As Training Camp quickly approaches (only 9 days away now!), God has been speaking to my heart about 2 things: surrender and uncomfortableness. While these might seem like negative things, they really aren’t. God wants me to get uncomfortable in my life by stepping outside of my comfort zone in new ways. God wants to challenge me, to mold me in His image, and that takes a lot of uncomfortableness and trust in Him. And that leads me to surrender. Trusting God can sometimes be very difficult. Not because I think He won’t come through for me, because I know He will, but it’s about surrendering control in areas of my life that I think I have all figured out. When I was talking to my squadmate Rebecca about what God has been putting on my heart lately, she reminded me that, “God wants territory over all of you, so just let it happen.”
The simple truth of that makes me smile. God wants all of us, so to hold back anything from Him is to tell God that He can have this area of my life, but He can’t have that one. Which is ridiculous. When I gave my life to Christ and truly started following Jesus, I willingly chose to surrender everything to Him, because His plans are always better than mine. In Isaiah 55:9 God says, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (NIV)
Something I know for certain is that God loves to throw us curve balls just when we think we have everything all figured out. A few weeks back, I faced uncertainty with travel vaccinations because my carefully planned 3-shot series Rabies vaccinations that I had made appointments for months in advance, now all had to be rescheduled because of a scheduling error that made one of the dates fall during Training Camp, instead of the day before Training Camp starts. Since all the shots have to be a certain amount of days apart, this meant that my Rabies shots had to be pushed back to late June and early July instead of late May and all throughout June. I was hoping to get these shots over with earlier rather than later so I’m not pushing right up against the deadline of when I need all my shots by to leave the country, but God had other plans.
However, because God is good all the time, this ended up being a blessing in disguise because I was now able to schedule my shots after I’m finished with work, so I don’t have to coordinate my off days and morning shifts with work; this means I will have more time to rest at home and be able to fully recover after each shot; and this also means that my 2nd shot in the series won’t be the day before Training Camp, meaning that I don’t have to be sore for my first day of Training Camp and I don’t have to worry about my fitness requirement being early on during Camp, where I would have to carry my heavy backpack with one arm that feels numb or throbbing. So while it was stressful at first having to reschedule 3 doctors appointments and making sure they all fell after I got back from Training Camp and before the final date I can get vaccinated according to Adventures in Missions, the benefits of scheduling these shots later rather than sooner far outweighed the costs.
This isn’t the only area of my life where God has been speaking to me about surrender. While I am very grateful to have a job right now, it has actually been difficult for me to balance all the things I need to do and people I need to follow up with for fundraising while working at the same time. Yes, work makes me more financially stable, but since the majority of the money I make is going to go towards paying back loans, so I can either make payments on loans while I’m away, or at least put some money down on the principle amount before deferring certain loans for a year, this doesn’t help me much towards my support raising goal in my account.
However, God has been showing me that while it’s important and necessary for me to reach out to and follow up with the people and churches He has placed on my heart that He wants to provide for me through, God doesn’t need me to raise this money. God has shown me time and time again that whenever I start stressing about how much support I’ve raised a particular month if it’s less than where I want to be, or I worry about not having enough time to follow up with who I need to follow up with, as long as I keep praying earnestly and seeking to do His will, God will provide as soon as I remember to surrender that to Him. Most of the donations I’ve received, no matter how big or small, have come in God’s perfect timing when I was actually worried about whether or not the funds would come in. For example, some people have said that they will donate, but they weren’t able to donate right away, but when they finally did donate, the money came right at a time where I just know that was God smiling down on me saying something to the effect of, “I’ve got your back.” Another example is when I talk to a person or a couple who say they definitely do want to donate, but then I have no way of following up with them and I have no idea how much God has laid on their hearts to give, God surprises me one day with a huge donation that I was not expecting at all, and it becomes a huge blessing to me and I praise God and do a happy dance because God reminds me that it’s nothing I could’ve done to make this happen. God simply wanted to bless me at this time for being obedient to Him in the small things and to show me that He is my provider.
