As part of preparing for my departure in September I have to raise the funds for this journey. Before I go into details of how you can help support me, I wanted to share my heart about fundraising. To be completely honest with you this is the part that almost scared me away from signing up for this mission trip. I saw the total cost of the trip and was like nope, no thank you, I can’t raise that much money, and I exited the page. God slowly worked in my heart though and really transformed my way of thinking about fundraising in general.
More than anything, if you choose to give, I don’t want you to just think of it as giving me money, I want you to think of it as you going on this journey with me. I want you to feel as if you are right beside me doing God’s work in these countries with me, because in reality you are going to be! I want to make this experience one where you can personally see how God is using your donations to speak into lives around the world. That is my true heart’s desire in this stage of fundraising and I would love any ideas that you may have about how I can keep you informed (other than blogging) about what I am doing and things you would like to see or for me to do throughout the trip.
Okay so now, how you can support me!
The money I raise will completely cover the costs of the 11-month trip. The cost is a little over $16,000 and includes meals, lodging, air, land, and sea travel, administrative costs, set-up costs, coaching costs, debriefing costs, training camp costs, and medical insurance.
There are several ways you can support:
- Prayer: First and foremost I would love your support in prayer. This will be an exciting experience but also an experience that will be difficult at times (both while in the states and once I leave the US). I would love your prayer for God’s will, peace, wisdom, guidance, etc. throughout the journey. I will also try to keep you updated in my blogs about my biggest prayer needs along the way.
- Financial Support:
- You can give directly through my blog where there is a link at the top of the screen (“Support Me”) which will connect you to a page where you can give by credit card or you can sign up to give monthly through that link as well.
- You can also give directly to me, both cash or check. (If wish to receive tax deductions for it, you will need to make the check out to “Adventures in Missions”) You can also mail the check directly to Adventures in Missions at PO Box 742570 Atlanta, GA 30374-2570. (You can not mail cash)
- I will also be selling T-shirts and doing a fundraising dinner sometime this summer that you can participate in. J
- Subscribe to my blog: This will be the best way for me to communicate while on the race and also a great way for you to share my story as well! Each blog will be linked to facebook where you can share it with your friends and get the word out! (To subscribe you type in your email on the left hand side of this page, when you can click subscribe. It will then email you and tell you to verify your email. Once you have done that you will receive an email every time I update my blog.)
I appreciate all the love and support everyone has given me so far and am so excited to see what God has in store for all of us!
God Bless,
Nicole Smith
