If anyone has ever had to fund raise for ANYTHING before, you know the grueling and overwhelming process that it can be. It takes TIME, you have to get OUT of our comfort zone, and you NEED to be proactive.
I have been on many mission trips. Raising $1,500 here, $2,000 there; it’s not so much of an undertaking. Now raising $16,000…that’s a whole different ball park! Because of my lack of experience with raising that much money, at first I was treating it like all of my other mission trips. I thought to myself, “God will provide it all. Of course He will. Why wouldn’t He? I won’t really have to do that much…just send out some support letters, right?” WRONG!!
My perspective was all backwards. Yes, God is faithful and will always show up, but that doesn’t mean I should take a back seat, simply watch and be apathetic. God wants me in the front seat doing this WITH Him. God will do His part as God, but I need to do my part as His follower letting the fruit of my labor ultimately be shown through the grace and wondrous works of God.
Once the thought took root in my head that I was going to actually have to work to to raise these thousands of dollars (who would’ve thought, right?), this overwhelming feeling took over. My mind began running over and over different fundraising ideas-none of which sounded appealing because events are SO out of my comfort zone. What did I want to do? I hadn’t really brought it to God in prayer, just tried to get the ball rolling on my own more or less.
One day last week I was going for a walk-thank the Lord for warmer weather here in MD! I started singing one of my favorite worship songs (Forever Reign). There’s one part that goes “You are God, you are God, of all else I’m letting go.” In that moment I realized a hard, yet needed truth: that I cannot raise this money. GOD CAN RAISE THIS MONEY, but on my own, without Him, it’s simply not possible (Matthew 19:26).
I then heard the faintest whisper ask me, “Will you give fundraising up to me? Will you trust that I am God and let it go? Let go of your overwhelming concern, give it to me, and let me come along side you in this fundraising process, and this journey as a whole.” I don’t know if any of you have experienced times where you’ve literally felt a burden lifted from your shoulders, but this was one of those times. God gave me so much peace in knowing He is going to walk through this with me. And I in return told God I would jump in that front seat with him 🙂
If you read this, thanks for taking the time! This whole blogging thing is new to me, so I hope they are enjoyable (I’m sure they will be much more exciting when I’m actually on the Race!).
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