The gifts for our current project Teen Challenge Gutes Land in Germany keep coming in and the gifts thermometer has risen to almost 3,000 euro, which is super! Please, keep up the good work until we reach our goal of 5,000 euro. We have asked Dirk Hellmann to send us some pics of the after care house that they are building. More about that next time.
In the meantime we received a request from Teen Challenge Ukraine to help them with their annual conference which is coming up April 5-7 2012. What exactly is an annual conference? Well, working with the poor, lost, homeless and addicted is not a nine to five job and surely not an easy one, although very rewarding. It is necessary to train, equip and encourage the workers on a regular basis. Most workers with Teen Challenge have been through the program themselves at some point and are what we call experience experts. No matter how dedicated, excited and passionate they are about their work, there will always be times of disappointment and discouragement. That is why regular training and attending conferences is required. The theme for this conference is vision - leadership - commitment and the main speaker will be Jerry Nance, president of Global Teen Challenge.
So, how do we wish to help them with Traveling Light? Well, first of all we have been invited to attend the conference, so we're currently shopping for a good deal on airline tickets :) It will be a great chance to meet many people from TC Ukraine and to learn more about their work. And second of all: the cost to attend the annual conference is $45 per person (or 35 euro). If you wish to sponsor someone so he or she can attend the conference that would be a great help, often they do not have the finances available or they will need it for transportation. We hope to give at least 30 people a chance to go, which is $1,350 or somewhere around 1,000 euro.
So, what do you think? Let's warm their hearts during this incredible cold and harsh winter and GIVE!
The fun part and challenge of this project is that Jan has promised to cut off his pony tail if we reach the 1,000 euro mark.
PS: For our supporters in the USA, you can give your tax deductible gift here. Make sure you mention TC Ukraine conference and send us an email, so we can start to count!