Team Anderson

The banquet is over. It was a success. No matter how hard we try to be done by 8:30 pm (cut out things, shorten talks), it just never seems to be done before 9 pm. That's my only regret. However, I felt the entire evening was entertaining. At least if we keep them til 9, we make it fun to watch. Our featured speaker, Chris Patterson did a great job. He's a good friend so it was nice to have him there cheering us on in Harrisonville. Brad made two fun slide shows to show off the YL and WL groups. One mom said we should charge money for copies. :) The decorations were excellent, and we had the highest number of expected attendees that Brad and I can remember. The kids did a great job serving drinks and showing off their smiling faces. We were able to honor a 5-year volunteer leader named Becca. She's moving in June and so we presented her with an engraved keychain and showed her some love in front of the entire group. She cried, so I cried. It was pretty moving.

The good news...we raised between $20,000 to $25,000 (once we add in donors that weren't able to attend but are annual givers). That is a lot of money, and we're very grateful for the generous hearts who made that possible! The flip side, we still have about that much to raise to reach the $48,000 goal we have left to raise this year. I was pretty discouraged last night. So many people work so very hard to plan the banquet. My heart always feels pretty heavy after banquet. It doesn't ever feel like we get to exhale. It's always on to find the rest of the money. The devil can find a foothold in my thoughts, "Maybe the ministry we (specifically Brad and I) provide isn't enough to bring in the support?" I pray for contentment...I mean look at what we raised...that's no small amount. Thank goodness that's taken care of. I think I feel personally discouraged also because I was a big catalyst in the push to start WL in Cass Co. We keep expecting the new families being effected to equal more financial support. Here it is our second banquet with a second ministry, and it doesn't seem to be happening. I feel somewhat responsible. Just a lot of guilt I guess that now we (WL volunteer staff and the committee of Cass Co.) have a bigger workload but no new money coming in to support it, like we expected would happen.

The moral of the story...God is in control...not me. Thank goodness. The funds are there, we just need to keep working to find them and asking donors to come alongside of the work being done in Harrisonville. God is working in the hearts of youth in Cass Co. That's the point.

You want to know something about me you might not know? I'm not that great at operating for long periods of time around groups of people. I fake it pretty well for the most part. But after 7-8 hours of different groups of people looking to me for decorating/set-up instructions, help directing kids, kids asking where the rest of the water pitchers were, making a speech, and then trying to give guests individual attention, I was spent. At that point my anxiety kicks in, and my eyes glaze over and I plaster an awkward smile on my face. People usually think I'm mad, but I'm really just at a loss for what to say or do. Crazy huh?

Whew. That was a lot. Kind of turned out to be a journal entry.