October Support Update

HEY YALL!!!

I can not tell you how excited I am to update everyone on how my support raising has been going.  I am currently sitting at $2,100 and if that wasn’t amazing enough, it has all come with in the last month!! I am so so so appreciative of everyone who has given so selflessly to this wonderful cause.  I am so excited that my desire to go on the World Race is actually coming true. God’s plan is working!!

I knew that when I made the first step in applying for the mission trip that it would be a long process to go through, but I was so excited to go on the journey.  When I first tell people about this trip they are so excited to hear more about it and always have a million questions.  The first questions are always, “Wait, you are leaving for almost a whole year? And, you are going to be where again?”  Of course that is immediately followed by me rambling on and on about the different opportunities I will get to experience and how happy I am to follow God’s calling in this way.  The next question that pops into everyone’s mind is “How much money do you have to raise?” Of course this is my favorite part, because as soon as I tell them the amount it takes to send someone around the world for 11 months their jaws drop and their eyes get huge.  Which was the exact reaction that I got from my parents and family.  They were so confused and a little cautious about the fact that their little girl was going to be asking people for money, a LOT of money. 

They know that I hate doing this and that I’m a very independent person for the most part, I don’t like asking for help in any aspect of my life.  I enjoy the sense of accomplishment I get when I succeed at something on my own and don’t always like to admit that there are some things that I can’t do on my own.  I believe Elias, the youth minister I work with at church, got a first hand experience with this little quirk of mine on our mission trip to Waco, TX this past summer.  We had taken the youth group to a rock climbing wall near work site and all the kids had finished their turns on the wall, so now it was the adults turn.  I did the “medium” section of the wall fairly easily and since I love a challenge I decided to go on and immediately start going up the “hard” section of the wall.  I got about half way when I got stuck.  I wasn’t stuck because I couldn’t reach the next hand or foot hold it was because when I went to reach the next hold my back seized up (most of you know that I have struggled with back pain for a few years now).   So there I am just hanging in the air looking up so that the people below me don’t see me wincing in pain and make me come down, and I keep trying to get to the next position, because I’m also very strong willed and hate to lose or fail at something I have set out to accomplish.  Finally, Jared, the one holding me in the air, looks up and asks if I’m ok and finally I admit that I can’t do it and need to come down.  Once down, I’m practically shaking in pain and can’t even stand up to let him unhook me from all my straps.  So I sit down and he is desperately trying to get the stuff off me because I’m trying to get away from everyone before I start to tear up from the pain.  Later that night I am hunched down in the fetal position on the floor of the kitchen in the house we are staying at and Elias walks in and asks how I am doing.  He lets me know that they have switched a couple girls around so that I can have the harder mattress to help support my back instead of the air mattress I had been sleeping on.  To this, I keep protesting that I don’t need any of that special treatment he is offering me and that I will be just fine as soon as I stretch my back out some.  He leans down and just simply puts his hand on my shoulder and lets me know that it’s ok to ask for help when I need it and that I need to realize that sometimes I won’t be able to do everything on my own. 

So this blog was supposed to be just a short little update on my support raising and to let everyone know how grateful I am for everything they are doing to support me, both financially as well as prayerfully.  But, somehow it turned into a long story about how I don’t like asking for help even when I really need it.  The main point of all of this is to let you know that God is once again teaching me a valuable lesson now that will greatly help me out while I’m on the mission field.  He is teaching me the gift of humility.  By having to ask people to help me raise my funds for this trip, I am being extremely humbled.  He is pulling me so far out of my comfort zone right now.  Even though it’s hard for me, I am truly grateful for this experience in humility because I know I will need it while I’m out there on the World Race.  So once again, from the bottom of my heart…….

THANK YOU ALL!!

I LOVE EACH AND EVERYONE OF YOU DEEPLY