no.405 140609 Thank you for the donation bag

Looking up

I have a good news to share with you all!

Before I share the news, let me tell you a little bit about what's been going with the preparation for Mexico missions this year. As I have mentioned before, I am going back to Mexico this summer in July for ten days, co-leading a group of 14 high school students at my church. We have been planning a fundraising event at the end of the month and it seemed like everything was going so smoothly… until I was told that most of the teams going on a summer mission trip this summer are also hosting a fundraising evening at church. This meant that there is an event every week starting, probably next week. This was a big problem, as we need to raise a big amount, in order to build a house in Mexico.

To be honest, I was discouraged when I heard this news. In my head, I knew that I had to trust God and put down all my worries, but I wasn't doing it. I asked myself if it was even possible to raise that much money. On Sunday's meeting, our team took a lot of time to pray to God about everything… from the preparation, to our daily walk with Christ, people of Mexico and also fundraising.

A week ago, I had asked for a donation from the company I work for. It seemed like I was able to get a donation, however, there was a big possibility that I get it past our fundraising event. Once again, I was discouraged. As you can see, I had a discouraging week and it appeared that nothing was working out… well, until today.

At work, my manager came up to me and told me that she might have a bag for me. At first, I didn't fully understand what she meant by that. Then it hit me a minute after. She has a bag for me! For our fundraising night! She told me that someone returned a "donation bag" and that the company doesn't know what to do with it, so the regional manager told my manager to just donate it. Knowing that I had asked her about a donation, she told the regional people that the bag will be given to me. She said she was just waiting for an approval from the corporate. Although it's not a complete yes, I am so excited and so thankful that we have a bag! I was afraid that we might not get a donation on time, so I had purchased something out of my pocket to use for the event. I figured that I could return it, but I might just make a donation for my team. Not only that, the youth pastor who's is leading this mission trip told me that he received some awesome donations too!

It is indeed the power of prayer. Sometimes it takes time for God to answer our prayers, meaning that it's not the right time for us to ask, sometimes He says yes and sometimes no. But this time, God instantly answered our prayers.

Sometimes it makes me angry at God for listening to my prayers because I have so little faith yet He still listens and answers me. Even today, I was journaling at night and it made me wonder how God still provides even after seeing how much I struggle with trusting Him. If I were in His shoes, I would be like, you don't deserve anything because you didn't trust me. However, our God is faithful. I'm so thankful for the donation bag and also the other donations that the youth pastor received. I'm also thankful for God who revealed His faithfulness to me once again, and also for this opportunity to realize how much more I need to grow in trusting God.