Dear Family and Friends,
It’s been a while since the last support letter, but I’m finally in a place once more where I can update you on this last leg of the Race.
You heard me, the last leg. The big crescendo. The final spur. The end. I am on month 10 out of 11 and…I can’t believe it. I feel like I’ve just left, but I also feel like I’ve been on this thing for years. Time is an odd thing. These past few months have been spent in the Philippines, Swaziland, and Botswana. My past support letters included all of the ministry we’ve done in each country, at each contact, but this time I want to do something a little different. I want to tell you briefly about what God taught me in each of these places.
In the Philippines, God taught me how I can love a child like she was my own yet remain joyful instead of sorrowful when the time came to say goodbye. God solidified my desire to foster and adopt in the future. He taught me the joy and value of seeking Him even when it’s the last thing I want to do.
In Swaziland, God taught me how I put limitations on myself that don’t allow me to rise to my peak potential. We walked roughly 26 miles per week on a rough, dusty, hot dirt road out in the bush to and from ministry. After the first day I was ready to quit. My hip flexors hurt, I had a migraine, I was dehydrated, my hands were swollen, and I couldn’t move my feet more than half a foot in front of each other at a time. God spoke through my friend and leader Meg to encourage me that I can complete the walk, that it was possible. God taught me how to pray for an attitude shift. I prayed for a good attitude each morning and we stretched before we made the walk there and back, and guess what? I made the walk each time we went. God taught me that by relying on His strength and resolve, I could walk 86 miles in a month.
Now we are in Gaborone, Botswana working with a church plant (Gaborone Community Chapel)…we only have 11 days left here before we head to South Africa. So far, God has been teaching me about asking. Did you know God has so much in store for us and so much prepared for us, but we miss out on a lot of it because we never ask for it? He spurred me to contact an organization I want to work with, so I did, and it turns out there is a place for me there when I get home! If I had never taken that step of faith, I never would have known that God had that opportunity waiting for me. He is teaching me to not weary in doing His work. He is teaching me that discernment of His will doesn’t just take prayer, it takes action.
Funding. I am still $2000 away from being fully funded and I’m trusting God to get me there before I return home. AIM has given me a lot of grace and trusted me to do all I can to fundraise, and so I am asking you to come alongside me with a financial donation of any amount. Whatever God puts on your heart to give, no gift is too big or too small. Together we have raised over $14,000 so far, so another $2000 is a piece of cake, don’t you think? In order to donate, just go online to my blog www.savannahrucker.theworldrace.org and click “Support Me.”
Prayer Requests: that Gaborone Community Chapel would receive their church certificate and their staff would receive work permits, my squad and I would be prepared for re-entry, we would be able to stay present in ministry, we would move from this season to the next gracefully, funding not only for myself, but for my squadmates as well, discernment, and boldness. Thank you so much!
That’s about all I have for this time around. My next newsletter will reach you after the holidays when I’m back stateside.
Sincerely, Savannah Rucker
