For those of you who do not know, I recently graduated from the University of Georgia (Go Dawgs!). The best possible option for me after college was to move back home with my parents. Though it has been… interesting at times, it really has been a blessing to spend time with my mom, dad, and little brother; the kind of time I did not feel like I had to spare during the end of college. Through living at home, I have started going to the church my parents have plugged into: Passion City Church in Atlanta.
The most recent sermon series at Passion City is entitled “More: Why the future is better than you think.” The basic take-away for me has been that we do not have to live life with a scarcity mentality because our God is a God of abundance. For many, this seems to ring true in other people’s lives, but not in their own experience. I was one of you, but God is radically changing that.
Since this blog is specifically for my World Race, I’m assuming many of you know that next year I will be going on an 11-month missions trip and during those 11 months I will be going to 11 different countries. For this mission trip, I am called to raise a large sum of money through the support of others (as seen on the top of my page). In order to raise the money, I began fundraising efforts by sending out my first round of support letters on August 15th. In the midst of calling the many people I had sent letters to, I was informed of a fact I had somehow missed: if I did not reach my first fundraising goal I would be unable to attend training camp. This does not seem like such a big deal, but the next fundraising goal was then approximately two weeks away, due to the processing time for donations, and all my account had in it was my initial donation ($150). The goal was for $3,500. That day, I had what most people call a bit of a break down. I called my mentor crying, having absolutely no idea how I would close that gap. One thing she affirmed to me was that God knew how that gap was going to closed. If I did all I could, he would recognize that and come through in his timing, whatever that timing may be. It was up to Him now, not me. When she prayed with me she prayed something that I now see as hugely important: abundance. That I would not just get to that goal, but that God would get me over that goal.
Here I sit, a mere 3 weeks later, and God got me there. He delivered. He delivered on his promise to provide for me, to show me that he really is the God of abundance. Within a week and a half I was at my goal. And by the deadline I was at almost double.
Oh Lord, how you really are the God of abundance.
“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” Matthew 6:26 NIV
