2 days until hawaii | an update on raising support

i was planning on writing out a long post about all the amazing things that have happened since i've started raising support, but it is currently 1am, i procrastinated, and i have to work tomorrow. i still hope to write out those stories because i never want to forget them, but until then, i will just say God has taught me a lot about Himself through this process. asking people for money, or help in general, makes me uncomfortable, but i knew i had to have help so i've stepped out and asked anyway. and what do you know, Jesus is a really good guy and has not let me down.

i will give you the highlights:

a one way ticket to hawaii for $163(!!!).

college friends randomly sending me hundreds of dollars.

an incredibly successful instagram auction that raised nearly $3500 in 24 hours. from mostly people i don't know.

an unexpected job at the church as the interim secretary. which has secretly always been my dream.

and the ability to show up in hawaii with the first 3 months already paid for.

i cannot actually believe that i have already raised so much money in such a short amount of time. i never dreamed i would. i am incredibly grateful for all the people who have given already and i wish i could thank them with their own trip to hawaii. one day if i am as rich as oprah i will do just that.

i leave for kona on wednesday, and as i already mentioned, the first 3 months are completely paid for. this is nothing short of a miracle. we have about a month to raise the remaining 3 months which pays for the outreach portion of this trip. i've been asked to raise $6000 for outreach to ensure that all of our expenses are covered. as you can imagine, i am tempted to be nervous about raising 6000 more dollars but mostly i am like bring it on. when i told a good friend of mine that i was going to YWAM, she was obviously excited for me, but mostly she was excited that i had to raise money. this conversation happened over the phone but had it happened in person i would have been giving her a blank stare. i don't know many people who are excited about raising money, but she was sure it was going to be an incredible faith building experience, and boy was she right.

i would like to outline some ways that you can support me if you are interested.

1. paypal option A - the donate button
   on my blog sidebar, right over there ------------> is a yellow button that says donate. you do not have to have a paypal account, just a credit or debit card, to use this option. it goes straight to my paypal account where i keep it until i'm ready to make a payment to YWAM. the downside to this option is that i have to pay a fee once i receive the money, which adds up after awhile.
2. paypal option B - send money to friends and family
   when you log into paypal there is a button on the top toolbar that says "pay or send money." if you click that, it will take you to a new screen where you can select "send money to friends and family." if you have a bank account linked to your paypal or you have a balance in your paypal account, there are no fees that have to be paid with this method. if you don't have either of those things, it will ask you to pay the 3% fee to send the money. please feel free to just use my donate button if you don't want to pay the fee.
3. YWAM payment A - the credit card
   you can also make a payment straight to YWAM. using t h i s  l i n k, you can donate using a credit card, but not a debit card. please do not change the name that is automatically written on the first page, or the donation will not go to me.
4. YWAM payment B - an electronic check
   using the same link above, you can donate with an electronic check. this will ask for your bank routing number (which you can find on the bottom of your checks) and account number and takes 2-3 days to transfer. i have made all my payments to YWAM this way and have had no problems at all. it is a secure website.
5. the good old fashioned way - a check
   if you would like to donate using a check or cash, please email me at lifeasaneskimo (at) gmail (dot) com and i will send you my address.

lastly, i recently sent out these postcards to remind people to pray for me while i am in hawaii and overseas. if you would like one, please email me your address and i will get one out to you. my incredibly sweet and generous friend katy made these postcards for me out of the goodness of her heart of gold. she will punch me right in my face for saying this but she has an  e t s y  s h o p  where she sells beautiful prints. i have gotten a lot of them because i'm obsessed, so i encourage you to hop over to her shop and look around. thanks katy, you're one in a million.

xoxo,

ko.

aloha.

picture from a trip to maui in 2010.

a little over a year ago i heard a song called "all is for your glory" by cory asbury (that link takes you to the laura hackett version though.) the bridge of that song says this:

"put me anywhere

just put Your glory in me

I'll serve anywhere

just let me see Your beauty"

i think i sang that song at school and church approximately 400 thousand times since then. at least once or twice a week. that and oceans by hillsong, but thats a whole different story. 

anyway, over the last few years, i've learned a lot about the importance of the words that we speak. there is a verse in the Bible that says "the tongue has the power of life and death" which makes me think a lot more about the words that come out of my mouth. because of this, i've become a lot more choosy about the songs that i'll sing. i don't want to declare words, even in song, that i don't agree with or really believe. just because they're singing a song at church doesn't mean i have to sing it too. make sense? (i could go on and on about the power i think words carry, but i'll get to the point...)

so when all is for your glory started being played everywhere i went, i consciously chose to sing those words. i genuinely thought about the words i was singing and the implications they might have. i was, with tears in my eyes, really saying send me literally anywhere. i'll go. i'm literally scared out of my mind to agree to that, but i trust You. send me anywhere as long as You go too." (and duh, obviously, Jesus is going too.)

who knew i'd actually have to put my money where my mouth is. 

over the last year at least 10 people, half of whom i didn't know, asked me in one way or another if i'd ever heard of/thought of going to an organization called Youth With a Mission or YWAM as most people call it. those people popped up over the course of a few months, and it didn't take me long to notice the theme. i had heard of YWAM before, and it was something i had even considered doing, but taking 6 months to go do 3 months of discipleship and 3 months of international outreach was a little too scary for me. but i knew that all these mentions of YWAM were not just coincidental, so i told Jesus okay, i'll do YWAM. sure. knowing that He wasn't asking me to do it right that moment. 

all of that to say, although this may seem for some people like its coming out of left field, i've known about this in my heart for a long time. i just had no idea He'd say "go!" so soon.

SO, in january 2015 i am getting on an airplane to kona, hawaii where i will join people from all over the world to do a 6 month discipleship program. i'll be in kona for 3 months going through the "lecture" phase of the school, and then i'll be going with a team for a 3 month international "outreach" phase where i'll put all the things i learned in lecture to practice. right now i don't know where i will go on outreach as this is something the school leaders determine after all the students arrive. "send me literally anywhere" is beginning to hold a lot more meaning as i could literally be sent anywhere in the entire world. 

i have to be honest and tell you that i am really really nervous. i am 150 thousand percent confident that this is what Jesus has for me in this season, but i am truly so nervous. i am nervous about being gone for 6 months, i'm nervous about not seeing any of my friends, i'm nervous about going to a foreign country, i'm nervous about saying yes to a foreign country before i know which one it is, i'm nervous about what i might have to eat in that foreign country, i'm nervous about raising all the money i need, i'm nervous that i'll hate being in hot weather for 6 months. etc, etc, etc. BUT, this was so completely and totally the Lord's idea and i trust Him 100%. He already knows where i'm going, who i'm gonna meet, where the money is going to come from, what i'm gonna eat, etc etc etc. i have nothing to worry about. He's got it.

i am brainstorming some ways to raise the funds i need to make this happen. i've thought about selling prints or having an instagram auction or maybe going with the trusty old send a letter to people method. i will of course let everyone know once i decide what is the best route to go. :)

please be praying for me as i continue to work out all the details and prepare to head to hawaii in less than 3 months. so much to do, so little time!

for more information on YWAM go here.
xoxo,
ko.