Love in Action

On Tuesday night we had a "Love in Action" coffee and dessert night at the church. It was to raise funds and awareness for the orphanage my church supports in Chivhu, Zimbabwe. It turned out to be a great night with lots of things going right and not too much going wrong! We had an amazing team of volunteers helping out in all areas and without them, I'm sure the night would not have gone as smoothly. We had a silent auction, a jewllery stall, a stall selling african artefacts and a fashion parade put on my by very own Aunty Fiona!

Thank you to everyone who helped out - everyone together helped to make it a night where we truly saw love in action to benefit the precious lives of those surviving under intense pressure and hardship in Zimbabwe.

To Louise, Allyson and Wendy - thank you for all your support especially for all the ideas and planning and setting up you put into Tuesday night.

To Elaine - well words can hardly begin to thank Elaine and her entire team of cooks and kitchen volunteers. It's hard for me to let go of the reins in the kitchen (that's where I normally am and like to spend my time!) but the Wonder Woman who is Elaine, had everything in hand and organised superbly! (as she always does)

Thank you to everyone else who helped in the kitchen and made or bought a dessert including, Christine, Verna, Iris, Margaret, Val, Jan, Glenys, Wendy, Elaine, Shirley, Allyson, Kirsten, Tanya and Renae.

Thank you to Bek and Shelden who came and made delicious coffees and hot chocolates for everyone - they had it down to a precise fine art and ran the coffee production line with military precision. They did an amazing job - Thank you!

Thank you to the stunning models in the fashion parade - Jodi, Amy, Steph, Bernie and Tanya. You chickie babes did a fantastic job! Thank you to Fiona and Nathan who organised the fashion parade and bought all the clothes to the church and outfited everyone - thanks also to Fiona for the vouchers to spend in her shop! You did a great job Fiona. Thank you!

Thanks heaps to Kirsten who sang beautifully for us and looked after a multitude of little details for me and answered my endless questions about credit card donations and the like!

Also to Kathryn for her invaluable help with the silent auction - THANK YOU! Huge cheers also for everyone who donated goods for the auction, including Lisa, Wendy and Peter, Tim and Karen, Donna and Errol, Neil, Alli, Allyson, Louise and Kate!

To all the other volunteers including, Karen, Leonie, Karyn, Jan and Deb - the night would not have been the same without you.

To Peter a big thank you for coming down to help us pack up and for vacuuming!

To my Steve for being an amazing "PA". He printed stuff out, ran to the shops for marshmallows, gave out coffees, helped pack up, generally helped to keep me calm and did a countless amount of other things leading up to and on the day - you are my best one Steve and I love you so so much xoxoxoxo

To EVERYONE who came and was a part of the night I thank you a thousand times over - thank you for your generosity and taking time out of your day to come and make a difference in the lives of many precious children!

I will let you know when we have the final tally of how much was raised!

Philemon verse 6: " You are generous because of your faith. And I am praying that you will really put your generosity for work, for in so doing you will come to an understanding of all the good things we can do for Christ."

The before shot

starting to come together...........

NBC Women jewellery stall (above) and african artefacts stall (below) (I got an awesome sculpture of giraffe "lovers"! Thanks Steve!)

The Silent Auction went really well - thank you to everyone who contributed!

Nathan came and was a huge help to Fiona (and of course is always entertaining for the rest of us) and announced his intentions to come to Zimbabwe with us when we go :-) Go Nathan!!

The "catwalk." Ready for our amazing models!

The dessert buffet was a hit!