Joe singing at Liberty Baptist Church

Joe singing with Ruth & Naomi at one of the churches in Marshalltown, IA.

(Sorry for the shaky camera work and so many heads in the way!)

Goodsearch for Jonathan House!

First of all, sorry to anyone who received an update from the blog. There was code error (apparently?). Oooops.

Anyways...Goodsearch has been introduced before, but we can all use reminders, can't we?

For every (valid) search someone makes on behalf of a charity registered on Goodsearch, that search will earn about $0.01. According to the website, through the fiscal years of 2006, 2007 and 2008, each search actually earned 1.3 cents. But...1 cent still adds up! For instance, if 100 people each searched on Goodsearch twice a day, the estimated revenue would total about $730! If shopping online is something you're interested in, you can also "Goodshop" for Jonathan House with many different stores offering a portion of the sale to Jonathan House!

To date, since registration, Jonathan House supporters have earned $160.88 (JH started on Goodsearch in January 2007)! That's $160.88 that our kids and friends in Sierra Leone didn't have before.

In 2007, JH earned $77.39 with 5817 searches. The biggest month was the first--January--with 705 searches earning $9.45. Impressive!

Last year, in 2008, JH earned only $28.68 with 2336 searches. Our best month was February with 306 searches earning $3.93. Our weakest month was December with 95 searches earning $.95!

So far in 2009, JH has earned $8.61 with 861 searches and $4.00 through Shopping. Our best month so far this year was March with 225 searches earning $2.25. Our weakest month so far was June with only 43 searches! In July we've only searched 20 times, earning an entire 20 cents!

So here's your challenge....search! Of course, make it valid. Wondering about something? Search for it. Here's a link on Goodsearch with badges, banners, logos and a few other ways to communicate to others and spread the word. Do you have a blog? Facebook? Myspace? A website? Just some ideas....

Can we finish off 2009 strong? 5.5 months left!

Search search search away! :-)

What a GREAT Summer!

This has been a great summer for JCC!

• Mission One-by-One had a very productive trip to Jonathan House. They spent some intentional one-on-one time with several of the kids at the home and helping some of the foster care families out with service projects for one week. For the other week, they led a Bible school with children from the Torwama area. Looking forward to hearing more about this trip! Pray as the team members continue to acclimate to being home.
• There was another team that was gone for over a month who have also just returned in the last few days. I haven't heard much about this trip yet. It was made up of several young adults who were going to be working on various projects throughout the Bo area. Pray also as they acclimate to being home and all the "reverse culture shock" stuff and for their time of debrief.
• Christie is doing well in Sierra Leone in the 2nd month of her 15 month stay!
• Joe Freeman--He's on staff at JCC in Sierra Leone--is coming to visit Iowa for a month! His visit is highly anticipated! Pray for his travel and culture shock.
• Baby Alice--I haven't heard much except that she is a 2 year old who came to JCC within the last 2 months (?) but only weighed 10 pounds!!! Pray as she gains weight and develops without complications.
• Pray for Kayla as she will leave for the Philippines next month to start midwifery school. It is a two year program. After that she is planning on serving in Sierra Leone. She just came back on the 2nd team mentioned. Busy month for Kayla!

Well, I will leave it at that for now! I will post later about new hours for the store. If you would like to share a story with us, please email me at the address located to the right of the blog. If you find an interesting and relevant article, feel free to send that to me too!

Thankyou for your support of Jonathan House!