People at times will say things, not meant to discourage, when we tell them the amount of money we have to raise (roughly $15,000 per person, which means $30,000 per married couple) that does discourage us. When I first was accepted someone told me that if people didn’t really KNOW me they wouldn’t support me financially. I look at my support account list today and see that there are 31 supporters who’ve given to AIM and an additional 19 people off the top of my head who have contributed financially to me.
There are different groups within this large group–close friends, family, people who’ve known me from church for 5+ years then there are the acquaintances and people I don’t know at all.
30 of my 50 supporters fall into the acquaintance and people I don’t know at all category.
Because of these people, I am able to leave on Aug. 11. I am grateful to all of them for their obedience to God’s call to help support me.
My squadmates, Chad and Leslie Jowers, need help from obedient people they don’t know. Maybe it’s you.
At training camp, we were constantly around each other (80+ people I didn’t really know) 24/7 for 10 days. Pair that with my interesting personality style that’s uncomfortable in large groups and there was NO WAY I was able to get to know everyone there. But no matter who I talked to, didn’t talk to or hung out with there was this HUGE thing we have in common. We’re all the crazies who have decided to leave it all behind for what many, Christians included (and sadly sometimes even more than non-Christians), think is crazy or just plain silly.
I can tell you the Jowerses are two J squad members I interacted least with during training camp. But I know that my training camp experience would have been incomplete without them. Sometimes we affect people in the smallest of ways without realizing it.
For me they both did something on the same exact day that lifted my spirits. During one of our activities that was meant to let us all let loose and have fun, Chad made this crazy goofy face while dancing that totally CRACKED ME UP. It was a laugh that was very much needed after the intense emotional roller coaster I’d been on that morning. I laugh out loud now thinking of it. That night Leslie gave me what I’ll call a “love pinch” and said, “Thought you needed that.” It was hilarious because it was so random (both the pinch and the location of where she gave it). Those small things are meaningless to them, perhaps, but to the girl who was thinking all day “What the heck am I doing here?!” a couple of good laughs were necessary.
I don’t know them. I don’t know Leslie’s maiden name. I don’t know how they met. I don’t even know how long they have been married.
But what I do know is that there are many, many people in 11 countries who are waiting for them. I know that one year from now there will be orphans, prostitutes, church members, newly healed souls who will thank God that they had the opportunity to meet the Jowerses. They will do a million times more than have goofy faces or give love pinches.
They will be intercessors, they will hold orphans, they will show people who’ve never felt it–love, they will pray for healing, they will see miracles, they will be God’s hands. The last thing they need in these last two weeks is to be discouraged by money and the people who say it will not come. I ask that you help them in whatever way you can. God doesn’t make mistakes. They are meant to go. Help them.
Put them on that road to those people who will one day praise God because of them. Help them get to those who need their personalities, their hands and their hearts.
Click here to support Chad and Leslie Jowers, who together have to raise $6,800 in two weeks.
