Whelp.
Here I am talking about fundraising… again.
Yeah… I’m not a huge fan of it either.
In fact, I hate asking other people for help.
But, you know what. God is in control of it all and God is calling the shots.
So why then do I dislike fundraising so much?
Maybe that’s a pride thing?
Err, let’s be real, it’s probably a pride thing.
However, what I have learned is that God has called us ALL to partner with Him in the spreading of the Gospel to all nations—yet He calls each of us differently.
He calls some of us to be the “goers” and some of us to be the “senders,” and without the senders, the goers wouldn’t be able to go.
“Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’” Matthew 28:18-20
If I were to be 100% real with you, after my 11 month World Race last year, I thought I was going to be a sender for the rest of my life. In fact, all of my post-Race plans revolved around me being a sender. As I wrote about before, here, I had a job lined up, I already had plans to support missionaries, and I even had a huge vision of how my workplace was going to be my mission field.
And then God said “no, not right now. I have something better in mind for you.”
God never told me that those dreams were bad for me to have—He just asked me to trust that He had even bigger dreams and plans for me; larger than I could have even began to imagined.
Which brought me around to something one of my squad leaders from my Race, Madie (shout out to her because she is still fundraising too), would ask a lot—“Is this an Isaac or an Ishmael?” Meaning is it God’s best plan for you or is it something that you are settling for that is less than God’s best?
Whelp, apparently my plans of being a sender was my Ishmael and going out and actually being the hands and feet of Jesus is my Isaac. And to be honest, this is a struggle—it is a constant battle with my pride and my own desires to be independent. But God doesn’t call us to be independent—He calls us to be dependent upon Him and Him alone.
You know the common phrase, “God won’t give you more than you can handle.”? Well I think that is rubbish. I believe that God absolutely gives us more than we can handle… but He won’t give us more than we can handle with Him (because He can handle anything).
And well… this fundraising thing is something that I can’t handle on my own.
So, I’m laying down my pride and telling you that this is far more than I can handle on my own. It just isn’t possible for me to be able to do this without help.
Therefore, I’m out right asking you to partner with me—but first and foremost, partner with God—and become a “sender.”
I currently have one month left to fundraise and I am still needing to raise $1340 through Adventures In Missions, and I am looking to raise an additional $350 for personal funds such as toiletries, team bonding activities, and my flight home for Christmas (mostly for my flight home, to be honest).
If you feel led to donate to the Adventures In Missions funds you can donate at my blog, bethanygrayczyk.theworldrace.org, through my PayPal, [email protected], through my Venmo, @bethany-rose93, or through giving a donation to one of my family members who can get it to me. Then if you feel led to donate to my personal funds you can donate through my PayPal, my Venmo, or through my family members.
Trust me, I hate talking about this as much as you probably hate hearing me talk about it; but the sooner the funds are raised the sooner I will stop talking about it.
Stay tuned for a blog coming soon about what God has been revealing to me about Africa!
With much love and prayers,
Bethany
P.S. I am still doing my Adopt-A-Box fundraiser.
An Adopt-A-Box is when you don’t the amount of money corresponding to the number of the box that you are “adopting.” I.e. Box 1 = $1 and Box 70 = $70.
EDIT: Whelp, after spending 45 minutes trying to upload my Adopt-A-Box photo, it won’t upload… Gotta love international wifi. However, my boxes that are available are…
3, 7, 12, 13, 16, 17, 19, 21, 23, 24, 25, 28, 31, 32, 34, 37, 39, 40, 42, 44, 45, 47, 48, 49, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 58, 59, 60, 61, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, and 70!
So.. with that being said, please adopt some of my boxes!! Thanks 🙂
