Here we go! It looks like it is going to be a long flight!
It has been about a month since we posted anything because life has been pretty busy! We are so thankful that we got to go to Nyankunde in the Democratic Republic of Congo with Samaritan's Purse for the dedication of the new maternity ward! Even now, it almost seems like a dream! The whole time Livvy & I were raising the money for the hospital, we would talk about what we thought it would look like or we would talk about it as though it was already helping people. Little did we know, it was already helping people! The problem is that it was in really bad shape and there were many things that were needed. There was only one sink in the whole maternity ward and it didn't even work that great. The roof was in terrible shape and in some places the ceiling was caving in. There had been a lot of damage from the war. But this is all they have in the DRC. Even now, some of the remaining wards are still in pretty rough shape!
The tiny brick building to the left is the old outhouse
They had to take the roof off and then redo all the walls
With some of the money we raised, they were able to add on to the hospital!
The old maternity ward had only one sink that wasn't in great shape so they dug up the floor and added plumbing
The old walls were in rough shape
When they took off the roof and gutted the building, you could see from one end to the other
This is the outside wall of the old maternity ward in Nyankunde
Dr. Cooper started to send us some pictures of the hospital being worked on in late June of this year, (2015). It was so exciting to see that there was a real building and that it was starting to change! At that time, we thought the pictures were all we would ever see of the hospital and we were very happy with that. In fact, it was really hard to look at the pictures and not share them with everyone because we were so excited to just see it! It was so amazing seeing a building getting worked on! When we got the email from Samaritan's Purse telling us that the building was going to be finished in October and asking if we would like to go for the dedication ceremony we were so excited! It seemed like Christmas and your birthday and every other wonderful day all rolled into one moment!
We immediately started getting things like passports, (which actually became a huge trial for getting mine! It came right at the very last possible moment, but God did get it to us on time!) We got a million shots to be able to travel out of the country and we started to get ready for a huge adventure!
I will write another blog post about going to the Samaritan's Purse organization in Boone, NC before we flew out to Nyankunde, but right now, let's keep going on talking about the Congo! We took four planes to get to the DRC. When I write about Boone, I will also try to write a little bit about Uganda. That was also a stop on our way to the DRC.
When we landed in Nyankunde we were so excited to go see the new maternity ward! We stopped in a missionary house to eat some food, but Livvy & I were very anxious to just go see the maternity ward! It really was beautiful! Compared to the other buildings, it is stunning because it is freshly painted and has a bright blue roof with solar panels on it. There are now some private rooms, as well as 30 beds for moms who have just had babies. There is electricity in the whole building at night now. The doctors used to have to do deliveries by the light of their cell phone! There is a new outhouse and it has showers that work! The old one was really run down and dilapidated because of the war and the showers in it didn't work. There is a new operating room and the delivery room has been updated. There are now sinks in every patient care area, which will make an enormous difference for how the doctors can care for the moms and babies because it is much easier to wash their hands between each patient!
This is the sign at the bottom of the hill that leads up to the hospital complex
This is part of the new addition to the maternity ward. There are two private rooms for moms now
This is the new delivery room. They can do two deliveries in here at the same time
This is the new operating room in the maternity ward! The very first baby born in the new ward was born by emergency C-section in this room!
This is the back of the maternity ward. There are 4 new washing sinks in the back for caregivers to wash clothes.
There are extra large sidewalks so the caregivers have a place to sit.This is me and Livvy in front of it!
Here is a better view of the hospital with the new outhouse to the left.
This is the new outhouse and shower building at the Nyankunde hospital.
That is a new sink in a little room that was renovated to become a medication room.
This is a new sink in the room where the doctors take care of the new moms.
This is one of the moms in labor
This was one of the new babies that was born while we were there. We prayed with his mom.
We gave out cupcakes to all the new moms
This little baby was named after me. Her name is Gabriella
Meet Gabriella. She was the first baby born in the new maternity ward!
I am holding Gabriella and Livvy is holding a little boy named Micheli.
This was the very best part of going to the Congo! Livvy and I LOVED holding the new babies! Every time we went to the ward we would hold as many of the babies as the moms would let us hold! As we look at these pictures now, it is almost like we are a little bit homesick or something. To think that God is saving the lives of moms and babies every day now, and that these babies will grow up to become people who could also make a difference in the world is a very exciting thought! We love it that the missionary doctors in the DRC get to talk to the new moms about Jesus every day! We are just very, very thankful!
WOW! It has been a long time since we wrote anything! Sorry! I think we got so busy over the summer that we didn't think about it much. You can always go to our page on Facebook to see what we are up to. Go to Gabe The Cake Man and we usually put something up every week or two.
So here is a quick update. The hospital project is going GREAT! In fact, we have seen two sets of pictures and it is pretty exciting to see things happening in a country so far away, yet the internet makes it seem like it is next door! Samaritan's Purse sent a photographer to our house to take pictures of us making some cakes and cupcakes about two weeks ago, because I guess the story of the hospital is going to be in their catalog! We are super happy about that because we love it when God is getting more glory for letting us be part of this project! Each time we think He is done, it seems that He is not!
