June 12, 2025May 21, 2026 familyflourish

Return to Vietnam: Fundraising is Complete!

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I’m returning to Vietnam after 18 years, and I’m bringing my oldest two kids with me! Some of the same girls I knew then will be coming back as young adults to support a summer camp that gets many orphaned (and would-be street) kids together from all over Vietnam, and I’m so excited to see them again! In addition, my family has been supporting this organization at least 20 years, so to be a part of what they’re doing in-person again is amazing. We’ll be there from July 10th to the 21st.

My oldest son, Clayton (17), is planning and helping lead games for the roughly 75 adolescents who will be there at the camp. Evangeline (15) and I will be teaching four Bible stories and leading small group discussions for the same adolescents. I know we’ll be helping with the younger kids, too, when we get a chance. The camp will be held in a beautiful location, a wonderful way to show the lavish love of God for a group of former kids who would still be begging on the streets if they hadn’t been placed in loving Christian homes with parents committed to teach them about Jesus, give them solid nutrition, and provide them with an education.

God has shown out in a big way as we’ve prepared to go on this trip. We originally thought we’d have to raise $12,500 for the three of us, which sounded like an enormous amount of money–impossible to attain since we had to fundraise for all of it. The cost of plane tickets went down, and we “only” had to raise $10,200, but it was still faith-stretching for me. He’s always provided the exact amount I’ve needed for mission trips in the past, and a lot of money is never a problem for God, but I had to keep going to Him to fill up the last bit of faith that wasn’t quite reaching to where it needed to be.

I committed to the trip, my former church from Knoxville (who we’re going with) bought the tickets, and we started fundraising. We sold fudge and coffee, held a giant three-day yard sale with donations from friends and neighbors, sold muffins at the yard sale, watched sweet kids at two parents’ nights out, ran a quilt raffle, and straight-out asked for donations.

Then, maybe just to show me a taste of what He could do, He not only provided what we needed, but He brought in an overflow that put me in awe. I’m still selling items that didn’t sell in the yard sale on Facebook Marketplace–I’m meeting with two people tomorrow! Now I have the joy to ask Him what to do with the extra–figure out who I can give it to. I’ve prayed, and I’ve asked the people who gave the most, who contributed to the amount going so high. I’m so excited to be able to bless from what God and His people blessed me.

Did His people ever bless me?! Along with Clayton and Evangeline, the number of people and all they did was truly humbling, and I’m incredibly grateful. My friends and family not only bought my fudge, coffee, and items from my sale, but they advertised for me on Facebook and with friends (Kathy, Kellie, Megan, Gay, Karla, Marilyn, Gigi, and others), gave me extremely generous donations (so many people!), gave out a flyer to his exercise class and let me advertise there (Dudley), let me and my teenagers watch their kids at our house (Crisleigh, Kellie (x2), and Kathy), picked up and delivered coffee for me in Knoxville (Beccy), brought me tables, hangers, and numerous items to sell in my yard sale (Tom, Marilyn, Karla, Gay, Brenda, Lori, Larry, Chesley, Dan, Myra, Kendall, Alaina, Hannah, Cindy, Cris, Mary, Chandra, David, Eric, Barbara, Gaddis family, and Martha–my garage was packed), helped me price and prepare items for the yard sale (Mary), helped me run the yard sale at my house (Greg, Eric, Tom, Gay, and Marilyn), let me use their own yard for two days of the yard sale and helped me clean up twice (Sandra and Tori along with Mary and Greg for clean-up), came up with the idea for and ran the quilt raffle for a quilt she donated (Brenda), and prayed for me (numerous people)!

God is so good, and so are His people!

What’s left? I’m still hoping for prayers! Here are my prayer requests:

• I still need to write 3 out of 4 Bible story lessons that I’ll be teaching at the camp. I need God’s inspiration and wisdom to write them in a way that will be helpful to the kids. I want to say what He wants to say to them.
• That God would prepare the hearts of the kids going to the camp.
• That God would prepare the hearts of all of us going.
• That we’ll be able to encourage the kids to share the Gospel when they get home, and that the kids will have the courage to do it.
• That the Holy Spirit will move while we’re there, in our hearts, and in the kids’ hearts so that we will learn and grow.
• That the parents who raise the kids in their homes in Vietnam will be encouraged and refreshed.
• For safe, hopefully uneventful travel.
• For protection from illness while there.
• For protection against spiritual attack.
• For our visas to be granted.

If you had planned to give, but you hadn’t given yet, you might want to find somewhere else to give. If you still want to give to this particular trip, you could go here: https://fellowshipknox.tpsdb.com/OnlineReg/1283/Giving/2206, click “Donate,” put in your information (they might ask for your birthdate–that’s for tax-deductible purposes, and they might ask for your campus–just pick a random one), and put the amount you want to donate in the box under “Make a gift toward this mission trip’s Team Fund.” That would help one of my team members. Some of the money I’ve already raised will be going toward team members. If you go there this week or early next week, it will look like I still have a lot of money to raise, but money has been received by the church that just hasn’t been added to our accounts yet.

Thank you so much for all of you who have already supported us, and thank you for the prayer support to come!