*For those of you who would be confused about the timing of this blog… I wrote it about three weeks ago*
This week was going to be difficult or at least I thought it was going to be. Let me explain…
This last weekend we had a wrestling tournement. Last year, when I went to this tournament, a lot of things went wrong. First, I forgot my wrestling shoes, then I missed weight and to top it of I sustained an injury that put me out for the next three weeks. Needless to say I have a bad track record with this tournament in particular. I didn’t want to go this year and I had expressed this to both my coach and my parents, but I still ended up going. To make matters worse it was the weekend before finals. I didn’t think that I would have an adequate amount of time between work and wrestling to get all of my finals work done. So rather than pushing through and solving my problems like a normal human I decided to sulk my way through Saturday.
My parents arrived at the tournament with my backpack in hand so I could study in the down time between matches. I was not happy to see the work. As I started my homework I had a hard time focusing on the work, because I was too busy thinking “woe is me”.
That’s when I got in email from Adventures In Missions telling me that my first donation had been recieved!! My spirits were brightened by the email. “At least I have something to make my day a bit better” I remember thinking. What I didn’t expect was how big of a donation that my donor had given. I open the email and had to read it twice before I realized how generous my donor was. I was flabbergasted. I hadn’t done any serious fundraising yet. I hadn’t even sent out my support letters. My sponsor seemed to be sick of waiting for me to do something and gave me this wonderful gift. My sponsor may not know it, but she set the tone for the rest of my week.
After I got her donation I had a new lease on life. I was on a mission to make the most of this day. I ended up winning the whole tournament. It was my first first place of my entire high school career. I was very excited and was astonished by this turn of events. Little did I know, there was much more in store for me this week.
The next day I got a message from one of my friends from church who is going to confirmation classes. Unexpectedly, he asked me to be his sponsor for his confirmation. I was stunned, so stunned in fact that instead of responding to him I called my church and asked if I was even allowed to because of my age. “OF COURSE!!” she told me. So I texted him and said that I would be honored and that I was really excited to go on this journey with him.
Just when I thought God was done, He did something absolutely phenomenal. I got another email from Adventures in Missions. This one wasn’t a donation email, but a notification that a comment had been made on one of my blogs. A new sponsor told me that he would match any donations that I raised prior to my last day of wrestling. I was speechless, but my sponsor was smart. He made my deadline flexible. He made it so that I would determine when the deadline comes. He forced me to work harder than I ever have in my high school career. Making it to seconals gives me another week, making it to state gives me two extra weeks, but in order to make the most of this I need to do some serious fundraising in a short amount of time. I plan to take full advantage of this generous donation.
And just for kicks… God brought freezing rain. No, I’m not complaining, I n fact, it was a great blessing for me. God brought so much freezing rain that school got canceled and I was gifted with another week to study for my finals. Now I have more than enough time to be prepared for my finals. I’m truly thankful for the way this week turned out.
I came into the week thinking it was going to be very difficult. Thankfully, God had other plans. I have no doubt I will have numerous weeks like this on my race. What’s so fantastic about these difficult times though, is that you get to realize all the good that comes of them and the good that you failed to see before. I look forward to more of these weeks when I will be able to grow with my team, with my faith, and even with myself. However I don’t think I’ll be realizing how good I have it right away.
As I said above it is crunch time for me and my fundraising. I cannot do this alone. Each of you is vital to this. Please subscribe to this blog to get updates for when I post. You can do that by clicking the box in the upper left hand corner of this site and you can donate by clicking the box on the right hand side. Thank you all so much for your support and I look forward to sharing every minute of this experience the good, the bad and the ugly.
* Like I said at the beginning I wrote this about three weeks ago. Now I’m up to $5,070.00 raised before the donation match. I would be ecstatic if we could get $7,500.00 raised before the end of my season. I would basicly be done fundraising and be set for my trip long before I even left for training camp. Again, thank you all so much for what I have already raised. It is so humbling to see the faith that so many of you have in me.*
