When I found out about the World Race four years ago, I thought it was an incredible opportunity. An opportunity that would allow God to completely strip away everything in my life that the world had built upon me and allow God to rebuild me piece by piece the way He created me to be. A chance to be completely sold out to having Him change the habits of my life forever. After all, it’s not likely you can live such a life changing experience for 11 months and then return with the same attitude and mind set. They say it takes 30 days to break a habit and 11 months is a lot longer than that.
I so badly wanted to break the habits of my every day life and commit to completely giving God 11 months of my life. The only problem was that I didn’t have enough faith to believe God could ever provide such a large amount through fundraising for me to do something like this. How in the world could God possibly provide over 15 thousand dollars for a girl like me, living out in the middle of nowhere, with hardly any friends, and a bunch of complications when its comes to fundraising? Those were the thoughts running through my head. And so I said no. To myself and most of all to God. Completely faithless, I shut the door and kept on going.
But, three years later there was another tug on my heart to go. At first I thought that maybe I’d satisfy the tug with a two week mission trip to the Philippines but every time I looked into a particular trip, it just didn’t feel right. I knew what I had to do. The time had come for me to step through the door and apply for the World Race. I decided that if God could help me raise $5,000 for a two week trip, He could help me raise $15,000 for an 11 month race. And so before I even realized it, I had the application filled out and was scheduling my interview.
After being accepted into the World Race the lovely task of fundraising began. For all of you out there that have ever had to do any sort of fundraising, you can understand my pure joy and excitement over this process. I had no idea how on earth I would ever come up with $15,500 through fundraising and to be honest, I never did.
As Launch was approaching this summer I began think that I wouldn’t even make my next deadline and therefore not be allowed to launch with my squad. But for a month I kept hearing God whisper in my heart “Hannah, don’t stop believing because I’m going to fully fund you before you even leave”.
You see, a couple years back I began to pray. I wasn’t sure where I’d go next in life next when it was finally time to move on from where God had currently placed me, but I knew that whatever I ended up doing, I was going to need funding for. So I prayed continuously that God would begin to place it on people’s hearts a desire to give. I prayed for people’s finances that they would be in a state of abundance to be able to give. I prayed that whatever God was calling me to do, He would completely fund it. And so, two years later I’d found myself in a place between trust and unbelief, but the prayers had already been prayed and God had already made plans to provide. Can I just tell you that even though I wanted this so bad, the mountain to get to it just seemed way too high to climb. I felt like I was losing momentum and every time I heard God telling me He was going to fully fund me I thought to myself “Ok that’s great! I believe you!.. but not really”. I know there are people out there right now that can relate to the whole “I believe you but I don’t” frame of thought. But guess what, God is still faithful even when we seem to have a lot more doubt than faith.
The day I received the news that I was fully funded was the day that my whole perspective on just how big God is changed. Before, I’d put God in a box with limits on what I thought He could do and what I thought He couldn’t. Today, as I’m on the plane to China for my first month of ministry on my World Race, I know God is a God of the impossible. My faith in God’s provision has never been stronger. I no longer worry about how God is going to provide in my life, because that’s not my job. My job is to let God be God and trust Him as He is.
I don’t know where we get this perception that God can’t do much, but it’s wrong. He completely shattered my doubt through this experience and I’m so honored to be able to use it as a testimony to encourage others out there in the same boat. Whether you’re fundraising for your own World Race, trying to pay your bills, or you need a miracle, I encourage you to stop doubting God and just let Him do His thing! He fully funded a trip that has cost almost $20,000 in just 9 months. Tell me my God isn’t a God of the impossible! Tell me my God doesn’t provide! Today I start this journey fully funded and full of faith! All the praise and glory goes to God! Because after all, I didn’t fund myself, He did!
A special thank you goes out to all my supporters who have been so faithful in supporting me!! Your heart for God and for this mission inspires and encourages me every day! I love you all!
