Frigid Fingers.

As i woke up cradled inside my sleeping bag, i started to feel a frigid, crisp air reach my hair, down my neck, piercing through my back and all the way to my toes. COLD. For eight days i have woken up in White, Georgia for a training camp to prepare me for the World Race. Every single day here has had a different face of events breaking parts of me down and building me up. It has been exhausting, but exhilarating.

i found myself surrounded by men and women who are now forming an addition to my family. It’s funny how you can begin a week where you hardly know anyone around you with faces you see, but stories you don’t know. And within days these people, these faces, their stories turn into brothers and sisters; family.

Half way through training camp we had the financial talk and of course, like usual, i had a question. This question stemmed from the day before where i noticed my World Race account dropped from $3625 to $2800 & i was nervous to come to the reality of …. “um, i hope this isn’t right, because if it is… i’m in trouble.” 

i raised my hand, “So i’ve noticed in the past few weeks my account has been fluctuating back and forth… and just recently it dropped significantly from where it was at…” 

& the reply, “Are you Dura McKnight?” 

Thinking to myself, “crap, crap, crap… WHY DOES SHE KNOW MY NAME?” 

“Yes.” 

“i need to meet with you after.” 

Not exactly the response i wanted to hear. i head to the back after session to find out that there was a glitch and a few of my donations were doubled. No one caught the mistake until a few days ago. She tells me i need to raise $700 by the end of the day or i won’t be able to go in January and will be postponed to a later race. With tears welding up in my eyes, thinking “Okay L-rd, i don’t know how you’re going to do this.”

Little did i know G-d was at work. A few of my teammates were listening to the conversation and before i could even take a breath, they had hurdled together as many people as they could saying, “Dura needs $700 to stay. We can do this. How much will it take 41 people to put in… 700 divided by 41… Around $16 dollars. Lets do this.”

They run over. “Dura we’ve got this. We’re all donating at least 16 dollars. Don’t worry, G-d has you here, you’re not going anywhere!” My eyes weld up with tears, i begin to cry. These men and women a few days earlier were seen as strangers and now, as my brothers and my sisters, family, run to hand me cash, start to write checks, $20’s left and right… And within an hour, over $700 came rushing into my account!

What a great big G-d i serve. Men and women who are raising money just like i am, people that are working their tail off to go on this missions trip with me. Who care enough about me and what G-d has asked me to do, that they are willing to pull from their own to help me. 

Family. Community. How the body of Christ, the church, is supposed to be.