So I've moved in and have been living at my new place for a few weeks now. My life has already been changed in just this short amount of time since moving in. I've been experiencing God's love in new and powerful ways and it has been wrecking me.
The week I moved out of my apartment, I was trying to sell off some things in order to downsize and hopefully raise some money for my trip. I had items posted for sale for over a week and never received any hits on them. Moving day came around and still no calls or interest in the stuff for sale, so I ended up putting many of the items outside for people to take or just gave them away, rather than selling them. At the time, I was roughly a month away from my first deadline before training camp and was only half-way to that deadline. I was freaking out, if I'm honest. Before officially moving out, I made a trip to my home town where I have a storage unit to take a load of stuff down there. I visited my old church where I got up and talked about my experience in Belize. This little tiny church of maybe 100 people had supported me by donating almost a third of the cost to go to Belize. They all have such a huge heart for missions and before I left, I had been blown away by their generosity when I walked away with nearly $1,000 towards my World Race trip! This enormous blessing and the way I saw it, God didn't want me to have to worry about raising the funds all on my own. He put amazing friends and family in my life who believe in me and want to support me.
After putting the $1,000 towards my account, all I needed was $500 to make the deadline! My pastor's father came forward and said he would provide the $500 (Thanks Dave!). On top of that, one of my oldest and best friends donated $250. And that in itself is huge to me, not because of the money, but this friend of mine I didn't think shared the same religious beliefs as I did. I won't divulge or elaborate further here to honor his beliefs, but it just shows how God has given me so much favor all around me in this journey. Now, because of this outpouring of love and support, I had blown past my deadline! Praise God 🙂
So… deadline #1 met. Now what? After moving into my new place with my pastor and his wife, I continued to downsize. I decided that I would sell my dirt bike. It actually was an easier decision to sell it than I thought it would have been. I put some for sale signs on it and put in on Craigslist. For about 2-3 weeks, I didn't get much interest in it. Maybe 4 people in total called me about it, none of them being serious offers. I began to rethink my decision. Was the bike not selling because God was again wanting to provide for me instead? I re-evaluated my motives for selling the bike. Maybe I was trying to make ends meet by my own power again. So I offered the bike up to God again, not because I wanted to make the funds for this trip by myself, but because I wanted God to know that I was willing to let go of "stuff" in order to step up into the fullness of His calling for my life. "God, I give this to you because it was never really mine. This bike has blessed me and it has brought me great joy. I let it go in hopes that it may bless others. May Your Spirit follow this material thing and touch the next owner."
So this past week, I got a call from a guy who found my bike on Craigslist. He wanted to meet and check the bike out. He came by this past Thursday, rode the bike around and asked how much I wanted. He pulled an envelope of money out of his pocket. "Wow, this guy's ready to do business!" I thought. He even had a bill of sale ready to go! So we settled on a price, I signed the title over to him and we filled out the bill of sale and handed him the keys. He bought EVERYTHING I was selling. The bike and all the accessories. I watched him ride away and I knew that it was for the best. At that moment, I knew that the money I had in hand God intends to use to change my life and the lives of people around during this incredible journey next year. And when the bike was gone, I was officially over 50% funded. Deadline #2 met!
I see a common being established in the months following being accepted for the World Race. God loves me so very much. There have been moments since then where I've been completely overwhelmed. Many of those moments have been when God completely blows my worries and concerns out of the water when He provides through friends, family, and even anonymous strangers.
Matthew 7:11 – If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
John 14:13 – And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask for anything in my name, and I will do it.
James 1:17 – Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
