Wednesday, June 27, 2012

5 loaves and 2 fish

God makes something out of nothing, provides through the unknown, and is faithful through the unexpected. Kinda like when Jesus fed the 4,000 and the 5,000. And kinda like support-raising.

Support-raising has been an unexpectedly joyful journey for me. Not only has almost $10k come in in around three weeks, but also the majority of it has come from unexpected places and in unexpected ways. God has been turning pennies into dollars through my Amazon fundraiser and through selling the bracelets, necklaces, and bags. The majority of the support that has been raised has come from people that God has placed in my life in the past six months.

There have been people that I have met, they have supported me, and it's likely I won't see them ever again until Heaven.

There have been people that I have previously worked with who are contacting me and telling me they want to support me. I didn't even know they were believers.

There have been people that don't even know me on a personal level, they know me through someone who has been so helpful as to share my story, and have supported me. Then their relatives, whom I also don't know, also give something.

There have been people who I know probably aren't able to spare the finances, but do anyway.

There have been people I have met on the plane, perfect strangers, who have asked to be put on my support list.

Over and over and over again stories like these are happening, which means leaving for Rwanda the third week of August is slowly but surely becoming a reality. Day after day after day God is magnifying His faithfulness. Again and again God is displaying His ways and His plans that are so far beyond my imagination. And believe it or not, this support-raising process is probably the greatest comfort and encouragment in this season of my life, especially as I wrestle with some other difficult things. Through the five loaves and two fish, everything from the pennies to the faithful and unexpected people, God is paving the road to Rwanda and giving me a great light and hope in one of the more difficult seasons.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

school supplies during the summer?!

 I know it's summer and all, but let me bring you back into school mode for a little bit. As I may have mentioned before, I am collecting ministry supplies to take over with me to Rwanda and the majority of these are school supplies! As you know, I will be working with a street boys tutoring program and unfortunately school supplies are not easy to come by in Rwanda. My soon-to-be partner in crime, Marie, has sent me a list of things that we'll need/are running low on that will help us to teach and better work with the boys. Supporting me through finances might be difficult for some of you, so this is another way you can help!

~Crayons
~Pens (these tend to get "lost" fairly easily and the ones in Rwanda leak)
~Pencil sharpeners
~Colored paper
~Band-aids (please please please)
~Spray-on bactine/antiseptic wipes
~White board markers and erasers
~Playing cards (used for math activities)
~Glue sticks
~Notebooks
~Red pens
~Highlighters
~Boys clothing
~Classroom decorations/posters (ex. parts of speech, time tables, etc.)
~Hard candy (good to use as incentives)
~Craft/art stuff (I'm not too artsy, so if anyone has any simple craft ideas let me know!)
~Kleenex packs

If you would like to help by donating any of these items please let me know! I will be sending a bag ahead of me to Rwanda on July 26th, so please have the item(s) to me by July 22nd. When you have an item ready, please let me know and I can pick it up from you. Thank you for your willingness to help! The boys are grateful for it as well!

Thursday, June 7, 2012

sorry for the delay...

Sorry that it's been so long since an update, chaos has been the theme for the past month or so. So now that I have a breath of fresh air for a few days, I wanted to send along an update on what's been happening, what's currently going on, and what's soon to come.

As you might remember, I was the assistant softball coach at Hayfield High School this past spring season, which is where I played and graduated from. After starting the season a little concerned that we would get whooped, the girls worked hard, overcame expectations, and won the district! We won the first round of regional playoffs, but lost the second round to Oakton, which I may or may not be bitter about. Regardless, I'm very proud of all my girls and am blessed to have been a part of it! It may not have been an easy season (some other issues popped up halfway through the season), but I think it was very fruitful. Praise the Lord that He gave me energy and patience when I had absolutely none. I won't be back next season because I'll be in Rwanda, but I hope that whenever I'm in the US I'll be able to coach.

I was accepted with CTEN, which was a miracle on its own, and have started officially support-raising for Rwanda. For information on how to support me, click here. The support has already started coming in and I'm confident God will supply every last need. I can't buy my plane tickets until I have 75% of my ~$19,000 budget, so the sooner the better! If I had to put a date on it, I would probably like to buy my tickets no later than the third week of July. This is, of course, dependent on God's timing and provision. I've figured out that if 30 people give $25 a month, that will put me just under the 75% mark. Of course, I'm not saying I don't appreciate one-time gifts (I'm very grateful for ANY kind of support), I'm just putting the numbers in simple figures. And don't forget about the fundraisers and telling your friends about the fundraisers!

Speaking of CTEN, I have my orientation out in Texas NEXT WEEK! I'm trying to prepare to be blitzed with information. Please pray for the orientation and that it would better help me prepare for Rwanda and that I wouldn't be overwhelmed by the amount of information.

And speaking of Rwanda, it's coming up FAST! Two and a half months people! More and more details are starting to come together. I now know where I'll be living and that I'll be only working with the street boys tutoring program (there had been an earlier suggestion that I also teach English in the Bible college). Of course, things never really go as planned in Africa, so I'll just have to wait and see what lies ahead.

On a different note, I've been really wrestling with some personal matters, so prayer would be greatly appreciated. It's nothing alarming or drastic, so no worries, I just don't have the words or space to start to explain it.

I promise I'll try to do better with writing new posts and updates in a timely manner :)