I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New year remembering Jesus and God’s grace even with pandemics and all the other things happening in our life.
We had a break right before Christmas with a couple of other YWAM families where we went camping. As we were sitting and talking one evening, we started sharing our testimony from last year’s Christmas Cookie Fundraiser. Sometimes, as we share the story of what God is doing, we look back on what God has done in our lives with more context and we can see some of the bigger pictures. This is what happened to us as we were sharing that evening with our friends.
At the end of 2020, we needed some extra finances to cover the debt we had accumulated over the year through medical and visa bills. The debt weighed quite heavy on us and we prayed what God wanted us to do like Jesus’ disciples asked when they needed to pay taxes. 😊 God spoke to us to make cookies and sell them. I know and God knows that Elli makes amazing Christmas cookies. Elli made some prototype cookies. I (Acksios) started researching packaging. After we figured out the ingredients and the packaging material, we estimated a margin of about $700 with
our cookie fundraising. We thought this would be a solid first step to paying off the debt we had carried and were planning to pay it off fully step by step after that. We took a photo of our prototype and started to share it on Facebook and created a group for updates on the fundraiser. It exploded. We had to make many more batches of cookies and packages than we had anticipated! On many lunch breaks and nights, Elli made cookies. I packaged. We were really encouraged and shocked because we raised about 10,700 AUD in the end. God prompted some people to give us more than the cost of the cookies, and many others to purchase them at the given price. All of this in the end fully covered our debt and left us with extra to go toward the next year. On top of the fundraiser, we also received a back payment from the German gove
rnment at that same time.
As we asked God what to do with the extra finances, God said to put the extra from the cookie fundraiser aside for Liana’s future medical needs and to put the government support toward the upcoming lawyer and visa fees. This was at the end of December 2020.
We shared this testimony of God’s provision with our friends, and they were very encouraged. As we were sharing, I (Acksios) realised that the whole year of 2021, we didn’t have to worry about going to the hospital with Liana or about how to cover the lawyer and visa fees for our family. The extra was almost everything we needed for 2021. God is amazing. He is the provider. As I am writing this, God is reminding me: “If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today
and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?” (Matthew 6:25-34)
I would like to thank you for joining our Christmas Cookie Fundraiser last year and being God’s hands to us in that way. I pray that God will show His generosity to you as you have shown your generosity to us. Thank you so much.
In 2022, we will continue to serve the Great Commission through our YWAM Perth Media team. Elli is going to be involved more in ministry as a primary visa applicant. I (Acksios) will do ministry in a smaller capacity and be the primary carer for our lovely girls.
Thank you again for your prayers and for partnering with us.
God bless you
Elli and Acksios Kim