In 2007 Lisa approached me with a desire for our children to have a practical way to help those in need. For over 20 years, Lisa had envisioned herself one day being a missionary to Africa. With 7 kids though, Lisa got to that place where she thought, even if I’m never going to go to the mission field, I want to raise mission-minded children, and if one wants to serve overseas, we can fully support their goals.

Back in 2007 our kids didn’t get out much, at least in a lot of ways that non-homeschooled children did. Lisa shared with me, “I want to create a Carnival that reminds me of the school carnivals I went to as a kid. Let’s have horse rides, dart throw, football and baseball throw, bb-gun shoot, bounce houses, and a cake walk!” Well, it’s hard to turn a good woman down, especially my bright and hardworking

wife. So we chose James 1:27 as our guiding verse for the carnival, “Religion that God our Father accepts as

pure and faultless is this; to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” We decided to invite all of our crazy friends to join us and raise money for ministries that served widows and orphans. And separate from raising money for worthwhile charities, we wanted to create a day of “good ol’ fashioned fun,” in a safe, God-honoring environment.

Lisa’s dad invited a group of his friends to make what was at first a matching contribution to the funds raised through the Carnival. They agreed. He offered up some great raffle prizes himself, we found a few more friends and companies who gave prizes generously, signed up about 50 friends as volunteers, and we were off and running.

In 2007 we raised just over $8,000 for Acres of Hope, an orphanage and relief organization working in Monrovia, Liberia. We knew two families who had adopted through Acres of Hope and they needed the funds to ship a container from the U.S. to Liberia with much needed supplies. We were so excited and thankful to give $8,000 to Acres of Hope.

In 2008 we lost a local friend and church leader who was a husband and father of six. With James 1:27 and the Holy Spirit guiding us, we decided to dedicate the proceeds from our second Carnival to this family to be used as an educational fund. We raised about $8,000 through the Carnival, with an additional $8,000 matching grant through Lisa’s dad and friends. $16,000 was donated to this family, enabling us to help them by relieving a little financial pressure during a very difficult time in their lives.

In 2009 Lisa and I went a little bit crazy and set a fundraising goal of $20,000. $20,000 from one event??? We again witnessed God’s faithfulness as $20,000 was raised on behalf of Agape Children’s Ministry and Seeds in His Garden of Monterey, CA that were serving orphans in Nairobi, Kenya. After three years, we also found a tough group of “carni” volunteers that began looking forward to the Carnival each year, many of whom had chosen their favorite games and volunteered to host those games every year.

Each year the Carnival grew bigger and bigger. Lisa and the kids kept brainstorming new game ideas, more volunteers were added, new raffle donations came in, making the prizes bigger and better, and our food choices and quality kept expanding. Who doesn’t love food at a carnival??? With hundreds upon hundreds of visitors showing up at our home each Carnival, we had cotton candy, sno-cones, and a hearty supply of many delicious foods and treats for

2016

April

NewsKjeldgaard

Eric, for all of the KJs

Agape Children’s Ministry PO Box 5062 Modesto, CA 95352 Local: 209.543.9255 Toll Free: 888.572.4273 www.AgapeChildren.org agapekids@agapechildren.org

Agape Children’s Ministry PO Box 5062 Modesto, CA 95352 209.543.9255 www.AgapeChildren.org agapekids@agapechildren.org

everyone. We had some amazingly dedicated food volunteers who each spent two years… working from 7am through 5pm each Carnival, even though we were only open for games from 10-3pm. Thank you to the Beechs, Howards, Mollaths, and DeGraffs for giving so much each year you helped!

In 2010 we were blessed by God in fundraising more than any previous year. Over $22,000 was raised for Drawn from Water, a ministry working in Ethiopia to rescue children at risk of being drowned due to tribal superstitions. Our children learned about this ministry and the

risky ways that missionaries were rescuing children and just had to help. What a great honor it was to deliver the check to this truly life-saving ministry.

And then it happened. We were invited to visit Kenya with Agape Children’s ministry. We couldn’t believe that a ministry would be interested in hosting a family of 10. That dream that Lisa had had so many years earlier and that was set-aside while Lisa served other missionaries and ministries through the Carnival, was about to come true. Lisa, Kate, and I flew to Kenya, spending a couple weeks there in September 2010 and well, the rest has been exciting, frustrating, rewarding, saddening, encouraging, and just purely amazing. Watching God work through the lives of the loving, Agape Kenyan staff members and watching our hearts change as well.

In 2011 before we moved to Kenya and in 2013 & 2014 after returning back to the U.S. from our nearly one-year adventure, we continued to raise nearly $80,000 to support Agape’s work with the boys and the new Agape Girl’s.

Last year we decided to share the proceeds raised at the Carnival with Agape and Without Permission, a Modesto-based non-profit that works in the battle to end sex trafficking through prevention awareness training, law enforcement collaboration, and survivor restoration. We were able to gift over $30,000 between both ministries. Those funds helped impact hundreds of lives from Kenya to Modesto.

Well that’s all of the good news about the Carnival. God has been so good in allowing about $175,000 to be raised to help worthwhile ministries. The Carnival just wouldn’t be

possible without the dedication and hard work of so many friends who gave lots of time and energy to make the vision of the Carnival become a reality each year. Friends from area churches and local sports teams have been especially instrumental. The Ernst family has helped tremendously every year since we started, including setting up their camper one

year so that they’d be at our place as much as possible to help out. I wish we had room to list

everyone who has ever volunteered, but seriously, the number of different individuals is probably around 200. Thank you, thank you!!!

Sadly, around Thanksgiving of last year, we discovered that the storage container on our property had been broken into. The storage container is where we kept all of our chairs, tables and canopies for the Carnival. We were

heartbroken. We had slowly accumulated all of these items over the years, and all of the essential “tools” that we used to help so many people were just gone. Those who stole everything likely thought they were stealing from one family, when in fact they were stealing from the futures of hundreds of people around the world. It was a sad time, contemplating, the lives of those who stole everything and what we would do in 2016.

After a time to think and pray through the implications of this event and what God would have for us, we have decided not to continue with the Carnival. We are praying that God will

open other ways for us to continue blessing ministries that are loving on widows and kids especially. We pray that the hard-working, dedicated volunteers who have made the Carnival one of their personal outreach ministries each year will seek other venues by which they can bless their communities and serve people in need.

As a “thank you” though to the hundreds of people who have helped us over the years, Lisa and I are hosting a Thank You Lunch at our home on Saturday, June 25th, which was to be

the date of the Carnival. If you’ve donated a prize, given generously as a donor, or worked hard as a volunteer, we’d love to honor God and honor you for your dedication and help! Please join us from 11am to 2pm on Saturday, June 25th at Riverbend Ranch. Since we have no idea how many people might come, we are asking that you please RSVP to elkjeld@gmail.com no later than June 3rdth so we can properly prepare. Thanks again to all of you for your selfless dedication over the years. God is good all the time.

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Credit/Debit Card Authorization

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