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welp we’re doing something else now

     God has a funny way of showing up sometimes. 

     and humans have a funny way of not listening or paying attention enough. 

     ah. true love:) 

     several months ago, in the beginning of february, God told me to pray for half of my funds by march thirty-first. that’s about nine thousand dollars, in about two months. i ignored it at first because i didn’t know if it was me or God, but then i started hearing it everywhere, seeing it everywhere—even just seeing the numbers three and thirty one next to each other more than should be normal. it sounded crazy, but i was still floating on the high that i’d gotten accepted, and decided to trust God for the money. i prayed for that money whenever i had the chance. everywhere i went whenever i thought of it. 

     march the thirty first came around and i wasn’t even close.

     i’d had donations of course, and people telling me they wanted to help out, all kind words and encouragements. i had the moral support. but i didn’t have half of the funds. i barely had half of half. 

     i became inordinately discouraged and confused. 

     had it been God? or had i made it up? i was certainly capable—i’d done it before, accidentally. i’d been so certain that i’d heard him loud and clear, and i knew i’d made myself known too—the amount of swim practices that i spent praying is not worth counting. so what was going on? 

     a few months later, about a week or two before i was to leave for my summer job, things started to elegantly fall apart. 

    boot camp for my route was in june, overlapping when i’d be at my job as a summer camp counselor for a traveling christian camp. my job was basically an enormous road trip—ten weeks living in peoples houses, going from church to church in town to town to put on camp for kids all over the midwest. my location that week didn’t line up with travel plans to get to gainesville and back that same week, it was too expensive and too impossible and didn’t make much sense to go. 

     as i kept trying to make it work, i began to feel more and more distressed. after a few phone calls and some research, i felt confirmation that this wasn’t my trip. 

     this all happened in the span of about twelve-ish hours, give or take. 

     so now i knew. it felt good to know something. i was discouraged about the speed at which my previous trip had dismembered itself, but encouraged that at least i wasn’t flailing in a big dark ocean anymore. 

     i scrolled through the other trips and prayed for what to do next. i found one i liked the sound of, did some more research (my favorite thing), and prayed over it some more. 

     that one. i wanted that one. 

      i called my advisor, and told him i wanted to switch. as soon as i said it i felt better. i think it’s funny how sometimes you think you’re feeling peace and then you feel actual peace and it takes you by surprise because of how soft and certain it is compared to the peace that you hastily manufactured for yourself. 

     it was only a little bit after i’d made the switch that i realized something. 

     my new route calls for me to fundraise $7,000. by then it was near the end of may, and i had almost all of it, since my funds from the other trip were transferred. 

     id been praying to raise half by march thirty first. on march thirty first i only had about thirty five hundred. 

     about half of 7,000 is thirty five hundred. 

     id already had half of my funds by march thirty first. 

     for the wrong trip. 

     as soon as that dawned on me i felt even better—after a few seconds of “i am so sTuPiD—“ of course. 

     my new route is a semesters trip:) i will be going to nicaragua, panama, and costa rica, for one month each. i’ll be doing most of the same things from my previous route, if not more condensed and specific. my team is much smaller, which is a perfect fit for me. and and and, drum roll please…

     i’m fully funded!! 

     yay:) thanks everyone for your prayers and words of encouragement—even people who don’t even know what i’m doing will say something and it’ll stay on my heart for longer. all of it is reallyappreciated:)) thanks:)) 

     “and he always fills my cup. and he lifts me up, oh how he lifts me up.” -plankeye 

      – 🙂

 

 

One comment

  1. This is such a sweet example of the Father’s beautiful way of leading us exactly where we are supposed to be at the exact timing he has planned from the beginning. Have a wonderful time on your race, friend. You’re gonna do great things for the kingdom!

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