You guys, God is showing up in huge unexpected ways in my life. I wanted to share a story about a really amazing guy that unexpectedly changed my life, and inadvertently the lives of others around me.
Back in December, while working for CRU in Vietnam, I got a random message from a guy on Instagram. Normally, I don’t respond well to random people writing to me, but The World Race has changed my perspective a little. There have been so many times random people will message me just offering me words of encouragement and prayers. It’s actually been really amazing to see people reach out to me!
I figured this was one of those messages and was really flattered that he reached out. He told me he had a message for me and asked for my email address. I was slightly skeptical at first, but I felt like God was telling me to stop being so uptight. I don’t usually give people the benefit of the doubt. I’m one of those people that believes people are out to get me, or scam me and make them ‘work’ their way into my good graces. (Not very Jesus like, I know, I’m working on it!) So I gave this guy my email address and he sent me a super long message telling me he wanted to financially support me. He said he was a hairstylist and wanted to donate all of the tips he made over the Christmas season to me. He ended the email with a beautiful prayer to me and lifted me up with so much encouragement.
I was shocked. I literally cried and then ran to my teammates and told them the story. I couldn’t believe that somebody that I’ve never met wanted to follow my journey and support me in such a huge way.
It wasn’t even the money that mattered to me, I honestly don’t care about money at all. (Somebody pray I marry a man who’s good with finances!) It was just the fact that he found my Instagram page, had been thinking about me and praying for me and decided to write me this beautiful heartfelt letter. I just couldn’t believe that my life would have any impact on a total stranger in that sort of way.
The month went on and our squad met up in Ho Chi Minh for a leadership development weekend. I am the lead storyteller on my squad, and gave a talk about the importance of blogging and social media during this season. I used this story as an example of how much of an impact we actually make and how people all over the world are watching us.
I had been emailing this guy back and forth, offering prayers and encouragement occasionally, but then we moved on to Ethiopia where we weren’t connected at all to wifi. We finally arrived in Rwanda and I started to get caught up, one of my squad mates, came up to ask me if I wanted to donate money to our Ethiopian host to help pay off his student loans.
Of course!
I went into my Venmo account to transfer money and I sat staring at my phone totally baffled by what I saw.
Three separate transactions dated back to early December from this guy. He had donated over $600 to me! You guys, six hundred dollars. Can you even believe that???
I ended up donating three times as much to our ministry host in Ethiopia because of him!
Honestly, I didn’t think people like that existed. Total strangers who have the same heart and passion for the Lord helping each other out. He told me he was too busy working and couldn’t find time to do missions, so now he supports other people that can do the work of the Lord. I sit here writing this, and I still can’t believe it. Why would somebody want to help me? What did I ever do to deserve something like this?
The truth is I don’t deserve it. As my dad says.. “We all deserve death.” haha but really.. nothing that I have done has been because of my talents or efforts, but everything I’ve done is because of God and for God. He has provided so many opportunities and contacts and moments over the past seven months that have just blown me completely away. I feel like I literally don’t have to worry or fear anything because I know that no matter the situation, God will provide for me because He loves me and cares about me so much.
I just wanted to share that story because sometimes people really are amazing. And it’s because we all are listening and being obedient to the same incredible God.