Some of the cupcakes and a cake we made during the photoshoot
We delivered the cake to a family that has donated to both of our projects
Samaritan's Purse photoshoot
We had been praying about what God wanted us to do next, ever since we finished raising the money for the hospital. I started to think it would be so cool if someone would donate a bakery to us. I still think that, actually. My idea was that we would try to have expert bakers and chefs come and teach homeless people, or people that needed a job, how to cook. We would let people buy things as "donation only" and that way if someone came in and was hungry, but couldn't pay for their food, we would just give it to them. Maybe someone else would have paid a little bit more, and it would all even out.
One day my mom and I were talking about that idea to someone at church and the lady told me about what Scarlet's Hope is trying to do. They are trying to open Scarlet's Bakery. It is a non-profit organization to help women that are coming out of the adult entertainment industry get some new job skills and make some money to get on their feet. When I heard about this, it sounded so close to the idea I had been thinking about, I just knew this was the next thing God wanted us to do! So Livvy and I prayed about it. We went to visit the site of where it is going to be and talked to the people that will run it, and we decided to do our 1%. Remember how when we were doing our project we would ask people to just do 1%? In our case, we wanted to have a team of 100 people that would each raise $350. But how it actually worked out was we had about 160 people donate and some were able to do 1% and some could only do a little bit. But as you know, God raised all the money!
Scarlet's Bakery is trying to raise $100,000! So Livvy and I pledged to raise $1,000. We were able to raise it pretty quickly, and we've been making cakes for the people that donated! (Thank you, if you are one of them!) But we still feel like we should help. So now we have been encouraging others to do their 1%. Remember, 1% is the least whole number you can contribute. Many times people say, "It's the least I could do," when they do something nice. But is it really? Sometimes it is not even 1% because the person could have done more. They just didn't want to! Yes, it is the least, but was it the least whole effort? We saw children who were only 3 & 4 step up and do a whole lot for the hospital project. Campers at elementary camp gave up snack tokens and middle school students shoveled snow or went without birthday presents or Christmas presents so the money could be donated instead. When we at least do the 1%, we make a difference!
Livvy making a cake for her Sunday School teacher who donated to the bakery project
Doing the free-hand Snoopy on the tie for the cake for Mr. Tom
Livvy doing the piping around the cake
Mr. Tom and Livvy when she presented the cake to him
We made a video about one of our cakes to explain why we think the Bakery is important. If you'd like to see it, click the video above. We are really hoping that others will see that they can help the Scarlet's Hope women make a new life through the power of Jesus and the help of those of us who love Him.
Thanks for reading our latest post! We will update soon when we have more news of the hospital!
Selfies with a chick fil a cow are a lot harder to get than you would think!
Our sweet friend, Robin, planned and put on a fundraising Bazaar for us. This was planned way before we had all the donations. In fact, we were only at about $20,000 when she started to plan it! Once we were given the anonymous donation which completed our fundraising, we decided to make it a PARTY and a Bazaar! In all, the Bazaar brought us to about $546 over our goal! There were some really fun aspects of this bazaar! First of all, the Chick fil a Cow came and was even more fun than we imagined he would be!
The organ was a huge hit with Livvy and everyone that heard it
Livvy and the cow had a lot of fun sneaking around the church together
Livvy & I were the main speakers at the press conference. We thanked everyone that helped us!
October 16, 2014 was a super fun day! The Muhammad Ali Center invited us to have a press conference at the Ali Center to announce that we had hit our goal to raise the money we needed to build or upgrade the hospital in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since it happened because of the generous donation from someone that heard us speak at the Humanitarian Awards at the Ali Center on September 27, 2014, they wanted to help us announce it - which was so super kind of them! We got to invite anyone we wanted to so of course, we invited the children that had helped us!
Chef Dodd from Sullivan came and spoke at the Press Conference
The Ali Center helped us to invite people like Chef Dodd from Sullivan and Denise Witt from Big Idea Media Group. The amazing thing is that four tv news channels came! I am going to include two of the channels here so you can see what they said about the conference. Here is the one that WHAS 11 put up. WDRB also put up the story on their webpage.
Livvy did a great job speaking! This is something neither of us loves but God sure has given us a lot of it to do for Him!
We made cake to eat to celebrate after the press conference
What we loved the most is that we got to invite the children that helped us. Some of them couldn't make it but Efrata, Katie, Blaise and his sisters Lyric and Kayia, Mia and Dr. Stucker's little girl were all there with us. My best friend, Isaac came and it felt like a party at the Ali Center! We made cake (of course) to eat afterwards. The Ali Center put it up on their webpage and we were so happy because not only are we done, we got to give God all the glory for this once again! It is really such a great feeling when you have done the thing that you knew God wanted you to do and you actually saw that HE IS THE ONE THAT DID IT! I can't really explain how happy this makes me and Livvy!
