First off, I want to say thank you to all of you for your prayers and support! Secondly, God is so cool! This weekend was filled with his presence at the Boomtown Days festival in Dunnellon.
1. My friend, current Racer’s mom, Angela Hoffman deserves mad props for face painting. She was a huge encouragement to me in getting me to step out of my comfort zone and shout things like, “Bracelets and face painting to support missions!” Funny how I can teach a room full of high schoolers but can’t yell at strangers 🙂 and yet I’ll have to preach multiple times a day in Africa. Go figure.
2. The last face painter of the weekend was the best! He was this little kid probably not but 3 or 4 years old. When Angela asked him what he liked about Easter his response was, “Jesus died on the cross!” without any probing from anyone. After ending the weekend like that, you can’t tell me God wasn’t present! So cute!
3. God hears us! I came home Saturday slightly disappointed with the amount of funds we had raised, plus I received a not so nice email from my mom (she is not really supporting me going on the Race right now). I prayed that if this is what I was to do that God would provide this weekend. I think he might be tired of me “doubting” as he showed up huge on Sunday morning! I needed $450 to reach my $3000 goal and I received a facebook message from a Pastor Sunday morning saying his church was giving me $800!
4. The numbers 600 and 3000 have meaning. Angela kept saying she and Chelsea raised $600 when they sold bracelets and face painted during July 4th last year. However, Sunday morning she said, “I don’t know why I keep saying we sold $600 because we only sold $300.” After tallying up all the funds I realized why she kept saying $600, as we made $591. Also, ever since I knew I was going to sell bracelets at Boomtown Days the number 3000 had been in my head. I didn’t understand why because I couldn’t imagine selling that many bracelets! I now realize it wasn’t God telling me I was going to sell that many but him confirming that he was going to provide the funds to reach $3000 in donations during this weekend!
5. I’ll be in the newspaper! Someone had told me to contact the newspapers and see if they could run a story. I haven’t yet just because I felt weird and wanted to make sure it was what God wanted me to do. I saw one of the sophomore students walking around with a camera and badge that read “Riverland News”. I asked what she was doing and she informed me it was for her Journalism class at school and that she had to get a story to run in the Riverland News paper. She asked what I was doing and I told her. Her next words were “I have my story, thanks”. She stopped by my room Monday to interview me and the story will run in the paper in the next few weeks. How cool!
So, with all that being said, I have officially met my first financial goal of $3000! I actually have $3600 now! If you add up all the pledges and promises I have around $4900 if all come through. 🙂 I have been praying God will provide me with $6000 before Training Camp in May and to be fully funded by my deadline in July. I believe He will come through 🙂
I ask that you continue to pray for those Angela and I spoke with at Boomtown Days. We handed out many brochures, prayer cards and business cards. Pray that the seed was planted and they will be led to the blog and to read it and be touched by it. Pray for those who will read the story in the Riverland Newspaper (I will let you all know when this comes out). Pray they will also be touched by the story and feel led to give. I also have my yard sale coming up in two weeks in which the funds will now go to help me get the supplies I still need (sleeping bag rated 35*, a pair of Chacos/Teva sandals, mess kit, clothes, day pack, sleeping pad, ect).
