Until the World Race, I had never really needed the faith to just say YES to God & go. A month ago I dove headfirst into an adventure that will change my life. “What was next year going to look like for me?” I wondered.” How would I raise that daunting amount of money?” I asked. All I knew was that God had closed door after door here & I had nowhere else to walk but through the one He had opened, the door labeled WORLD RACE.
I walked out of church Sunday after speaking about what God had laid upon my heart & how excited I was to go, but in the depths of my heart discouragement was creeping in. I had just poured my heart out in front of all those people, but I couldn’t get the words out, I had cried though almost the whole thing & lost track of what I was saying. How was God going to use that?! Were people going to respond & support me? I doubted it all.
Monday rolled around & I still felt discouraged until that night. I headed off to a going away party for a guy on our worship team leaving for school. Who knew God would have meaningful conversations awaiting me there. I was reminded that night that God had used me & had moved many to tears the previous day when I spoke. A scripture verse came to mind from Numbers 11:23 “The Lord answered Moses, ‘Is the Lord’s arm too short? Now you will see whether or not what I say will come true for you.’” Why was I questioning God, did I believe God wouldn’t provide? Not completely, but doubt was beginning.
On Sunday I had handed out as many slips of paper as I could, which gave other ways to donate aside from financial support: buy a t-shirt, donate items for my garage sale, or purchase gear items off of my gift registry. Maybe, just maybe one person would want to give in one of those ways. I woke up Tuesday & turned my phone on that morning. Text messages came rolling in about 7:15am A number came up on my phone that I did not know. I opened the message & it said it was someone from church & there was my order # from REI where I had my gift registry. I immediately thanked them not knowing what was purchased. Later that morning I was curious to see what had been purchase. I logged into my account & scrolled down. As I quickly scanned the page, one of the items showed 1 of 2 had been purchase, it was tape for repairing my tent. My heart sank a little bit, that was awesome something I didn’t have to buy, but I wanted it to be more.
As I was about ready to close the page, I saw the words “FULFILLED”. Wait what?! “Fulfilled”, what did that mean? That item was purchased! That item & every single other item on my gift registry had the words “FULFILLED” after it. Utter shock hit me, what had this person just done for me? Then it hit me, God was providing my needs. These were things I NEEDED, not WANTED, but the gear I will NEED next year. My heart as so overwhelmed in that moment, God had just met my needs for gear! I started crying as I headed out to lunch. I sat in my car & just wept knowing that my God used someone to completely bless me. This beautiful spirit of laughter came over me & I laughed in the most beautiful sense of that word. GOD YOU ARE GOOD, I kept saying out loud, & then I heard it, that voice whispering to me . . . “I will provide”. All I could say in that moment was “Thank you”.
