Yay...we've reached the $3000 target!! Thank you ALL :)

Yay!

We (us, you, all of us!) have sold 67 boxes of chocolates/lollies, for a profit of $2100 and we have had donations of $300 x 2, $100 x 2 & $50 x 2, totalling $900...which means we have reached the target of $3000!!!

Thank you, everyone, for your support. It may have been an effort, but nothing in comparison to the difference it will make. How blessed we are to be born into this beautiful country of Australia, where we have everything we need, plus so much more...

We are so excited about going over to India & Nepal next week and blessing others with these gifts of money that we/you have collectively raised. This money will go such a long way over there. We will post photos for you all to see when we get back :)




God Bless you all!

Much love,

Mark & Nat Xx

Only $670 to go!

Hello again!

A big THANK YOU to all of you that have helped us get to $2330 raised so far! We still have $670 to go. We have 6 more boxes (at $60 each, we receive $30 profit) left to sell....so if you could share a little of your Chrissy cheer and volunteer to sell one for us, please let me know. You can email me (Nat)on 'nat@hasslefreesystems.com', or phone/txt me on 0401 233 754 :)

Much love,

Mark, Nat, Rach & Beth XxXx

Help us get to our goal!

Hello peoples :)

Ok....so we need to raise another $1400 or so to get to our goal of $3000. First of all, a big THANK YOU to the many people that have helped us raise $1550 so far!

Now....if you think you could sacrifice (just a little) a tiny bit of your Chrissy cheer to sell a box of choccies/'natural confectionary company' snakes to help us, then please let me know by either replying to this post, emailing me on 'nat@hasslefreesystems.com' or phoning/texting me on 0401 233 754. I receive them next Wednesday and can drop them off to you at home or at work!

If you would like to simply donate then please let me know :)

Thank you everyone. It's so lovely to have help from so many of you....to help us to help others less fortunate than ourselves!

We will also be making up individual cards for each of the children in the orphanage in Nepal. If you & your children would like to make one for us to pass on, please let us know and we will give you the details (ie name/age etc).

Much love,

Mark, Nat, Rach & Beth XxXx

We're baaaaack!

It's been a while!

In the last couple of months we have moved house, I (Nat) have finally finished Uni (except for 6 weeks of clinical placement from 1 Nov-10 Dec), Rachel has been very busy studying for her VCE exams that will be finished on 11 Nov and Beth got into the 'Mornington Breakers' rep basketball team, which means a lot of travelling for us!

But, we are back....and eager to get the fundraising ball rolling again, so that we are able to reach our goal of $3000 by Jan '11. We want to give $1000 to each of the three organizations as mentioned earlier in our blog. I will post a little more info on these over the next few weeks.

So....We will be doing another chocolate drive in a couple of weeks and would LOVE your help! Just selling one box (of a mix of 24 blocks of choc & bags of 'natural confectionary company' snakes/jellies) is a HUGE help. We need to sell 50 more boxes, so if, say 30-40 people sell one or two boxes, we will do it....please let me know by text (0401 233 754) or email (nat@hasslefreesystems.com) if you can help us out.

Our new address & home phone number is:

1 Forsyth st.
Frankston. 3199.
Vic, Australia.
(03) 8751 3108

Pop in if you're in the area!

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Much love,

Nat & co :)

Where the money is going....

Hello again!

Well, I've just got back from delivering chocolates to many of you to sell!

I just want to clarify to everyone...100% (that means ALL, ie.every single cent!) of the money raised is being personally delivered by us (in Jan/Feb 2011) to the places mentioned earlier, in this blog. None of this money will be used by us for any part of our trip!

Thanks so much everyone for your help...but we still have a few boxes left to sell, so if you think you can sell a box for us, then reply on this blog, or email Nat at nat@hasslefreesystems.com or phone/text me on 0401 233 754.

Thanks guys!

Love Nat :)

2nd lot of chocolates have arrived!

Hello all!

Yay, the second lot of fair trade chocolate has arrived! I have delivered most of it to those of you that have volunteered to help, but we still have a few boxes that need a home :)

I am in the process of persuading my brother, Michael, and sister in law, Suzan, to create their own blog about their work in India....so keep posted for that!

Thanks, once again, for your help and/or support with this fundraising!

Much love,

Nat (& the rest)

First lot SOLD, Yay!

Yay!

We are well on our way to raising the $3000!

We have sold the first lot of chocolates, which means that we have raised $750. I cannot begin to tell you all how excited we are! A quick Thank You to: Lisa & Shane, Keith, Irene, Jenny & Kevin, Julie, Claire, Debbie, Janelle & Mitch, Sue, Matt & Isobel, Brendan & Virginia &, Neil & Bec, Jacqui, David & Amanda. (I feel like the 'Romper Room' lady!)

We will be getting another lot of chocolated/lollies in a couple of weeks, and would LOVE to hear from you if you think you could chip in and sell a box for us. We will drop them off to your house & you can deposit the money via the internet, so it's really not very hard :)

On the other hand, the blessings that will come from this money is priceless. We can't wait to give this money to the three places mentioned below (in this blog). As we have said earlier, 100% of this money will go straight to these places. We will also be updating you all on what types of things this money will be used for....& keep you all updated with photos etc.

So, once again, THANK YOU all SO much for your help!

