Ladies and gentlemen, here it is. The announcement you’ve been waiting for…
After nearly 7 months of sending letters, making phone calls, meeting with people, giving presentations, and praying as much as I know how,
I AM FULLY FUNDED!
Let me say that again. God has provided me a team of wonderful supporters, and by His grace I will be leaving for the World Race next month without the burden of program expenses.
PRAISE THE LORD!!!
This has been hands-down the most humbling experience I have ever gone through. I can promise you all that this goal was achieved not through my own strength, but only because God Himself called people and organizations to support me financially. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Can I get an amen?
Sending out my first round of support letters way back in June.
Thank you SO much to everyone who has helped me in this endeavor over the past several months. Whether you helped stuff envelopes, sent emails, endured an awkward phone call, listened to my presentation, or let me vent my worries to you, you all have played an integral role in this part of my missionary experience. I am especially thankful to you all who took this before the Throne and petitioned God to provide for me, and of course I am inexpressibly grateful to those of you who actually gave from your own pockets. There is nothing like the community of God’s church, and you all have shown me how important that community is. I can’t say it enough—THANK YOU!
But wait! Don’t stop reading!
There are still ways you can help. How? I’m glad you asked.
1. You can pray for me and my squad.
God has put together a fantastic group of human beings to go on this journey with me, and we are going to face a lot of challenges together over the next year. We can only be successful if we have prayer teams supporting us from back home. There are 26 people on my squad, plus 4 squad leaders, meaning you can easily pray for one person each day of the month. One of my squad leaders has put together this handy little prayer card to help guide you.
2. You can financially support one of my squadmates.
There are still several people on my squad who are in need of financial support, and our next deadline is coming up on December 19th. You can find links to their blogs on the left-hand side of this page. Please prayerfully consider donating to one of them.
3. You can donate to my “Additional Expenses” fund.
Although all of my program expenses are now covered (Hallelujah!), there are still other costs associated with this trip, such as gear, vaccines, etc., that actually add up to a substantial amount of money. Any money give to Adventures in Missions in my name from this point on will go into a general ministry fund instead of helping me directly, so if you were interested in donating to my World Race fundraising but hadn’t gotten a chance to yet, this is a great way to continue to support me financially. To make things easier, I have set up a GoFundMe account that will accept online donations (both monthly and one-time) for this part of my trip, and it includes a “Wish List” that outlines exactly what the money would be going toward. That website is http://www.gofundme.com/betsyswannwr. There is also the option of sending a check to me in the mail, if that’s what you prefer (address available upon request). And as an fyi, these donations (either online or via check) would not be tax-deductible because it would be going directly to me instead of my missions organization. Let me know if you have any questions, and again, please prayerfully consider supporting me in this way.
Thank you one more time to everyone who has been a part of this support-raising journey. I can’t even believe this is real. How does it feel to be fully funded? I think my parents said it best…
