extras and serving pieces as well.  You’ll see vintage china like this being used for the latest wedding or baby showers or even a wedding reception!  For more photos and info visit my ad on Craig’s List

When I sell them, I’ll be putting the funds in savings to start an account for future short term missions trips, with the hope that the Lord will allow me to go again sometime.

Thank you again to all of you for your support financially, through yard sale donations and your continued prayer and encouragement for the trip.

By the way, GTIW is still raising funds to pay for the travel and training expenses of the women from the Arab World that will be attending the sessions.  You can still donate here.

What would you risk for your faith?

What if you were in search of the truth and God’s plan for your life, but unable to read the Bible? Did you know that many Arab women are illiterate?  Many more live in fear of their husbands or families, who are encouraged by the Qur’an to beat or kill their family members if they embrace or even study any other religious faith.

Cut off from any biblical understanding of their God-given role in their home and community, Arab women often submit to an unhealthy identity, born out of Islamic culture and its sometimes dysfunctional directives for family relationships. This situation frequently leads to feelings of isolation, loneliness and poor self-esteem.  The Global Training Institute for Women (GTIW) has a passion to reach out to these women who desire to know more about God and teach them about their priceless value and precious identity in Christ.

GTIW is designed as a region-specific program, where currently about 20 Christian women leaders have been selected from the Arab world (Iraq, Egypt, Israel, Sudan, and Jordan) to attend the training.  Some of these women have had to flee their home cities or countries because their lives were in danger as a result of their faith journey.  These same women are taking the risk to travel to this training.

They will meet with a small group of trainers face-to-face two times a year for three years in a neutral location. The classes are small to facilitate the building of deep relationships in a safe environment; the trainers are experienced and equipped; the training itself is focused and systematic. The Institute covers three core areas: Biblical understanding, character development, and ministry skills. The women are also encouraged to pass along what they learn to others when they return home in their church or faith community.

GTIW will be conducting their first Middle East training sessions in early May and I’m thrilled to have been asked to serve on the team! This time they would like me to document the sessions in pictures. The photos will be used to raise awareness and funds for future ministry.  The plan is to continue training these same 20 women (plus more) and funds will be needed to provide transportation and training costs for all of them.  With my event planning background, I’m also hoping to do what I can to help the Team Mobilization Director, Stephanie with the many logistical and administrative tasks that will be involved in bringing the training team of 7 from the U.S. and 20 women from the Arab countries to the training location.  I’m so thrilled at the chance to use the gifts God has given me to help others.

I would love for you to consider a donation to help me minister alongside the GTIW team from May 3rd to 14th.  My remaining financial goal is only $1100. Would you be willing to contribute $5, 50 or even $500? Every dollar really does count! None of it goes into my pocket. The donations are tax deductible and you’ll promptly receive a donation receipt since GTIW is a 501(c)(3) non-profit!

If you’d like to donate, please go to the GTIW Support Page here:

Please be sure to select my name (Nancy Hann) from the team member drop-down menu. Or if you’d rather mail a check, it should be made out to Global Training Institute for Women (or GTIW is fine), but PLEASE include my name in the address on your envelope or on a separate piece of paper so we know whose account it should be credited to:

Nancy Hann
GTIW
8283 N. Hayden Road, Suite # 258
Scottsdale, AZ 85258

If you’d like to know more about the ministry, please go to www.GreaterReach.com (aka GTIW)

Thank you so much for considering a donation. I can’t get there without you!  If you’re not able to contribute financially, your prayers would be a huge contribution as well!  Please pray for the personal and scholarship funding, for safety for all the ladies coming from so many different places, clear communication of biblical truths across cultural and language barriers, and God’s hand in every aspect of the trip.

Since things at home have been a bit up in the air and crazy this last month with my surgery, I’m in a tight timeframe for fund raising, which motivates me to reflect even more on my word for 2012 – “TRUST”.  I am trusting God for the funds needed and all the details to come together to go on this short term missions trip in early May.

I’m also planning a yard sale soon to raise funds for the trip.  If you have anything you were planning to get rid of and would like to donate it for the sale, please let me know and I’ll make arrangement to get the item(s) from you.

Thank you for your involvement!  Whatever it may be.

Traveling with Purpose – Using your gifts to help others

Have you ever been touched by the vision and goals of a particular non-profit and struggled with the fact that you didn’t have the money to write them a big check?  I have.  I’ve also wondered what I could do with my life and limited resources to help so many of the worthy causes that I encounter.

Early in our marriage, when our growing family was trying to stretch every penny I realized that in many cases my time and talents were just as important as my dollars.  It was then that  I committed to give a portion of my time, gifts and talents to serve and assist at church and various non-profits that were close to my heart.  It was and still is the LEAST I can do!

With that in mind, a few years ago I was given the opportunity to go on a short-term missions trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina through our church.  Short-term missions was something that I had always wanted to do.  I love to travel and love to help people, but circumstances had prevented it in the past.  Now God was opening the door for me to be able to “Travel with Purpose“.  My first trip was with my husband and another couple and because of my photography hobby I was asked to participate on the trip using that skill set.  I had the privilege of:

• documenting all the details of the outreach and ministry on the trip in pictures to share with others when we returned
• taking photos of the children that were sponsored by our church so that their sponsors in the U.S. could see how they were coming along
• taking photos of a missionary family, along with their home, neighborhood, church etc. so we could report on their progress to those supporting them at home – Soon after our visit they had to return to the U.S. unexpectedly for medical reasons and the photo book that I was able to create was a tangible reminder of their time serving in Bosnia.

