AEFA - an update!

Wahoo, I have pictures from our event!!

(they're in no particular order, because doing that would take too long and I want to share these with everyone!!)

Welcome to a photo-post of our event, An Evening for Awareness. (This is a corner of the banner that we invited people to sign with messages of hope. It's being sent to IJM's head office in London, Ontario).

This was a part of our 'reading room' corner. The table has information about IJM's work and also about MP Joy Smith's travel itinerary; MP Smith is a leading voice in Parliament to put an end to trafficking, starting here in Canada!

A couple friends, Wendy and Jade, enjoying snacks (thanks Voortmans & Dimpflmeier! aka Kim & Chris). On the wall behind them are stories of people rescued from trafficking, thanks to the work of IJM!

Joey reading an article about human trafficking in Canada published in the Toronto Star earlier this year, it's not as distant as many would like to think!

People looking over the goods at the silent auction. SO many donations from amazing people and cool local businesses!

Our friend Garret picking up material about IJM.

Friends from church gathered around the banner, writing messages of hope.

We had dozens of quotes and Bible verses around the room that were the sentiments of our hearts we wanted to share with our guests.

Here is Lauren (this event was her idea) and William, a friend from church.

A huge shout-out to all our sponsors, friends and people in the community who supported our event. We had some really cool silent auction items, including NHL tickets!!

Here are some Rehoboth ladies, Laurie and Miriam are part of the Bible study, Sanctuary, that put on the event (they're wearing the black SEEK JUSTICE t-shirts).

Another cool verse.

The way cool set-up of the art show, displaying all original photography by Laurie, Lauren and Amanda.

Here, people are pre-ordering photos. Pictures could be bought in 4x6, 5x7 and 8x10 format, in card sets of 6 cards each, or buy bidding on one of the 6 HUGE 20 x 30 photos.

Showing off the new t-shirts!

We had this HUGE sign outside of the church building on Highway 6 to help people find us!

Here I am, writing a message of hope to victims of trafficking and also an encouragement for those involved in the fight against human trafficking. We are so grateful for organizations like IJM for giving a voice to those who cannot be heard themselves.

Around the room we had facts about the issue of human trafficking. This is one fact that rocks my world. It's hard to pinpoint the extent of trafficking so many facts are estimations and usually on the conservative side. My prayer is that this fact is an over-estimation, although I fear it is not.

Here is our ordering table for the photos. Pictured are the sets that were pre-made and available for guests to take home with them.

Another view of the 'art gallery', this is before the guests showed up.

A picture of our reading corner, which turned out SO well!!

Here is our banner, pre-signatures.

We needed three tables for all of our silent auction items. We had an encouraging response and really cool items up for grabs!

My friends who do photography have an incredible God-given talent. What a blessing that they choose to use their gifts to help others and serve God.

This one's for laughs. I made a poster with me wearing a SEEK JUSTICE t-shirt and a funny clip-art face over my own saying "This could be you!". It was only fitting that I posed with it.

I think this is capturing Miriam and Amanda in an attempt to sound sophisticated in an art gallery.

Lauren is hiding behind one of Laurie's photos. This one is called Chicago and one of my co-workers was so excited that he won the bid on it.

Pre-event, here is Miriam mounting photos for the art gallery.

I was SO excited the event was finally here.

So much work went into this event and we are so pleased to announce that after all the money came in, and with more people ordering photos after the event, we wrote a cheque to International Justice Mission in the amount of $1,440.00!!!

Praise God!