I have been doing a fundraiser to help me get fully funded. Basically, you donate the amount given for one of the 50 states (there is a picture at the bottom of this blog with all states labeled with an amount), and, in return, I will message you a story from while we were in that state. If we have yet to go to the state you pick, I will share something the Lord has taught me along the way with you. Its a simple way for me to bring you guys into what it is we are doing out here while also fundraising to meet my final deadline of September 1st. The bonus is that I am reminded of the incredible testimonies of the things the Lord has done throughout this trip. Here is one that I wrote about for the person who donated for South Carolina!
We had been traveling only 3 weeks when we arrived in Aiken, South Carolina. We stayed with Zack and Hannah. Hannah was an alumni from the World Race and opened up her home to us. At this point, I was fighting being sick and an ear infection that I eventually had to go to the doctor for when we were in Florida a few weeks later. So most of my time there was spent resting. I had also just had a second to fully realize the weight of my decision of leaving so suddenly to go on this trip. Here is a visual representation of what I felt like during our time spent in South Carolina….
Anyways… so I was really in a space where I was needing to spend time with God. I had felt all week like He was calling me to go to Elevation church on Sunday and had been really excited to be able to go. For whatever reason, I couldn’t shake the strong desire to go. So when the time comes on Saturday to figure out what we are doing, and I found out that someone else is taking the van (we only had one at this point in time), I was super disappointed. I felt like I was supposed to go but also felt like it might just be my own selfishness that wanted to go. Maybe it wasn’t what God wanted me to do. Either way, I knew at this point being able to go wasn’t really an option.
Or at least it wasn’t, until Bex and Daniel (A couple who traveled with us for the first six weeks of this trip) decided to let me borrow their car so that I could go. It was such a huge blessing to me that, at first, I felt like I couldn’t take it. It seemed like too big a thing. Not only were they letting me drive their one and only car for the day but the church was a 3 hour drive from where we were. It wasn’t like I was just running to the store or something. Thankfully, Bex wouldn’t take no for an answer and I ended up accepting the offer. (This was only the first of many times people have blessed us with the ability to use their cars during this trip. I think its the Lord’s way of blessing me for using my own car to bless others during the first few months of this trip. Every time someone offers to let me use their car, I am reminded of just how faithful the Lord is to us when we choose to follow Him.) The next morning my teammate Alleigh and I got in the car and headed for Charolette, North Carolina to go to church.
It’s at this point in the story where I will need to backtrack to give some more context for the rest of the story. So, the week before my teammate Amber got a word from the Lord that she was supposed to find “Sprinkles” in North Carolina. It didn’t really make sense to her. Was she looking for a bakery or something named sprinkles? She didn’t really know. She felt strongly that she was supposed to find sprinkles though and that sprinkles was in North Carolina somewhere. So when Alleigh felt like she was supposed to go to Raleigh while the rest of us headed to Aiken, Amber went with her. (Ben, who later came to join us on the field, was the one to drive them to Raleigh!) They spent 3 days looking but didn’t ever find the sprinkles.
So, now we are back to the part where I am driving to Elevation for church. We get there and are joined by our friend (who eventually became our teammate), Corbyn, and go to service. As we are leaving, I see they are handing out free t-shirts to first time guests. You don’t pass up a free t-shirt on the race! We meet Leah as we walk up to the first-time guests area. She meets us and we get to talking. She asks if she can pray over us and we say yes. Once she finishes her prayer, we ask if we can pray for her too. This seemed to take her aback but she agrees.
As we pray, tears began to flow. We aren’t sure what work the Lord is doing in her heart but we just continue to pray. When we finish, she thanks us and we walk our separate ways. As we start to leave we decide we want to take a picture in our new shirts, so we turn back to ask Leah where a good place to take a photo would be. She says, “Oh there’s a great place over here, let me show you.” As we walk she continues, “I’m so glad you guys came. It’s crazy how God sprinkles in little moments like this in our lives.”
Alleigh and I stop in our tracks, look at each other and exclaim at the same time, “SPRINKLES!”
We immediately tell Leah about our teammate and the word she got from the Lord. We tell her that we have been looking for her! That the Lord wanted us to find her. That He had sent us there that day to encourage her and let her know that she is seen and loved, not just by us but by God. At this, she begins to cry again. She tells us of how she almost didn’t even show up at church that morning. Of how she was in one of the darkest places she had ever been. That she was fighting really hard to not give up hope. She said that this was exactly what she needed to hear. We pray again. We pray over her heart and that the Lord continue to give her the strength she needs to keep going.
We hug, exchange numbers, take our picture, and head back to South Carolina. We had found sprinkles in North Carolina, but sprinkles wasn’t a place. Sprinkles was Leah. The Lord knew Leah needed to know He loved her, so He used us to show her that.
It was such a cool moment of the Lord speaking to one of us and us seeing the fulfillment of that word. Its one of my favorite stories from this trip and I’m glad I got to share it with y’all! Here are some pics from that day!
If you would like to participate in the fundraiser and receive a cool story like this one from the field, there are still plenty of states that need adopting. All you have to do is comment and let me know which state you would like to adopt. Then you can either donate here through the donate button linked to this blog, or you can send me the money through PayPal or Venmo. I can leave links for both of those below! Here is a picture of the states that are still available.
Thank you so much for partnering with me in what the Lord is doing here in the states. I am beyond blessed to be able to live this way and its all because of people like you. So thank you for allowing me to follow the path the Lord has chosen for me. I love you all dearly and am so thankful for you! Thank you for reading! Until next time…
https://www.paypal.me/meldjor Or https://venmo.com/code?user_id=2555636285964288598
