Praise God!! He has done so much for me since my last blog post, and I am excited to share it! I mentioned that our church was doing a Freedom Challenge until August, and God had put a specific amount on my heart to be giving every month. This was a stretch the first time because I did not know where the money would be coming from but, He came through! From then on I am happy to say that God has each time EXCEEDED that amount! I dont know where is has been coming from or why I havent been able to give this amount before the challenge, but I do not want to question it. Every time I receive I give some to God and He has given me the chance to stay true to my Freedom Challenge and go beyond it! He is amazing!
The next part of this post brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. The youth at my church have been planning to go to Mexico for a while now. We leave tomorrow actually and I am soo excited! Let me start from the beginning. I went to Mexico in October and knew that the youth would be going again in June and I wanted to go. I asked our youth pastor and he wasn't sure if I would be able to go at first, but then the middle of March he asked if I was still interested. I definitely was, but I had not been saving the money because I did not think I was going afterall. Knowing that I still wanted to go and needed to give a fast answer I prayed to God and made sure it was ok that I go. I did not get a real clear answer because I felt like He was saying yes, but I also felt that it was just me tellign myself yes because I wanted to go. Part of me also felt guilty becasue I did not ask Him sooner and here I was needing an answer right away so I felt I did not give Him enough time. The youth had begun saving money before me and there were money deadlines set up that I wasnt sure if I could make. Our youth pastor is super great though and told me not to worry about the deadlines and just get the money when I can. I was able to save up all but about $107 in two months. That is amazing considering it cost $1500 to go to Mexico. I know that I was only able to get that money through God and His help! I was also able to get ahead on my bills because I knew with youth camp coming up I was not going to be working much the month of June. So here we are the weekend before I am ready to leave and I am just sort of doubting. I know that all but $107 is great, I mean God gave me $1,393 in two months but I was still feeling like maybe I heard God wrong. I just felt that if God wanted me to go to Mexico He would have given me all the money. I talked to my brother about it and he was telling me that I should be ok and not doubt because God still gave me so much and that I can't just look at the bad side. That did make me feel better and I started packing and gettting things ready. I knew that I needed to go shopping for some things to take and I had some money saved up but not a lot. Again I was feeling so discouraged. I felt like "if this is taking so much money from me maybe I am not supposed to go. Maybe I should have said no." This morning I was going to pick up some last minute things and I called the youth pastor to talk to him about something for the trip. When I was done he told me that he was giving me a check I wrote back because he calculated the trip and everything and it came to be that I didn't need to pay so much. I could not believe it!! The amount I was getting back was $503!!! Praise God! I wanted to just cry right then! God DID give me the amount I needed for Mexico. He loves to work things out for us at the last minute and here it is the day before I leave for Mexico! I am now able to take money to Mexico and just rest easy about the money I have and what I needed to get to take. It just again shows me how much God provides for me and cares about all of my concerns. It is like He just wanted me to see how far I would go to trust Him and lean on Him. I truly feel now that God does want me to go to Mexico and that it will be a life changing experience! I know that I will be blessed and that our team will be used to bless others!
