THANK YOU!
When I first got accepted into the Gap Year Program, just a little over a month ago, my heart was beyond excited. I couldn’t get that ridiculous smile off of my face, and I was quite literally on cloud nine for weeks after hearing about my acceptance. Don’t get me wrong, I still have maintained this incredibly high level of excitement (ahhh!), but reality has slowly crept in, and it is terrifying and wonderful, and I absolutely love it.
One of the biggest realities that has hit me in the past month is the fact that $13,800 is a whole lot more money than I initially realized. I mean, think about it, to raise that much money all by myself, I would have to work approximately 1,800 hours at Chick-Fil-A in the next year. Chick-Fil-A, I love you dearly, but that is a lot of chicken for this high school student. With this being said, I realized that these numbers were no longer just random numbers, but they were numbers that signified a daunting amount of money that I would have to raise to even begin living out the Lord’s call on my life. To say it was intimidating is quite the understatement.
This daunting sum of numbers began to stress me out to the max. How was I, a high school student earning minimum wage, going to find $13,800? Where was that coming from? How would I earn it? Would the quarters in the couch cushion or the dollar bills hanging around in the back pocket of my jeans add up to be enough? What on earth was I going to do? Thinking about it made my head spin, and I did not even know where to start….
As every World Racer has done before me, I started with sending out my support letters. I immediately was overwhelmed with the support I had received. I was inundated with people who were eager to not only support me monetarily, but spiritually. People were excited to know about what I was doing with my life and how the Lord was working in me, and it was so encouraging. Soon after I sent out my letters, we called for 31 people to donate 31 dollars in the 31 days of October via the ole Facebook, and quite honestly, I wasn’t expecting a huge response, but boy, was I in for a surprise. Immediately after that challenge was posted, I was showered with so much love from my family and friends. People I have never even met before blessed me with their monetary support, and I was so overwhelmed with gratitude. My email was overflowing with notifications about the latest donations, and I have never felt more blessed in my whole life.
$13,800…
One month…
$4,693…
33% funded…
Numbers are just numbers, but these numbers convey how good God is and how He has worked through so many people in the past month. God has shown me how good He is, and how I silly I was for doubting His faithfulness and provision in my life. He has provided for me through different people in my life, and my heart is overflowing with gratitude. My lack of faith caused me to stress, but God has shown me how wonderful He truly is. He works in crazy ways, and over the past month, I have seen him work through my friends and family in crazier ways than I thought were even possible!
So thank you! Thank you for supporting me through your gifts. Thank you for responding to the call God placed on your hearts to support me. Thank you for pouring your love out to me. Thank you for showing me how great our God is. Thank you for helping me live out God’s plan for me. I appreciate it more than you could ever know!
Yours truly,
Madeline Jackson
