Praise GOD!!! I had my first benefit concert for the World Race last Saturday night and it was absolutely AMAZING! God showed up and I couldn’t have asked for a more fabulous night! I arrived at the Ishii’s at 5:30 and we all began to unload the equipment and prepare the house for guests. 
Our MC for the night was very last minute and such a great deal of fun. Ryan showed up in his suit and green tie ready to make us laugh. I had invited a couple hundred people but here in L.A. people are so busy that I knew there would be less than that. I prayed that God would bring the people there that He wanted. 
There were three performers there that night and boy did they bring the passion to the event. My dear friend John Torres and his partner Konstantin opened up and they rocked out! I could listen to them all day long. Check out www.Johntorres.com
Then Jomar performed, and it was his first solo performance and he was so impressive. I heard comments like I was led to tears by him. Keep at it J! 
To end out our night, my girl Adjoa Skinner performed and she has so much life and soul that we were all loving her. She actually lived in West Africa for two years doing YWAM! She prayed it up with me and gave me so much encouraging advice. Check her out on www.adjoaskinner.com
Then I had a chance to speak about what God has and is doing in my life. I talked about how I came to be on the World Race and what its all about, (at least the little I know) and God just spoke through me. It was beautiful to be surrounded by all my friends and even people I’d never met. Adjoa came up after I was finished and said, let’s affirm Birkleigh before she goes, just say whatever is on your heart to encourage her because there are going to be some tough times ahead.
I was brought to tears by some of the things that were said. “I wish I had that kind of strength, you radiate Christ, you’re authentic, brave and I’m going to miss you.”
At that time Lory Ishii asked if they could pray for me, I was like,…”DEFINITELY” As all my friends gathered around me and prayed for me, Adjoa was writing down the prayers that people prayed. I have them and I will have them with me when I’m on the race. I couldn’t have asked for a more Spirit-filled, heart-felt evening for my benefit. Thank you Jesus!
As we were cleaning up and getting ready to go eat Vietamiese food at 1 am, George Ishii asked if I wanted to count my money. I said sure, not expecting there to be very much in there. Jomar, Adjoa, Lory, George and I went into the back room and began to count the money. It was kind of like we were opening up a buried treasure. We started counting, $500 check George exclaimed, $100 bill, 20’s 10s 5’s…we were laughing and rejoicing. We added it all up at $735. Then we started multiplying it by 3. My mentor back home works for a foundation that matches your gift three times..how cool is that? So we’re trying to do it in our heads and we took a minute, and even Jomar said, there are 5 asians in this room, we should be able to figure it out., haha..he’s silly, I’m not asian. We realized if we had $20 more that it would get us to an even number, so we all looked at each other and Adjoa said, I have $20, ran out of the room to get it and in the meantime, Lory dropped $20, then Jomar dropped $20 then Adjoa came back and it ended up evening out to $3800. I ran out to the living room and announced what we had raised, everyone freaked out and we just thanked God. 
At this point I’m convinced that God is going to provide all our needs as we pray and seek Him. He is so faithful because half of the people there I didn’t invite or even know them. There were also about 20 people that rsvp’d and didn’t show up, so I know God worked a miracle that night and I give Him soooo much thanks and praise! He’s in love with me, yippee!!!
