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conspire...


at sojourn's last leadership community we began to dream together about taking on a major challenge to bless the socks off of someone this christmas. the last few years we have been participating in the advent conspiracy movement as a joint sojourn/reunion effort and we felt that as a collegiate community we were ready to do something a little audacious this year.

our brainstorm and some subsequent conversations led us to decide that this year we really wanted to bless Adoption and Foster Care Mentoring (AFC Mentoring).  CJ, one of AFC's board members, attends reunion and is a part of one of sojourn's community groups. he told tim, our director, that AFC had been selected by the Prudential Center as one Boston's Outstanding Non-Profit's of 2010. the "pru" holds a ceremony each night of december for all the non-profits selected (here's an article from 2009's "31 nights of light"). 

AFC is excited about the opportunity but also somewhat bummed about not having known sooner (which would have helped them plan to make the night really special, specifically for the kids and their mentors). we were immediately drawn to this organization that is taking seriously James' words to care for the orphans (1:27)...for more info on why mentoring kids in the adoption and foster care system is important, click here. sojourn continues to be drawn towards partnerships that help build up and invest in the youth of our city.

after some discussion we felt the best course of action would be to help make this night (december 7th) a night to remember. so, we are going to throw the kids and their mentors a party. we want to honor them and the work they do, and offer them a gift they can always cherish: recognition.

i am really excited about this endeavor for what we can offer AFC, but i'm also excited about it because i am seeing students stirred to serve and give themselves away in tangible and impressive ways (to pull this party off right we need to raise close to $5000). i'm seeing students reach out o their friends and networks and invite them in to this story. i'm seeing students take ownership and sacrifice in ways we've never asked them to before. they are jumping in with both feet and attempting to tell a great story.

i want to invite you all to join us too. this story can be your story as well. here are a couple of suggestions/ideas...

1) pray with us and for us...we have a lot of work to do and a lot of money to raise in a short amount of time. this is a great and worthy challenge but this won't happen without God's gracious intervention. prayer is huge.

2) consider sacrificing alongside of our students...you may not live close enough to give us your time or "presence" but you can give a few bucks...even $5 goes a long way (and that's only one latte to give up this week =)...one less gift could mean one huge memory for a foster care child and their mentor.

if you do want to give $ you can do so at our facebook cause page or if you don't feel comfortable with facebook send me an email and i can give you a physical address to send check to (both methods are safe and all the money goes directly to this project).

either way, joining the cause page or lending your prayer support or giving your money, shows a tremendous amount of support for AFC and for our students. your support helps give them a vision for what being a part of a bigger story looks like and becomes an answer to their prayers.

thanks for taking the time to read this long post and hopefully we can join together to tell an amazing story this advent season!