Picture this: A small, 5’4 girl walks into a small Crozet post office carrying (more like stumbling, dropping, and struggling) two filled-to-the-brim backpacks and one ginormous cardboard box filled with over eighty packages of t-shirts anxiously awaiting to arrive to their new owners. Yup, that’s me.
It was truly a sight to see. Like any other Gen-Z’er, I had no idea how a post office worked, how to address envelops and what it took to mail packages (P.S.A. stamps are important and NECESSARY!). I nervously walked to the woman behind the counter, named Nancy, and proceeded to show her one of my packages as I asked what I needed to do to ship them. Her immediate response, in a more PG language was , “DANG GIRL, how many of those things do you got? I mean holy heck!!”. She then not only handed me hundreds of stamps, but she also started grabbing packages and helping me put nine stamps on every. single. package. We laughed and laughed and laughed about how gosh darn long it was going to take us to get these stamps on every envelope. When Nancy realized how long this tedious task was going to take us, she hollered back to her friend Jackie and they both began grabbing a package and placing stamps on them.
“So what are you mailing out anyways?” asked Jackie. I told her that I was selling t-shirts and all about the World Race Gap year. For the next two and a half hours we talked about how they have seen God in their lives and how excited they were for me. It was truly the sweetest gift. As our time came to a close, Nancy and Jackie told me they would be praying for me and that I needed to come back and tell them all about what I was up to, and I can’t wait for another excuse to go to the post office.
This encounter was a gift. What a lot of people don’t know is that I almost didn’t do a gap year because I was too scared of the fundraising number. Money is SCARY people!!! I was especially nervous about this the days leading up to the post office. Was I going to really be able to raise this money? Can God really provide me with over $16,000? Was this just too hard? Should I just give up before I fail? God, show me that this is what you want for me. These were the thoughts running through my mind. And man, did God answer my prayers. Nancy and Jackie, two complete strangers, encouraged me, prayed for me, listened to my fears and still affirmed that this was where I was meant to be.
Not only did they calm my fears but they were such an evident example of who God is REALLY. I think it is so easy to think that God is distant and doesn’t care, the “stays-behind-the-counter” kind of God, if you will. That is a lie! God, just like Nancy and Jackie, is active and working in our lives. He will slow down, listen, and help us get to where we are meant to go. Fundraising is a gift. I know this because of the ways I have seen the supportive community God has gifted me with, the strangers that I get to have life-giving conversations with, and the ways I get to know God better through the fundraising process.
To wrap it all up, I just want to say THANK YOU!! Like a shout from the rooftops and mountaintops kind of THAAANNKK YOUUUU! To everyone who has supported me both through prayer and financially on this journey. You are truly the best and I cannot get over how thankful I am for you.
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With Love,
Mary
