Update December 15, 2016: We have four winners!  Congratulations to Kelly Blakeney, Sharon Choinière, Patti Earle and Jason Johnstone for their winning slogans!  Be watching; our third and final contest for getting the Desert Springs Camel Mug ready is right around the corner!

We had a contest on our Facebook profile page last month to choose the best looking picture of our camel, whose name is “99”. During this contest, the picture above was known as “Camel Picture #2”.

Camel Picture #3

When the contest began, it looked like “Camel Picture #3”, was going to win.

But after several hours of thought, our friends began to favor the picture above.

Then, when the dust had settled, we tallied the results. Camel Picture #3 had seventeen of our friends standing beside him, but twenty-nine friends had chosen to stand by Camel Picture #2. (Two of our friends chose both number two and three, so I just let them stand with both!)

Reasons why our friends chose Camel Picture #2

Our friends who chose Camel Picture #3 mentioned a lot of great reasons for choosing him! However, Camel Picture #2 won this contest. Here are some of the reasons why Camel Picture #2 won the majority vote by a wide margin:

• He appears to be smiling, even happy (a smile goes a long way!)

• He’s got his saddle on, and he’s ready and waiting to start his journey.
• Some liked the blue blanket with pink flowers on top of his pack. This is my bedding for the trip. While traveling, it serves as padding to make my journey less bone-jarring (and my bones less saddle-sore).
• This camel isn’t as shadowy as some of the other pictures were. We can see “99” a lot better here.
• The background gives some insight into what life is like in a Chadian village: the mud walls, the woven mat, the hut roof and the little girls in the background (can you find them all?)
• There is even a bit of neat symbolism in this picture. Two kids mentioned to their “Nana” that it looks like “99” is carrying a great burden. This burden is represented by the rocks directly behind him. For these kids, this burden reminds them of the burden God gives us to reach the lost.

Today’s Contest: Craft a Slogan

I’m so excited! I had to keep it a secret up until now, but I can now tell you what we are hoping to do with this picture.

The Kapka Mountains

Many years ago, we created some coffee mugs made for our supporters. These coffee mugs featured pictures of the Kapka mountains on them. They were made to remind our friends to pray for us each morning as they drank their coffee or tea.

Even today, I can be sitting with a Pastor or a friend, and they will pull out their “Pray for Chad” coffee mug to show me that they still have it! This has been a great reminder to us of all those who love us enough to pray, whether they have a coffee mug or not.

So now, we are preparing a new coffee mug for our supporters with our camel’s picture on it! Thanks to the results of our first contest, we will use the picture you see at the top of this post.

We need your help to finish this coffee mug

However, this coffee mug is missing something. We don’t want this just to be a picture of “99” on a mug. We need to add a slogan or a caption to it to remind you why this coffee mug will be in your cupboard.

And the mug is also missing some coffee or tea! If you post our favorite slogan, you will receive a $7 Gift Card to Dunkin’ Donuts, Starbucks or Tim Horton’s (your choice).

We know that it isn’t the Coffee Gift Card that matters for the friends of Desert Springs in North America and around the world.  However, we do want to include it in this contest as a small way to say “Thanks for participating” to our winner.  Everyone’s help in getting this Camel Mug ready will be a huge help to us.

The slogan you post should be related to the ministry we are involved in through Desert Springs Ministries. So, to get to know us better, you might want to browse around our website or our old prayer letters. This will allow you to learn more about us and what we do, so you can “craft” the perfect slogan!

And if you don’t receive our newsletter yet, be sure to sign up to receive it!

To enter the Camel Mug Slogan Contest, please enter it in the comments below, along with your name and how we can contact you.

This contest ends at 12 midnight Pacific Time on December 5th, 2016. We’re looking forward to hearing from you!