Get your custom tshirts!

Hey friends!

So, my trip to India is fast approaching and I'm still looking to raise around $1,500 for my trip.

Here's the deal: anyone that donates $25 or more to the trip gets a custom tshirt made by yours truly! Ya, I know, all of you have been dying for me to give you a custom tshirt. Well, your wait is over.

Once you donate, you can either ask me to draw/paint something specific on the tshirt or say one of my favorite phrases: "SURPRISE ME!" I'll get the tshirt to you free of charge and it will look awesome!

Here's where you can donate: ReachTheNations.org/EverettHill

My email here is HillE@ReachTheNations.org. Hit me up if you have any questions!

Everett

Got a little excited about my India trip...

More about my upcoming India trip.

For anyone that doesn't know, I am volunteering full-time as a Missions Training Intern with the Hillside Missions Organization at 1004 N Thompson St, Suite 302 here in Richmond. I will be finishing up my missions training here at the end of July and then I’m going on a three-month trip to India starting around July 20th. During my trip, I will be very busy teaching English at a slum school in Northern India. If you've seen Slumdog Millionaire, you've seen part of what an Indian slum looks like. A slum is an area where all of the poorest of the poor live, many in dilapidated houses with poor sanitation and little hope of improving their lifestyle. Most of the families in the slum live on less than a dollar a day. Imagine that!

Naturally, it’s going to be a pleasure and an adventure to bring education and love to everyone I can there. Since English is the language of business in India, learning it can be a great asset for those in poverty. I have received training Teaching English as a Second Language and am currently preparing for the trip.

On top of my full-time job here at Hillside, I am working part time at the downtown Buffalo Wild Wings to be able to partially pay for the trip myself. However, since I am only able to work part-time there, I am also relying on support from different sources to help pay for the $3000 trip. I am more than halfway to my goal now but am still looking for new ways to raise support.

If you're interested in looking up our organization, Hillside's website is ReachTheNations.org.

Our online catalog can be used for donations to people and trips. If people are interested in giving a tax-deductible donation to the trip, the link is ReachTheNations.org/EverettHill. Donors of $25 or more will receive custom shirts made by yours truly!

Thank you!

Everett

Support letters sent!

I finally got my support letters sent out yesterday and, may I say, they looked great. It took a little while to refine the letter and cram all the important stuff into one sheet of paper, but I think I succeeded. Plus, I put one of those nifty return envelopes in each of them with Hillside's address on it.

I still need to raise about $1,500 for the India trip at this time. I'll keep you guys posted on the progress. Maybe I'll even make a fundraising thermometer... Hmm...

Well, I might as well put a plug into this blog while I'm at it. Here's a little clip from my letter:

I'm currently working part-time (about 15-20 hours a week) on top of my full-time job here at Hillside. However, the part-time job just isn't paying enough to fully cover my trip to India. I have been able to save up some money and have received some support, so I only need about $1,500 more to fill the budget for this trip.

If you're interested in donating, please send a check to Hillside Missions Organization and put a sticky note on it stating that it's for me.

Here's the address:
Hillside Missions Organization
1004 N Thompson St, Suite 302
Richmond, VA 23230

Well, that's my plug. Hope you guys are all having a great spring/summer/whatever-it-is-right-now. I'd love to hear what you guys have to say about what I'm up to so please leave me a comment. For anyone reading this through Facebook, I have my schnazzy looking blog posted on EverettHill.blogspot.com if you want to look at it and post comments on there!

Love you all. Have a great day!

Everett

India? Cool!

Here's my first post for the India trip. While I'm not actually in India, I'm planning everything out right now. I never knew that creating a support letter could be such a delicate process with so many different things to consider.

It's awesome to have all of the support I've already received but I'm excited to get to the point that I have all the money in and a large base of emotional and spiritual support. I would love to have people praying for me every day and really knowing that I'm being supported by so many great people.

I should be getting the support letters out some time next week. Since I'll be busy this weekend with preparing for and teaching the World Class Kids program at Commonwealth (our home church here in Richmond), I can't really spend tomorrow doing too much support raising.

One thing that I'd love prayer for now is for focus. I find it difficult sometimes to buckle down and push through bouts of boredom or ADDhood. I'm not talking about having the drive to work all the time, but to have the productivity that I know I can have.

Thanks everyone! More to come on the India blog as things develop.