Blessings :)

Much love, Nat & co. XxXx

Fundraising progress...

Hey!

So, I thought you might all like to know about how the fundraising is going...

We have 25 boxes of Cadbury's fairtrade chocolate & lollies "on the go" at the moment. The money from these will total $750, which is a quarter of the way to the $3000 we are aiming to have raised by Jan 2011! Yay!

So...keep selling guys, and don't forget to transfer the money before the 21st July, which is only 2 weeks away! I have sent you all a txt/facebook message regarding the RIGHT account details (as opposed to the original ones I gave you all).

We will be doing another "chocolate drive" in a month or so....so we would love to have another 25 people (or even some of the same) willing to sell a box for us. You can either reply on this blog, send us a FB message or email us(nat@hasslefreesystems.com).

Happy chocolate selling/eating!

Luv Nat (& the rest) XxXx

Mic & Suzan visiting from India!

SO my brother Michael, his wife Suzan & our 2 adorable nieces, Emma & Rebekah, are visiting from India for the month, Yay! I am in the process of persuading them to start up their own blog to link to ours. They are teaching at Hebron School, in Ooty, Tamil Nadu, South India...which is the International Christian boarding school that we went to as teenagers. Suzan's parents also teach there. Many "missionary kids" from all over the world go to Hebron.


I will keep you updated & hopefully, soon, we will have a link to the work they do there!

Love Nat

ps.How's the fundraising going?? :)

The chocolates are here!

OK...so we got the fair trade chocolates delivered today, yay! Only problem is, it's VEEERRY tempting having around 450 blocks of chocolates and 150 bags of snakes (yum yum) sitting in the living room....I hope you're all geared up to put your best "chocolate sales-person" face on! I will be delivering the majority of them this Saturday. We will be doing another "chocolate drive" in a month or two, so if you think you might like to help us with that one, please let us know :)

We have being thinking of other ways to raise money (for the places mentioned below)...so far we have thought that we might hold a "bollywood" trivia night or an Indian dinner later in the year, but the organization involved might not be a possibility at this stage (due to me studying full time & working almost full time!). So....we were hoping that we might get some ideas from you all! Does anyone have some great fundraising ideas for us? We'd LOVE to hear from you if you do!

Luv Mark & Nat Xx

"Hope Trust" orphanage, Nepal.

We spent a day with these beautiful children in December, 2009. What a privelege!

As you can see by the video below, they are such delightful children, that were wrapped to receive a present each, thanks to donations from many people, including many people from 'Southern Life Church', in Carrum Downs, Victoria. They mostly loved the hand written personalised cards! Thanks to the many children who took the time to make them (including Rach & Beth, who made many!)

Some of these children are orphans & some of them are simply 'not wanted'. Heart breaking...

In January 2011 we would like to give them $1000 (approx 64,000 NPR). The rental costs for a house big enough for all of these children are huge, and a constant struggle for the people that run this orphanage. When we were visiting, they were looking for another rental that they could move all of the children to. They only had a few weeks to be out of the current house, but still hadn't found a place they could afford. This is a regular event for them all.

"The little sisters of the poor", Coonoor, Tamil Nadu, India:

As promised, here are a few pics of the places we will be supporting to begin with:

"The little sisters of the poor", Coonoor, Tamil Nadu, India:


These devoted nuns work tirelessly, day after day, caring for close to 100 very sick elderly men and women, including all of the cooking and cleaning. At times they start their day by door-knocking on the villagers doors, asking for donations for food or clothing. Life saving, or even symptom relieving medications are a luxury that they can simply not afford.


We would like to be able to bless them with $1000 in January, 2011.

Chocolate fundraising drive

Our aim is to raise $3000 in the next 6 months from selling fair trade chocolates and lollies! 24 of you have already signed up to help us...and we are anticipating that we'll get a whole lot more on board!

We would like to give $1000 to each of the following independant groups...
'Hope Trust Orphanage' in Thamel, Nepal
Pastor NP's 'Old Age Home' in Banepa, Nepal
'Little Sisters of the poor' Aged care in Coonoor, Tamil Nadu, India

You will see that on this site we have a video of us handing out personalized gifts to each of the kids in the 'Hope Trust' orphanage, from our visit in December 2009. The kids were all so wrapped at receiving these gifts...mostly LOVING the personalized cards that they all got, written/drawn by many different children (including many by Beth & Rach!).

We will add some photos from each of these places in the next day or so...

If you would like to join in by selling a box of chocolates, please message Nat or Mark on facebook, text either of us or reply on this site!

Much love,

Nat :)

Hi!

Hello all!

We've decided to start a blog....

We are "on a mission", as well as a journey ourselves, to raise awareness (as well as funds) of "how the other half" (which is a lot more than half) live...

We will be putting up various photos & links over the next few weeks. We will be sharing photos and details on the different groups we are currently trying to raise funds for.

Our next trip is planned for January, 2011. We will be travelling, once again, to India and Nepal. We have kicked off the fundraising with a chocolate drive, with the aim to raise about $3000 from that. We are looking into various other ways that we can raise more funds before we go...we will provide updates as we embark on new projects.

Thank you for taking a moment to check out our blog. We hope that you share a bit of our excitement at the possibilities....

Much love from,

Mark, Nat, Rach & Beth :)