Donataion purchases, round one.

An Amazing Witness

Think you can't make a difference?

Check out what 200 kids, ages 3 to 12, did in one week...

Going 18 Thousand Miles to Love

Carrie and I have our official flight itinerary for the trip. As I stare at the total miles traveled for the trip, 18,614 miles, it starts to sink in just how far we are going.  Every inch, no matter how trying, will be worth getting to go show God's love in one of the places in the world that needs it desperately.  It's getting so close, and it's getting very real now.

P.S. I'm sure glad we signed up for frequent flyer miles. We sure are going to rack up the miles on this trip.  Just incase someone wants a copy of it, you can download it here Chlebanowski_Uganda:Ethiopia_Itinerary.pdf.

Stay tuned for some fast and furious posts over the weekend and over the next week.  And we'll be posting a new video on Saturday!

Date	Departure	Time	Arrival	Time	Flight Duration	Distance
7/18	Oklahoma City	11:24 AM	Washington DC	3:15 PM	2 Hours : 51 Minutes	1,146 Miles
7/18	Washington DC	8:30 PM	Rome, Italy	11:20 AM	8 Hours : 50 Minutes	4,495 Miles
7/19	Rome, Italy	12:05 PM	Addis Ababa, Ethiopia	7:00 PM	5 Hours : 55 Minutes	2,779 Miles
7/19	Addis Ababa, Ethiopia	11:00 PM	Nairobi, Kenya	1:00 AM	2 Hours : 0 Minutes	725 Miles
7/20	Nairobi, Kenya	2:00 AM	Entebbe, Uganda	3:10 AM	1 Hours : 10 Minutes	319 Miles
					20 Hours : 46 Minutes	9,464 Miles
Date	Departure	Time	Arrival	Time	Flight Duration	Distance
7/25	Entebbe, Uganda	5:15 PM	Addis Ababa, Ethiopia	7:15 PM	2 Hours : 0 Minutes	319 Miles
					2 Hours : 0 Minutes	319 Miles
Date	Departure	Time	Arrival	Time	Flight Duration	Distance
7/31	Addis Ababa, Ethiopia	10:15 PM	Rome, Italy	3:25 AM	6 Hours : 10 Minutes	2,779 Miles
8/1	Rome, Italy	4:10 AM	Washington DC	7:55 AM	9 Hours : 45 Minutes	4,495 Miles
8/1	Washington DC	10:00 AM	Chicago	11:00 AM	2 Hours : 0 Minutes	594 Miles
8/1	Chicago	11:48 AM	Oklahoma City	1:52 PM	4 Hours : 4 Minutes	963 Miles
					21 Hours : 59 Minutes	8,831 Miles
Complete trip flying time and distance					44 Hours : 45 Minutes	18,614 Miles

Announcing GSS Cam!

We still need you!

Our first financial goal of $7000 towards funding our travel (airfare, room and board) has been met! From the bottom of our hearts ... We thank each and everyone of you who have donated their time, energy and money!

But, we're not done yet! Now comes the fun part - Collecting donations to meet the needs of the nearly a dozen orphan related organizations and ministries we will be supporting on our trip. Our group is collecting a wide variety of items like toys, hygiene items (like tooth brushes & tooth paste), School Supplies (paper, crayons, pencils, etc), OTC Children's medicine, formula and bottles for babies, hard candy, suckers and Granola Bars for the kids. Also we will bring items such as socks, underwear, jeans, long skirts, rain jackets, hoodies, and other articles of clothing. The list is growing and as we have specific needs for items can be found on the donation needs page.

Just to give you an idea on how we are getting everything to Africa, this is how it works. Each traveler is allowed 2 carry on items and up to two 50 pound pieces of checked luggage. The goal for each member of the mission is to have two 50 pound pieces full of supplies! That means that that everything we bring for our personal stuff, goes in carry on! This means that Carrie and I alone are bringing 200 pounds of supplies!! That's approximately 6000 pounds of supplies for the group. THAT IS A LOT!!! In addition to the checked luggage, we are allowed two carry on items each. Our plan is to purchase our clothing for the trip from Goodwill or Salvation Army or other second hand stores to wear on the trip. At the end of the trip, we plan only to bring back the clothes on our back and leave the rest for someone who needs the clothes more then we do.

So do you want to know how you can help? Like I mentioned earlier, as we find out what specific items we need we'll have list we'll post right on this page. We are also still collecting monetary donations. In addition to 200 pounds of items we will be bringing on the flight, we will be purchasing a large number of items after we arrive in Africa. We are discovering that with many of the items we need, we can purchase in greater numbers and at a much lower cost in country, versus having to ship them over there. Mosquito nets will be one of those items that we will be purchasing when we arrive.

Feel free to contact us via email directly at missions@giveshareserve.org if you have questions or if you would like to donate and we can tell you how to go about doing it.  Below is the list of needed items. We are listing them in three groups. The first group is the items that we are assigned to bring, these items are priority number one. The second group is the list of items is a list of suggested items that we welcome. The last group are ancillary items that Carrie and I would personally would like to have on the trip with us.

