0 to 15,500 in 1 year.

It has been a little over one year since I said, “YES” to The World Race. It was months after the first of 2012’s New Year that I decided to listen to the call the God placed on my life. It was around this time that I obeyed God’s voice when He said to Go! And this time, one year ago, was also when I started to worry.
 
That’s right. You heard me correct. I started to worry. The normal thoughts of…
Oh my gosh, I am a 23 year old, white, American, girl traveling the world, what is going to happen? -or-I am going to be gone for almost an entire year, will people forget about me?-or- Am I “Godly” enough or knowledgeable enough to preach the Gospel for a little less than a year?… passed through my mind a time or two, but the real worries came every time I saw what I signed up for.
 

 
There is was… the very number that deterred me from even applying for the race 5 years prior to 2012 when I was first introduced to the idea. How would I ever raise $15,500?
 
Well, I would never raise it. I would never be able to get that money into my account. I would never be able to write a check for that money. And I wouldn’t be able to comprehend just how much GOD could do all of that.
 
If I could hop in a time machine to send me back one year ago and deliver some wise words to my past self this is what it would say:
 

Dear past Kate,
        It is I here, yourself from the future, writing to you to tell you some advice. You see I am writing to you because you have just been accepted to The World Race. It was hard for me to locate you through time travel though, but I seemed to have found you living between the town of Cloud 9 and Worry Wart Ville. I know the feelings you have range from complete excitement to utter despair when you think about this adventure that awaits you in only a few short months.
           I want you to do some things for me. First, stop worrying. Yes it sounds like easy advice especially because I am not living with that fast approaching financial deadline looming only weeks from now, but I mean it. Stop worrying. I am not saying that to get you to prepare for your time on The World Race only by day dreaming about the little orphans you will hold in Africa and the plane rides you will earn miles with. I am telling you to stop worrying because God has got this. God has got you. I know it doesn’t feel like God even knows about your financial deadline at the end of the month because you haven’t seen your account move a cent in a week, but God is working in mighty ways that you can’t see.
           God is using this time to work in the customer you will serve coffee to tomorrow who needs a reminder that God provides when she sees your bracelet and will hear God’s calling to give to your trip. God is using this time to orchestrate a church meeting for the elders to meet together to pray for your year away and hear God whisper the donation amount for your trip. God is using this time for you to think outside of the box to fundraise in different ways so that you can reach more people for the sake of His name. God is working in those friends around you to step out in boldness to give you monthly donations because they are learning the same lesson that you are. God will provide for them, just like he will provide for you. God is even using this time to teach you to trust in him. God is using every passing day to bring you closer to him in this fundraising journey. I mean it when I tell you to stop worrying, God’s got this.
             Here is the second thing I want you to do…Give Thanks! I want you to turn around and thank mom for telling you these exact words that I am writing to you now. Believe mom when she tells you that God is going to provide for you.  I want you to thank dad and mom together for walking this journey with you-you haven’t seen it play out yet, but I will give you a sneak peak and tell you it is good (but you can’t do it without them). Even though they don’t fill the role that you already had made up for them, thank them for filling the role that God wants them to be. They are going to stick by you every step of the way and they will never leave you on this journey. Don’t look past their efforts because it doesn’t match up to what you think they need to do, see it as them doing what God wants them to do.
                You’re not done giving thanks. Call up, text, visit, email, whatever it takes, tell your siblings thank you. Each one of them is going to sacrifice something for you during these 11 months and take this time to thank them for that sacrifice of time, money, energy, love, sleep, and more. Thank them now while they are in front of you because then maybe you can throw a hug in with it too. You will wish you had that at this point in the race, soak it up now. Thank them now for the words they will send you, or the effort they will show to communicate with you even when Internet is hard to find.
                 Next, thank your boyfriend and best friend for their dedication to you over the next year. Thank them for their sacrifice of financial donations to your trip, but more than that thank them now for those long talks that you will share with them when you are homesick or just need to chat. Thank them for demonstrating their love to you over facebook, text, email and blog comments that keep you going through each passing month. Thank them now for how much you will learn to cherish them over the next months that you wont have them near.
Take this time to thank your family members, aunts, uncles, grandma’s, and grandpa’s. Thank them for their donations to help you get to this point of the race. Thank them, especially your grandpa’s, while they are still there, for their help for you to follow your dreams and God’s calling on your life. Tell them that you couldn’t have done this without them. Tell them how much you love them. You will want those moments standing in front of people who know you for all your ups and downs and you will await the day you can stand in front of them in joyful jubilation from these experiences on the Race.
