Fundraising is not as easy as it looks. I surely learned that soon after starting my fundraising journey for the World Race. God has been so good through the process and He has not stopped teaching me lessons through out it.
I want to thank every single one of you for all your support, God has blessed me beyond my wildest desires by having you all in my life. Without you I would not be able to say today with a joyful heart that I’m FULLY FUNDED!! You have no idea how much happiness, peace and humbleness that brings to my heart.
But lest look back a bit before I got fully funded, and how God met me in the moments when I was discouraged or stressed with the whole process.
When I first found out that I will be able to go on the World Race I was supper happy and excited to see what the Lord will do in my life during those 11 months and more so, to see how He will use me for His will. A month after getting my approval I started to brain storm fundraising ideas that will not only help me reach my goal but also that my supporters will enjoy and find useful. The first fundraiser I had was a raffle to win a Target gift card, God blew my mind with the outcome of this fundraiser. I was able to raise over $1k in my first two weeks. I had never really fundraised for anything before, so the whole thing was new to me. Seeing the results of the first event got me very exited because I was not only seeing God work in great ways but also to see how much love and support I received from my community. That really encouraged me.
One of the very sweet things about this process is that I am able to do it with a good friend of mine. We both are walking through this process and are able to understand and encourage one another.
In the weeks to come we started planning fundraiser events (Zumba classes, workout classes and game nights) together hoping to have a bigger result and also because we would be able to share what God is calling us to do to different communities. Something that God blessed me with is with having peace and trust that He will provide for us, however, that did not mean that I wouldn’t get impatient. There were times that I got discouraged with the timing of the donations, not that they were not coming in but that they were taking longer than I wished. The Lord taught me to have complete dependance in Him, and to learn to trust in His timing. It is very easy to say that we give Him the control but then not be happy with His timing. We try to give Him me advice in the timing that He should work at, well that’s what I did. Soon after that He taught me what is the reality.
Something I’ve wrestled with during that season was giving God the full control of my life, and that is something that He wanted me to grow in. Not just giving Him the control but trusting Him with my life. Since I was 18 years old I’ve been calling me own shots, so for me it was hard to truly give that to Him. Fundraising it was not just about sharing with others what I will be doing in those 11 months and asking for donations. Fundraising for me was about learning to complete trust God and depend on Him for provision. Six months prior to my race I tore my ACL playing soccer, God surely use this situation to show me that I’m not in control but in a very tender way also showed me His love and protection. I know many of you may think how is He protecting me by allowing my injury knowing the journey is bout to come. But trust me, He really did protected me.
In the mist of having my ACL reconstruction surgery He showed me ways in wish I needed growth in but also gave me lessons that would be applicable on The World Race. Three days after the surgery I had to move out of the apartment I was living in due to the lease ending. One of the areas that He showed me I needed to work on was asking for help from others, in other words work on my pride. Less of me and more of Him. Asking help of others is very hard for me, not because I believe I can do all things on my own but because I do not want to bothers other and put more things on their plate, but let’s be honest; that still pride! I’ve lived in South Florida since 2011, I moved to that area for college and I stayed there after I graduated because I was able to find a job in the field I studied.
The plans that I had created were to stay in South Florida until June and then move back to Central Florida to spend time with my family before launching. You know the saying that when we plan God laughs? Well that’s kinda what happened. My plans were to stay with friends for those extra 2 1/2 months and then leave. I was going to use that time to finish things well at work and also do all my goodbyes. Well that’s not what happened, I had to move back home in the middle of April because I was only able to find a place where to stay for 6 weeks. Those 6 weeks were some of the hardest I’ve had in a while, I was going through the surgery recovery process, not being able to drive for the first 4 weeks, depending on people to take me to places; such was work, physical therapies and church. And add to that not having my own place and space. I can imagine some of you may be thinking WOW and where was God throughout all of that, TRUST me He was always there. Remember when I said that He was teaching me to ask for more help and depend on others? Well He over showered me with support from others, my friends and church community made schedule plans to pick me up and take me to the places that I needed to go. All He was asking me to do was to ask, nothing more. In the mist of all of that my fundraising was still going on and He continued to provide. Before moving back home I had raised half of my goal, which was 10K. Is crazy cool to look back and to remember how I was feeling during that time but most importantly to remember how God showed up and delivered me of those hard times.
The last fundraiser I did before becoming fully funded was another raffle. I organized it a few weeks after moving back in with my family. I raffled a Polaroid camera, the outcome was pretty good but this did not get me fully funded. The Lord provided in a big way, He knew the desires of my heart. He knew that I truly wanted to rest and spend time with my family but by focusing on fundraising it would have not allowed me to do so to the fullest. When I got home from training camp on June 15th, I got the news that a donor wanted to donate the remaining money from my goal so that I can become fully funded. This blew my mind and I cried in a way that I had not before. That was another confirmation from God that these were the plans that He had for me and that there is nothing that can stop them from happening.
God works in mysterious ways and not so mysterious, but He is always at work. In my hardest times I was still able to feel His presence, that brings a joy to my heart knowing that He loves me and wants me to be part of this journey with Him.
He will continue to show up and I can’t wait to see in the ways that He will!
