“The share of the man who stayed with the supplies is to be the same as that of him who went down to the battle. All will share alike.” ~ 1 Samuel 30:24
I cannot say how grateful I am for how God has blessed my fundraising efforts so far, and so this post is my effort to share these blessings with all of you amazing folks!
So at the beginning of this incredible journey, I met with my amazing friend Kim who went on the World Race a few years ago. Among many other helpful nuggets of advice, she encouraged me to begin to pray for specific numbers as I fund-raised. “It’s one of the only times that you can see God answer your prayers with a numeric value attached to it,” she said.
I was hesitant to do this, but despite my reservations, I decided I would give it a shot. What did I have to lose?
Turns out, God was just waiting to show up in big ways.
A few days before I would tell my whole church about the Race, I began to pray for $100. “Maybe a few people will donate $20 and by the end of the week I will have $100!” Such a faith-filled prayer, I know (sarcasm). So Sunday rolls around and I share my testimony at church, and I honestly wasn’t expecting much in regards to my prayer goal. After service, a woman comes up to me and hands me a check with a big smile on her face, saying how excited she was for me. You guessed it folks! The check was for exactly $100!
“Wow God,” was all I could think. He chose to answer this prayer all at once on the first day! “Well, what’s next?” He challenged me. Obviously He could handle my requests, and He was ready to provide for me.
My next prayer goal went like this: “alright God, I suppose (there I go again, praying such bold prayers) I’ll pray for $1,000 over the course of the week.” Yet again I was expecting to see this prayer answered in a logical way, and yet again God was planning to blow my mind.
Monday comes along and I get a couple $50 donations on my blog and one $100 donation. AW YES. Here we go! I continued to pray for $1,000 when on Tuesday I get an email notification that someone donated $1,000 to my blog.
Needless to say I was speechless. This was one of the most jaw-dropping moments of my life. I was so humbled to be supported to this degree! I was finding that my Mobilizer’s advice was truer than ever, “It’s not your job to convince people to donate, Megan, the Holy Spirit will move their hearts. It’s your job to simply get the word out.”
I was finally praying with total trust that God would come through. I prayed for $500 knowing God would provide that as well. And it didn’t take long. On Thursday someone very close to me announced they felt God leading them to give $500. As tears welled up in my eyes, I thanked them and I thanked God for His faithfulness.
<<fast-forward one week>>
Over spring break I made plans to meet with a friend from church to plan fundraising events. We were so excited to try a restaurant that neither of us had been to before. Little did we know, God had other plans. That day the thought of navigating through hordes of people downtown veered us instead to one of her favorite restaurants, Café Patachou.
After a watching people who arrived after us get seated before us, we realized that the hostess had misheard our name. After apologizing for the mistake, she offered for us to sit at a community table (which meant two small parties could sit at the same medium sized table), which we accepted. As we continued to discuss our plans, a girl my age and her father sat down next to us. A few minutes later, the girl leaned over to ask what church we were from. Her name was Rossy (if you ever read this, I am so sorry for butchering the spelling of your name!) and after we got to know each other a bit, she asked what I was fundraising for.
“I have a friend who is also leaving in August!” she exclaimed when I told her it was the World Race. She wished me luck, and when their food came we let them get back to their meal. She said she was happy that they got the chance to meet us because another couple had been offered the place at the community table first, but had turned it down. Looking back, I see God in all these small details which added up to this chance meeting.
As we gathered our things, she reached over and handed me some cash and said “I know it isn’t much, but I wanted to give this to you. Good luck with everything! I’ll look for your blog and try to share it.” I stuttered out a thank you because I was completely awestruck with God’s goodness. We weren’t even supposed to be at that restaurant, let alone at that community table, and neither were they, yet God pulled some divine strings and put us together at just that moment.
Rossy, if you ever read this, I want to say how incredibly thankful I am for you allowing God to reach out His hand to me through you that day. You said that your gift was small, but it was so much bigger than the monetary amount, and I thank you for that!
I originally viewed fundraising as this behemoth that would devour me if I wasn’t careful, but God has transformed it into this exciting adventure of trusting and depending on Him. He is teaching me how to rely on Him in this completely new and real way.
In the course of two weeks I am approximately halfway to my first goal of $5,000. I cannot say thank you enough for the overwhelming amount of support I feel from those of you who have gathered around me. This is not MY journey; this is OUR journey. You have your share in the story God is writing.