Some recent praises with fundraising: As you can see, I have recently made and surpassed my $10,000 goal!! Praise the Lord for He is a good, good Father!! Thank you so much to everyone who has helped me reach this goal or my last goal of $5,000!! Everyone I’ve encountered throughout this process of support raising has been such a blessing to me, whether you have helped me out financially, prayerfully, with encouragement, by reading my blogs, by getting excited with me about the World Race, whether you have donated $5 or over $1,000, you are all the best support team I could have ever asked for! At the beginning of this support-raising journey, I was worried that maybe people won’t feel led to give, people just won’t get why I’m raising money, or I might get a lot of negative feedback for asking others to help me make this calling of mine possible. But God and all of you have definitely proved me wrong! I feel so supported and so loved! All of your sacrificial giving and the blessings I have received already have really bolstered my confidence, making me more bold when I ask people to help be a part of sending me on the World Race, and also to ask more bold prayers of God as well when I see all that He has done to provide through all of you!
Something I’d like to share with you guys is an amazing way God has provided for me recently. Soo many people have asked me if I’m bringing a camera with me to take pictures of my trip to bring back and show everyone or to post on social media. And I have also been meaning to get a camera for a long time now, not only to take pictures, but to start a vlogging ministry to document my mission trip, as well as some of my preparation before I leave. What is vlogging you may ask? A vlog is a video-log where I can film parts of ministry that I am allowed to take videos of, as well as Training Camp and parts of my preparation like how am I going to fit a year’s worth of my stuff in 2 backpacks? I’ve been worrying about how I will afford a camera on top of my other pieces of gear that I still need to get, as those things are more necessary and important than a camera. Recently after being encouraged by a squadmate who said a bold prayer to God to provide for her in a big way to show her that He definitely wants her to go on the World Race, and her being answered in a BIG way, I decided to pray for God to show up for me in a big way.
Guess what God did?!? At my cousin’s graduation party, I mentioned to my great aunt how I have been looking into cameras for my trip because I’d really like to get a tiny point-and-shoot to take pictures and videos of ministry, and she told me that she has a spare camera that she doesn’t need that she can send to me if I want to bring it on the World Race!! Wow! How cool is God for answering my bold prayer in a way that I specifically have been praying about for a while! Thank you so much Aunt M.C.!! You offering for me to use your camera means the world to me! If the camera makes it in time, I’m hoping to start my vlogging ministry by taking the camera to Training Camp to show you guys a bit of what goes on at Training Camp (and I don’t even know much of what to expect, since Adventures in Missions is very secretive about it). If the camera doesn’t make it in time, I am still going to have my phone on me and I hope to take pictures or short videos on it with the sparse electricity we’ll have there.
That brings me to Training Camp! Training Camp is June 8th to 18th in Georgia. I am not going to be able to use my phone much during this time for texting, Facebook messaging, phone calls, or email. I might take pictures or videos with it, but I also want to be very intentional with my time there. This is the very first time I’ll be meeting my squad, K-squad, in person!! I am super excited about this since we have all been talking about Training Camp for nearly 9 months now for some of us. We are also going to meet the 5 other squads that are launching with us in August 2016 and drumroll please…we will find out who’s going to be on our first team out of our squad when we launch!! Training Camp is also the time where Adventures in Missions will tell us whether we get a special role on our squad and will confirm which country we’re definitely leaving out of in August.
As of now, Cote d’Ivoire in Africa is our first country, but as I’ve mentioned to some friends, family members, and supporters, Cote d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso are two countries that are up in the air right now whether they will stay on our route or whether we go to a different country or continent first due to safety reasons. At Training Camp, Adventures in Missions will reveal to us whether our ministry partners in these countries have deemed them safe enough for us to travel to or whether a switch needs to be made. I am looking forward to going to these 2 countries, but I am not overly attached to them if God wants to send us elsewhere.
If you feel so led, please keep all these things in prayer, as well as for all the squads launching in August, for K-squad in particular, and for my team to prepare our hearts for everything to come at Training Camp! It should be exciting, but we also don’t know much of what to expect other than that we will undergo spiritual, cultural, and physical training at Training Camp. I am prepared to be wrecked for Jesus in the best way possible during these 10 days, but any and all prayer is definitely appreciated!! If you would like to help me out financially, you can either donate by clicking the “donate!” button above or by contacting me personally if you would like to donate towards the last few pieces of gear I need or towards the Rabies series shot or Yellow Fever shots I am still raising support for (separate from my account) that I will be starting shortly after Training Camp. Again thank you so much for everyone who has helped me to get this far and this close to achieving my dreams and following the calling God has placed on my heart! God bless!!
