Gideon's Feet

Hey folks! I am sorry I have been so out of touch on what’s happening here. We’ve been a little crazy around here, but lemme give you a brief update. The donate button has been removed from our site temporarily as we wait for our 501c3 status. Until we have that, it is illegal for us to solicit donations online…we still won’t turn any down however, so let me know and we can accommodate you. Once we are approved, the status will be retroactive, however, so that is good news!

My sweet friend Sadie is running a 5k on March 10th on our behalf, and if you’d like to support her in her run, send me a message and I’ll let you know how to do that too! We are honored to have Sadie doing this for us, and ultimately for all the folks out there who need our help. I cannot wait to be thru with all the red tape and onto the real work.

We are looking to have an event sometime the week of April 16th honoring a DFW artist is need of our help. Once I have details and the family’s permission to publicize I will post ASAP.  This should be a really fun time, and may include a “sneak peek” of an upcoming new production. Check back often for more information!

There will be more to announce very soon, but that is all I am at liberty to share now.

Also, Just want to share that one of our friends, supporters,  faithful theatre go-er, and sometimes community theatre participant, Linda Fletcher, lost her mother this week. I want Gideon’s Feet to connect us as a community and to that end  please keep her in your prayers.

Love

Ashley

Founder – Gideon’s Feet

Hey everybody!

Well……..we HAVE OUR EIN!!!! Just waiting on ONE MORE piece of paper and then no more waiting.

I am looking so forward to the exciting things we have coming up, and we have our first official nominee. I’ll have specific information soon, but check back for information for our first event in honor of an artist in need. Should be in March.

Also in March/April we will be providing a service opportunity with Habitat for Humanity! We are so glad to be on their official volunteer list. If you are interested in volunteering for this please send us an email at info@gideonsfeet.org so I can make sure you have the information when the time comes. Not sure how many folks we’ll have slots for, so lemme know!

There is more happening, but , as Gypsy Rose Lee said “Always leave ’em wanting more!” I’ll share more fun stuff as it gets closer.

Everybody, I am so thrilled that we have so much happening. When this all started, I don’t think I really thought this would be a reality, and I am so amazed at what I see God doing. I hope the board and I can keep up! Please email me ideas, nominations, feedback,thoughts, prayers…ect. I really want Gideon’s Feet to be a place of encouragement. I want us to be here to listen to and pray for you guys. I want us to enrich one another’s lives in all areas. We are designed to be in relationship with one another, not to be solitary creatures. I hope we can aid in building true communities where we help each other, and hold each other to being our best selves.  Thank you for being a part of our community. I am honored to serve you.

Ashley – Founder, Gideon’s Feet

Well, I haven’t posted in a while because I have been waiting for something to post about! We are still waiting on the EIN to come thru so that I can open a bank account and begin our work. I really hate the waiting part, and I am sorry that those of you who so generously donated are having to wait so long to see your generosity beginning to pay off.

We are looking to do a couple of things to help some folks  in DFW in the next few months, and I’ll have more information on that after our second official board meeting on Thursday! I’m so anxious to move, move, move…so…get ready folks. Once this legal stuff is done we WILL be pressing forward as fast and as much as God will allow!

Thank you all for hanging in with us in these early days. One day we’ll look back and see how far we’ve come, one step and one person at a time, and we’ll be amazed.

I have this wonderful friend, George Gagliardi. I have known George since I was 16 years old, and he has always called me the Tall One. George is a song writer. He also has a wonderful heart that understands grace and humility, a fantastic  sense of humor,  a wonderfully cock-eyed way of looking at the world and some truly great hats. He recorded a live cd recently called Songs Unsung…Until Now, and one of those newly sung songs seems  to me to be the Gideon’s Feet anthem…so to speak. Below are the lyrics,based on a sermon by Dr. George Mason.  Hopefully you’ll hear them sung soon at our next event….and hopefully many, many more times  over the course of the years to come.

How often I’ve heard  people ask themselves

When the world seems like a parade of endless bad news

What on earth can we do?

How can we make any difference?

I think the answers are easy to miss. Simple and timeless, but true.

If you have a hand, reach out. For there are those who are fallen.

If you have a heart, lift it up. For hearts that are broken He can make new again.

And if you have a voice, sing out.

A song full of hope and thanksgiving. To Jesus our Lord, our Brother, our Saviour, our Friend.

