He is entirely faithful ||

Hello wonderful, beautiful humans!

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I hope as you read this, you are taking a moment of rest. 

Take a breath. 

Ahh.

🙂

 

R E F R E S H E D. 

New oxygen into your lungs, carbon dioxide out for the plants to turn into oxygen again. Amazing.

 

Isn’t it incredible our heart beats & pumps blood through every area of our beings without us concentrating on it? We breathe in and out without a second thought if that is what we are to do next. It’s automatic. It’s what we do. It’s living and breathing.

 

Let me tell you, I have been very busy the past few weeks that when I get a few minutes to stop and rest, I consciously think, “Okay Andrea, take a breath and just breathe.” 

 

A major lesson I am learning in this process is- taking one day at a time. Being present, being where I am. Being one place physically and being another place in my thinking is tiring and stressful. 

Here’s what my normal day looks like on a typical weekday. Wake up; get ready for work; go to my morning school; there from 8:30-noon. Come home for about 10-15 minutes and scarf down food or make it to take with me to my next school. There from 12:45-5:15. Come home. Lay down for a nap in my room, dinner, then usually hangout with friends or Tribe or swing dancing for most of the evening. Come home, have a few minutes with roomies and get ready for sleep.

Busy. Full. Once I am up and I have coffee in my hand, I am moving. 

I have discovered, when I come home from work, even if I am alone for 10 minutes, I am refreshed and rejuvenated. It’s that quiet time I spend alone on my floor that gets me back to myself. 

So when I am where I am, I can’t be thinking about where I’ll be next, or resting. It just doesn’t work. When I’m at school in the morning, if my brain is still wanting to be in bed, then I have a whinny morning and it’s rough. If I am stressing about what activities to do with my kids in the afternoon in the morning, I am again, whinny and the day is rough.

 

That is just one major journey I am in the path of discovering. It’s super important, and I am mega thankful for the time I get to rest, especially on the weekend. Yay, thank you Jesus for that. Thank you Jesus for friends and community to spend evenings and weekends with! It makes me happy and more myself.

 

 

U P D A T E 

Let me now update you on where I am in funds and what is coming soon in my calendar!

 

I have $5k toward my final need of $17.5k!!!!!!!

Wow! I am amazed at the faithfulness of Papa. A little over a week ago, I only had $300 toward my need. Here I am with nearly a third raised!!

 

T H A N K   Y O U !!! 

Thank you for partnering with Papa’s generous heart and partnering with me on this wild journey!! 

 

Let me share a story of this generous giving. Well, a story and my response to donations. Haha

Each of the donations has been a pleasant surprise. I receive an email when I am given a financial donation, of who has donated & the amount. After my initial blog post, I checked my email multiple times a day. I was curious if any donations were made, and initially expecting an immediate response. After a few days, I became discouraged a little, and realized how influential social media and the culture of immediate gratification influenced my expectations of getting immediate response. Interesting. Then I receive two donations from close friends. Wow! I was surprised and it was the encouragement my heart needed. Around that same time, I had a dream about my funds increasing 5x what they were! So I check my account that morning, but it had not yet happened. At this point, I knew Holy Spirit gave me that dream to encourage my heart and to remind me he has got this. I have done my job in sharing and asking, now he will do more and bring in the funds. More than I expect! 

Next few days, no donations. My first financial deadline is 2 weeks out, and I am not discouraged, but not filled with mega faith either. I have moments of wondering if all the monies will come. It’s in one of these moments I tell Jesus, “I can’t bring in this money. This has got to be you, Jesus. I have asked and I don’t want to beg or post about needing money every day. I can’t bring in $17k, so you’ve got to do it. It’s got to be you.” 

I didn’t pray this massively long, extensive prayer. I didn’t fast for several days. I didn’t put much of my effort into it. I sent letters, I posted a few blog posts about world race (and let me tell you, I have much I can say, but don’t want to write 5 pages for you to read). I shared a few times on Facebook and sent some emails.

I haven’t done much, here friends! I have been going to work, spending time with my friends, resting and adventuring.

More than a week passes, and Jesus starts dumping blessings into my lap.

No exaggeration, within a week I went from $300 to $5k!!

Whaaaaaaa??!!!!! 

And to top off all these surprises, I receive an anonymous donation of $1k!

Remember I said I get an email after each donation? Well, not the anonymous ones. Wednesday night I check my account, and see the amount is more than I remember. It’s also late before I sleep, so I think I just calculated it wrong beforehand. 

I go to my tab of who donated what amount. 

And see that Sunday, I was given 1,000 dollars!! 

I stared at it for a good minute wondering if my eyes were sending my brain the correct number.

 

 

Wow!! 

What a testimony I now get to share! 

I have not trusted Papa in this area before. I have not taken steps toward dreams of this extravagance trusting Papa to provide the funding. I don’t have $17k just sitting in my bank account! I am a recent college student! Ha! 

But I know that my Papa honors risk. I took a big risk when I didn’t see the price tag as a limitation. I took another risk when I asked friends, family and community to partner with this extreme adventure!

And he is providing so freely. It’s easy for Him! 

He is reminding me he loves me and is my provider. That’s not just a sentence we say in church or say in prayer. It’s what he does. He provides. When I take risk and put him in the place to provide where I cannot- he is able to do what he does and be who he is.

Whoa.  

 

 

I’ll wrap this up, now. 🙂

Thank you!! Thank you thank you for your investment! 

Thank you for sharing in this journey with me!

 

Coming soon! 

// Training in Georgia, October 15-25. I will be purchasing my plane ticket this week, requesting time off work, and coordinating rides to and from the airport.

// I still need monies! I will be posting some items to sell in the next week or two! 

// Purchasing my tent, large backpack, sleeping bag, and other items. We need these items for training, since it will be a “practice run” of the real deal. So I will be researching and purchasing this big items soon.

 

// Grace over plane tickets, times and rides to the airport. Airport is 2 hours away.

// Grace for getting time off work. I haven’t told my schools yet I will be leaving them come January, so now seems a good opportunity to start sharing what I’ll be doing. I believe Papa has hearts he wants me to connect with at my schools. I want to share openly and freely about world race and just start the conversation.

// Good deals on what I need. Fun time to get the supplies. 

// Peace & grace. No stress. It’s easy for me to see all these details and to-do’s and become overwhelmed. One day at a time. 

// Enjoy the preparation process! Find the joy in it!

 

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Thank you!!!!! What gems I am surrounded by. 

 

You’re amazing and beautiful, incredible and capable.

Find rest and joy today. Be refreshed and rejuvenated.