Where Does the Money From the GMG Journals Go?

If you've wondered where the money from the GMG journals go, I lay out for you in this post how they are blessing people around the world! #GoodMoringGirls #OnlineBibleStudy #WomensBibleStudy #BibleJournaling

Did you know that blogging costs money and the bigger your blog is, the more money it costs to run the blog?  Yaaaaaas. It’s true, there are lots and lots of hidden expenses for a blog the size of Women Living Well.

For example, it costs me $300 a month for the service that sends out the emails to all of the subscribers.  I also have to buy licensing to use the photos I use and I pay for the domain, hosting and server (the server is very expensive, but having my own server keeps the site from crashing or running slow on high traffic days). There’s a bunch of other little expenses that add up each month but these are the biggies.

So while all of the content is free to read on-line – it’s not actually free to create.

I have kept the cost of the journals as low as possible but I pay a service to create the covers of the journals along with formatting the interior for me (since I don’t have that skill set).  So each time a new journal releases – the first couple hundred journals sold, help me break even with the cost to create them.

So thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who has supported this ministry through the purchase of journals! 

You are a blessing and you keep me going!

Not only do you keep me going but you have also ministered to others who I have been able to support through the sales of the journal.

Back in February, I shared about the 60 women in Kiev who were able to gather on the seminary’s campus for a two-day get away because of a donation from Women Living Well Ministries.

 

Today –  I am super excited to share with you this next ministry that Women Living Well has had the opportunity to support –> Partners with Ethiopia!

Now that I am a single mom, my heart has been more deeply burdened for widows than it ever has and so when I saw this need, I wanted to partner with them!

Partners with Ethiopia wrote this note to us below:

“We had nothing.

We were nothing.

Now we are human beings again.”

Hearing those comments from these beautiful widows was like a gut punch. It’s not often we hear comments like, “We were so hungry, many days we didn’t eat. We were just waiting to die.” Hearing these words makes your heart feel like it is splitting in two.

Friends, please hear this again.

These precious women and their children were getting so little food that they were waiting to die.

Because of abandonment, death by HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other illnesses, mothers are alone, and they try to keep the family together. Most have neither education nor skills to provide properly for their family.

It is not uncommon for widowed women to turn to prostitution just to survive and feed their children. Some may leave their children to live on their own or with a relative while they travel in search of a job. Ethiopia is a country of amazing beauty, but it is also a country with much heartache. With little to no education or skills training, it is very difficult for a widowed woman to survive, let alone thrive and keep her children clothed, well fed, and educated.

But friends, because of Good Morning Girls phenomenal generosity, 25 widows have been empowered to begin their own business!

This was truly an answer to prayer.

This past year Partners With Ethiopia was incredibly busy trying to raise funds for our first community development project; a big, beautiful community library in rural Ethiopia. We were also busy promoting sponsorship of the 150 new children we added to our program. This is a volunteer led ministry and we had a lot on our plates already. However, we wanted to help more widows, but it seemed impossible with everything else we were trying to do.

So we prayed.

“Out of the blue” Courtney made a sizable donation as a tithe from the Good Morning Girls’ ministry. She said she wanted the donation to help single women in Ethiopia.

We were SO thrilled that God had answered our prayer!

In hindsight, we should have remembered God’s heart for widows and orphans.

James 1:27 “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”

Psalm 68:5 “Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.”

Our God is in the business of taking care of widows and orphans!

And praise His holy name, He chose YOU, Good Morning Girls, to be His hands and feet to empower 25 widowed women in rural Ethiopia!

-25 women were given a cow and a goat, as well as extensive animal husbandry training.

-25 women are now in business for themselves, and have a sense of dignity and purpose that they didn’t have before.

-Because you cared, 25 women feel like human beings again.

-Because you cared, 25 women are singing, dancing, and praising God for his incredible provision.

When we told them that their livestock was a gift from God through their sisters in Christ called the Good Morning Girls, they praised Him some more, and showered prayers of blessing upon you all.

YOU ARE CHANGING THE WORLD.

This is what it means to be members of the Body of Christ. Thank you for being the eyes to see, the ears to hear, the mouth to speak up, and the hands to reach out.

“Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”

Teresa of Ávila


With Mother’s Day fast approaching – can I ask if you would consider helping more precious widows in Ethiopia?  To learn more about the ministry and donate – visit here:   widows.give2pwe.org or PartnersinEthiopia.org.

And thanks again for supporting Women Living Well Ministries!  I am grateful for the opportunity to serve here.

Walk with the King,

Courtney

 

22 Comments

  1. I appreciate this post and am so happy to see your efforts. However (&please don’t take this the wrong way), I have NEVER wondered where the money from the journals goes. I’ve always heard that saying “Salvation is free, but ministry costs.” I am happy to pay for a journal that enjoy using daily. This is one entity where I have never questioned the integrity of the person running it. I appreciate your transparency though. Keep doing what you’re doing, girl!

    1. Agreed. The journals are beautiful and very reasonably priced. Thanks, Courtney, for walking with the King and serving so many. May this partnership be blessed enormously. Love and hugs!

  2. WOW! A great post. As of May 1, I am a single mom after 8 1/2 years of marriage. Please pray for my son and I. God bless you! Looking forward to the new study in June ❤️

    1. Dear Bree,

      I am so sorry for what you are going through. I know the pain you are feeling and I am praying for you and your son now. Stay strong and always remember that you are never alone – God is with you and loves you.

      Lots of Love,
      Courtney

  3. My daughter is a single adopter, a blogger, runs Facebook groups and has self published on Amazon, so I know how much all this stuff costs. I had never wondered where the money goes as I know you have to make a living. I am thrilled to see how you have been supporting other ministries and I will definitely continue to order the Journals. (I had thought not to bother this time!) Keep up the good work, Courtney and thank you for all your leadership.

  4. Thank you so much, Courtney, and all the Good Morning Girls, for your beautiful, caring hearts. The ripple effect from empowering 25 widows will be HUGE. We are deeply grateful. God bless you all!
    Renee Stauffer for Partners With Ethiopia

  5. Awwe! This makes my heart happy!! It’s so sad to see all that we have here & see other humans with barely anything :’( I always make sure I purchase a journal because I know you’re using the funds to do “great things”!

    Thank you Courtney for sharing this!

  6. This is so humbling to read. I’m sitting here crying thinking about how blessed I truly am and feeling so ashamed for complaining at times about my life. Praise the Lord I have a Godly husband, food on the table, a roof over my head, clothed to wear, and wonderful children.

    As far as charging for the journals, it’s completely reasonable. My husband and I own our own online marketing business and we totally know about all the costs that add up that most people have no clue about! Plus you’re a single mom who needs to support her family. Considering this allows you to do it from home, I want to support that 🙂

  7. Thank you so much for sharing this!! I have purchased every single journal, because I support all that you do! Your studies have led me through the Bible in a fresh, new way and God has taught me numerous lessons that I needed to learn. How amazing that the profits are blessing others in such extraordinary ways! I will continue to purchase the journals! I pray that your needs are always met. You’re a great Bible study leader and your words of wisdom through your blogging have been such a blessing in my life! I pray for you, your family, and the various donations that are being made to bless others’ lives!!

  8. Thanks for this post! I am enjoying the habit tracker. I went to the doctors yesterday and let’s just say I have a lot of exercise and more to add to the tracker. I enjoy the journals.. so reading the post means a lot. Keep doing God’s work!

  9. My hope and prayer is that you have not been questioned about the cost of the journals, but were just being transparent with your finances as a Christian organization. Website costs aside, it only makes sense that if you acquire a journal, it will cost money. However, if you have been questioned, I pray that you know that the majority of women would never think twice about where that money goes.
    All that being said, my heart was truly blessed to read about your work with Partners with Ethiopia and I will be praying for this amazing mission and my involvement in it today. With God, all things are made beautiful, so if there were people who questioned you, God used you to bring attention to a beautiful work! Thank-you for the beautiful work you do every day, bringing women from all over the world together to read and share God’s Word.

  10. Thank You Courtney, appreciate your telling us. I’ve never wondered where the money went myself, but its wonderful that you tell us. God bless you!

  11. So exciting and wonderful! Thank you for sharing! I love the journals, and to know that by buying them, it is helping mothers, that is just icing on the cake!

  12. This is so caring of you and I am a witness, I am a beneficiary of your kind heart.May God bless you and continue guiding your steps.

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