Lets start with the middle of last week...
For the past few months I have been in the midst of helping plan Crusade's annual spring formal. It has been a crazy and hectic few months but all of our team's hard work came to its culmination on Friday night! I posted some pictures of the room and of some friends! The venue turned out to be beautiful, the music was incredible, there were yummy desserts, and I think that everyone really did have a great time. Its really neat to see the gifts the Lord has blessed me with be put to use!
So as Friday came to a close I was relieved but still had a lot on my mind. As I spoke about in my last post, I have been blessed with the amazing opportunity to go to Paris this summer. Last summer I had a similar opportunity a little closer to home, in Miami. I had to raise 3000 dollars to live in Miami last summer and the support raising process was a breeze for me. I think that the Lord knew that I would have looked for any excuse not to go so He just provided quickly so that I would not get discouraged. This time, things have been a different story.
Raising support for Paris has been one of the most challenging seasons of my life. I have never gone through such a roller coaster of decision making. Let me clarify. I am a control freak. I want to know what is going on and have decisions made early so that I am crystal clear on all of MY plans. That is the problem, I am selfish and everything is according to my agenda rather than trusting God for His (which is obviously better) I have been trying to raise support this whole time by myself. Instead of relying on the Lord and asking Him to provide I have been relying on myself to come up with ideas and names of people I could ask and ways to raise the funds. About 2 weeks ago, I came to terms with the fact that there was nothing I could do. With 4 weeks left and $4200 I thought that a literal miracle would need to happen in order for me to be able to go to Paris. I was out of ideas and I had no idea where that money was going to come from. In MY eyes it seemed that over $1000 a week for 4 weeks was impossible. (Notice the theme in all of the preceding sentences, they are focused on me). Well God laughs when we limit Him, and boy did He laugh at me. I came to a point 2 weeks ago when I realized I had to completely surrender control of my summer and Paris to the Lord and just start trusting that if He wanted me there He would get me there and make it clear how to get there. Well, He has made it very clear. In the last 72 hours I have just been astonished in how sovereign our God is and how much He is capable of when we just trust Him.
To make a long story short, in the last 72 hours I have seen $1800 been raised. $1800 that is literally insane!!! 7 days ago I said these exact words "the only way this money will come in is if it drops straight from Jesus." WELL IT HAS! I have seen money come from crazy places and from some pretty amazing people. I am so blessed to have some incredible and Godly people in my life who believe in what the Lord has for me this summer and believe that the Lord is going to do big things in Paris. PRAISE GOD! I am still a ways away from my goal but I know that the Lord is going to provide, the last 72 hours have been evidence of that. I am so thankful to the Lord for the time of trial and stress. I know that He is using this entire experience to prepare me for this summer and all that we will face. James 1:2-6 says "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind." Thank you Lord for your BIG plan and all that you are teaching me.
This journey just keeps getting crazier! I am excited to continue to see the Lord's huge plan unfold right in front of me!
praise the Lord! God is SO good! :)
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