A Little Here A little There

There are times when I wonder if we have bitten off more than we can chew; when I look at the size of the task before us and wonder if it really is possible.

Last week began that way with me thinking that 5 million Philippine pesos is an awful lot of money (about £70,000 last time we calculated it) - just how are we going to achieve that?

But over the week there have been a number of little things that have brought us just a bit closer to our target.

Firstly there was a donation of £10 from a supporter via Paypal. The following day a 'chance' conversation with one of my customers while I was working in their house resulted in them giving me a tip of £6.50, "for your charity" they said.

Then a couple of young friends, who are getting married shortly, called around to see us and asked if there we could set up the option of a donation to the charity on their wedding gift list.

This was followed a day later by a phone call about three people who each wanted to sponsor the House of Joshua project by giving a regular £10 a month. (see * below)

And then, at the beginning of this week, a church 'house group' told us that they have a tin that all their members put a few coins in each week for a good cause and they too had decided to support the House of Joshua.

None of these things has been massive, none of them has made a really significant change but each one has added a little bit here and a little bit there. Individually some of these things are not much more than a 'drop in the ocean' but that is not to demean them in any way, we appreciate every single penny that is given no matter where it comes from.

More importantly each one has encouraged me to believe that it really is possible to do this - after all, the ocean is simply made up of drops. The more drops we get the closer we are to having our own little ocean!

Then today, as I sat down to write this, I thought I would just check the exchange rate for British Pounds to Philippine Pesos. Last time I checked it was at around 71 pesos to the pound but now it's improved to just under 77 pesos. Suddenly the amount we need to raise has reduced by almost £6,000. Now that IS significant because it means that every single one of those little drops that we have accumulated is suddenly 7% bigger than it was two months ago - which means we are even closer to achieving our target!

* Following the enquiry about regular monthly donations we have set up a separate bank account to receive payments by Standing Order (applies to UK Banks only). You can obtain a standing order mandate form by visiting the House of Joshua page on our website and clicking on the 'Standing Order Form' Button.
PLEASE NOTE donations received through this route will be used to fund the operating costs of the House of Joshua rather than the building project. Please see the post entitled "In the Meantime" dated 7th July 2009 for more information.