Hey all! It’s been a long time since I last took time to write out a post. One of my goals for 2020 is to use this blog more!
The past few months of fundraising have been a blur of support letters, cookies, t-shirts, and Christmas parties. I now can fully appreciate the effort it takes to fundraise large amounts of money. It takes a village! There have been times when it has been so fun and other times when it was stressful and I wanted to give up. But you know what? I have watched time and time again God showing up to meet every need!
My first fundraising goal was to raise $5,000 by January 1st. Each week I stared at that goal wondering how I would meet it. Support letters brought in $1,500, t-shirts $350, and then I decided to bake cookies. First, I did fall-themed ones for Thanksgiving and I sold like 25 dozen! Did I mention I made all of them from scratch and decorated every single one on my own?! I began to wonder what I had gotten myself into. In between school and work, I whipped up triple batches of dough in the morning and baked late into the night after work, fueled by plenty of caffeine. And then came the decorating. As I embarked on my adventure of decorating 300 cookies in 3 days, I began to doubt of I could get it all done. I probably should have asked for help at this point but I am a bit of a perfectionist and stubborn to boot so….I think the latest I stayed up decorating till was 2am but I got them done! I also sold Christmas cookies. Selling cookies alone brought in hundreds of dollars, way more then I could have ever imagined.
And this is when I learned to trust God for the funds I need.
You know why? Because he shows up. Every. Single. Time. I could go on and on with stories of his faithfulness during this time but here are a few. The couple who gave me $1,000 when I didn’t think I would make the first goal. The anonymous guy who gave my dad a $100 bill at church one night wanting nothing in return. The lady who paid me $100 for 1 dozen cookies. And the list goes on. I’ve had people who I haven’t seen in 4+ years buy shirts or send me money. God is so good and I will never stop believing He always wants the best for us.
Here’s a fundraising update: We’ve raised $6,000 so far. Right now I am in the middle of another cookies fundraiser (hello Valentine’s Day!) and I have a several more planned for the near future. My ultimate goal? To be fully-funded and beyond by September 1st 2020, World Race Launch day. Right now with around $12,000 left to raise it seems like a big goal but the Bible says God can move mountains so I am choosing to trust and I can’t wait to see how God will provide!
Ways you can support me right now: Lots of prayer! As July begins to approach I am getting ready to start buying my supplies, making travel plans, and “getting all my ducks in a row” for training camp and launch. I would so appreciate prayer for wisdom to make the right decisions as well as prayer for all the needed funds to come in. My current goal is $10,000 by May 1st. And if you would like to donate towards my trip and become a part of sending me around the world to share Jesus to the nations you can click the “donate” link on my blog’s homepage!
Thank you guys so much for all your support, I feel so loved!
-Amelia
P.S. I’ve included a photo of the cookies I made!
