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WELCOME
TO MY JOYFUL HEART
We are so happy you are here!
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"You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever." ~ Psalm 16:11 | | |
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Happy Fall!
What a very fast year this has been. We have completed our enrollment and have over 1,000 children that we will serve for the Christmas Event and the rest of the school year. Jesus has been ever faithful in continuing to provide for this ministry, so we continue to pray that everything we need for the children is shared, donated, given, and gifted.
Just recently, as we were going through the re-enrollments for the year, verifying clothing sizes and preparing the giving tree tags for our Christmas giving tree, we noticed a unique clothing item on a child’s wish list. After googling the item, we determined it was way too expensive to put on his giving tree as we could not expect anyone to pay over a hundred dollars for a hoodie. The very next day, as we’re sorting through donations, you wouldn’t believe it, but the exact hoodie comes through in one size larger than the child asked for! Divine intervention? Yes, I think so.
It’s the small things that happen here daily that remind us of Jesus’ presence now but more importantly about how joyous eternity with Him will be.
–Erin Burns, Director of Operations
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Fall Bunco Another Success! | | |
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Thank you!
Thank you to all who supported our Fall Bunco! In September, almost 100 bunco enthusiasts joined us for a wonderful evening at the American Legion in Lockport.
We collected birthday cake mixes and frosting for the children’s birthdays and had a wonderful time!
Again, thank you for supporting and joining us for this annual event. And a huge thank you to Gary's Catering and our Dinner Sponsor, Providence Bank!
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We Want Your Halloween Candy | | |
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We will gratefully accept your leftover candy to share with the kiddos!
Please drop off Monday-Thursday from 9:30am-1pm.
My Joyful Heart
9981 W. 190th St.
Suite I-J
Mokena, IL 60448
(815) 806-1700
information@myjoyfulheart.org
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We start thinking about Christmas early around here as we need to get the items for the children packed up and out to the schools before they go on break for Christmas. Our goal is to have all of the bags packed the first two weeks of December and available for the schools to be picked up by mid-December. It comes up quickly!
We do a traditional Giving Tree for the children in our program and would love your help. Each child will have a personalized tag (either paper or digital) on our Giving Tree with their clothing/shoe sizes listed as well as an item from their wish list. Please reach out to your family, business, small group, school, neighborhood or church. We can give you one tag or hundreds, your choice!
We can also put together a list of the most frequently requested items from our children if you like to shop from Amazon, locally or in bulk.
You can sign up for an individual child or submit a request for a larger number of children using the links below:
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The My Joyful Heart Boutique | | |
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Come Shop with Us
Our boutique is open during our volunteer hours and night serves. Come check out some great home décor items, books, purses, and more. Each sale helps to support the kids in our program.
Contact us at information@myjoyfulheart.org or call (815) 806-1700.
All proceeds from the boutique will help support the children enrolled in the My Joyful Heart program by providing them with basic life essentials such as clothing, shoes, hygiene products, and more.
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Thank you for your continued investment in the life of a child in need. You are changing lives!
You can write to your child at any time and can even add a special gift if you choose. To include something for the Christmas Gift Event, please drop it to the ministry center by November 30th or you can send anything directly to us for your sponsored child.
If you send to us directly from a site (such as Amazon) email information@myjoyfulheart.org for details on how to address your package so we are clear who it is for.
Thank you!
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We are collecting kits to share with the children to make their birthdays special. Please watch this video and share with your family and friends and colleagues.
We still need quite a few kits to serve over 1,000 children this year.
Here is a link to our Walmart Wish List to make it easier to have items sent directly to us.
We are thankful to everyone who has purchased items in the past and those who continue to support us!
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We are beyond ecstatic for all the help, whether big or small and we post constantly on Facebook and Instagram to show all the amazing miracles that happen here. While we cannot possibly list all the miracles and blessings we see, we do want to share some of the latest with you to show how God has His hand in every single aspect of this ministry: | |
- Jim & Mary Remijas, Friends & Family and Parkview Homer Glen for the wonderful donations of hygiene bags and snacks for the children as well as 1001 Bibles and 301 devotionals. Praise the Lord!
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- Suburban Service League collecting for the children and serving together.
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- School supply drives from Providence, Midwestern School of Pharmacology, St. John’s UCC, and Stephanie & Kat from @properties.
- St. Mary’s Mokena and Fr. Boyle Knights of Columbus for helping us with coat drives.
- Project Linus for helping us with the blankets we needed for our Fall Gift Event.
- And of course, our regular, loyal volunteers who are part of the miracle of getting things done to help move our events along seamlessly. We truly could not do what we do without them!
- NAC Sharks for helping with birthday kits.
- Hickory Creek Church, St. Christina’s Catholic School, Cardinal Joseph Bernandin, Dr. Onik, DDS and Dr. Perry, DDS for helping with our toothbrush drive.
- Cardinal Joseph Bernandin also donated a wonderful amount of food for our Summer Gift Event.
- Please check out our Founder, Diane Carroll’s debut book, Adventures with Jesus to read about the miracles that made My Joyful Heart what it is today.
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Want more? Check out our Facebook and Instagram pages for more regular postings of these miracles! | | |
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We are in need of someone with tech skills to help us with some system needs, specifically dealing with Microsoft Access and Salesforce.
If this describes you, please send us an email at information@myjoyfulheart.org
Thank you!
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Our Crazy Faith Prayer List | | |
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- Praying always that we reach the children with each gift bag, that they strive to be more like Jesus as they learn more about Him and that they come to understand how very much Jesus loves them!
- Praying for more of the precious children to get linked up with a sponsor. You can learn more about providing for and sponsoring a child by clicking this LINK
- Praying for assistance/support with our ministry center lease and more specifically that we find our own building, with enough space for operations, a resale store and space to host events.
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We would love YOUR help collecting the following for our upcoming Gift Events:
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Needed by Dec 1 (for our Christmas event):
- Slippers/Slipper Socks
- Pajamas for boys and girls (sizes 8 – 20)
- Pajamas pants for teens (sizes adult L-2XL)
- Children’s Christmas nativity books (please no Santa)
- Board games (Monopoly: regular & junior versions, Scrabble, Life, Sorry, Battleship, Trouble)
- Travel-size board games also
- Batteries (AA, AAA, 9V)
- Continuing need
- Brown paper grocery bags – this is a constant need for all five Gift Events
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Shop our Amazon Gift Wish List for the next few events as well
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We're Social...Check Us Out | Ever wondered how many miracles and blessings it takes to run My Joyful Heart? Head on over to one of our social media pages and see all of the amazing people and donors behind the scenes. | | | | |
