“Those of you
that are worried about your finances stand up.” Nearly everyone in the room stood to their feet because even though we
have been through so much physically, emotionally, and spiritually, this is the
one thing that has been on everyone’s mind since day one. “I want to pray tonight that HALF of you
would have all of your money in before the start of the race.” At this time I’m battling two voices that are
in my head. The positive optimist in me
wants to scoot a little bit closer to the front in hopes that the blessing
would fall on me, and the eternal pessimist in me wants to scoff at the idea
that half of us would have $13,000 in our accounts in less than 8 weeks. But who am I to question you God? Who am I to shove You down deeper into that
box I try to fit You in? You’ve got this
all under control, so let me breathe peace tonight and let You lift this
financial burden off me.
This
was a journal entry I wrote a little over a week ago as I sat in a conference
room with 34 new brothers and sisters as we addressed the issue that had been
on all of our minds. Over the week at
training camp, we confronted many things that many of us had no clue we
had. But, on one of the last nights of
the week, we addressed an issue that is unfortunately too often an obstacle to
missions: money. The crazy thing is that
we pray for faith and tell God that we will trust Him when He calls us in a
direction, but in the back of our mind we think, “$13,000 is a LOT of money.”
I’d
be lying to you if I said that I left that week with complete confidence the
money would come. One of the first
things I did when I got home was sit down and start calculating a plan to raise
all the support I need just to leave. I
have three fundraisers planned in the next month and I’m working as many hours
as I can wherever I can to make sure I don’t miss out on a penny. Even in the midst of all that rushing around,
God stopped me dead in my tracks today. I’ll tell you a short story.
I
had one of my fundraisers today, which was a Boston Butt BBQ sale. I 
cooked all day yesterday and was blessed
with the company of two great men. One
was my dad and the other was a man I had rarely ever had a conversation
with. Over the several hours of cooking,
I got to know Bud Gardner pretty well. He did SO much to help this sale and I don’t think it was because of me
at all because we barely knew each other, I think that is just the type of man
he is. He even told me that he almost
enjoyed the fellowship of cooking more than the eating (if you ever tasted
these things, you would know that’s a big statement to make).
Anyway,
the morning for the sale comes and I had figured up that I would top out at
about $900 for this fundraiser. Not a
bad day if I say so myself. Through the
morning, several people told me to keep the change and even offered a little
extra to pad the account. I sold out
within the first hour and was amazed at how God took care of that
fundraiser. As I sat down to count the
money, there were a few checks that I hadn’t seen, so I started adding them to
the pile. Just when I thought I was
done, my dad stopped me and told me there was one more. With tears in his eyes, he handed me the last
check. I’ll leave out several specifics
to the story unless the donor gives me permission to tell everything later, but
let’s just say that with one check, my take for the day more than tripled.
As I
looked at the check, I realized that I had never seen so many zeros on one
check before. I couldn’t breathe for a
few minutes and was honestly speechless for the first time in a while. I fought back the feeling of unworthiness for
this gift and God silenced me. “You’re
not worthy of this gift, but I want
to use you for something
great.” I remembered writing this
journal entry just a week earlier and felt the same peace at that time. I can now say without a doubt that I am
leaving on June 1 for The World Race because God has given me the money. I don’t have it all yet, but I have enough to
leave and as far as I’m concerned, that’s the next step.
So, to
my teammates, I tell you guys, stay faithful. If God wants you to go, you will go. You can’t even fathom the tricks He has up His sleeve. If He doesn’t, then I doubt money will be the
only obstacle in your way. To everyone
else, God is still in the business of answering prayers. Take Him out of the box and see what He can
do. Today we are celebrating the most
exciting day in the Christian “religion” (I use that term loosely), in the fact
the Christ is Risen. Now let God rise from
underneath our doubts, insecurities, and fears. Sure it’s scary to trust. But
it’s beautiful to see His faithfulness.
