Fundraising

     Fundraising is going well. As most of you know, VOICA requires each volunteer to raise $2000 each.  So far we have half of the $4000 total that we need.  Many of you have also been very generous in helping defray the cost of personal mission related expenses and we are very grateful; this whole thing would be impossible without your support.

     Special thanks to everyone who has already helped and those who continue to help, including parishioners of St. Joseph Catholic Church, St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Community, and our wonderful friends and family in Camden County, Athens, and everywhere.

     This has been a very affirming experience so far, but it has also taken a lot of time, energy, and resources.  It is both exciting and a little frightening to be leaving everything we know for over a year with no money in our pockets to volunteer in a foreign country, not to mention the uncertainty that awaits us upon our return (15 months ahead is a little too far for job searching!).  From scouring travel websites for the best possible value in airfare to finding and paying for (oof, more expensive than we imagined) required vaccinations, volunteering has been a lot of work and expense and we haven't even left yet!  We committed to volunteer our time in large part for spiritual reasons. Having spent basically all the money we had in savings to prepare for this trip is more than a little bit daunting, but all of your willing generosity and excitement has really made us feel like we've made the right decision.

     We are excited about the progress so far, but we still have halfway to go on official fundraising.  We are working with our pastor to arrange for a second collection at church and we have mailed out a number of pamphlets to friends, family, and acquaintances.  We remain hopeful that our fundraising goal will be met by our departure date.  Like we mentioned above, we are very thankful for any and all personal donations to help us follow this calling.  All of the non-monetary support has been invaluable to us so far, both for our spiritual and mental well-being.  We have had so many loved ones as well as relative strangers say they would be thinking about us, praying for us, or even sending us care packages, that we have at times even felt a little overwhelmed (in a good way, of course!) by all of the support.

     Again, thank you all so very much for everything you have done and continue to do.  Without all of your support and help, there is no way we could be venturing out to serve Togo's underprivileged population.  Keep an eye on the blog as we near our departure date for stories and hopefully some really cool pictures!

 

Flights

Our flights are booked and we're leaving July 20th.  
Our training in Rome begins July 24th.
 
Total trip time: 15 hours and 48 min.