From Junk To Riches

The weekend before I launched training camp for the World Race Gap Year I had a yard sale at my dad’s house to raise money for my trip. At this point in my life I was honestly tired of fundraising and asking people to partner with me. I know that sounds bad, but I was just so tired emotionally and the thought of having to promote this yard sale with limited resources seemed discouraging. Plus, not a lot of people go to yard sales anymore especially during slight Covid times… Alas, I knew God had put this fundraising idea in my head and I just needed to be obedient and trust Him. Like I imagined, I got some backlash for the idea of a yard sale and I felt like everything I did to try to raise money wasn’t good enough for the people around me. All in all I was very discouraged… BUT the verse, “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord” (Psalm 27:14) kept coming to mind. So I waited on the Lord. The night before the Saturday yard sale, I ran around like a squirrel in my community in the dark with my dad putting up signs and posting on Facebook that this yard sale was happening. Come Saturday morning I wake up at 5:45 am and get outside at like 6:30. I sit down in my chair after setting up and ….. nothing.

 For two hours no one came and I was starting to feel pretty dumb. My stepmom and I already prayed over everything and I had taken all the steps to get this thing going so why was God not moving??? I accepted defeat until God convicted me of not giving Him full control. I wrote my prayer of surrendering this yard sale down in my journal and let God have His way. Immediately I felt peace. And almost immediately our first customer came up. After that, it was like God opened up the floodgates of His Heavenly realm. So many people donated items to be sold, my family all helped out by running the yard sale with me, some people donated to my mission trip without even buying anything, and I had a chance to tell a lot of people about the love Jesus has for them. Some sweet man donated over 300 dollars without even knowing me!! God can use any circumstance and any person to make a Kingdom change! At the end of the day I counted all of the profit and my family and I raised over a 1,000 dollars for my trip! God is so good and I promise He can do the same for you if you ask Him to provide for you. John 14:13-14 “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.” Thank you for your support and prayers. It means more than words to me. God bless y’all!