Little Cricket Charity

Some of you may know through social media, but for those who don’t, I am very excited to share the launch of Little Cricket Charity with you.

If you have a few minutes, I’d love to share my heart with you regarding this ministry. Not the official ministry vision and mission (on the website), but our personal story behind the ministry.

This blog played a priceless role in my journey through the indescribable grief of my sweet Sarah’s death. The day after her death, I began scouring Scripture for comfort and truth to anchor my soul. And just ten days after her death, the sorrow of my heart and the truths of Scripture that were already so profoundly comforting me intermingled and overflowed in my first blog post about her death, our grief, and God’s faithfulness: Suffering, Anguish, and Redemption.

In the years that followed, I was immeasurably blessed as I continued to write about our grief and God’s faithfulness to meet and sustain us in it. As I shared, I regularly and repeatedly saw Him fruitfully using that shared comfort—His comfort—to comfort others as well. Which, in turn, comforted me yet again as another testimony to His precious faithfulness to redemptively use our costly sorrow.

“Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 NASB95

I began getting regular requests to put the blog posts in book format, and after much prayerful consideration and effort, we published “Sifted: Diary of a Grieving Mother,” in 2024.

From the beginning, the book was an offering to our ever-faithful God, and my heart’s desire was to give the book to whoever might be encouraged by it.

Sadly, we quickly learned that books are expensive to print, so we began praying about starting a non-profit to enable us to give the books away more broadly. Hence, the birth of Little Cricket Charity.

Through the process (and obstacles) of filing and gaining 501(c)(3) non-profit status, our vision and focus grew clearer.

I long to comfort others with the comfort I have been given. I also recognize how others long to comfort those who are grieving, but are uncertain how, or are fearful of saying or doing the wrong thing. So, in equal or perhaps even greater measure, I now long to encourage and help equip others to comfort those who are grieving in their communities.

As a result, our ministry’s focus shifted to make use of the creative gifts God has given me to include creating and offering unique, encouraging gift items for grieving people. The gifts are designed to be a tool for people to encourage their grieving friends, or to simply convey to them that they have not forgotten them, their loved ones, or their grief.

In meeting the second goal, we have shared our first two gift items. Both are items that have been very special to me in my grief, and that I pray will be a precious encouragement to others grieving as well.

As these items are ordered and sent to grieving people, accomplishing our second goal, they simultaneously accomplish our initial goal of encouraging grieving people both in receiving the gift, and in raising funds to provide resources (Sifted and a variety of other grief-specific books) to grieving people locally, and across the nation through While We’re Waiting retreats.

In conclusion:

I am not asking, and will not ask you to support Little Cricket Charity. Please don’t run from me when you see me; I will never ask you for money. 😉

The book, Little Cricket Charity, and my labor in making the gifts are all fully our offerings to Him, and we trust Him to do exactly what He desires with them. There is such joy and peace in entrusting it all to Him.

I often felt He was moving heaven and earth to care for me in my grief, so I will wholeheartedly and joyfully follow and serve Him in this way, even if for only one shattered heart. It would be fully worth it.

“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose.” Philippians 1:21-22 NASB95

Come, Lord Jesus.