Saturday, December 26, 2009

Delay in our trip.

To all of our dear supporters,

We hope that you all have had a very joyful Christmas day and want to send our sincere thanks to all of you for supporting our trip to Ethiopia. As most of you know, we had an enormous task of raising about NZ$9,200 for the both of us to go to Ethiopia with the Mocha Club. We had really struggled to fundraise this time as the Tsunami fundraisers were happening and the Christmas season approached, and had hoped that the Newspaper article would have gotten us the extra funds that we still needed. Unfortunately, we were still down a big percentage of what we needed and at the last minute (ie. Yesterday) found out that there was not enough money for us to go. This was a real sad moment for us as we have been preparing for this trip for the last few months, but we know that God has our ultimate interests at heart. Even though we did not get onto our scheduled plane today, we are still planning to go to Ethiopia when the finances permit. We thank you all for your prayers and for your financial support and we hope and pray that you will continue to pray for us as we are called to this amazing mission field- Ethiopia. Even in our preparations, we have learnt so much about Ethiopia and about cross-cultural missions through our conference calls with the Mocha Club team and through our own research. This has only made our desire to go, stronger and more significant. Ethiopia is the only African nation that has not been colonised and they are a very patriotic country. They also have around 5 million orphans and around 1 million of those have HIV or AIDS. We know that God has a calling for us to go, so please keep in touch and see what happens as we prepare to do what ever, and when ever, He wants us to do and go. Please feel free to contact me with any questions. For those who have sacraficially given, your money is still in the Mocha Club account that either you, or we, put through. We will be saving that money for our trip. Thank you for giving at such a financially stretched time of the year- Your generosity has not gone unnoticed. God bless
-- Asaua and Michelle Tiatia

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Through the Mocha Club, Michelle went to Ethiopia in July of this year. Touched by what she saw, her and her husband, Asaua are going back this boxing day to see if they can make more of an impact there in the future. This December and January, they will be visiting two main projects, working with Women At Risk and with Street boys, providing activities, English lessons and connecting, feeding and caring for them while they are there. For more information, please visit 963missions.org. Please help support us to get there this December!


Well, it is only two weeks to go and we are so excited!! With the rush of Christmas and all of the activities that surround it, we are still trying to make some time to raise some money. Today we had our second to last fundraiser and as much fun as we had making sausages for the 274 Otara Family and Youth Festival, we only just broke even. Fundraising at this time of year has been a struggle, especially since the tsunami hit Samoa and many people are raising money to support the relief efforts over there. It has been great to see how giving our New Zealand people have been in giving to our Samoan people.

If you are reading this and would like to know how you can support our trip, please email Michelle on michelle.tiatia@gmail.com.

We will be keeping everyone updated on what we are doing in Ethiopia as much as we can while we are there, and then more so when we get back. We expect great things to happen while we are there and can't wait to share it with you all.

Thanks for showing your support.

Asaua and Michelle