A twenty dollar bill was pressed into my hand. “Use it to help with something like immunizations,” the small woman told me. Half an hour earlier I had sat down next to a different woman on bench. “I’ll give you thirty bucks a month,” she said. A few hours later, another woman pledged monthly, and two other people came up to me separately and each spoke quietly, “I want to give you $200.”
Within the span of a few hours, $1860 was pledged. (I was not conducting a fundraising banquet.)
What makes so many people –who I know are not well-off financially—sacrificially pour money out to me of their own accord? Answer: their belief that our loving Creator and His Good News must reach every creature on this earth. They love Him. They want others --who they have never met-- to also know His love. And they believe God has commissioned me to go and tell them. I believe that too, but it is a humbling and astounding belief to accept.
On April 27th, I prayed and told God it would take a miracle for all the funds to come in time for me to leave by October. Now, as I see it happening before my eyes, I marvel and wonder, To what has God actually called me to?? It is difficult to describe in words the experience of receiving so much love, prayers, support, encouragement, interest, and financial outpouring from so many hundreds of people, many whom I barely (or don’t even!) know. It amazes and humbles me.
As of now, including all those who have verbally indicated they’ll give, I am at 97%.
“What manner of love is this that we should be called children of GOD?” ~ 1 John 3:1
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