Amazing Week in Boise - Thank you for your support!!!

First of all - we received the great news the day before we left on our mission that we had met our team fundraising goal of $4,865!!!  We took a huge duffle bag of donated warm coats and hats, and were able to donate an additional $200+ towards warm clothes for the refugee farm staff.  The big gift we were able to provide was to fully fund Create Common Good's second annual Harvest Fest - gourmet dinner for 250 people, bluegrass band, bounce houses.  It went really well, and was a fun celebration of the growing community around the mission of CCG.  Though it wasn't meant to be a fundraiser, there was a small charge for food - $6 per plate, and there were several stands up selling produce and food products from the farm and culinary programs..... they raised over $2,500!  So our supporters' donations were multiplied.

Here are some long overdue pics! 

 Bountiful morning harvest of tomatoes....

Fresh produce to Farm Stand at Broad Market....

Ian and Sammy drawing attention to Farm Stand!!!  Budding social entrepreneurs :)


And here is our fabulous team!!  One of the great gifts of the week was becoming a big family of 7

Christy and Yoonjin working on Mustard Green Pesto - packaged for sale at farm stand

Claudia working hard on our farm clean up day!!

The Tomatillo Salsa canning team - Danielle and Christy!

 Ian and Sammy, what a team :)

On the farm with new friends from Bhutan.

Report night with slide show in the works.... Yoonjin's pictures will be amazing, she is a professional photographer and was on the job all week - can't wait to see her pics!!

And we're off on our mission trip to Boise, Idaho!!!!

Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it!  -Helen Keller

Here is our team:  Claudia, Christy, Danielle, Me and Yoonjin (the boys - Ian and Sammy not in this photo but very excited for our departure tomorrow!!).

As with any adventure, I am not quite sure what the week ahead will hold.  This is the first time I have gone on a mission trip!!!  And the first time I have attempted something like this while also being a mommy.  So many opportunities for learning :)

Several things that are for sure though:  God has brought together an amazing team of dedicated, fearless, loving women to send out as his hands and feet and hearts;  The host organization is truly performing miracles in their community and in the individual lives of the refugees they are encouraging, training and loving; and the week ahead will be a lot of hard work in the fields, in the kitchen and helping with refugee training!!!

Sending out hugs and the warmest appreciation for your support of our service mission to Create Common Good in Boise, Idaho.  We are still raising funds towards our team goal of $4865, with less than a thousand left to go!!  Your generosity and faithfulness is what is making this all possible - you are part of our team, and part of fulfilling God's promise to the refugees:

The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.  Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you."  Psalm 9:9-10

A great movie to watch is God Grew Tired of Us, which shows the journey from becoming a refugee, years in limbo in refugee camps and then resettlement to the US for a group of Sudan's "lost boys."  There are so many stories like this one, and we will be hearing many more in Boise....

God Grew Tired of Us (on Netflix)

Much love to everyone,

Amy and Ian

Create Common Good

Ian and I are heading to Boise, Idaho in 5 weeks!!!

Our host is an amazing organization, started several years ago by Tara, a mom of young children.  The website is an experience in and of itself... it makes me cry it is so beautiful and inspiring.

CCG Website Link
www.createcommongood.org

A few months ago, someone vandalized their "Food to the Hood" truck, which they use to take their fresh produce from the farm project (training for refugees and income generation project) into neighborhoods in Boise.  This was incredibly discouraging to the staff at Create Common Good (CCG).  That kind of attack leaves you wondering who it was..... is it that person in the grocery store, that person who looked at you and then turned away without smiling, was it a prank, or is someone really angry with what you are doing??

CCG Refugee Video - So Inspiring
http://www.createcommongood.org/video.html

This is an example of why we are going on this mission - so that CCG and the dedicated staff know that they are not alone, and that there are circles of support extending out beyond what they can see.

The majority of the money we are raising for our mission trip is to fund and host a Community Welcome Event on September 18th in Boise.  It will be a night to invite the community to come and see who they are, introduce them to the amazing stories of some of the refugees who are now their neighbors, and to hopefully move towards understanding and healing....

God bless you!

Re-Introduction

Well, it has been a crazy but productive couple of years in the Getchel household.  Not so long ago I was living in Thailand, commuting daily into a refugee camp that sheltered refugees from Burma.  Today, I write to you from my suburban condo, with Ian sleeping in the other room- a happy, adventurous, curious three-year old boy.  There is peace in our home and in our lives - this is no small miracle.

I wrote to a friend about a year ago :  "Things are hard, but getting better. It seems that God builds you back strong after total devastation."  That was a year ago, a year before that I probably couldn't have even mobilized an email to communicate - things were really bad around here.  We all face struggles in life : disappointment, divorce, death, betrayals - it is unfortunately part of the human condition.  But that is not the end of our story!

The past few years, I have learned how to settle into community.  A major part of my weeks has revolved around getting us to church on Sunday, meeting other single moms and supporting each other, connecting with other moms and hanging out together with our kids. Not the international jet-setting life I had once dreamed of :), but it is actually a very nice life and it has been a season of healing.  Whew - thank you Lord for getting me through that mess: have job, have friends, have church - Done, right?  Um, no, apparently not....

In September, Ian and I will be going on a short-term domestic mission with Newsong Church - to love and support refugees from around the world who happen to find themselves resettled in---Idaho!  There is so much to share about this amazing organization who will be hosting us, Create Common Good.  And so much to share about our mission team - 5 strong women, 3 of us moms, 2 of us single moms!   I invite you to come shoulder to shoulder with me and Ian as we step out on our first big adventure together.....