The $50 School Supplies Challenge!

The bargain shopper is back! This summer I wanted to challenge myself to get as many school supplies as I could for $50. I will be giving these to Children of the Nations to support the education of orphaned and destitute children in Africa and the Dominican Republic. While I was volunteering there I heard about some teachers who brought pencils to the children in Malawi. Upon receiving them, the children immediately broke them in half! The reason? Now they had two pencils instead of just one. I hope to encourage that same spirit of resourcefulness and love for education.

I have to say, I love finding a great deal and stretching dollars as far as possible. It's fun! I think I could have gotten even more for $50, but having Chad makes shopping a little more time consuming so I limited myself to shopping at 3 stores (Staples, Walgreens and Walmart.)

Some of the highlights of what I got:
20 one subject notebooks for $0.15 each at Walmart
25 composition books for $0.50 each at Walmart
60 pens for $1.14 at Walgreens

60 pencils for $1.74 at Walgreens

Almost every item I bought was $1 or less!

Update on Children of the Nations

For those of you wondering, I am continuing to volunteer at Children of the Nations about 20 hours per week. It has been a great experience and I really enjoy the people that I serve with.

Most of my time is devoted to writing stories and writing and laying out our monthly newsletter, called the Praise and Prayer Guide. It's a two-page newsletter which provides a brief update from each of the countries where Children of the Nations ministers (Sierra Leone, Malawi, Uganda, and the Dominican Republic).

I also do other miscellaneous things to help my supervisor such as checking out displays for presentations, organize photos, and keep track of our inventory of brochures.

What I love most about being in the Communications Department is being able to see and hear firsthand about all the ways God is at work through COTN. Hundreds of people just returned from mission trips to the countries this summer and they have shared amazing and inspiring stories.

working at Children of the Nations!

I'm very excited that I have found a part time position here in Washington!

I saw a flyer at my church advertising available staff positions at Children of the Nations, a Christian nonprofit organization that helps orphaned and destitute children overseas. Ever since I was about to conclude my time as a semester missionary at Connecticut College, I felt like the Lord was leading me to work at a Christian organization in marketing, communications, or something else in that field. At that time I applied for several positions in nonprofits and was ready to leave Connecticut, but nothing panned out. Later that summer I met Joe!

After going to talk to Pam, the Communications Director, and meeting people at COTN, I was so encouraged to rediscover this calling and desire- and an opportunity only 3 miles away from our house. I think what draws me to Communications is that it is a way to connect people with what God is doing in the world.

This was my first week, and it was a great week- I got to meet a lot of the staff for an annual meeting & conference. All of the ministry directors from 4 other countries were there- Malawi, Sierra Leone, Uganda, and the Domincan Republic. I was really blessed to meet them and learn more about COTN. I'm still learning so much, but thankful that God has provided this opportunity.