Click here to see the list of needs for the mission trip

Jehovah Jireh

Today has been an amazing day.

We wrestled the kids out of bed super early and made it out the door to early service- early!

Which was a good thing, because today we were able to share about our trip with BOTH services at our Church, Faith Bible Church of Edmond.

It was awesome. One of the associate pastors, Jay Risner, asked Joe and I some questions about Visiting Orphans and about what we will specifically be doing on our mission trip, as well as how this has affected our family and marriage. I wanted to beam with joy listening to Joe talk about how God has moved us to serve Him wherever in the world He wants us. :)

Jay then asked how the congregation could pray for us, and we shared about our remaining financial need of roughly $1600, and our desire for our team to have unity and be effective in our serving. We also asked that they continue to pray for us to walk where God leads us to be His hands and feet.

Jay prayed for us and it was an amazing feeling to stand there with all our brothers and sisters in Christ, calling upon our Lord for his favor on this endeavor.

He IS our Jehovah Jireh.

He HAS provided.

Friends, we left church today with donations totaling more than $2100.

and that is just from the people who came and talked to us after services. We have no idea if any others felt led to give, but we are sooo unbelievably humbled and thankful for those that have. All of you.

Thank you.

No, really, THANK YOU!

While this officially meets our funding requirement to go on the trip (airfare, lodging, meals, etc.) our fundraising is by no means over.

Now we get to the fun part- Meeting the needs and requests of the organizations we will be visiting!!

Stay tuned in the next day or so for a post that will spell out what needs we hope to be able to fulfill for these orphanages and ministries, as well as some items we will need for the trip.

God Bless You All!!!

Joe and Carrie

TEE BLAST!!

Going through things today, I pulled out our box of Mission Trip T Shirts.

As I started counting, I realized we have WAY TOO MANY left!!!

And, Have I mentioned we are only $1800 away from being fully funded??!!!

And, Joe and I will be sharing about our trip at our church's services next Sunday, June 13th, so I am officially deeming that day Give. Share. Serve. Day and everyone should wear a T Shirt to support it! :)

It's time to get crazy! All Tees are now only $15!!

Here's the sizes I have left:

4 Adult Small

2 Adult Medium

6 Adult Large

2 Youth Large

These are some fabulous shirts, and we want to do everything we can to get fully funded in the next 2 weeks. Yes, you heard me right.

We want to be FULLY FUNDED IN FOURTEEN DAYS!

Can we do it? We serve a mighty God who can do ANYTHING !

Email me at Carrie@giveshareserve.org and let me know what size you want. Please do not use the paypal link on the page for this. Since we dropped the price, we want as much as possible to go to our trip, so we will accept cash or checks made out to Visiting Orphans for these!

What are you waiting for??

Pick your size NOW!!!

OW-CHIHUAHUA!!!

So we took the crew (minus one, plus one) down to the County Health Department today for our first round of shots for our trip.
Yes, I said first round.

We actually get to go back 2 more times- isn't that just fantastic??!!

Okay, I admit it.

I was NERVOUS. Fluttery tummy nervous.

It was a piece of cake.

Unfortunately, when you eat too big of a piece of cake, you get a sore tummy.
My arms are not happy campers right now. :(

But anyway, here is the rundown of the lowdown of the events:

Joe and I signed our lives away. One of the questions ACTUALLY asked if we were allergic to mercury. Yeah, I know.

From shots

The natives were entertained by Sesame Street on the big. flat. screen TV.

At the County Health Department.

no comment.

(the middle native is my nephew- now sporting his own GSS tee)

From shots

When we got back to the room, Jack immediately wanted to look at the map and was excited to show the nurse where his mom and dad were going...

From shots

From shots

Then the REAL fun started.

Because Joe is a gentleman, he manned up and went first- to show me how easy it was...

From shots

From shots

Those antics resulted in the sassafrass doing the following:

From shots

nice, huh?

and then the last one...
in the other arm- they want you to be EQUALLY sore I guess...??

From shots

and then...

it.
was.
my.
turn.

EEEK!!!

I was brave, though...

From shots

look, Ma No tears!!

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Joe thought this was a cool shot. Being that it is my flabby arm, I don't see what's so cool about it, but I can swallow my pride for the sake of entertaining the masses.

From shots

A few (read: 5) Advil later, I am still sore, but no other adverse or scary symptoms. REALLY hoping I am not allergic to mercury, though...

(am I the only one who finds that mildly disconcerting??)

Because WE were so brave, the nurse gave the kids a bunch of coupons for free ice cream cones at the good ole' "golden arches." And yes, if she hadn't given us enough for Joe and I, I TOTALLY would have asked. WE are the ones who got jabbed after all- Clara hid in the hallway!!! ;)~

Here is to show that she wasn't scarred for life by the experience... I think she has mostly gotten over it.

From shots

From shots

From shots

And now, it's bath time...


***Don't forget to come by and see us at the GARAGE SALE THIS FRIDAY AND SATURDAY, JUNE 4th and 5th!!***