Provision

Wow. The first month of support raising is almost over, and I am utterly blown away at God's faithfulness and provision so far.

I have put a lot of effort and prayer into this process this month, but I have to admit that I've been a bit skeptical about how all of this would go. I've never had to raise support for anything before, and $12,000 seems like quite an undertaking for my first time. But I've been praying more and more for increased trust in the Lord. I know that He is faithful, and I've heard great stories of His provision. I want to trust in that same power in my own life. What I've seen just in the past week has shown me that God is way bigger than I can imagine.

I sent out  a bunch of support letters early this month. Less than 100, but a lot nonetheless. These went to most of my friends and family. After a few weeks I started getting responses about gifts, and I can keep track of these things through a website that is updated by Mission Year.

I also decided to do a t-shirt selling fundraiser. I'm blessed with the resources and support here at Truman State to be able to screen-print the shirts myself. This saved me a considerable amount of money on the shirts. I paid $513.70 for the cost of plain shirts, screen printing ink, and shipping for both. It took only a few hours to print all 150 shirts (with the help of great friends), and I've been able to sell them over the past week and a half.

Tonight I counted the money I have accumulated from these shirt sales over the past 1.5 weeks. Between cash and checks (excluding a huge pile of change at the bottom of the jar), there is exactly $513.00. I don't know if you noticed, but the shirts cost me $513.70. SWEET. Because, as I also mentioned, there's a huge pile of change at the bottom of the jar that I know is equal to over $15.00. Plus, I still have more orders to fill for shirts. But everything from here on out is profit!

Furthermore, Mission Year is matching whatever is donated in my name during this month, up to $1000. I know that I have at least $950 so far, but I've heard of at least five more donors who are getting money in this week. God easily provided that first $1000! And it will be doubled! So after the first month, I will have over $2000 raised already! So cool.

I have other exciting things to update you all on, but I need to go study for my last undergrad test! More updates soon.

Thanks for all the love and support. You all are great.