This is my Platform

I am so excited to tell you about an opportunity that God has opened for me!  As many of you know, I began studying at Word of Life Bible Institute in September of this year.  While it is a lot of work and I miss home and my family and the kids, I am loving it.  The classes have made me think deeper than I am used to and I am loving learning more about God and growing deeper in Him.

One of my favorite things about Word of Life is how ministry minded everyone is.   Each student is given a ministry which they participate in about once a week.  On top of this, students are given other opportunities to reach out or find their own opportunities to reach out.  The student body has been challenged to take every opportunity to use whatever we can do as our platform.
I'm used to my platform looking like Sunday mornings with puppets and crayons and Bible stories and sixty kids and six teenagers and trying to not get super dirty.  I'm used to it looking like giving toddlers hugs and going for walks with them and taking pictures and working with special needs kids and giving high fives to preschoolers until my hands hurt.
My platform definitely looks different this year, but in many ways my biggest platform still looks a lot the same.  It still involves kids and crayons and Bible stories.  It doesn't however have so much dirt and translation.  Every Thursday I get in a van with the six other people on my ministry team and go to a school to do a Good News Club with fifty kids in kindergarten-5th grade.  My responsibility is to help K-2nd and teach the kids their memory verse for the week.  It is definitely not always easy, but something feels strangely familiar and comfortable about it.  I am loving getting to know these kids and working with some of my fellow students here.
This spring I will get to have a different platform.  I have been given the amazing opportunity to go on a missions trip to Honduras over Spring Break.  I am so excited for this opportunity and would love for you to be able to join me!  Would you please commit to praying for this journey and also pray about whether God would have you join me financially.  The total financial support needed for the trip is $1,627 and covers all of my expenses. I need to reach 50% by January 8, 2016 and 100% by February 8, 2016.
If you would like to give a donation you can find the support slip here or if you would like to give online, please go to https://give.wol.org/cgwartney.  If you would like to join my prayer team please contact me with your email address and I will add you to my email list.

A quick update about Sharon

I just wanted to write a quick update about Sharon since so many have been asking. I hope to write a longer more detailed one later.
We have raised a total of $4,000. The good news is we have been told of a hospital in Sudan that does free surgery. So she has a passport and is on the hospital wait list for surgery.
Thanks to everyone who has helped get her this far. Please continue praying as it appears to be a long wait.

Guest Post at Teens Interceding for Orphans

I love watching all the things God is doing for Sharon.  This one has been in the works for a while, but yesterday, a guest post I wrote was posted over at Teens Interceding for Orphans.  It is a little bit different than the one I wrote here, so I thought I would share it here.  You can read it by clicking this link - http://teensintercedingfororphans.com/2015/03/09/praying-for-a-heart/.

Designed by Leah Good

Thank you all for the ways you have been helping Sharon.  We just got the February reports and we now have a total of around $3000 raised.  There are some other exciting things happening that I cannot wait to share with you.
If you missed Sharon's story, you can find the original post here and the follow up post here.
If you have not donated to Sharon's heart project yet, and you would like to, click this link, click on ‘Gwartney family’, and make sure to put in the comments (or note to seller), ‘Sharon’s heart project’.  100% of your donation will go to Sharon’s fund.  If any extra is collected, it will be used for medical projects for other people in our community.  If anything should happen to Sharon before her heart surgery or should we raise more than our goal, any remaining funds will also be used for other medical projects in our community.  Thank you!

Meeting Sharon.

{This is an update of sorts to Sharon's story.  If you have not read the first part yet, please go read it here before reading this one.  It explains a lot of the back story.}

Sharon and I

"Sharon's at the office and she wants to meet you," my mom said.  I grabbed my camera and we hopped in the car and drove down to the office.
When we got there the social worker introduced us and one of my first thoughts was how much weight she's lost since the picture I saw of her in December.  They showed us a purse that Sharon had made.  I have no idea how they did it, but it is pretty cool anyways.
A few weeks back we had asked Sharon (by a message through her mom) to make potholders.  One of the missionaries (Auntie Lisa) is going back for furlough and had offered to buy a bunch and take them back as gifts if Sharon could make them.  Sharon didn't know what exactly a potholder was, so we called Auntie Lisa and asked her to bring a sample down.  When she arrived, we began discussing the project.  The social worker asked her if she thought she could make one or two samples this week to bring and show us.  She and all the other ladies around started laughing.  "I can make ten in a day!" she said.  She told us that all she needs is dye to make colored mats.  Hopefully, we can get her started so she can make lots of these for Auntie Lisa to take back and for us to sell to teams when they come.  This will be a huge help to Sharon and I could tell that she enjoys making them and having a part in raising money for her surgery.

Talking about the potholder project

Sharon holding the bag she made.

I'm so glad I got to meet Sharon yesterday.  It is so good to have a face, a voice, a person to think about as I am working on this project.  Leaving the office yesterday, my mom and I were talking about how much more urgent her situation has become.  The doctors have also told her that she cannot go to school because 'her heart is too weak.'
Last week I was given the opportunity to write a guest post about Sharon on another blog.  It has been quite a bit harder than I was expecting.  After yesterday I started really trying to pick up speed to get it done.  Please pray as I am finishing it up.  I have a few people proofreading it right now and hopefully I can get it posted this weekend.  Please be praying for that and for Sharon's heart to be in a good enough condition until we have raised enough money for her to India and get surgery.
If you have not donated to Sharon's heart project yet, and you would like to, click this link, click on ‘Gwartney family’, and make sure to put in the comments (or note to seller), ‘Sharon’s heart project’.  100% of your donation will go to Sharon’s fund.  If any extra is collected, it will be used for medical projects for other people in our community.  If anything should happen to Sharon before her heart surgery or should we raise more than our goal, any remaining funds will also be used for other medical projects in our community.
Please feel free to share this on any social media sites you have!