The quote says: "I always felt like I was born to do something for my people...some people have special resources inside, and when God blesses you to have more than others, you have a responsibility to use it right." Livvy & I agree!
If you still wish you had gotten a table to sell things or tell about your business we still have some great slots open! The Woodland Baptist Church youth group students are going to do a car wash and have things to sell also.
We sure hope you will stop by to see us and give hugs because we are still so excited about having gone past our goal! We are hoping that the sale of the concessions and raffle will help us get some medical equipment for the hospital now!
Psalm 34: 3 says, "O Magnify the Lord with me; Let us PRAISE His name together!"
This is our silent auction cake. A $500 donation was made to the Ali Center for it.
In our last post, we were dying to tell everyone the amazing thing that God did for us at the 2014 Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Awards but we wanted to wait until you could all see it on our donations page! A little while after Livvy and I gave our speech at the awards ceremony, Mr. Lessare, the CEO of the Ali Center came up to our dad and told us that there was a person in the audience that heard our speech who was so moved by our project and our words, they wanted to make a donation to our project. They told Mr. Lessare that whatever we did not raise from the auction of our cake, they would donate to get us to $35,000!! (We had already raised $22,173 up to that point). We were so excited we could hardly stand it! We didn't know whether to laugh, cry, scream, run around dancing...so we did what we have done every other time something great happens (or bad happens for that matter). We PRAYED! My mom, dad, Livvy and I prayed and thanked the LORD for doing this great thing for us! To some people, they might call this a coincidence. Someone once said, "All I know is that when I pray, coincidences happen a lot more often"! We KNOW this was no coincidence! GOD let that person be in the audience, hear about our project and have a kind and caring heart to help us finish it! We really wanted to meet this person but he wanted to remain anonymous so we have been praying for him to be richly blessed because of his generosity. Yesterday he made the donation and it was SO MUCH FUN to be able to go to youth group last night and tell everyone all about it! They had prayed for me and Livvy last week and they all wanted to hear how it went. When we told them that we are now OVER 100% they clapped!
Livvy and I made 50 cupcakes in about an hour to bring to the youth group to celebrate with!
We are now over $35,000...and we are going to keep going because we still have our craft bazaar coming up on October 18 from 9-2 at the Woodland Baptist Church. We are now going to have a PARTY! We will be giving away (can you guess?) FREE CUPCAKES! So come join us and celebrate this wonderful thing that God has done for us! We can't wait to see what will happen with this hospital, clinic or upgrades that can now go forward in the Democratic Republic of Congo!
This reminded us of doing camp cupcakes! The students loved them!
Muhammad says, "I will float like a butterfly and sting like a bee!"
Wow! Where do we start with this? Back in June the Muhammad Ali Center had called us and asked us to be part of the Congo14 celebration. If you remember, we spoke at their press conference when they announced that Bruno Mars was going to be the singer they were hosting. The Ali Center asked us if we would come be a part of their annual Humanitarian Awards to be held on 10/27/14. We said yes because we have never seen something like that and it sounded like fun to go to a banquet. They also asked us to make a cake for their silent auction. This would be raffled off and 1/2 of what they got for the cake would go to our project and the other half would go to the Ali Center. We said yes for that too. Well, this week was the week of the concert and then yesterday, was the second annual Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Awards. Livvy and I found out that Kid President (Robbie Novak) was going to be there, so we asked if we could make him a special cake. We also wanted to make a cake for Muhammad Ali so that when we met him, we would be able to give him a special treat.
We can't even describe how amazing it was to meet Muhammad Ali in person!
This is the cake we made to give to Muhammad Ali on September 27, 2014
They had a special table just for our cakes!
Kid President was so much fun! He liked the cake!
As the week got closer and closer we got more nervous. It started to seem like it was going to be hard. My mom decided to see if we could go to Sullivan Bakery to decorate the cakes so that if we needed some help, Chef Richardson was there to help us. We were so glad we did this! She was so helpful with smoothing the big cake and for helping us get the piping right and not turning it brown with the colors mixing too much! Here are pictures of the cakes and the event. It was like nothing we have ever ever ever done before! If you click HERE you can watch our speech. (if you watch all the way to the end you can see a really amazing video of the project the Humanitarian of the Year did). Matt Lauer from the Today show was the MC for the evening. It was fun to meet him. He is the person that interviewed Dr. Brantley who lived to tell about having ebola! Dr. Brantley is a missionary for Samaritan's Purse so that was fun to have as a common connection.
Livvy is putting on the first layer of frosting for our auction cake
Chef Richardson was giving advice about the number 1 cake for Muhammad WAVE3 was filming it
I had the edible image on the cake and was starting the piping around it
Finishing the piping. I love the rainbow! Chef Richardson approves!
Such a great feeling to be done! I came up with the image and Big Idea Media Group helped make it on the computer!
We had a auction table for the silent auction and set up our display
When we got up to speak they had a picture of us up on the big screens
Here we are practicing in the afternoon before the banquet
