Hello friend!! The last time that I uploaded a post, I was just starting out on my support/fundraising journey. Now that I have 30 days left before I head to training camp in Georgia, I thought it fitting that I provide an update of the miraculous ways that the Lord has moved over the last 5 ½ months.
To be frank, support/fundraising has been one of the most challenging, stretching, refining, and uncomfortable experiences of my entire life. With that being said, this season has also been immensely fruitful and has blessed me and others in ways that I would have never expected.
Through the challenges, failed fundraisers, and slow periods where it seemed as though I was going to fall behind and the times where the sting of rejection came from places I had not expected, God revealed that the struggle I was experiencing was purposeful. He revealed that He was leading me to a place of faith I had never been and to a familiarity with Him that I had not yet reached. Nothing the Lord does lacks intentionality, and nothing is wasted with Him.
Through this season of stretching, the Lord weighed it on my heart that in order for His ministry to be fruitful through me next year, there had to be a crushing for the oil of His anointing to saturate my heart and life. Just like the times leading up to this moment that I mentioned in my previous blog post, it all came back to my willingness. That epiphany from the Lord changed everything, and the stretching that I had been reluctant to accept became something that I embraced.
I have struggled with doubt for my entire life, and beginning this journey was no different. To be completely honest, when I committed to World Race in March, I was not sure that I would be able to raise the funds necessary to leave in January. Despite the doubt, the Holy Spirit urged me to take a chance and step out in faith. I remember thinking, “Okay God, I have no idea how this will work or where the funds will come from, but I’m going to trust that if this is what You have for me, You will make it happen.”
There is nothing I have done in my life (except choosing to follow Jesus and give my life to Him) that has brought so much peace, joy, and certainty to my heart as this decision to say yes to World Race. This journey of low valleys and mountaintop moments has truly taught me what it means to cultivate the Fruits of the Spirit and how to maintain and build faith through the tension of the unknown, adversity, and rejection. Now, drawing close to the end of this season of preparation, I look fondly back knowing that it was an eye-opening blessing that fostered within me a faith that perseveres and that forced me to confront my doubt and lay it down at the feet of the Father.
Now, 5 ½ months into my support/fundraising journey, any doubts in my mind about the Lord’s involvement and will in this process are long gone.
I have seen the Lord unite and rally a community around me. I have seen the Lord move mountains. I have seen Him answer prayers tenfold. I have seen Him soften, move, and prepare hearts for His glory. I have seen His favor and divine intervention in seemingly impossible and hopeless situations. I have seen the Lord’s intentionality in the most minute and overlooked details.
I am seeing His love and faithfulness written all around me.
Sometimes I think it is easy for us to place human limitations on God, forgetting who He is and what He’s done (this is something I myself am guilty of and is a habit that I am in the process of unlearning), but the God we serve today is the very same God from the Bible!! In the 5 ½ month span that I have been support/fundraising, I have gotten to know a new side of the Lord’s character: as a loving Father who provides for the needs of His child, as a miraculous way-maker who moves in ways beyond human comprehension, as a supernatural being who is completely and utterly limitless, and as a norm-defying, promise-keeping, and relentlessly loving God.
At every turn of this journey, the Lord has continually exceeded my every expectation and anything I could possibly imagine. I am completely, utterly, and totally—to the fullest extent of the definition—in awe of the ways that I have witnessed His hand move and seen pieces fall into place that had been set into motion long before I committed to World Race.
Despite the tight financial situation for practically everyone in America, He has moved those around me to donate generously. As a result, I am currently 83% funded ($16,496 out of $19,850)!! Praise Jesus!! There is truly nothing that the Lord cannot do! Great is His faithfulness! To God be the glory!!
I am completely humbled and honored that not only the King of Kings wants to send me as a missionary but that so many other people—and YOU—do too!! It is truly nothing short of incredible. I am so blown away by the miraculous ways that He has been moving hearts into partnering with me in this ministry that He has called me to. It is so clear that the Lord has His hand on these funds, and I know that He is going to use them to accomplish great works around the world!!
I will truly cherish every moment and conversation shared over the last few months as I shared the heart He has given me for missions and heard hearts shared in return.
Participating in support meetings gave me the unique opportunity to laugh, cry, share testimonies, exchange wisdom, pray over, and revel in the glory of our Father with each person in a way that I had never experienced before, and it is a privilege that I hold very dear to my heart.
The joy, faithfulness, and favor of the Lord was exceedingly tangible in each encounter without fail!! I would love to share every example of the Lord’s faithfulness with you from the last 5 ½ months, but for the sake of brevity, I will limit myself to just a few ways that God moved extraordinarily:
– From moving the hearts of atheists and unbelievers to not only be unwaveringly supportive and excited over my decision to say yes to Jesus but to also donate with radical generosity;
– To a friend from a different state who I have never met in person who has donated nearly every single week and has consistently encouraged and prayed for me;
– To a high school student who in April (before I met with her to share the details) had felt God tell her to save money and then in August heard the Lord tell her to donate it all towards this ministry;
– To an elderly woman I met at a small festival in Springport, who was on a fixed income and did not have money to spare but came back later to give me her last $3, allowing me the unique opportunity to see a story from the Bible play out before my very eyes (Mark 12:41-44);
– To a middle school teacher of mine who has gone above and beyond to support me and make this call on my life a reality;
– To a man who serves on the Missions Board at my church, who I did not meet with personally, but whose heart was moved so much by the Lord that he sought me out 2 weeks after my meeting with the Missions Board to donate a significant amount;
– To money being stolen from a fundraiser that I was doing and a friend that I will be serving with next year (who was also working on fundraising money for herself) who donated the exact amount that was stolen;
– To my beautiful church family that has gone above and beyond in their support and encouragement;
– To the miraculous financial support of my church, who by the grace of God, was somehow able to work me into their budget generously; and
– To a childhood friend that I was able to reconnect with through saying yes to this call, who went out of her way to support and encourage me even while she is currently serving in Africa.
I share these things with you, not to boast of anything that is of my own doing and ability, but to testify of the goodness and miraculous ability of the God we serve, who is truly and completely limitless and capable in any situation. Friend, I hope that whatever your situation is, you are able to draw encouragement, inspiration, hope, and renewed faith from this testimony of the power, love, and faithfulness of the God that we serve!
I truly don’t have the words to describe how grateful I am for YOUR support, and I am so honored and blown away that so many of you have wanted and have been willing to partner in this journey with me, whether that be in prayer, in finance, or both. It has touched my heart deeply in such a powerful, humbling, and unforgettable way.
If you would like to pray over me and my squad and the ministry that will be accomplished through us as we continue to prepare before we head to Georgia for training camp in January (30 days away!!!!), here are some prayer points:
– That each of the members of my squad are able to make the fundraising deadlines and that we would continue to trust and depend on the Father even through the tension of the unknown;
– That my squad is able to cultivate a healthy biblical community in January and that we are able to continue to do so throughout the duration of the 11 months that we will be serving together;
– That His ministry through each of us would be fruitful and saturated with the fragrance of the presence, power, and anointing of the Holy Spirit;
– That the hearts of those that God will lead us to minister to in each country would be softened and prepared to receive; and
– That the countries of Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda would experience revival and be radically set on fire for Jesus.
God bless!!
Joyfully His,
Areonah
“How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”
Romans 10:14-15
The pictures above depict some of my fundraising endeavors!! I created the designs for the T-shirts and hand-dyed them myself! The bracelets are handmade as well!!
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