I sat down with my calendar this morning and discovered that I'm in the middle of a 32 day period where my only day off has been Thanksgiving day... and I was cooking dinner for 18 people that day...
I'm working six days a week right now. I've been putting in extra hours at my regular job and doing a few craft sales on weekends to earn money... all that adds up to a lot of work and not much in the way of days when I can relax. I really thrive on solitude and sabbath, so this has been challenging for me...
I'm tired. But also sort of invigorated in a way... God has been providing in amazing ways... at one of my craft sales I sold a wrought iron garden cart that I'd bought at a garage sale for $5 for the incredible mark-up of $100. That's totally God.
So far we have about $4000 saved/raised. $11,000 to go!
It feels huge sometimes... but it's so cool to see how God is taking care of us. Asia has been challenging me in the area of trust... that I can work a little less and trust God's provision. We have a dear friend who keeps saying "God's will, God's bill."
Why do I strive so hard? Honestly? Because I struggle to fully believe God will provide!
So I'm pondering that... perhaps part of His provision is through my work... or maybe I'm not trusting. It's difficult to find the balance.
We'll be sending out our formal support letter early next week... scary. It's really the big push in terms of support raising in most cases and I struggle with lacking faith... what if the letter doesn't work and we don't get the money we need?
See how tiny my faith is?
Already God is teaching me so much through this trip and it's still seven months away.
I feel quite vulnerable putting all this out there, but I've always strived for honesty in my blogging... so there it is.
I'm so thankful that God is so patient with me.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Bake Sale
We had the privilege of sharing with our church today... telling them about our plans to go see Tejan next summer and offering the opportunity for others to join us...
We also had a bake sale to begin our fundraising efforts.
I baked ALL week. A few friends brought over things they had baked, and we had oodles of cookies, breads, muffins, scones and even some fudge, caramel apples and my favorite, cinnamon bun popcorn for sale.
We had dinner with some friends Saturday night and they asked me how much money we were hoping to make. I told them I had no idea... I wasn't planning to price things, but planned to set out a donation jar and let people give whatever they felt like giving. In the back of my mind I was hoping for around $500.
The sharing went well. I was able to tell a bit of our history with Tejan, explain our desire for others to come with us, shared that we had sponsorship profiles if anyone wanted to support COTN that way. (Our church has a really fluid congregation, with about 80% college students, so most of our current congregation were not around back in 2007/2008 when T. lived with us.) I was thrilled to get two kids sponsored... who had both been waiting for quite awhile for sponsors, one of whom we personally know!
People came out between services, talked to us about the trip and bought treats... we sold almost everything. After the second service, we packed up, came home and gathered around on the living room floor to count the donations.
I opened the lid to my covered oatmeal cannister, again, hoping for several hundred dollars and trying not to get my hopes up too high... I have just the teensiest bit of faith... I want to believe God is going to provide, but I'm still learning.
I assigned different denominations of money to each person. Ethan gathered up the $20 bills, Savannah the tens, Kyler the fives, Asia the ones and I found all the checks. When we had split up all the money, we began to count. Ethan counted his twenties. When he got up to $800, I began to cry. We kept counting, adding everything up to the grand total of $1822.95.
I am blown away by God's provision.
Granted, we still need a lot more money before the trip becomes a reality.
But I really didn't expect to make anywhere near that amount by selling baked goodies in my church foyer.
Thank you, Jesus.
And thank you, New Community, for getting behind us so enthusiastically.
I am humbled and thrilled and SO excited.
We also had a bake sale to begin our fundraising efforts.
I baked ALL week. A few friends brought over things they had baked, and we had oodles of cookies, breads, muffins, scones and even some fudge, caramel apples and my favorite, cinnamon bun popcorn for sale.
We had dinner with some friends Saturday night and they asked me how much money we were hoping to make. I told them I had no idea... I wasn't planning to price things, but planned to set out a donation jar and let people give whatever they felt like giving. In the back of my mind I was hoping for around $500.
The sharing went well. I was able to tell a bit of our history with Tejan, explain our desire for others to come with us, shared that we had sponsorship profiles if anyone wanted to support COTN that way. (Our church has a really fluid congregation, with about 80% college students, so most of our current congregation were not around back in 2007/2008 when T. lived with us.) I was thrilled to get two kids sponsored... who had both been waiting for quite awhile for sponsors, one of whom we personally know!
People came out between services, talked to us about the trip and bought treats... we sold almost everything. After the second service, we packed up, came home and gathered around on the living room floor to count the donations.
I opened the lid to my covered oatmeal cannister, again, hoping for several hundred dollars and trying not to get my hopes up too high... I have just the teensiest bit of faith... I want to believe God is going to provide, but I'm still learning.
I assigned different denominations of money to each person. Ethan gathered up the $20 bills, Savannah the tens, Kyler the fives, Asia the ones and I found all the checks. When we had split up all the money, we began to count. Ethan counted his twenties. When he got up to $800, I began to cry. We kept counting, adding everything up to the grand total of $1822.95.
I am blown away by God's provision.
Granted, we still need a lot more money before the trip becomes a reality.
But I really didn't expect to make anywhere near that amount by selling baked goodies in my church foyer.
Thank you, Jesus.
And thank you, New Community, for getting behind us so enthusiastically.
I am humbled and thrilled and SO excited.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Welcome!
Take a peek around, get to know us, leave a comment.
We're glad you're here.
I'll be regularly sharing about our preparations for our trip, give updates on our financial support, offer prayer requests and tell you about the team that will be joining us (once we know who they are!)
So welcome... thanks for visiting!
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