A big congrats to Jeremiah from Living Waters Chapel in Lebanon, Pa., for winning our fundraiser contest! He has landed himself a free ticket to The Orange Conference along with airfare on AirTran Airways! This news is twice as sweet to Justin because this will be his first trip to The Orange Conference.

Here’s what he sent in:

We have a member of our kid’s ministry team who works at a local college as a chef. He also has a side business where he sells soup under the name of “Souperman.” So, we are selling quarts of soup to raise funds for my registration, airfare and hotel.

We thought that was a fun, clever idea, and also loved that it involved some help from his team. He is hoping to continue the tradition and bring more members of his team next year.

And even though they didn’t win, we had a few others send in some stellar ideas to share with Orange Leaders. It just goes to show that a little ingenuity and elbow grease can go a long way!

• “We hosted the most talked about event of the year, an Adult Prom, to raise funds for our student ministry to attend EFCA Challenge Youth Conference in New Orleans.” – Krysti at Mountain Life Church in Park City, UT
• “This year we are planning a fundraiser called Valentino’s. It provides an opportunity for intergenerational ministry to take place. The premise of the night is that the youth ministry completely decorates our church foyer in a Valentine’s Day mood. Couples and anyone from the church buy tickets, then when they show up, they are given a menu with the desserts and drinks they can order. Throughout the evening our youth are not only serving desserts but are providing live entertainment for all the guests. We have many community youth who lack the resources to go to our March retreat and another youth event, and so our proceeds will go to taking more students to those events.” – Owen at Bethany Chapel in Calgary, Alberta
• “This past November, we hosted a progressive dinner to raise funds for our nursery department. I mixed up the groups at each house so they could meet and mingle with different people. Before they left the church they were handed an envelope with a question inside—it had a question on a piece of paper, as well as instructions as to which course they were to answer their question. There were about two to three people answering a question at each house. Everyone had such a great time and we raised a little over $1,200.” – Tawny at People’s Church in Dalhart, TX
• “Our church has been going to Camp KidJam and BigStuf for several years now. We do a spaghetti dinner and pie auction on a Sunday after church, usually in March. Students sell tickets for $5 a person or $20 per family. Since we try to get most of the food donated, the students get 100 percent of what they sell put toward their camp registrations. On the day of the dinner and auction, we have students and parents help serve, and some of the money we get from the pie auction goes to those students. Most of the other money goes to help the kids who can’t cover the full amount for camp. The auction is a lot of fun because all the pies are made by members of our church. This has been a great fundraiser for including all ages, and we hope it’ll be even better this year.” – Chris at Bethel Temple Community Church in Evansville, IL
• “The MEGA Sale accomplishes a number of different goals: Recycling people’s stuff, building unity and purpose for volunteers, reaching into the community and raising money to support missions. It started much smaller but has grown into its current size, including over 500 volunteers, many of which are not even from our church. With this fundraiser, last year we raised over $150,000 for local and international missions.” – Swen at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Burnsville, MN
• “We are in the midst of a remodel, so our team of leaders has been brainstorming on several ideas for fundraisers. Here are some of our ideas: Mother and son breakfast, father and daughter dance, parents day/night out, spaghetti dinner, pancake breakfast, yard sale, Craigslist/Ebay-selling items within church that don’t fit into remodel plans, family movie night, family game night, chili cook off, Butterbraid fundraiser, auction-services from church members, bake sale, recycle project of collecting recyclables and turning in for money and a donation tree.” – Jennifer at Antioch Baptist Church, Clinton, TN