one month away

wow, that's kinda crazy! 

I'm a bit scared. It seems really unreal that it's approaching so fast! 

Our funding is doing pretty well. 

I have over half of my funding COMMITTED. but i have less then that with me. 

The other half will be pretty crazy but i have to trust that God will provide. 

Our upcoming fundraisers:

1. Ping Pong tournament @ Grace Valley church on May 30

2. Concert @ New Community Church on June 1

2. Car Wash -still in the planning process so don't know when

3. Baja Fresh Fundraiser -still in the planning process

I received a little over $100 from the starbucks raffle tickets. Starbucks donated $50 so the sales of the raffle tickets doubled the donation =] 

I still have a couple of people that I need to follow up with but my prayer is to hit $2600 by the end of this week. 

too blessed to be stressed!

WOW! 

today was such an exciting day! we had a phone-a-thon =] sponsored by bosnia alumni, Layla and Mandy! i tried yummy bosnian coffee and snacks for the first time! super excited about Bosnia's obsession with coffee!! I'll fit right in =]

so pretty much we called everyone who we've sent out letters to and asked if they could commit to donate $100. 

Just after two hours our team raised a total of $2360 

Our team total: $6780

Average $ per person: $1356

We still need to raise $2000/person 

I just think it's awesome how we were able to step out and be able to raise so much in so little time! =]

it's definitely encouraging and the power of prayer amazes me

I am currently 53% funded

so many exciting things happening

I've received so much support from so many people. I am so grateful for all the people who have donated so far =]

I talked to Starbucks today, and they are making a basket of $50 in value and they are going to be selling raffle tickets. All the proceeds from the raffle tickets are going to support me to go to Bosnia. Raffle tickets are going to start at $2 and it's going to start being on sale from Tuesday, May 12 to Tuesday, May 19.

It's going to be at Starbucks on Charleston and Town Center next to Port of Subs and Tropical Smoothie. 

Also, my article in the Crusader was sent home this weekend. My prayer is that people will read it and be able to support me. 

Some prayer requests:

 1. The raffle tickets will raise a sufficient amount of money

 2. Alumni and parents will read the newsletter and be called to give

 3. Praise and gratitude for all that I and my team have raised so far

As of now, I am 24% funded =]

more pictures =]

The whole entire Bosnia team [ Sarejevo and Zenica ]

Team Zenica

All of STIM training: Fresno and Bosnia

 My newsletter that is being sent out to my high school is going to be mailed sometime this week. I'm praying that I will get donors from that. 

So as of today I'm at $760 which puts me at 19% funded.

Dobro Yutro, SUNSHINE.

That's good morning in Bosnian

This weekend I went to Santa Barbara for STIM training. It was amazing. I learned so much about social injustice, God's grace, and cross-cultural differences. We did a lot of stimulations that reminded me of leadership games I played in Student Council =]
I also got to meet my teammates that are also going to Zenica with me. There's a total of 6 people going to Zenica, one staff and five students. The staff and the other three students are from UCSB [University of California Santa Barbara] and then Scott and I from UNLV
I don't have the pictures of the whole Zenica team, but that's me and scott =]
I also learned a lot about my trip in general. I need to raise $2000 by May 26 which is in a month! We already have our air plane tickets confirmed but need to pay for them by then. I'll include more details as the trip gets closer.

After our weekend of learning and getting know each other, team Las Vegas became tourists! We went to a park with baby turtles and then went to the Beach.

Ben, Ryan, me, Carlos, Will, and Scott

Ryan isn't going to Bosnia but he's going to a Fresno Urban mission trip where he will spend 6 weeks in one of the poorest parts of the west coast. He came to the training with us.

Jumping for joy

Can you tell we're excited for this summer?

Overall, this weekend trip was a great experience. It got me even more pumped for my trip to Bosnia. =]

hardcore team bonding time

We are going to Santa Barbara this weekend for our training! 

I'm really excited because I'm going to learn more about what I'm going to be doing there as well as get the needed information to be successful in Bosnia. 

It's called STIM, student training in missions. 

All five of us are going to fit in my small ICAR so it'll be a long 6 hour car ride there, but it'll be SO worth it. It's a good thing I've got shotgun! =]

a venti latte

I went to the starbucks I used to work at a couple of weeks ago. While I was talking to the Assistant Manager, I mentioned that I had to raise $4,000 for my trip to Bosnia. 

He was telling me that he wanted to help out. 

I went back this week to see if he was still interested and he mentioned that the company can probably give me some money since as a team we're raising $20,000.

I dropped off my letter on Wednesday. =] Hopefully Starbucks can pull through and help me out. 

as of today, I am 15% funded to go to Bosnia