What a thrill it was to be able to contribute out of my gifting!  If you’d like to see a few of my favorites, you can check them out at Flickr here.

And it didn’t stop there!  Last year I was working part time with a non-profit called Greater Reach Ministries (now Global Training Institute for Women – GTIW).  They were in the planning stages of a training program that reaches around the planet to unleash influential women to impact their world.  They were embarking on a vision trip to Israel & Jordan to meet with women and discover how GTIW might come alongside them to assist with encouraging, training, empowering, and releasing women to be all that they were created to be.  Again, I was invited to join the team!  I was so excited to be able to help with documenting the women and the culture in those countries so that we could bring back images to help convey the message of the ministry and the needs in the Arab world!  And here’s a link to some of my favorites from this trip.

Now I have a new opportunity!  This same ministry, GTIW will be conducting their first training session in May of this year in the Middle East and I’ve been asked to come along.  This time I will document the sessions in pictures, as well as assisting the Team Mobilization Director with the many logistical and administrative tasks that will be involved in bringing the training team from the U.S. and about 20 women from 5 different Arab countries to the training location overseas.  The photos will be used to raise awareness and funds for future training sessions and my administrative support should help this first session to run smoothly while lightening the load for the Director.  I’m so thrilled at the chance to use what God has given me to help others.

How about you?

Have you found ways to use your gifts and talents to help where the need is greatest?  Or perhaps you’ve been blessed with the financial resources to help others.  We were not all meant to do the traveling.  Some of us have the opportunity to help others fulfill their vision by responding financially.  Is that your contribution to furthering these noble causes?  If so, I would love for you to consider a gift to help me travel to the Middle East.  My financial goal is only $2700 and $1000 has already been raised.  This brings me almost halfway to my goal.  Would you be willing to contribute $5, 50 or even $500?  Every dollar really does count!    None of it goes into my pocket.  And the donations are tax deductible since GTIW is a 501(c)(3) non-profit!

If you’d like to help pay for the expenses of the trip, please go to the GTIW Support Page here and select my name (Nancy Hann) from the team member drop-down menu.  Or if you’d rather mail a check, it should be made out to Global Training Institute for Women (or GTIW is fine), but PLEASE include my name in the address on your envelope or on a separate piece of paper so we know whose account it should be credited to:

Nancy Hann

GTIW

8283 N. Hayden Road, Suite # 258

Scottsdale, AZ 85258

Thank you so much for considering a contribution.  Every little bit helps.  Feel free to come back and see the progress on the blue thermometer in the sidebar!

Have you had a chance to “Travel with Purpose”?  Where did you go and what did you do?  I’d LOVE to hear about it!

Using Custom Blurb Books for Fundraising!

This week I finished two different Blurb books for a non-profit organization that I help out part time.  I love creating these books and thinking of new ways to use them to help others.

The first book that I finished this month was a  (200-page) 12″ x 12″ photo book that captured the trip that I was privileged to go on in October of 2011.  I joined a team of 7 other women and 1 man who traveled to Israel and Jordan to gather information and talk to women in the Arab World about an upcoming training program that’s being offered by the Global Training Institute for Women (GTIW aka Greater Reach Ministries) beginning in May 2012.  The 6 training sessions will take place over a 3-year period.  Their goal is to see transformed women who are rooted in their biblical identity and have a clear understanding of their spiritual gifts, resulting in courageously leading other women to the same truth.  They hope to take at least 20 Christian Arab women leaders through this program and in the future expand into Eastern Europe and the U.S. as well.

Our hope is that the photos I took on the trip will help them to spread the word about the need for training and the vision of GTIW and help raise funds to pay for the women who have limited income to attend the training.  They’ve also asked me to join them in May as the photographer/historian at the first training session in the Arab World.

If you’d like to get a sampling of the big book, you can check it out here.  The photos of the people that we met with have been omitted from the online book preview for their own security, since some Christians and Muslim Background Believers risk their lives in professing their faith in Christ.

The second book that I created is a personal Prayer Journal that contains 31 blank pages to write in and a page with scripture and a photo from the Holy Land for every 7 blank pages.  If you’d like to see a full preview of the journal, please take a look here.

All proceeds from both books help to fund the Global Training Institute for Women… So after you see it, if you decide you’d like to order a few for yourself or as a gift, please use this link and get 15% off your whole order with the discount code 15OFFBLURB (all caps).   

f you write a page each day in the journal, it will last a full month.  If you write less than a page, then the journal will cover a longer period of time. In the future we may be researching other printing options to lower the cost and increase the fund-raising dollars per book and be able to increase the page count as well.  Plus we’ll be creating new designs with different photos and possibly a planner/calendar layout too!

For more information about the ministry or if you would like to contribute directly, please visit the website to donate at GreaterReach.com, send a check to the address below or contact them at:

Global Training Institute for Women
8283 N. Hayden Road, Suite 258
Scottsdale, AZ 85258

email. Info[at]GTIW[dot]com

480.718.3062

Be sure to tell them where you heard about it!  And let me know your thoughts on what you’d like to see in future book products as well. Thanks so much!