There was an author called Joseph Heller who never began to work on a story until he had written both the first and last line. At this point I’ve now done just as he did. If you just skip to the last line of this blog, I will have said all I need to say and you will have read all you needed to read. But I’ll write quite a few words anyways.
This summer has been the pits.
I’m not even being over dramatic. Asking God to make me more like Him was something that I was so confident about. Boy was I in for a huge wakeup call. It’s been very hot the Tricities this summer, and God has definitely been busy refining me in the heat. Constantly being made new, is an adventure that I wasn’t expecting to be so hot. I’ve felt alone a LOT in the past 3 months. It has allowed me to be able to rely on Him to be my greatest friend and ally. He is my only constant, and the only One who has ever fought for me. He is it, man.
I’ve been trying to get my stuff in order for fundraisers. I’ll be having 2 in October (one in the Tricities and one in Portland). I have $1,200 in my account now and I need $3,600 in my account by the end of September, but I need $10,000 by the end of December. I am doing an ongoing fundraiser called, “adopt a dot”. There are 200 dots and if they all get adopted then I’ll have met my deadline of $10,000. Each dot is numbered 1-200, if you want to adopt dot 42, you get to give $42! It’s pretty easy. I’d love to fill up that board. You obviously can give more. You can give on this on this site or you can give in person.
I read a blog that when missionaries stop asking for things, they’ve given up God’s dreams. I’ve stopped asking people to give lately because I didn’t want to impose. That ends now. God’s dreams are bigger than my fears or insecurities. So, I’ll be obedient and ask. I’m asking you to give me $16,000. Or whatever you can. I’m asking you to share this dream that God has, with your friends and family. I’m asking you to be excited about me giving my life for people to feel loved. I realize that for some of you that feels like a lot. But understand my heart when I say this, God blesses hard things. A lot. My hard thing is this moment, asking you all of these things.
I have had a hard summer that took me to the fork that was my day today. I realized that I had 2 choices. I could choose to give up and I could choose to plow through and make things happen. So. If you want to have a part in changing the world, call me, text me, email me, I would love to talk with you.
Here comes my last sentence…
In the end, I know God has been, is, and will forever be faithful.
