This blog was written by Krystle Desales :: and reposted here for your encouragement
The deadline to apply for the January 2012 World Race (Route #3) is October 15, 2011; training camp for the January 2012 Races begins October 16, 2011. That means you have roughly 3 weeks and 3 days to decide if you'll change the world next year.
The Race will begin in 3 months and change — plenty of time to prepare. Read the following story from Krystle Desales and you won't be able to tell God, "But I need more time!"
I long to be used and for God to use me.
That was a quote I wrote in my journal a few weeks before I decided to go on the Race. As I searched through the World Race website at the different upcoming squads, I felt compelled to apply for the human-trafficking focused trip because it was only $7,000 (which I thought, "Okay that's not too expensive and it's only for four months").
Well, God had a different plan in mind; instead the Lord planned that I go on the September 2011 Race (A squad, 2nd generation). I looked at the trip: it was 11 months long, cost $14,800, and training camp was one week away. I told the Lord, "Okay Lord, I'll just apply, there is nothing really I am deciding right now, I am just applying."
The Lord had a different idea; I got accepted. I had to have $1,500 in my support account in four days. Immediately, like any other person would, I panicked!
All odds were against me on going on this trip because training camp was in Chattanooga, Tennessee, so I had to figure out: how to get a plane ticket to fly from California to Tennessee, $1,500 in my support account, and all the gear I needed — in less than a week. Questions, doubt, discouragement, and despair flooded my mind.
I thought, "how am I going to come up with $1,500 in 4 days?"
I heard the Lord speak in a calm voice, "Be still and know that I am God."
I heard him say rest in who I am — your provider, the one who is good, merciful, and cares for you; he said, "Just speak and I will provide."
I wasn't sure what God had in mind, but in obedience I said, "Yes, Lord, I trust you."
In less than 48 hours I was blessed with a plane ticket to training camp, $1,500 plus a monthly donation of $50, a phone call from an alumna telling me she would let me borrow all her gear. I recorded everything people gave me.
In four weeks, I looked at my support account; I had $4, 172. Within 3 days, I received $3,273. A week before my squad and I were suppose to leave, the total in my support account was $8,718.
The day before I left on my going-away party, a woman I recently met came up to me and told me that she would cover the rest of my support, whether it was $10,000 to $5,000. She said she heard from the Lord to bless.
So as I launched out to my first country, I was fully funded! I know that God's hand was upon me, even through all my unbelief, because in less than three months God raised $14,800 and I tell you that more is still coming in. In the airport, as I was talking to my parents before leaving for my first country (Romania), my dad told me that a woman I had met only once gave me $500.
God can provide. He wants to and He WILL.
