For 10-year-old Amelya Lychuk, expensive electronics and new games wrapped in brightly coloured paper, covered in ribbons and bows, just won't cut it for her birthday. This year, she wants something more. She wants to make a difference; she wants to build a church.
Instead of gifts, she is asking for funds to go toward building a church through to Gospel for Asia (GFA) foundation. A church costs $11,000 to build so Amelya has opened invitations up to the entire community to help make her birthday dream come true.
A birthday party/fundraiser will be held at the Bonnyville Community Church on Oct. 20 from 1-4 p.m. for her 11th birthday.
“I don't really need too much because I don't really know what else I can ask for,” she said. “I thought that if they could just bring me money instead that goes toward the church, that it would be better than just gifts and birthday presents.”
Amelya began fundraising for the church in the new year, after she had successfully raised enough money to buy a camel in just two weeks.
“First, I purchased a camel and then we were looking more through this brochure and my mom wanted to get chickens but I wanted to get something bigger,” she said.
Chickens, which sell for $11 a pair, are much more common than a camel for nearly $400. However, Amelya felt a camel would bring so many more resources to a community.
“I was thinking about something less expensive,” said her mother, Pearl Lychuk. “But she said, ‘I really want to get this camel because, Mom, it will provide transportation, milk, food, fur and for more than just that family.'”
And when the funds were raised, even GFA couldn't believe their purchase.
“They said it was very unusual or unlikely that someone would get a camel,” said Amelya.
“When we called and we said, ‘We want to buy a camel,' she said, ‘That's great! We don't get a lot of camels!' I said, ‘That's awesome, we've never bought a camel!'” said her mother.
“This kid dreams big. And I totally believe that she can do this (fundraise for a church.) And for her to be giving up her 11th birthday for $11,000, I thought that was pretty big.”
Pearl said he sky is the limit when it comes to what Amelya is capable of.
“She always wants to do more and I have always put a limit on her but this time, it just seems that the sky is the limit,” she said, joking that she has limited Amelya to one church.
“Even though I have tried to set limits, this kid doesn't seem to think there are limits. The sky is the limit. And there's no holding her back.”
Purchasing the camel gave her the confidence she needed for an even bigger project.
“She was so impressed with that, that she was thinking, ‘I'm going to get something else,'” her mother said. “And what does she do, she turns to the most expensive thing you can buy and it's building a church. And I said, ‘No way!' and she said mom, ‘Nothing is impossible with God. This is possible! We can do this! It will be easy.' And here we are.”
Amelya organized her first fundraising project on Family Day, selling cupcakes at the International Food Extravaganza at the C2, organized by Bonnyville Community Church, which they belong to. Cupcakes were sold by open donation.
Throughout the summer, Amelya also sold cupcakes for open donation with her grandmother at the Tuesday farmer's market. So far, she has almost raised $1,000 and hopes to be able to send the donations for the church by Christmas.
“That's a motivated kid,” said her mother. “This is Amelya's dream!”
Fundraising for a church is not something most people do for GFA so the committee came together to make pamphlets for Amelya to hand out, just for her project. They also created a website for her, where donations can be made, at mygfa.org/amelya entitled, “Amelya's Chruch for Change.”
Amelya has also read the book “Revolution in a World Mission,” which was written by the founder of GFA and has provided her with even more inspiration.
“She did have a dream that she would like to visit the church. But after reading the book, the author and the founder has actually mentioned that as a part of his book, that a lot of people do want to see their projects but his vision is, please pray for the projects. Please put more thought into the actual projects than putting money into travelling to the project,” said her mother.
“He has such a heart for missions and so does Amelya…She has a very big heart for the mission, so after reading that and understanding the cost that's involved in going to such a distant land, she is okay not to see this church now and praying for it and actually just letting it be and then maybe focusing on another project.”
Pearl said the birthday fundraiser will be a concert/video party, which will include a variety of Christian music videos and clips from the GFA website.
“They have lots of clips on people's situations. Orphans, widows, people who have been taken and given a chance. She watches these movies over and over and there's links and links and she just goes on and on,” said her mother. “So I thought maybe we could show a few of those, show what has motivated her heart.
“And then the rest of it is a birthday party. So there's going to be balloons and cake. Everybody in town is invited to this birthday.”
