While most little girls are busy playing dress up or playing with dolls, the Gibbons girls are brainstorming ways they can save or raise money for their sponsored children.

Last year, the Gibbons family decided to partner with Mission of Mercy and sponsor two Haitian children, a little boy named Lovidely and a girl, Alexandra. Knowing this would be an opportunity to help the girls understand what it meant to pray, sacrifice, and tithe while connecting with children around the world, parents Scotty and Casey decided it would be up to their daughters to provide the financial support.

Candice (age 7), Kelly Grace (6), and Bria (4) accepted the challenge and began doing whatever they could to raise money. What’s even more astounding? Their goal is $1,300 a year!

To raise money for their sponsored children, the girls began selling snow cones at their church’s summer youth camps. They met so much success last year that they continued the tradition this year, setting a challenging goal of $500. Before long they met their initial goal and aimed for $600. After nine days of selling snow cones, Candice, Kelly Grace, and Bria had raised $701 for their sponsored children!

There is no end to the girls’ creativity – they are constantly devising new endeavors to help Lovidely and Alexandra. They have set up an art display in their home and sell pieces they’ve created to family and friends. They also pick up pennies, collect them in a bucket, and periodically cash them in. At the girls’ urging, the family gave up apple juice for eight weeks and put the money saved toward their sponsorship. Even their youngest sister, three-year-old Allison, agreed to that.

In providing support for Lovidely and Alexandra, the Gibbons girls have gained many practical lessons: tithing, saving, budgeting, and even marketing. More significantly they have discovered the importance of giving to and advocating for the less fortunate. The girls now understand the reality of life for children in other countries – but they also discovered that age and income are irrelevant when it comes to helping others.

"Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young," we read in 1 Timothy 4:12, "but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity." Thank you Candice, Kelly Grace, Bria, (and Scotty, Casey, and little Allison) for providing Mission of Mercy with such an encouraging example!