You would think that after seeing Jesus provide over and over again for me that I wouldn’t be stressed about things.
How easily I forget His goodness.
How easily I run astray.
How easily I get caught up in myself and wanting control of things.
Oh but how gracious is Jesus with me.
He picks me back up over and over and calls me beloved and provides exactly what I need when I need it.
The last 7 days have been a whirlwind of craziness. I’ve been so stressed about money, about my car selling, and about the details for the fundraisers I have coming up.
8 days ago I took what I saw as my first big physical step of faith and listed my car for sale. I told my world race squad and close friends about it and asked for prayers for peace of mind for me and that my car would sell quickly. Within 3 hours I had been contacted by several people asking to see my car, interested in purchasing it. I set up meetings with 3 couples. Then the whole locking my keys in my car fiasco from my last blog post happened, haha. It really makes me giggle now. The first couple decided they didn’t want to purchase an SUV. The third couple just never showed up to meet me. But y’all the second couple was really interested after seeing and test driving my car and hearing about why I was selling my car. After they left from test driving my car, I had an extremely restless nights sleep which ended with me being wide awake at 4 am. I spent a whole lot of time with Jesus that morning. He was telling me that despite me selling my car I still didn’t trust him fully with it. See I was planning to use the money from my car to make some purchases for the world race and put a chunk of it in savings for when I get back in the United States. That wasn’t what God had planned. I only felt at peace about it after considering lowering my asking price for my car and knowing that I would only be breaking even after paying off what I still owed on it and paying the insurance on my Dad’s car that I’ll be driving for the next few months. Jesus is tearing down all my walls and little “safety nets” of control and making me whole heartedly trust him with my finances and everything. Later that day that family agreed to my asking price and bought my car. Praise Jesus, my car is SOLD.
Also in the last 7 days I came to love my O squad even more than I already do. I seriously have never “met” anyone as compassionate, loving, and on fire for Jesus than this group of people. The deadline for me to have applied for my passport is this coming Friday, the 15th. Last week we were talking about our upcoming deadlines for things and what we still needed. When my squad found out I was in financial need and wasn’t able to get my passport yet because of that, person after person started saying, “Hey, I’ll help you out. Let me send you money. Let me serve you.”
Y’all I was speechless.
In tears. (& trying to explain to the Harvey boys that I wasn’t sad, but rather overwhelmed with joy and love)
These people who are also in the midst of trying to raise just as much money as I am were offering to support me. I don’t think any of them know this yet, but combined they sent me over $600 and I was able to get my passport and made my first gear purchases (a pair of chacos and an eno) and set the rest aside to use for other WR things. I love how Jesus loves us through each other. One of the guys on my squad, David, sent me a verse he was praying over our squad, Acts 4:32. “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had.” How BEAUTIFUL is that?? I love it. I was able to witness it in a whole new way this week because of my squad.
I love the family Jesus is creating with these people already, and I haven’t even met them yet! I can NOT wait. O squad, be prepared for bear hugs. That is all.
Also this week I’ve been feeling discouraged at where I’m at with fundraising. In a matter of 6 weeks I have to have $3,000 more in my world race account and enough money to purchase all my gear. I’m not anywhere near that right now. . . at all. That being said I have several fundraisers coming up!
Here are the details of how you can best be praying for those at the moment.
This Saturday, August 16th, I’m hosting an ultimate Frisbee tournament! Please pray for good weather and for lots and lots of people to show up.
I’m also selling super awesome t-shirts and tank tops through Fund the Nations! They’re $20 for a t-shirt and $22 for a tank. That is more than I would usually pay for a shirt, but I’m praying that lots of people will purchase them and then use it as a reminder to be praying for me and my squad as we travel around the world next year.
Friday, August 29th, I’m having a benefit show at my church, Midtown. Please pray that all the little details would get sorted out. Pray that things would run really smoothly the night of the show. Pray that lots of people would show up and that Jesus would bless our time that night. Pray for my musician friends and myself as we practice and perform. I think this is the event I’m most stressed about, but I’m not totally sure why, so prayers for peace for me over this.
Next month on September 20th I’m having a battle of the bands at Tin Roof in downtown Columbia. I have some really great bands lined up and I’m so excited for this event. Tin Roof has been so gracious as to donate a portion of their sales from the night to me, as well as letting me use their venue for free! Pray that things would run smoothly that night and that a lot of people would show up.
I have all these fundraising ideas and several really great events planned, now I’m just covering them with prayer and asking that y’all join me in doing that. Praying, asking Jesus to bless them, to show up and do work at each one and also work in the hearts and lives of everyone I’ll come in contact with at the events. In the very near future, possibly tomorrow, I’ll be writing a blog post on fundraising event ideas and planning for my fellow world racers who have asked me to help them with it, so prayers for them too as they go about fundraising, because its hard.
I think that this is all for now, thanks for sticking with me to the end of this post, its long, I know.
