Going into fundraising I knew that Jesus was going to use people to bless me in ways that I wasn’t expecting. Starting out I had this list of people that I thought would be willing to pray for me and support me on the World Race. As I’m learning I shouldn’t try to limit God to working through the people I think He is going to use, haha. There are a few people who have been supporting me both financially as well as promoting my fundraising events and praying for me that I didn’t expect.
Y’all let me tell you something, sincerity is way better than quantity. There is a little boy named Kagan who has been following my adventures as I get ready to go on the World Race. He and his family have been and are continuing to pray for me. Kagan is 8 years old and even though he doesn’t have much to give, he decided he wanted to support me financially. I think that $10 means more to me than any of the other donations I received to date. He could have used that to buy himself a fun treat or saved it for something important later, but he chose to support Jesus calling me to the mission field. I cried when I saw it. (I’m realizing that I cry more these days, but that’s ok. Jesus is breaking me of myself and molding my heart to be more like His.)
There is a young lady named Emily who heard about me going on the race and sent me the most wonderful hand-written note overflowing with encouragement as well as a donation towards my trip. I cried again. I may or may not have hung that note up on my wall. A week or so before she sent it to me I was driving her back to her house after having had her babysit Benjamin while I was photographing an event and we were chatting about the trip and fundraising. Y’all I can’t say enough good things about Emily, she is a Proverbs 31 woman even at the age of 15. She has been to Haiti on mission trips with her mom the last couple of years and has done fundraising for those. As I was sharing my concerns and my “plan” for how I was going to raise the money she shared ideas with me and encouraged me to just trust and that Jesus always shows up and provides. Trusting is something I just battle with so much but she encouraged me to rest in Jesus and trust in His love and provision (both for me and for others through me). I knew that she would be (and had been) praying for me, but I expected it to end there. God sure does exceed my expectations.
One of the people who has shared and supported my story the most on social media isn’t a Christian. However, he sees where my words and actions match up and my love and whole hearted belief in Jesus and because of that he is choosing to support me. I pray that as he follows my unfolding World Race journey that Jesus would speak to him and do work in his heart and draw him into a relationship with Christ. I never expected a non-Christian to be so supportive or understanding of my calling to missions, but who am I to limit who God is going to do work through.
God keeps showing me that His plans are much better than mine and exceeding my feeble expectations. Pray that I would learn to pray with boldness and not try to limit the blessings that Jesus wants to send my way.
