My squad has a letter now! We are the K squad! And in five days I begin to start meeting my new family. This coming friday I leave for training camp in Georgia for a week. I am exciting and nervous…mostly excited. Details about training camp are kept pretty well under wraps, so I don't have much to go on about what we will be doing. But that's okay. I already love my squad and I've never met any of them. I can't imagine being paired with a more awesome group of people.
This weekend I had a fundraiser at my church. There was a huge event going on in the town, and the idea of offering parking for donations was presented to me and my Pastor gave me the use of all the parking. I also planned on selling water and lemonade. It was a bit of a rocky start that morning, and I only had my three youngest siblings to help me (and even then, I had to resort to guilting one or two of them into it). After praying that God would bless the day and lead people to donate generously, I took up my post at the main entrance. I also later prayed for a specific amount to be given. The first couple hours I had only had four people need a place to park and one person had bought a cup of lemonade. I was getting pretty discouraged and making up all kind of worst-case-scenarios in my head as I sat there in the sun, baking. The day began to pick up slowly. People were circling the streets, discovering that my available, conveniently located parking was actually very appealing. The concept of any donation was amazing to many of them. This led to many of them giving me more than the places selling parking were charging. Once the afternoon came the lot was usually full. By that evening I didn't have room for any more, but I knew of some way in the back that weren't mine to sell. I told people where they were, but that they belonged to the library, and they still gave donations for them. At the end of the night I knew that I had a significant amount but I still didn't think it was the amount I had asked for. As I am counting it out and getting towards the end, I just started crying. I had asked for $500. I honestly didn't think that that was a realistic possibility at this point. All total, I had $715 in front of me. I had several hundred dollars more than I thought I did. God exceeded my prayers in terms of money, reminded me that sometimes we don't have because we don't ask, humbled me with peoples generosity, taught me a lesson about faith during times of doubt, and brought me full circle back to my knees in a matter of hours. It was a busy day.
