Want To Book Jon & Kate To Speak To Your Church? You Better Read This First!

It's expensive raising eight kids and now buying or renting separate places to live so it's no wonder Jon and Kate Gosselin do everything they can to maximize their earning power.

Endorsements, books and speaking engagements (in addition to the TLC show) all help keep the kids in new clothes and provide Jon with spending money for all his new girlfriends!

But now a big-hearted RadarOnline.com reader has generously donated to us, a document she says she received from the Go$$elins when she asked for "church speaking info back in February 2008."

This, of course, was before the divorce announcement and is filled with gems including calling a "speaking fee" a "love offering." Of course, with the passage of time the line, "Ours is a story that is encouraging to everyone who hears it" doesn't really hold up so well.

Here's the document:

WE ARE NOW BOOKING INTO MID 2009. DATES ARE GOING FAST AND ARE VERY LIMITED!!!!!!

Logistics info: First, Jon and I always travel together for safety reasons.  

Second, we don't bring our children anymore due to safety/security issues.  

And third, we speak to an audience of 100 or more!

We typically ask that the church/organization cover our travel and accommodations (airfare, hotel, car transport to/from the airport on this end and rental car on that end). As far as a 'speaking fee' goes, we ask for a 'love offering' for church services (which averages around $3000-3500 just to give you an idea, but is by no means a set 'fee'-- we let that up to God to fulfill our needs whether that amount be higher or lower!).

Other groups (evening church sponsored events, non church affiliated programs etc) are charged a fee of $3500 for events scheduled in 2009.

For a Mops (Mothers of Preschoolers) group, we charge by the person.... a $ 15 fee per person with a minimum of 100 people. Additionally, we ask that we also be scheduled to speak at a church service while we are there.

As mentioned above, if you are scheduling a Saturday night event the fee is $3500. If you also want to schedule Sunday morning church services, we ask for a love offering in whatever amount is collected to cover Sunday. We want to let God provide for us want to be able to continue to travel and speak!

These fees are incorporated to cover our time, babysitting and time away from work!

In the past, churches, MOPS groups, organizations have charged admission or provided free tickets and covered our 'fee' in other ways.

It is up to you how it should be handled in your situation.

We typically use our presentation entitled 'Six (in honor of our 6) Lessons We Have Learned' where we start with a video montage set to

music of our family and then do our presentation. We tell our story from the beginning while we weave our points into it- including the pertinent Bible verses that came alive to us during those times and continue to be our guide today (you can request an email copy of our outline for review)! We usually end with about a half hour of questions from the audience which brings our total presentation time to about 1 1/2 hours in length. Ours is a story that is encouraging to everyone who hears it!

It is a story of God's hope, grace and love in a time when there was a lot of uncertainty, fear and doubt! Anyone who listens can apply these same lessons in their own lives!

The only other thing we require is a $150 deposit to hold the date you have chosen!

Additionally, please note that we are appearing as Jon and Kate Gosselin and this is aside from our show. TLC owns the rights to our show, we don't and so any advertising about our appearance may say 'from TLC's hit show 'Jon & Kate plus 8' but it may not use any logo or TLC owned print. Also, we cannot do ANY media interviews/ appearances related to our speaking event in order to remain in accordance with our TLC contract.

I hope this information helps! We enjoy speaking but are still surprised at the demand! We know it is what God is asking of us!!!!

Please reserve your date quickly! We are booking daily now and the dates are going fast! And please plan on having more people inquire about coming than you planned! Most events are now sold out due to lack of enough seating before the inquiries stop coming!!!! It is amazing--not what we ever had planned for our lives but we enjoy what we do!

Because of God's grace!

Kate Gosselin for all ten of us