                 Find those friends, you know, those friends. That friend from college that you shared your favorite bible verse to in class, that friend who shares your heart for some special customers at work, that friend who stays faithful over the years even though you met your first year of college, that friend who served Jesus with you in Tanzania, that friend who served Jesus with in China, that friend who will help you plan your wedding whenever that day comes, that friend from your campus ministry, that friend that spent a week in Kenya instead of getting on your plane. Find that friend, squeeze them tight and from the most sincere, deepest part of your heart whisper in their ear, “Thank you!”.  Thank each of these friends for their financial sacrifice to you over the next year. These friends will give once, maybe monthly, maybe a little, maybe a lot, the main thing is that these friends will give to you because of how much they love you and how much they are listening to God move in their hearts. Thank them for being in your life from the moment that you were accepted on the race to the blessed day you found out that you were fully funded and for many, many more.
               Yes, that is one more thing I wanted to tell my past self from the future. I am telling you to stop worrying and to give thanks because you are fully funded. You never thought you could do it, you will stress about it and contemplate going home because you don’t have all your finances in order, but you didn’t do it. God provided all of your finances and he did it though these people! You aren’t done yet giving thanks.
               Go to those family friends that have walked life with you since you were born. Spend time with each of them telling them of your genuine love for each of them and how thankful and blessed you are by each of their donations. Tell them how much you appreciate them in your life, not just for this financial help, but that these family friends have become second, third, fourth parents to you. These family friends have lived life with you years before the World Race came into the picture and they will be here years after the World Race passes through your life. These people are around for life, tell them thank you FOR THAT. Thank them for their dedication to you as a young woman, as a growing Christian, as a daughter from another family.
             Take these moments that you could be worrying about what is going to happen at each financial deadline and instead of stressing about them go to the people that you see every day while you work at the coffee shop or while you teach, or the people that you saw while in college and thank them now for the love they will show you over the next year. Thank them for the encouragement they will give you when you see their loving donation come through your account. Thank them for their continued support of your adventure for Christ through their prayer emails, their comments on your blogs, their financial donations and their likes on your facebook photos. I know that in your comfortable life in America right now, all of this sounds crazy, but I am telling you, thank these people now because you will love every moment of their support and encouragement over the race and you will want moments to hug them to say thank you. You will want moments to hug your college roommate after she gets married to say thank you for her support of you. You will want moments to chat with your campus ministers about all the lessons you are learning and thank them for sticking through and fighting for you in prayer. You will want moments to see family friends from church to fill them in on your life because you see the joy and excitement they share with you about how God has such big plans for your life. You will want moments to scream with your college friends as they are getting engaged, having babies, starting new jobs, and living life all the while they will still be so conscious of you being away wanting to include you and love you through it all. Thank them! Thank them for being in your life. Thank them for their support, their love, their encouragement, their blessings!
            I can only leave you with these two things, stop worrying; God’s got this and give thanks.  You will walk an amazing journey with God through this fundraising adventure, but don’t take one moment over the other. Soak it up, but trust in God’s plans for you. God has placed some amazing people in your life and he will continue to bless you using these people. Live it up at home, don’t count down the days till Launch, soak up your time with each and every person. They have all been hand picked to be in your life and God is looking at your with a sparkle in His eyes through each of these people. So in the midst of thanking all of these wonderful people, remember who is the one working behind the scenes. God is the one who is providing the money. God is the one who moving hearts. God is the one who is planning the benefit concerts and Chick-fil-a nights. Thank your Father in Heaven every day for the chance and opportunity to be where you are through the blessings and provisions of those around you.
Take heart my sister, this is only the beginning, but it is a wonderful journey,
Love, Your future self

 
Well, if you managed to make it all the way through that letter, you could gather that one year later I have officially made it to the one point I never thought I could.

 
And I didn’t, really. I didn’t make it here on my own. I finally became fully funded through the grace of the Everlasting King and Jehovah Jireh, The God who Provides and the God who loves. I was blessed and blown away that this God would not just allow me to come on this amazing World Race, but he would also bring friends, family, acquaintances, anonymous donors, blog readers, and world changers alongside of me to support, love and bless me every step of the way.
 
I can gain one thing from this letter I wrote to myself and that is to Give Thanks! I may be a couple months late, or a couple months early, but I don’t want to miss an opportunity to say…