Celebrate!

I have a very exciting announcement to make!

Thanks to my awesome family, friends, and the extremely welcoming congregation of Fairview Brethren In Christ Church, I have officially raised 100% of the support I needed for this internship! It was an incredible blessing to get to come to Ukraine with HOPE in the first place, and now my family can rejoice that the credit card bills will not be looming over our heads! Thank you so much to everyone who donated to help cover the cost of my flight, living expenses, and field visits and thanks to HOPE International for covering my rent for 4 months!

This means a lot to a college kid, really. I'm not as fly as Kevin Bacon, but you can believe I broke out some dance moves over this.

It's my sincere desire that this little bit of extra exposure through me has made some of you curious about HOPE. Working with this extraordinary organization has really changed my life and I will always be a huge fan. If you have fallen in love with HOPE like I have or are interested in learning more, there's a great opportunity coming up in 2 weeks.

I'd like to extend an invitation to all of you to HOPE International's upcoming event, the Celebrating HOPE Annual Dinner. At 6:00 on May 16, HOPE will be serving dinner in the Lancaster Convention Center. The event is only $50 a plate and features extraordinary stories of entrepreneurs around the world, musical performances, and a silent auction. I'd love to see you there-it's a really good time. :)

In preparation for the event, HOPE has started the auction up online. Click here to browse through some beautiful items from all over the world! Hint: the necklace and earring set from Ukraine was purchased by yours truly.

RSVP by May 3rd if you are interested!