This was not a decision willingly made.
I’m a type-A personality – a sensor and a judger. I see each task as a project, a puzzle to be solved. And I really love puzzles.
$16,000? That’s my kind of puzzle. And it was a puzzle I wanted to solve before launch.
First I wrote letters – lots of letters. But I did not expect much at all from these. I had written support letters for both of my trips to Haiti (one-tenth of the cost of the Race) and barely made those deadlines. So I figured the people who were not tired of seeing my letters show up in the mail would respond and I would still have $15,000 to raise. It was time to plan – to leave behind the fairly easy to do edge pieces of the puzzle and get the middle.
Visions of sponsored dinners and auctions danced in my head! Campaigns, raffles, big events – I would do it all! One puzzle piece at a time.
But the pieces never seemed to fit.
The dinners did not pan out. The events went unscheduled. I could not get things to line up. Everywhere I turned, my plans fell through.
Churches went unresponsive. I moved 672 miles away from home and my support base. People continually told me they would rather not come to events or buy “silly junk” (their words, not mine).
I prayed and prayed. I kept telling people about the race. I read about my squadmates ridiculously creative and successful fundraisers. I fretted and panicked about meeting the July deadline, completely giving up on my hope to be fully-funded before I left. I prayed some more.
But God kept saying, “No.”
I pleaded with Him to show me fundraising opportunities.
He said, “No.”
I begged for business partners and event ideas.
He said, “No.”
GOD HOW DO I MAKE THE PIECES FIT?!
“You don’t”
So I said, “Fine, I’m not fundraising for the World Race.”
And He said, “Finally.”
From day 1, God has wanted control of my ENTIRE journey. I kept trying to take the reigns and He stubbornly kept them (thank goodness). I had a big lesson to learn in giving up control.
The only thing God ever said yes to was writing those letters that I had no expectations of.
100 letters. What good could 100 letters do?
But God took those letters and worked in the hearts of the recipients. I may have written them, but He did ALL the work.
He opened unexpected doors.
He gave me a new wonderfully supportive family of believers.
He showed me the power of simple but genuine conversations.
He showed me good can come from the worst tragedies and heartache.
He showed me what can happen when I give Him control. All of it.
He showed me that I do not need to control this.
And He showed me that 100 letters can raise over $16,000.
When I go to launch a month from today, I will be fully-funded.
Yes, you read that correctly. FULLY-FUNDED.
Not in pledges, not in monthly payments left to come. Not by dumping the last minute payments into my account from my savings. Fully, physically in my account, not my own money, not by my doing, funded.
PRAISE JESUS.
And to those who let God work through you to teach me this lesson, THANK YOU. I am immeasurably blessed.
By no means am I recommending to future racers not to fundraise. This is the journey God knew He needed to take me on to prepare my heart. He wants to do the same for you, in the story He is writing for each individual racer.
So I am saying give God your puzzle. He has the uncanny ability to make the pieces fit. Every single time.
