For me so far, I feel like I have done well in fundraising. As in I’m getting the word out. I have branched out at church and given letters to people I know but am not super close with. I have mailed out some letters as well. I started selling shirts, which hasn’t gone very well, and have posted a bunch on social media. I have made the first steps in starting to raise money for my trip. Honestly though, as great as it is that I have taken the first steps I have been a little discouraged lately. One of the special events I did was on 11/11/ I posted a few times that day of face book asking for $11 donations on 11/11 for 11n11. I was really excited about this! $11 isn’t a lot so I assumed I would have at least a few people donate. Sadly it has been 12 days since then and no one donated. I keep pulling up my donation page to see if maybe it just took long to post. Not having anyone donate for that made me really discouraged, and I took it kind of personally. When I first started fundraising I felt really good about it. I knew God was going to provide. It’s a little different though when you start fundraising and get “rejected”. When learning how to fundraise everyone talks about strategies to get the word out. Not very many people talk about how to deal with not receiving donations.
Well, that being said, at church they are going over a series called Expect. Every messages hits home for me. The pastor has been talking about reaping what we have sown. They have talked a lot about having faith. That God wants to bless us! He wants us to take a step and expect for his blessing.
Matthew 17:20 “You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.” This is one of the verses the pastor spoke about yesterday. All we need is to have the size of a mustard seed.
To me this was kind of ironic because the other day I found an old necklace I got as a birthday gift when I was in early grade school. The necklace is a mustard seed! It is a small glass ball with a mustard seed inside. It has a very small gold plate with the mustard seed verse on it. Clearly God is trying to tell me something!
I need to keep strong in my faith that God IS going to provide all I need. He will provide it in his timing, not mine. I can’t let not getting the donations I hoped for bring my faith down. I know this is what God wants me to do. Nothing is too big for him! One part of the message at church yesterday the pastor talked about how when we have faith in God he WILL bless us with everything we need. Literally everything! He said that there will be nothing we need that God won’t give us. When I do leave to go to all these countries I will have many needs, not just finical. When the pastor said this I couldn’t help but think of all the blogs I have read where Racers prayed for rain, or a place to sleep, even food; and it all was provided! God WANTS to bless me. He knows my needs. I just need to have faith as a mustard seed (:
