With just under a month left before my team takes off to Guatemala, I wanted to give you all an update on how wild these last two weeks have been.
Tuesday, July 21st, 2015
Fully knowing that on the following day I had to submit a fundraising plan that would somehow explain how I expected to raise the remaining $9,000 necessary for me to go on the World Race, doubt began to enter my thoughts. I wasn’t doubting God’s providence or His power, I just thought that since I was only $3,500 into my fundraising efforts, then maybe God had something else in mind for me. I was so skeptical that I even went as far as to email a few admission counselors to see if they would still let me begin classes for the Fall 2015 semester. That night, while playing ultimate frisbee with some friends I remember telling one of them “I don’t want to put God in a box, but I’m pretty sure He has other plans for me.”
Wednesday, July 22nd, 2015
When I woke up, I wasn’t sure if I should wait out the day to submit my fundraising plan or just get it over with in the morning. I decided to check my account one last time and then submit my plan. Overnight, my account went from $3,500 to $5,100. Still, I was $4,000 short of my deadline and $7,500 short of my total goal. So I submitted my plan, and included in it that my family had offered to donate $2,500. To my surprise, I received a response almost immediately stating that my plan was approved as long as I could provide proof that my family was going to donate $2,500.
Thursday, July 23rd, 2015
At 8:30 a.m. I threw my pack in my teammate’s car and we began our 18 hour drive out to Georgia for training camp. Somehow, I, Thomas Dean, the kid who took 8 months to raise just $3,000, was going to training camp. In just two days, God completely flipped my world around and reset my focus to Him and His plans.
Training Camp
It’s tough to explain everything that happened in those 10 days. In worship, we saw people on the ground being wrecked by the grace of God. Through prayer, we saw people get healed of asthma and family members give their lives to Christ [no joke, a teammate of mine received a call one day from his dad and his dad told him “I want what you have”(referring to his faith) the day after some of my squad prayed for him.]. Above all, I was shown a glimpse of what the community I’ll be living in looks like. The women going with us are incredible sisters in Christ, exemplified by the fact that they woke up before the sun just to pray for us men as we set out on our macho manly man hike. And the brothers, oh man the brothers, they’re so awesome that we all decided that for the first three months we would commit our time to growing as men of God together. So in Guatemala, myself and six other men from my squad will be on a team together working with middle school and high school-aged guys in Antigua. I couldn’t be any more excited with what’s yet to come.
All that being said, I’ve got a little less than three weeks left in Colorado to finish preparing and start saying goodbye. On August 21st I have another financial deadline of $10,500. I’m currently at $9,300 so I only need $1,200 to reach that! Please, if you feel led to donate, it would mean so much! You can do so here on my blog by clicking the “Support Me!” tab. Until then, I’d love to get a chance to talk with as many people as I can before I leave so give me a call if you’ve got time to meet up!
God Bless,
Thomas
