Do you believe God is good? Do you believe He is faithful and will bring forth His plans for you? I for one can testify to this reality as He has been working in bigger ways than I can even begin to understand! God is so overwhelmingly good to me that I can’t help but proclaim His goodness! Even when I may not see it or think it, He is still working everything out for my good.
Romans 8:28 “And we know that everything works together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to His purposes.”
Let me just start off by catching you up to date with what has happened so far along this fundraising journey for World Race Gap Year. As you may have read in previous blogs, I have been going through this fundraising process for several months now with relatively little success in my eyes. I signed up for this calling at the end of December 2017 and have been trying to fundraise ever since. Early on I was able to get a few donations from family and friends and felt like things were going pretty good despite my parents and others telling me their thoughts on the amount I had to raise and the concerns they had with my methods. They felt that I needed to have a full time job to pay for this trip because they didn’t believe people would donate like I thought they would. Needless to say, I didn’t listen to what they were saying because I trusted that God would provide. I stuck to my guns and kept putting the word out about the trip and tried to share with everyone I knew about this trip I was feeling lead to go on. Some were interested and others not so much. After several months passed though, I began to realize that I wasn’t receiving contribution like I thought I would. Several roadblocks came my way that put me at a standstill in fundraising. I even had to deal with a lot of personal issues with my church and the mission comity and at one point the consideration of leaving my church because of a difference in beliefs towards this trip and what God was calling me to. Let’s just say the mission comity didn’t believe they could support it based on what they believe in the Bible and a misunderstanding about what Adventures In Missions stands for. This took away a lot of the fundraising ideas I had and work I was going to do through the church. I didn’t know what to do at this point. Panic mode began to set in and it quickly turned in to the Devil allowing me to believe maybe I wasn’t meant for this trip. Again, you can read more into this in my previous blogs.
Eventually I snapped out of it as time was inching closer to the first deadline of needing $5,000 raised. I knew it was GO TIME and I didn’t know where else to look other than praying to God to let His will be done and show me what it was He wanted me to learn. I believe God was telling me that I needed to have faith in Him, but that He calls us to work and I couldn’t expect it to fall in my lap. This was hard for me to accept because I’m not fond of working when it’s not something I enjoy. My family was right though and I needed to work, but it was so close to deadline that there was no way I could work to earn enough money. I had to humbly go before my dad and explain to him that I knew I messed up and wasn’t going to have the money raised in time and if I could go back in time, I would have been working. I couldn’t go back in time though, so I had to raise the money another way. Luckily, my family believed in me enough to contribute the remaining balance for the first deadline, which was still a substantial amount. I am so thankful that they did because this allowed me to go to Training Camp where I learned so much and began to see how badly I needed to be a part of this.
After Training Camp, I now had from July 20th to August 24th to reach the second deadline, which was $10,000. I currently had just over $5,200 raised and again was wondering how on earth the money was going to be raised. I knew there probably wasn’t much chance anybody would hire me to work for them if I was planning to leave in September. Even if they did hire me, I would feel bad for leaving them so soon after being hired. I figured the only work I could do would be what I was already doing, which was yard work and soccer lessons. I knew that wasn’t going to cut it though. I knew I would have to revisit the idea of convincing my church mission comity to contribute to me going on the Race, or at least allow me to speak in front of the church. Previously, I had really held it against my mission comity for the way I had been shut down and not given a fair chance to explain. I believed I was meant to go on this trip and that they just weren’t wanting to support it. Well through talking with my pastor I began to get a better understanding of the concerns they had about AIM being interdenominational and wanting to make sure that they were teaching the truth of the Gospel and Salvation and any other things. I began to see their concern and wondered for myself what problems could arise if there was a mix of teachings and what we were spreading to others. I even thought maybe I jumped the gun on signing up and wasn’t suppose to be going on this. This was more of the Devil trying to spin lies and cause disruption in the work God was trying to do in me. I do however believe that I failed to do adequate research and find out truth about what I was preparing to jump in to. I do believe God used my church mission comity to help me understand that and take that into consideration from now on before I just agree to something and sign up. I did my own digging and talking with my leaders for World Race and took it all back to God to see what He was trying to tell me.
God eventually explained that even though AIM might seem vague in some of their beliefs to my church mission comity, that I had been to camp and seen them speak the Truth about the Gospel and what living a life for God looks like. I began to understand that AIM was interdenominational to not prevent people from coming in to be discipled and hear Truth. They did reassure me that not just anybody can be accepted to go on this and need to have a decent understanding of the Gospel and must be a believer. Training Camp was basically the final interviewing process to make sure you are mentally, physically, and spiritually fit to go on the Race. God helped me cope with the fact that we might have some people with some misunderstandings about the Bible by helping me realize that we are all learning and growing in our relationships to Him and that we as fellow believers are meant to help bring forth Truth and understanding. God was telling me that I might be needed to help in that process of explaining truths of the Bible to those around me, as well as learning them myself.
