Party part 2.

Ok so if you're starting to read this post and you haven't read part 1 yet then scroll down to the post below and start there!!    

The picture above is information about birthing kits. A woman dies in the world every minute due to pregnancy and childbirth related complications. The 2 biggest solutions to this are skilled attendants for the birth, and birthing kits. These kits cost $2 each to make and send and they save lives!!! I am pondering doing some fundraising so that I can organise a kit assembly day (you have to do 600 at a time) and know there are other women who were inspired on Saturday about doing this too so stay tuned after we brainstorm ideas!!!

 These are some of the bubs on the 'pin the baby on the mother' (I suspect the one whose baby is laying exactly across the baby in the picture could see beneath the blindfold LOL).

 This is some of the craft, we had pictures of different children around the world to put on the posters.

 Bubble blowing was another activity we did to highlight that life is as fragile as bubbles, and just like a bubble pops every few seconds a child dies in the world during that time from preventable causes.

 We had a banner there for people to draw their handprints on and put their name in. It is addressed to Julia Gillard (she is our Prime Minister in case overseas readers don't know that) and is about increasing aid for health spending and keping our commitment to the Millenium Developement Goals. We were going to give this to our local member on the day to take to Canberra but more people wanted to sign it who couldn't come on the day so he said for us to bring it to his office when it's done and he will get the media there so we can put the cause in the local paper, as I was unsucessful at trying to get them there on the day, but he can get them there and he was more than willing to do that which is so exciting!

 My bubba Elora enjoying the party :-)

 This is Peter Archer, our speaker from World Vision. He was great. He talked about progress that has been made in child and materanl health, but also the tragic situations that still occur and what we can do about them. I found his optimism about the difference ordinary people can make really encouraging and lots of people were inspired to seek ways to make a difference!

 This is our local Federal member of parliament, David Bradbury. He came and spoke about what the Government is doing to meet the Millenium Development Goals (which are the goals set in place to halve world poverty by 2015) and answered questions from the audience.

He also blew out the candle and cut our number 5 cake. Anna then presented him with a gift bag of items that represented the MDG's and gave him the fifth birthday cards that people had been signing which asked similar things to the banner but were addressed to him, there was a huge pile of them!!!

I have to say that as exhausted as I am after 4 months of planning and getting this event happening I am also energised and inspired which is a strange contradiction. The response was so amazing. I remember thinking a few weeks ago 'what if no-one comes, what if no-one cares' and yet the place was packed, including the kids there was around 120 people there and when we first started talking about this Anna and I were thinking it was a pipe dream to aim for 100!

People were made aware of things they didn't know and inspired to make a difference, there were several different churches represented there, our local member got involved, we even raised some money from our afternoon tea gold coin donation box to buy a World Vision child and maternal health 'smile' and a mosquito net, I couldn't ask for more than that! And after all of that I feel different. I stepped up to the line God drew for me and feel now like the possibilities in the future are endless. Anna and I made an amazing team together and I believe God has got us together for even bigger things. I am inspired that a simple mum, just using the skills I'm good at (games, cooking, organising) can change lives and I am feeling braver. Anna organised all the World Vision stuff, but I was the one who invited, followed up and got our local member there and I would never have thought that I could do that, that I would be bold enough to even try and it has helped me to realise I really do have a voice, so look out world, I have been unleashed and laid down my fears to let God do with me what He will, I see exciting times ahead!!! :-)