I seriously cannot believe that only seven days have passed since Redefined Response‘s first benefit, “An Evening for Africa”.
Incase you missed it, we held a benefit concert and art show last Wednesday at Danneman’s. We didn’t charge a cover to get in- We really just wanted to raise awareness for the water crisis and let people know what we are doing (what they can do) to help fix it. We wanted people to donate according to their hearts. So we sold donated art throughout the night with 100% of the proceeds going toward building a well for the people of Kiu, Kenya.
Over $1,100 was raised. By mainly college students.
The night was a massive success in every way. The place was packed out, the bands sounded great, the art was fantastic and people had the chance to come together and do something to change the lives of people they will never meet.
In fact, the night ran so smoothly that I’ve had several people tell me it was the most organized benefit they had ever seen put on by a layman (someone who has no idea what they’re doing). And that they believe I must have put a lot of work into pulling it off. To which I have had to answer “I felt like it just happened.. and that I had nothing to do with it.”
Sure there was a lot of thought and effort that went into that night. And sure, maybe I couldn’t force myself to think about anything else for the few weeks leading up to it. BUT there is no way (no matter how much work could have gone into it) that I or any of the fabulous people on our team could have pulled that night off.
And when I say fabulous team I mean a stinking phenomesawesome team. There were those who helped plan the night, those who helped set up and run sound, the artists who donated their work, artsy friends of mine who got to the event 3 hours early to help hang, price and organize the art, there were the bands (4) who all played for free and were all brilliant, and there were two fantastically organized members of our team who kept up with art sales and money the whole night. But none of us could have pulled that night off.
My prayer going into that night was that God would take over. That He would mark the night in such a way that no one could possibly take credit for it. (Not even a team as stellar as ours) He did just that.
A week later I am still in disbelief that it even happened. I am still (and will be for a long time) humbled by the goodness and greatness of my God and how He moved that night.
Our project still has a long way to go. But God has made it clear that He’s on board and will be with us the whole way.
Undeservingly His,
JK