So in revisiting my church mission comity, I did my best to explain what I had learned and what God was telling me and the need for me to go on this trip. It still did not work out to my favor though as they still were just having some indifferences and possible misunderstanding on what AIM teaches. I won’t say that I can’t understand why, because I can see where there is some vagueness on what it is AIM actually believe, but I have been there and have also spoken to those that can explain it better than I can and they brought more clarity on what it is they believe. I don’t hold it against the mission comity because they are doing what they believe is right based on what they believe, but I think it’s just a misunderstanding that they aren’t quite able to comprehend as of now. We must each do what we believe is right and what we interpret the Bible to say. Some things we might be right on and other things we could be wrong. AIM teaches that we must acknowledge that, but allow the Gospel to be the main focus. It is a one on one relationship with God though because God expects your faith to be your own. Yes other believers are meant to be in your lives to help challenge you and allow you to grow that faith, but you have to figure out what God says for yourself. I hope and pray light will be shed on this concern they have and they will begin to understand and see the good in this and know that I will be going as a member of their church proclaiming the Truth about God and what Jesus can do for any who will trust in Him and turn from their old ways.
With that being said, I still had no idea how I was going to raise the money, but I believed somehow God would make it happen. I decided I was going to do as many fundraisers as I could possibly think of and hope that people would have a heart and a calling to give. During this time, I knew I had people praying for me. My squad mates and leaders knew about the struggles I was facing at my church and how much I was stressing about raising this money. I even had squad mates parents praying for me. I knew how much I was stressing and I knew it wasn’t healthy and that God was trying to tell me not worry because worrying gets you nowhere. As I was trying to focus on not worrying though, it seemed that my dad was just as worried as I was and was throwing that worry back on me. I kept trying to get him to understand that his worrying and concern he was putting on me wasn’t going to help and it was just stressing me out more. I wanted him to understand that I had faith that God called me to this from the get go and that if He called me to this, He was going to provide the way. At this point I didn’t know how, but I trusted He would provide.
So one individual that was praying for me, told me to just work as hard as I could during this time to raise as much as I could and they would provide the rest. I don’t want to name that person for the sake that they might not want me drawing attention to them and I don’t want to make it seem like they did it for self glory. At first I was wondering if that was actually something they would really do for someone that they barely even knew. I just hoped for the best and hoped that they were serious and perhaps this was finally the answer God was giving me to all my many prayers. I knew I did’t need to count on that as my way out though and that God was still telling me I needed to work. Even if they did provide it, I needed to work for this myself and not just rely on others to provide the way.
I ended up having a car was and food for sell one Saturday morning to hopefully raise a good bit of money. In the end I was met with some disappointment on my part because even though we had raised $352, I knew that my dad and I had spent close to that in supplies and food. So I was basically seeing it as my dad just making his money back. He told me I could have the money, which didn’t make me feel any better because I was still viewing it from the aspect that we did all that work for nothing and my dad could have just donated the money and saved everybody a bunch of time and effort. I was viewing it from the wrong perspective though and failed to see the silver lining. My dad pointed out that yeah we may not have actually made profit, but we were able to be given a chance to serve and bless the community by washing cars and sharing my story with them, as well as them blessing us with their support and prayers. It also gave some of the members of my youth group a chance to serve and help me and be a part of something where they could put others before themselves. On top of that, were a lot of moments to have an effect on many lives through worship, mentoring, and prayer. There was so much good that I was failing to see that came out of that day. It took me some time to see and understand that, and I’m still seeing the good that came from that.
The next day, the person that had been praying for me and saying that they would help contribute, asked how much I made from the car wash. I didn’t go into detail, but simply said I made $352. Next thing I knew, I received a message saying, “I just put $5,000 into your account.” I checked and saw I had the email confirming it and I just couldn’t believe it actually happened. I didn’t even feel worthy to receive such a gift, but they believed God had placed it on their heart to bless me. I quickly shared the news with all my family and was just bursting with joy of how faithful God has been to me. I couldn’t help but think of all the struggles I have been through and roadblock I have faced along the way, but God surpassed all of that. It just blew me away that God had been calling me to this from the beginning and even though it seemed hopeless on several occasions, He was with me through it all and guiding it the way He saw fit. All that I went through definitely happened for a reason and has a purpose. I know I have personally learned a lot about what true faith looks like. I learned to have more patience, to trust in God “fully”, and to work hard for what God is calling you to and He will provide. There has been so much that I have been able to take away from this process so far that has just shaped me and built up my character as a child of God. The road has been long and difficult, but God has been with me every step of the way. I may not always see how He is working, or understand why certain things are happening, but God plans everything out to work for my good.
I am now on the final phase of fundraising, so it is important that I don’t lose focus now. I currently have just over $10,200 raised which means I have reached the second deadline. This guarantees me a spot on this trip to Thailand, Malaysia, Costa Rica, and Ecuador. I will be leaving for launch on September 8, 2018, but I still have to reach the final total of $15,800 by January 15, 2019. There are still a number of ways you can donate, whether it be simply through this blog site, or through one of my other fundraisers. I am selling T- Shirts, candy bars, and doing a yard sell. I also created my own unique fundraiser called the Alphabet Reveal Challenge, where I use my Youtube channel (Zach Trest) to make videos doing challenges hidden under each letter of the alphabet. All you have to do is donate and comment a letter and I will make a video doing the silly challenge for that letter. Feel free to contact me if you are interested in helping me with this final deadline in any of the ways listed above, or any other way you think you could help. Most of all, please keep me in your prayers as I get ready to tackle this experience with God headfirst. I don’t know exactly what to expect, but I know God has big plans and wants to use me. I’m just trying to be faithful and obey wherever He calls me.