Ashley – and George 🙂

Well, I’m sure you’re all wondering what’s happening here! At least, I hope you are wondering! SO, here’s the update on Gideon’s Feet.

I was thinking the other day about being in PA working at this wonderful theatre in the mountains when I was pregnant with Gideon. I had to got to the dr for a check up while I was there, and I had been concerned about some cramping that I’d been having. I didn’t know this dr and I didn’t have anyone to go with me. When I got to the dr, the nurse could not find Gideon’s heartbeat….he was ok at that time as a sonogram confirmed, and we also found out he was a boy that day and got the first of our few precious pictures of him but I was alone and terrified thru the whole morning. I was thinking how it would have been so helpful to have someone there with me at that appointment, and how I want Gideon’s Feet to meet those kinds of needs as well.

SO…what’s next moving forward? Well, as soon as we get our final approval from the government (still waiting on all the red tape…I suppose I’ll need to get used to it ) we will begin our mission. I already have two nominations in the DFW area for financial aid, and we will do our very best to meet those needs as much as we can and as soon as we can. I am so new to this, and it will take time to get established and effective, but please keep sticking with us. We WILL get there.  I already have lots of ideas for fun events for us to attend together so don’t fret if you missed our fabtastic (it’s a new term…feel free to use it) Christmas Concert there will be lots of opportunities to have fun with Gideon’s Feet and support others.

I do want to take a minute to thank my sweet friend Sadie DeSantis who will be running a 5k in March to raise money for Gideon’s Feet! Sadie is an angel girl and I will let everyone know how we can support her as we get closer.

I hope you all had wonderful holidays and I am looking SO forward to see what we can accomplish in 2012.

-Ashley

Well, we are still waiting for all of the final papers from Uncle Sam, BUT our initial applications have been approved! Thank you all so much for attending the concert and helping us get off to a great start. I am overwhelmed by the generosity of all. It was truly a great birthday.

SO….what now…well…..once I get my paperwork, I’ll be opening a bank account, getting a gateway on our website….and hopefully giving our first grant ASAP! I already have two nominees, so I will let you know how you can help us help them! We’re also going to be opening a store on cafe press…I know you all are just dying for a Gideon’s Feet coffee mug…ok, maybe it’s just me, but hopefully you’ll buy one anyway….and a t-shirt.

I guess all this is basically to say…our first step is taken, and we are on the move. I cannot tell you all how much it means to me to have support in this purpose. I am so excited to see what God does with us all walking together. We really can change the world.  I love this verse…I think it’s totally what we’re about at Gideon’s Feet.

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Well, here we are! Starting for real a journey that began more than two years ago. When I was working in Florida a couple of Christmases ago , I realized how alone I was. How if I needed prayer or a helping hand, there really was no place to reach out to, and I thought…we need that place. I had kicked the idea of sort of online artist’s triage around for a while. A place where we as artists could help each other and where we could make a difference in people’s lives and our communities. A place where if you are traveling and want to attend worship, you can find someone to get you there, or if you just want someone to have coffee with and get some ministry in your life we’d have people to help.

Then on Oct 19th of 2010, about a year after God first whispered this idea into my heart, we lost our precious baby boy, Gideon Ezekiel. My husband’s family and some of our friends gifted us money so that Brian could take time off to be with me as I recovered from a c-section and tried to remember how to breathe. We were very fortunate to have that support system there for us. I thought, wow, what do artists who don’t have family to help do in these times? This brought me back to my idea of a year before, and now I knew the name and the inspiration. Gideon means mighty warrior, and our little Gideon was mighty indeed. I want to be as mighty for others as he was for us.

We are planning to get a spiritual support community together as well, but that is a long range project. Right now…we are starting with meeting people’s earthly needs. We now have our email set up, so please send us your request for help, nominate a friend, or give us an idea for an organization that you want to support!!! The verse from the Bible that is on our home page means so much to me. We want to be the feet bringing good news to you when you are climbing a mountain that seems too big. We want to be the help and salvation that we know everyone needs from time to time. I am a Christian, and so you will see that in my posts and blogs, but please know that this organization loves and helps everyone and if your heart is moved to be involved I want you here regardless of our similarity or difference in beliefs. SO…let’s get walking!!!

Ashley Puckett Gonzales
Founder Gideon’s Feet