First off, thanks for finding my blog! Whether we're friends or I've only come into brief contact with you at some point, I'm grateful you're taking the time to look into my life and what I'm doing! Keep checking back, the good stuff is yet to come. 🙂
It's been an insanely busy few weeks for me here recently, but I woke up the other day and realized that my first fundraising deadline was in 2 weeks. Oh my. It's now time to see if God can work some miracles for me, because those little numbers look so big when you put a "k" next to it…
3k in two weeks?!?
I'm praying heavily about it and hopefully this is His will and thus there will be a way. I want with all my heart to be able to go minister to the poor and downtrodden overseas, but that can't happen until the funding comes through.
So I'm sipping on a hope cocktail. It's mostly Hope and my heart is at ease with the uncertainty, but it is shaken up with a bit of Worry and Trepidation. I'm a little scared folks. I have to find a lot of money in not-so-much time. I'm going to be living a life unlike anything I've ever experienced in my upper-middle-class upbringing. It's going to be a lot of changes I feel called to live out, but still, this seems so much bigger than something I can do. But that's were God comes in and meets me.
I know that if it's his will, I'll find the fortitude and financial ability to go.
And that, my friends, is what my hope cocktail is based on.
T
Ps, This is my support letter I'm in process of sending out!
~~~~
Sometimes it’s the smallest moments—the tiniest things—that have the power to totally alter the course of your life. Sometimes it’s as simple as an offhanded comment and ensuing conversation with your hairdresser…
Let me back up… This past year I’ve felt very lost (a symptom of my generation, perhaps) after graduating college with excellent marks I felt only a huge loss regarding what direction my life should take. In the words of John Mayer, “…a quarter-life crisis”. Nothing within my reach stirred my passion and got me excited about what my future meant.
Little did I know, that conversation in the chair of my favorite salon would be pivotal in directing the course of the next year of my life. She mentioned she would be leaving the country and I’d need to find another hairdresser. When I inquired why, I could feel the river of my life turn around a bend: “I’m leaving with The World Race to spend almost a year of my life serving others.”
Now this is becoming my story as well. I will be giving eleven months of my life to volunteering in some of the poorest and most downtrodden countries in the world, eleven in all, on The World Race. I am both excited and scared about going because I know that September ’11 to July ’12 are going to be some of the hardest, most challenging, enlightening and hope-filled months of my life. I’ll see firsthand, in the trenches of the third world, the suffering of many while being in a position to help improve their condition. Our work will run the gamut from directing VBS and leading to worship to working in orphanages. It will even including less fun pursuits like building latrines and heart-breaking ministries in “sex-tourism” countries filled with street prostitutes and sex slaves. Whatever the community needs, our team will answer the aching call. While serving others and working to better their lives, I’ll also be working on my own patience, self-discipline, servant leadership skills and exercises in bringing about grace, mercy and justice.
I’m contacting you because I need help to follow this dream.
Firstly, I need your thoughts and prayers. In addition to the many prayer requests that will undoubtedly come up in the course of the next year, some things we need in abundance:
- My team will need plenty of guidance as we do servants’ work for our contacts, addressing their specific needs within each country.
- For perseverance and dedication to our calling, we’re going to be experiencing a lot of potential hardship as we live like those in the community we’re serving.
- I’m personally scared about what this year overseas will entail. It seems so much bigger than something little me can do. I’m tenacious, but the idea of no running water or being exposed to malaria does scare me a little. But I know this is something I’m meant to do, so reassurance throughout the year would be very welcome.
If you would pray for these for us, in addition to whatever else your heart calls to add, we would be in your debt.
Secondly, while I will be volunteering the year of my life to training and fieldwork, it’s still going to cost $14,800 for me to be able to do this.
If there is any way you can help me by giving a tax-deductible gift, however small, to allow me to spend my year making some small, but yet incredibly significant impact on this world, I would be so incredibly grateful.
I will be celebrating my 26th birthday working in the Ukraine if I find enough support to go, and a gift towards my trip would be a fantastic birthday present for both myself and those I will serving in:
Ukraine
Romania
Nepal
India
Tanzania
Uganda
Rwanda
Thailand
Cambodia
Malaysia
And one country yet to be determined on basis of need.
Electronic donations can be made at Http://tinyurl.com/SupportTara
Please select “World Racer” in the drop-down and type “Tara Ptacek” in for the name.
The credit card company deducts 5% for charge card processing, so if it’s convenient for you, it’s preferable that checks be sent to:
Adventures In Missions
P.O. Box 534470
Atlanta, GA 30353-4470
Be sure to indicate the purpose of your gift on your check:
“The World Race (Tara Ptacek)”
*Deadlines I need to meet for my funding:
$3,000 by June 18th, 2011 (20%)
$6,000 by August 18th, 2011 (40%)
$10,500 by December 1st, 2011 (70%)
$14,800 by March 1st, 2011 (100%)
I will be chronicling my journey on a blog,
Http://TaraPtacek.TheWorldRace.org/
Please keep tabs with me. I’d like you to see the good you’ve helped me to accomplish!
In closing, I want to thank you first and foremost for being a friend of mine. I appreciate you taking the time to read this letter and your interest in what my life is gearing up to do. If you are able to help financially support my trip I thank you immeasurably. Your prayers mean so much; please keep me in your thoughts as this year progresses and I try to give back by helping out those in need. I’ve been blessed greatly in my life and indeed, “from everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded.” (Luke 12:48)
Yours truly and sincerely,
Tara Ptacek
