Crisp & Juicy (updated 10/12/11)

(UPDATE) - Please contact me if you would like to be added to our monthly newsletter, or go to our main website and subscribe to it.  We have a NEW giving level.  Level 1 is $17 per month which is set up automatically through PayPal (from website).  If we could find 160 people who would be willing to donate a minimum of $17 per month, we would have all the basic needs in Zim met.  We are nowhere near this.  Please help us find our 160 angels.  Out of the 7 billion people in the world, this should be a simple task...but it will take effort and commitment on behalf of the small group of people who actually know about BFGO.  Please help spread the word.  THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!  

It is my favorite time of the year for apples.  A couple of years ago someone mentioned to me how delicious Honey Crisp apples are.  I paid little attention.  I may have even silently acknowledged to myself "how much more delicious can one apple be over another?".  Little did I know.  Oh so very little, indeed.  I don't recall a single detail of the what, when, where or why, but I clearly recall the sensation of tasting my first Honey Crisp.  I think I looked right at that apple and asked, "where have you been all my life?"  Seriously, I am beginning to wonder if this perfect species of apple was the very temptation dangling on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden.  If so, no wonder Eve couldn't resist.  (I kid).  I have to kid sometimes, because sometimes the details are overwhelming.  I'll get to the details in a moment.

The reason I am thinking about apples is because I have a tray of gorgeous, delicious honey crisp apples in my kitchen.  I have been eating an apple a day since the beginning of June as part of my weight-loss plan.  The thing is, one of my dear, precious, beautiful, vibrant orphaned Zim children LOVES apples.  Boaz and I had several conversations about apples the last time I was there.  He went into great detail about what he loves about the flavor of an apple.  Any apple.  I know that the children there spend most of their meals eating boiled grains and very little opportunity to partake of delicious fruits.  It is one of the ways that my life has been changed.  I think of them every single time I eat a piece of fruit.  Every time I peel a banana for Shawn, quarter an orange for Asher, or eat a fibrous apple for myself, my thoughts go to how much I wish I could share it all with the sweet kiddos in our Zim orphanages.  It seems like it should be so easy.  It is not.

Friends of BFGO, our donations are down.  The bottom line dollar amount for the needs is going up and the donations are currently down.  It's not the up and to the right trend I've been hoping for.  Fortunately for my spirit, I am fully well aware that BFGO was instituted to be a resource for aid, not to be a god.  I know that we are not responsible for lives or for souls; we are simply called to do the best we can with what we have to give.  And that is exactly what we intend to continue to do.

I will be sending some funds to the orphanage director the week of 10/17.  As of today it appears to be the smallest donation we will have sent so far.  Rent is far behind.  School fees remain unpaid for 55 children.  We are planning a large, fun celebrity filled fundraiser for early 2012.  We are also on the radar of some local entities who are considering partnering with BFGO beginning next year in financial donations... but for now we are still very much in need of grass roots, local, simple love from you and you, you you and you and you.

Please consider making a difference in the lives of 60 precious children today.  Let us be the very crisp and juicy flavor of God's love to them.  Every donation impacts their very livelihood and displays the power of the love of Christ.  Please join with us in this heartfelt mission.

In Him,
Melissa Irwin