AUSTRALIA—Nine Philadelphia Church of God congregations in Australia and the Philippines held fundraisers in their respective locations, collectively preparing 784 bouquets, 927 box displays, 313 basket displays, 66 dried flower and cake displays, 151 dweet and brownie displays and 101 woodcrafts. In the Philippines, the congregations of Angeles City, La Union, Baguio, Davao City, Iloilo-Negros, Tacloban City and Quezon City contributed. In Australia, the congregations of Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney contributed.

On Mother’s Day, members set up signs, tables and sunshades for the roadside selling stations, selling flower bouquets for $24 and flowers arranged in box displays from $27 to $51.

Member Ross Macdonald said that heavy rain was forecasted for Mother’s Day in the Australian locations. “The Wollongong region experienced torrential rain in the early morning while we were setting up. Then the rain stopped completely by 8:00 to 8:30 a.m. when the bulk of our sales began to come in, even though the forecast was for rain all day.”

Those in the Melbourne location had issues with their flower supplier, but that didn’t deter the congregation.

Local Church Elder Andrew Kennedy said, “Given the very bad issues we had initially, it was amazing we made any profit at all. It took a huge amount of work by the congregation to make it successful.”

The fundraiser brought in $52779. The final profit was $29850.

Note: All amounts are given in USD.