God is SO good!

Last Monday, I sat down and looked over finances – I needed $1300 by Friday!
I had already sold off some of my clothes, some paintings that I had done, and pulled all the tips that I had made from work. I also looked at all the support checks that had come in. Well, by Wednesday, I was down to needing $972. This was so encouraging! The next morning (Thursday), my fiancé called to let me know that one of his friends wanted to donate $100 to the trip! It was so cool to see God moving.

Of course, I still knew that I needed a lot of money to come in one day’s time. I had received a larger tax refund this year than I was expecting, so I was beginning to think that perhaps God was providing for my trip through that. If I used my entire tax refund, and a large chunk of my savings (which I had already been planning on using towards my wedding), I figured I could still go on the trip, but would be flat broke by the time I left for the trip, and especially when I got back to the States.

I figure that when God calls you somewhere, you have to drop everything and go. Sometimes it means making sacrifices. If this was the sacrifice He was calling me to make, it would be worth it, and I would trust Him to provide for the wedding in another way.

So here I am, resigned to the notion that I am going to Africa and that God is calling me to sacrifice literally everything to be there. I had already taken many of my clothes to a consignment store to sell, set up a yard sale to sell my furniture, and done some more paintings to raise money.

Then…. I get an email from the director of the mission trip. He says that one of my team members has raised excess funds and wants to use them to help fund my trip. I was in complete disbelief! It was a huge rush of emotions. Disbelief. Excitement. Relief. Joy. I was in shock.

This suddenly meant that not only was the cost of my trip covered, but I could use the cash that I had received from selling off my clothes and from selling my paintings, tips, my birthday money, any Christmas money, etc to fund my immunizations, visa fees, etc. Not only that, but I could once again use my savings towards my wedding. It was an enormous blessing!!

The way God provided is amazing. It was provided in a way so huge, that only God could orchestrate it. Based on the things God has already been doing, I would say that we should expect to see Him move in some AMAZING ways this summer! :)

Thank you to everyone who contributed. I cannot wait to share in this adventure with you.

There's just over a month to go!!