Yesterday, I wrote thank you notes. Eighteen, to be exact.
I know, I know, I’m ridiculously behind the times. I’ve been fully funded since March 2nd. I should have written all of these months ago–in fact, I should have written many of them last year.* To everyone who has given financially to support my World Race journey but hasn’t yet received my thanks, I’m truly sorry. Your support is VERY much appreciated.
But yesterday, I finally sat down in front of a stack of eighteen pretty Thai cards and artsy Malaysian postcards and composed my thank you notes. And here’s what I learned from this marathon day of thanksgiving:
Man, am I ever grateful.
God provided all $16,250 I needed to complete the World Race He’d called me to. Wow, am I ever thankful for His awesome provision for His children. He doesn’t leave us high and dry; He is on our side and He comes through.
But far, far better than the money God raised are the people He raised up to supply it. I scroll through my support account web page and see name after name after name of people who love me, care about me, believe in me and support me, and who do these things to such a degree that they’re willing to sacrifice their own funds in order to see God’s work in and through me go forth. I scroll through the names of my family members, my parents’ friends, my church family, my college friends, my high school friends, my teachers and professors, people I’ve encountered regularly or randomly, and people I’ve never met in my life–and even when I think there can’t be any more, I’m still scrolling. The list of people God has brought to join alongside me in this ministry goes on and on and on.
Wow.
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Let me tell you a handful of stories about how your love and generosity has touched my heart.
One of my friends in college waited about six months before giving me a hundred dollar donation. She told me she’d thought about giving sooner, but she’d wanted to save up until she could give me a significant amount. I think about her setting aside a little bit here, a little bit there, contributing to my mission trip for months, and it makes me appreciate every cent of her gift even more. She demonstrated for me what it means to intentionally love someone well for the long haul, and to choose to make daily sacrifices in order to care for and bless them.
One of my friends’ moms prayerfully considered how God was leading her to support me and then surprised me with a massive donation. Her gift was a powerful encouragement to me that God had led me to the Race and was going to provide everything I needed. But more than that, her generosity also showed me what it looks like to hold all our resources with open hands and trust God to provide for our own needs as He uses what He’s blessed us with to further His Kingdom work in the best way possible. All the wealth of the earth is His anyway, so how can we not walk in obedience as He directs us in how to steward what He’s given us?
My church had an open space in their missions budget the year that I launched and decided to donate the generous surplus funds to my World Race. Their unasked willingness to include me on the list of missionaries they were supporting, to list me alongside men and women serving God’s Kingdom long-term both domestically and abroad, awed me. Their generosity also encouraged me that the Lord really had led me to this mission, and their support demonstrated to me that what God considers a worthy call, we should also consider a worthy call.
Sometimes it’s the names I don’t recognize that leave me the most awed and thankful: a future World Racer I’ve never met donated to my journey. Her support demonstrated that I don’t need to know someone in order to know that God’s work is worthy of sacrifice. It also reminded me that I’ve been given an incredible gift in getting to go on this eleven month journey, and when I have the opportunity, I want to turn around and help others receive that gift, too.
In the last weeks before my financial deadline, when I still had a thousand dollars left to raise, my sisters from my college small group banded together to support me and keep me on the field. I felt the love with each Facebook post they shared and every last dollar they gave. We’re all fresh out of college and not exactly made of money, but their love in action reminded me that the body of Christ is a family that cares for each individual, and that everything we offer up to God matters, whether it’s enormous or very small.
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I could go on and on. God has raised up a huge community around me to send me on this journey, and each and every gift has touched my heart in a unique way. Each one of you has shown me a new side of what it means to join in God’s work and love someone well. For every one of these beautiful examples of love you’ve demonstrated, thank you. I want to love others the way you have loved me.
When I’m not paying attention, my support account is just a spreadsheet of letters and numbers. But maybe that’s why God had me write eighteen thank you notes in one day: so He could take my already great gratitude and multiply it eighteenfold.
For all your support and love and for making my World Race mission trip possible, from the bottom of my heart I say, thank you.
*A special apology goes to my family, especially my dad and my aunt. I come from good, polite, hospitable Southern stock, and my family did not raise me to neglect thank you notes for months on end. I’m sorry for not living out the values you instilled in me. They’re there! They’re just still a little rough around the edges.
