Hahahaha, it’s only been 2 months, no biggie! Don’t worry, I’m not dead, just fundraising! It takes up a lot of my time, and I wanted to make sure I had enough to write about, cause who wants to read a boring blog post?
So I ‘graduated’ after staying with my parents for a month in Florida, then drove up in a new lease car to Maine to start my ‘summit’ training with the navs. This year I feel like will have a lot of quotations, since things are happening, but also, not really. It was online, but it was still nice to meet the friends going to other campuses this fall. We got the very minimal MPD training we needed to get started, and then got let loose from there to go get funded. For those of you who are curious, I have to raise a little less than $4000/month. I’m 35% funded so far. But you probably already know that, cause if you’re reading this, I have most likely already reached out to you personally to ask if you want to be on my team! Cause I like you, and you’re my friend! So I got a little bored during one of the sessions and decided to make some EDGE Corps memes. These are only a few, and my favorites.
The girls who are on my fundraising team are wonderful! It’s the Northeast EDGE girls minus Rosie, whose on another team, but is still in another bible study with us (the sexual health and wellness one; you can imagine how it’s going!) and our coach, Denise. We wake up almost every morning at 7:30am for our daily huddle and to get the day started. And that means 99% of the time I am still in a tank top probably not wearing pants with my hair in a bun. But it’s a great way to get the day started.
This is Cora showing off a lovely sunrise during one of our DH.
And it’s not really all that bad. I get to have fun meetings with people as my job this summer, like you can see in the pictures below. It is just…hard. And if you’ve ever had to raise support, you know it is. I think I have way too much of an expectation that people will actually respond back to my calls. Whoops!
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Well, that’s all the updates I have really. Sometimes it’s hard to get out of bed and do this everyday. Which led me to the thoughts going through my head today as I did my etawg (extended time alone with God). So since moving out of USM, I minimalized and got rid of everything I didn’t need and old stuff to the point where everything I owned just fit into one carload. Pretty impressive, huh? So all my stuff is tucked away where I’m living now, and as I was reading and praying this morning, with a continuously heavy heart because I have not fundraised nearly enough to be anywhere near getting on campus in the fall:( I was distractedly looking at everything.
I just finished reading the biography of Dawson Trotman, the man who founded the Navigators, and in it there was a part where it talked about how he sold his white Pontiac car his wife gave him to aid in the purchase of Glen Eyrie, castle headquarters of the Navigators in Colorado Springs, and where I was supposed to go for our summit back in May. So I texted my coach absentmindedly and asked ‘how come I’m not allowed to sell all my stuff if Dawson Trotman sold his car to help his fundraising?’ But after sending that text, I laughed to myself because looking around, it appears that I own absolutely nothing of value. And you would be right on that first glance. And I KNOW there are better things I could’ve done with my time alone with God, but I ended guesstimating how far selling those used things I own would go towards my fundraising like Trotman did. And I made a list just to visualize, and when I was done with the list, I didn’t know whether to laugh out loud or cry. None of these things are for sale, obviously, and I couldn’t include my ipad (that I got to replace the computer), my phone, and my car (which I don’t even own cause I lease lol) because those 3 things are pretty essential to me doing my job. Everything is very used, and everything on this list means very very much to me. I think it would be enlightening to share with you my results from ‘taking inventory’. You can disagree with me on the prices I imagined; they are just what I would let them go for. It’s all in good fun…
1. MacBook Air with charger-$100
2. Kindle with case-$150
3. Nikon D3300 with 2 lenses, charger and batteries, tripod, backpack, and spider stabilizer-$200
4. Stentor 4/4 Violin-$200
5. Stagg mini guitar with strap, capo, picks, and bag-$100
6. Elkhorn compound bow (in surprisingly good condition still, since I got it when I was 16)-$100
7. Kelty 80W backpacking pack with 35F sleeping bag-$150 (the deal of a lifetime!)
8. Coleman 2 person tent-$100
9. 1 Proforce Bo staff, 2 escrema bamboo fighting sticks, 1 wooden nunchuk, and some very used sparring gear thrown in for free-$50
10. If I was very desperate, I would have to send home for an upright black jewelry case inlaid with a little ivory (like the only truly adult thing I own).
So when I got to the end of this list, I thought to myself; If I sold all this, how much support would it bring me for 2 years on EDGE? The answer? $50/month. Which is pretty ludicrous keeping in mind I ask people to partner with me at $100/month. Isn’t that really wild?
It was a fun exercise, I recommend you take inventory of all the valuable things you own, and if God asked you to get rid of them, could you? And for how much? So what’s the point of all this? Well, some scriptures came to my mind that I would like to share, and forgive the long text, but its good stuff…
“If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.” – Philippians 3:4-11
I would sell all 10 of those things on the list and MORE without a second look if it meant I could only get to be on campus full time to share the good news with students. I weep that right now I still feel that this stupid thing called fundraising is getting in the way of me living out 2 Timothy 2:2, Dawson’s original, pure, goal. Well, Daws never really spent time in the Northeast either…
All that to say, all I want to do is know Christ. And meet with students, and share Jesus. Everything else-getting ahead in a career/having a well paying job, saving money or having nice things or a house, getting married, personal satisfaction-I consider FREAKIN’ GARBAGE compared to how much Christ is worth to a soul. So how long with the Lord keep me from his own heart?! I don’t know, but I’ll keep you updated (as always).
~J
P.S. The most sincere, heartfelt, and innumerable thanks if you have already started supporting me, or even just gave me the time to share my vision with you in a face-to-face if time is all you have to give right now. I am so thankful for YOU, and really didn’t even expect to get this far, so it is a blessing and I cannot stress that enough. I am praying for you, yes you! Tell your friends about this weird girl you know who deliberately chose to work with college students for the next two years! The life changing Gospel has to get to Amherst quick!
Water from the Rock 