Guys! It has been a crazy few months since I posted my first blog! Life has been going non-stop with school ending and starting my summer job and I am just now getting a chance to really sit down and write some of my thoughts, so look forward to seeing a few new blogs up son! For this blog lets talk about FUNdraising!!! So if you have never done any type of fundraising before lets just be honest: getting started it is really not that fun! (See what I did there) but it is a must and it has really opened my eyes to the Lords goodness and promises, so lets get to breaking down how my fundraising has been going and what is coming next!
I am currently 20% funded for my trip! It may not look like a lot but for me it is so much! My first big fundraiser was selling Lovishly necklaces for the month of March. I advertised them on social media and people loved them but no one was placing an order, which of course freaked me out. I decided to take the necklaces I had up to work and try to sell them there because we all know teachers love jewelry, and they were selling like crazy! I was so excited and it was also reassuring that my collogues were supportive of what I was going to be doing for the next year of my life. I was able to raise $255 from that fundraiser!
My second fundraiser has been selling these super awesome t-shirts! People love shirts and I have been able to raise almost $1000 off my first order of shirts! One of the most amazing parts about putting out flyers for shirts is not the amount of shirts that I have sold but really the people I have met through the process and the amount of strangers that have told me they don’t want a shirt but they would rather just donate to me directly. LIKE WHAT?! How wonderful is it to see our Father just do his thing with complete strangers! My heart just bursts when I think about how he is impacting others to give to me for his cause.
My next upcoming fundraiser, which will be happening in two weeks, is going to be a garage sale! Which seems like no big deal but heres a little back story about the garage sale: The main problem with having a sale was that I didn’t really have very many items so I decided to (awkwardly and kind of reluctantly) ask people I know if they would like to donate items for me to sell, which lets be honest is so uncomfortable to ask others if you can sell their items and have the money, but I did and only three people gave me some items. Aco taco. So then my cousins mother- in- law brought two large trunks full of items, which was a huge blessing, but I still felt that the garage sale was going to be too small. I began to become extremely worried and told my mom that I didn’t know if the sale was going to go very well, and I was also going through a little bit of doubts about if this was the right thing for me to do leaving everything for an entire year and going so far out of my comfort zone; but then God pretty much said don’t doubt me. I received a Facebook request from a woman named Emily who I had never met, now normally I don’t accept requests from people I do not know but I did for Emily. She sent me a message that day that said she had met my dad at their church (he opens the building for them and sets up) and she had items she wanted to donate after she had talked to my dad. So I thought great this is awesome. Okay when she said items I didn’t have any idea of the amount of things she would bring. I didn’t even know how to thank her I was so overwhelmed by her generosity, but what was the best part about meeting Emily was that she took some time to just speak words of encouragement and faith over my team and me and I just had to hug her. Someone who knows nothing about me felt so strongly about our mission and what the Lord was going to do through us was so encouraging and reassured me that this is where the Lord wants me to be. So Emily if you are reading this thank you to both you and your husband for encouraging me and coming alongside me for this journey. Saying thank you a million times won’t ever be enough for how grateful I am! After receiving Emily’s donation we have been receiving donations non-stop to where our garage sale is completely full and it is overflowing into our home! We may have to have two sales!
So long story short (ok this blog really isn’t that short) I say all of this to say, never doubt Gods plan. It may not make any sense, it won’t be easy at times, and there will be times you will feel like you are getting knocked down when someone you thought was going to donate decides they aren’t feeling called to do that, and you have to remind yourself that that is okay. In John 11:40 it says: and then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God? “Fundraising has really opened my eyes to seeing his glory and that he will do what he needs to do for his will to be done!
I think what’s great about God is that sometimes he tells us no (crazy right) But he then says have FAITH in what I am doing because then you will see my glory. This can always be used in our everyday life, not just fundraising. You could be struggling with losing a job, trying to decide if you should buy a new house, or even just trying to decide how you are going to pay your bills, but just remember it may be really hard now but believe that the Lord will show you his way.
For those of you wondering how you can help you can donate right here on my blog by clicking the donate button! If you live in Stillwater or surrounding areas you can also come to my garage sale on June 17th (weather pending). Follow me on social media to get updates on current fundraisers or just keeping up with what’s going on in my life!
Have a great Friday everyone! 118 days until Launch!
