AUSTRALIA—Members from the Sydney congregation of the Philadelphia Church of God raised thousands of dollars on May 8 during the region’s annual Mother’s Day flower fundraiser.

“It was an overwhelming success. You could see God’s fingerprints all over the fundraiser—from quality of flowers, perfect weather, to incredible sales across the board,” coordinator Ross Macdonald said. “The most pleasing thing was to see the excitement of all those involved.”

Sydney teens helped decorate the arrangement boxes the week beforehand, volunteer women spent Thursday and Friday before Mother’s Day arranging nearly 500 boxes of flowers, and volunteers picked up arrangements on Saturday night in preparation for the big day.

Member Donna King said that good organization and help before Sunday arrived made for a smooth and successful experience. Visiting Fijian member Litiana Dame assisted her in producing and organizing the arrangements.

King said that Dame “went back to the brethren back home and told them all about it, encouraging them to fundraise not just with flowers but other ways in the near future.”

Leading up to Mother’s Day, members were reminded to keep weather, quality of flowers and favor with customers in their prayers. The weather on Sunday was overcast, with very light rain and no wind. All 18 groups finished selling by early afternoon.

To add to the success of the Sunday day sales, a handful of members also tried their hands at pre-sales. Tony and Paula Haddad raised us$1,500 by selling to restaurants, co-workers, and going door-to-door. This strategy, assisted by using donated flowers and greens, made for low cost and high return.

A website was also launched to help with pre-sales, a new idea conceived by Macdonald and member Daniel Hooper. Customers had the option of ordering flowers online and having them delivered on Sunday.

This year’s Mother’s Day fundraiser was the most profitable to date, with a 63 percent increase over last year and a total profit of over us$16,000.