These are the words that came to my mind when I was told I had to raise $14,951 dollars. I never thought that I would ever be fully funded since I had to raise all this money by myself.
When I first started fundraising, I prayed about how I was going to reach each deadline of $5,000, $10,000 and the last of the $15,000. I started off by selling t-shirt. I came up with a design and mailed it in and started asking my friends, family, and anyone that liked my photos on social media to buy one. At the end of this fundraiser, I made almost $2,000 and was really close to my first deadline. I sent out support letter for the very first time thinking that none of these people would donate to me and I don’t really see how God is going to provide in this situation. Most people know that my family is very wealthy and honestly my grandparents could have paid this whole amount off very quickly. But instead that didn’t happen. This is an amazing story to me personally. Here I am on December 19th fully funded and it’s all because of my hard work and God providing when I never thought he would. I have worked so hard for this moment. Over the summer I got two jobs working almost every day and night, never having time for my friends or family. Giving up almost everything I have had for what Jesus has called me to do in the fall. Almost every paycheck I made went to the race. The next fundraiser that I did was selling bracelets. This one was so stressful, but God worked though me and helped me out. I went door to door telling people about my mission and asking them to buy a bracelet or to donate. When I went to one house, an older girl told me about the famers market and that I should try to sell my bracelets there. So I looked into it and worked almost ever Saturday of my time in college and the summer at the famers market selling my bracelets. After all these fundraisers, I had almost hit the $10,000 deadline and honestly didn’t know how I was going to get the rest. This was the moment when I knew that I had asked almost everyone I know to donate and support me. I still knew I was going to do the race. This is what God called me to. And no amount of money was going to take the calling that Jesus layed on my heart away. My family and I decided to do a pancake feed where I had one of my Grandma’s friends donate his time to make the pancakes on his pancakes maker. He donated all the items and his time. I made almost $1,000 that day. As I’m still fundraising with bracelets, the next fundraiser happens to come to my mind. “The fair” I got so excited when I found out that I was excepted to sell bracelets at the fair. But I knew that I had to give up my two jobs for 2 weeks to fundraise. And the question came to my mind, “will I make more money by working or at the fair?” This was something I had to pray about even with having to put down a $300 down payment. When I came to fill out the paperwork for working at my booth, the young girl was very surprised at what I was raising money for and was supper nice to me and lowered the booth price of $300 to only $150. This took a big weight off my shoulder and I knew at this point I was supposed to work the fair. When I worked the fair, I worked from almost 7 in the morning to midnight everyday and I have to give up my Sundays at church. Fundraising at the fair took a lot of energy out of me but God was truly in the middle of it all. I got to talk to so many strangers about my mission and what God called me to. I got to have fun with the people who helped me. Having my sisters, my grandma, and my friends come out to the fair to work by my side and support me in this way was one of my favorites! There was one night where I got ripped off by a fake $100 bill and I was very angry at myself for not noticing it right away. When I got home, I told my grandma what had happen and she told me that maybe I should call the news to help them know that fake money is going around and it could also help me out at the fair for people to come see my booth and what I was doing. Having this on the news didn’t help me out that much with fundraising but it made a ton of people come to my both and ask me about what I believe in. I sometimes didn’t get the best support, but I also had people who supported me. And in those moments, I had to see the good and not the bad. After fundraising at the fair I made over $2000 which was crazy! I was so proud of myself that I took a week off of work to hangout with friends and family before I was leaving. When I left for the race, I had almost $3,000 left to raise.
Fundraising on the race is not easy. It is so hard to ask people to support you and donate to you. I thought maybe when people started to see my blogs, pictures and social media post that maybe they would donate. But that wasn’t the case. Its really had to put my trust in the lord in all these moments. God literally has provided for every deadline no matter how far away I was for that goal, he somehow made away. And that was the same with the final deadline to have all $14,951 in by December 30th. This is my crazy story of how God provided when I didn’t think he could.
I not only am fully funded but I have almost $100 over the amount that was due. So I just wanted to take the time to thank everyone who has supported me though this process! The people that took the time out of their day to help me at the fair, the people that bought bracelets and t-shirts from me, the people that came to my pancake feed, to my monthly supporters and to the people that have prayed for me ever since I got accepted. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for believing in me and the calling that God placed on my heart. If you were planing on donating to my trip but just didn’t get to it you still can! I have 3 teammates that are still trying to reach that deadline. Even though the money doesn’t go to me it’s going towards my teammates to help keep them on the race and the same calling that god places on there life as will. So please consider donating to them and to keep us all in your prayers. Thank you.
http://abbyceglowski.theworldrace.org/
http://colepehote.theworldrace.org/
http://willholt.theworldrace.org/
