The Hope Project

Our church, Journey, pushed a fundraiser to raise awareness and funds for the nation of Haiti; more importantly for Mission of Hope. This is the organization Cody worked for and with in February when he traveled there just after the earthquake. A couple in our church traveled to Haiti on one of the other medical teams. From that mission, a dream was born. This dream turned into a reality: The Hope Project, an initiative to build a much-needed hospital on the Mission of Hope grounds. (see the plans above)

(Part of our group from left to right: April Maly, Chad Hacker, Brett Adkins, Chris Carlson)

The church asked individuals and small groups to join together to raise money to go toward building this hospital in Haiti. The group who raised the most money during The Hope Project would receive a free fun-filled night at Hey Day, a entertainment center with arcade games, putt putt golf, laser tag and a ropes course. One couple in our small group, Brett and Tina Adkins, got inspired. Brett's family owns Libby's Cafe in Goldsby, OK. Tina thought, "Why not throw a benefit dinner to help raise money?" And from that, our piece of the Hope Project was put into action. The group met and planned setting every detail into motion. And on October 10th, a catfish dinner with all the trimmings was put together.

(Tina Adkins slicing up bakery-made brownies that were donated for dessert along with those beautiful Hope cakes.)

(Kyle and April Maly manned the raffle drawing booth.)

We all took on the job to get prizes for the raffle. There was over 25 prizes to give away! Prizes included OU signed paraphernalia, at-home massage, Lollie's Beauty Bar hair cut and color, Premier jewelry set, Arbonne gift set and LOTS of gift certificates to various restaurants! All prizes were donated to the cause! So any money earned from the raffle drawing went straight to the fundraising!



Set up started at 3 pm that Sunday. Customers were expected to arrive around 5 pm. I came to serve during set up. Everyone took on separate tasks to set up the tables and chairs, table cloths, get out all the utensils and plates, make lemonade, prep the desserts, get the raffle booth set up, direct the band, the moon bounce and mechanical bull where to set up...And the list continued. My job? Heather Johnson and I had the awesome privilege to make individual dipping sauce containers filled with tarter sauce for the yummy catfish and then ranch for salads, fries and anything else...because you know you're an Okie when you put ranch dressing on everything! Heather and I spent quite some time chatting, which was really nice, and competing to see who could fill the most containers the quickest. We had the huge container - like bulk-size from Sam's- of tarter sauce. It would take us about 15 minutes a huge container to get it all filled. We did about four of those...and two ranches. Needless to say, I haven't had tarter sauce or ranch dressing since. I left at 5 pm to head to girls' bible study on the southside of OKC. The group had everything under control and customers were already arriving. The event was a HUGE success!

In total, the benefit dinner and

raffle drawing brought in around $7200!!

The entire Hope Project raised $125K!!

So...OUR SMALL GROUP WAS THE WINNER! WE GOT A FUN-FILLED NIGHT AT HEY DAY! AND BOY, DID WE HAVE A BLAST!





Six couples met up this Wednesday night to play. We had fellowship and a free salad and pizza dinner. Then the guys decided they were going to play Putt Putt golf, which Adam Barnett coined 'Ice Golf' because with the wind chill, it was 34 degrees outside!! You can see from the score card that Adam dominated. Cody tied for 3rd.

(April Maly, Kelly Boyd, Andrea Barnett, Tina Adkins, Me)

Us girls, on the otherhand, were smart. We stayed inside where it was warm and suited up for the ropes course.

(Awkward...This is not Tracy Carlson's husband...)

From the ground, the ropes course looks fun and easy, but once you're up there, it's kinda intimidating! Three of us, myself included, were chickens. We only did one rope and then decided to turn around. We hugged the poles A LOT! (I won't rat out the other two , but you know who you are!) Andrea and April made it look so easy! Andrea even showed off by leaping and running on parts of it!

(Andrea Barnett-far left swinging)

(No hands Tina Adkins!)

(See? Andrea's showing off!)

(Tina, April, Alison, Andrea, Tracy, Kelly)

Too bad the boys missed our bravery, or lack there of...Next time I'll conquer more of this course!!

(Andrea and Tina out in the middle)

(From left to right with code names: Kris-aka The Sweater, Brett-aka B.A., Cody-aka Chicken Nuggets, Kyle -aka Caboose, Adam-aka Pwrinkle, Chris-aka Ninja Assassin, April-aka Tooth Cleaner, Tracy-aka Watch Out, Andrea-aka BadA, Alison-aka Fire Hose, Kelly-aka Yo Momma and Tina-aka TNT)

After we climbed down from the ropes course and the boys warmed up from Putt Putt, it was laser tag time - Husbands vs. Wives. I, being a first timer, was a little anxious to figure out this whole game. First, we had to give our code names. Then suit up in our vests and learn how to work the gun. We came up with a strategy at our base. Then it was game time. 4 games, 6 minutes each. At first, we wives split up. I headed up the ramp which I quickly figured out was dumb because you just get cornered. (And I fell down.) The next three games, I changed strategies and just ran at the boys. Some have incredibly good aim! I was hit a lot, but also hit them a lot! Some were cheaters - laying down and hiding; others wearing their jackets over their vests so we couldn't see their lights.
I've never done so much running, sprinting, ducking, juking and diving in my life. But also never had so much stinkin' fun! We were all pretty exhausted and sweaty. It was pretty fun chasing after Cody and trying to shoot him. Cody's top score was 18500, mine was 11100. Both of us had 11% shooting accuracy in our best game. (We got these nifty little print outs of our game stats. When we went to pick up Noah from the church childcare, a wind gust caught the papers and blew them out of the car. Cody chased them clear to Tecumseh road just so we could have our stats. Sweet man.) Andrea was lead wife scorer for two games and I was lead wife scorer for the other two games. Adam, Andrea's hubby, was lead husband scorer for all four games. Cody was nipping at his tail in second place. In short, the Barnetts and the Goodnights are serious gamers!! Unfortunately, the wives lost, but made a gallant effort in the last game when we pulled ahead for a bit. There will be a rematch. You can bet on that!

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Cody and I are very blessed to have these people in our lives. We are grateful for small group. These people make us better, hold us accountable, celebrate and cry with us. They are incredibly giving of their time and resources. And ultimately, have the same vision as us - Love everyone with a passion; do it all for the Kingdom. Thank you, small group, you are the best!! Each and every one of you. We're better because you're in our lives. We look forward to our times together.