More Than Conquerors...: December 2011

I had some thoughts a few days ago about Isaiah 40 in the Bible, where it says "But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles." I had always interpreted this to mean a restful time of being carried by God, similarly to ,"he lays me down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters" (paraphrase of Ps.23).

Well, my new thoughts were that in order to ever soar on wings like eagles, a person must first fly.
In order to fly you first have to jump off a cliff!
In order to experience the exhilaration of flying and the peace of soaring you have to accept the possible terror of plunging to the ground, of being whipped off course by the wind and of not knowing where you are.
Trusting God with both joy and heartache.

When I really thought about this, I felt scared. I don't like life dramas. I really can do without any sort of drama in my life, both terrifying and exhilarating. I'd be perfectly content to walk along on a flat surface my whole life and have things be "all right", rather than risk exposure to the bad parts (this is because we've had such a difficult 3 years and I never want to experience that again).

But I think God wants us fly for Him. To jump off the metaphorical cliff and risk falling to experience the peace and exhilaration of soaring in Him, on wings of eagles.

One place I have recently been experiencing this is with a mom named Julia and her Passed Over Babes giveaway HERE. Chad and I had a sum of money that we had been saving up for a few months in order to donate to Sergei during the Reece's Rainbow Angel Tree fundraising event. I desperately wanted Sergei's adoption fund to be large so that somebody would be encouraged to adopt him without the fear of having to raise the full $20,000. I had prayed and prayed about how best to use that money to draw awareness and money toward this small boy.

Julia had recently written on her blog that she regretted not having extra funds to buy prizes in order to hold a big fundraising giveaway for the orphans on the Angel Tree. The idea popped into my head to donate our money (our hard earned, good-sized sum of money! Yikes!) to Julia. Julia, who has a widely read blog. Julia, who has an untempered passion for orphans as well as for Jesus. If I gave her my money, perhaps she could use it to raise money for Sergei along with other orphans of her choosing.

Here came all my doubts. My rational fears against jumping off the cliff. It felt like a huge risk. I've read Julia's blog for almost two years, yet I didn't know her in real life. She seemed famous to me in the cyber orphan arena. Why would she even respond a complete stranger? Should I donate the whole amount, i.e. put all my eggs in one basket? What if her fundraiser didn't even break even with the amount of money we put in? What if Sergei's fund didn't increase and every other childs' did?

What if it flopped?

What if I flopped?!

Me on the metaphorical ground.

My money blown away into the ocean.

Me on the ground.

Birds soaring.

Money wasted and cast upon the water.

Well, God sees things differently! Ha! He wants me to soar!

Ecclesiastes 11:1 says to cast your bread upon the water and you will find it again after many days. So this is what I did: I cast our money, wait!, God's money, to Julia and she set up the Passed Over Babes giveaway (Read her side of the story HERE). She used the money God prompted Chad and I to donate, to raise money for 13 children that have been on the Angel Tree for 3 years, including Sergei!!

13 Passed Over children sitting in an orphanage rotting while their picture is hanging on someones tree. 3 more years of being overlooked and unwanted.

Well, her fundraiser has raised over $5000 in 9 days! Talk about a good return on an investment!!!! We cast our money upon the water and it has surely returned to us in the form of helping Sergei plus 12 other children! People are seeing their faces. People are giving to them. People are praying for families for these children. There is NO WAY my little blog could have drawn so much visibility to so many children. There is NO WAY I could have made my initial sum of money grow exponentially!

I started with ONE lump of money and a heart for ONE orphan. God turned that money into a huge lump of money that is helping 13 children.

I am soaring!

On wings like eagle's!

Soaring is kinda cool! You just watch and look around.

God does it ALL.

Except for the jumping!

The hard part is jumping and trusting!

He asked me to do that and I'm SO glad I did!

Will you please take a small jump and donate to Sergei and to some of these other kids?

Yegor Nikita

Will you please take a small jump and tell your family and friends...people you know in real life?

Paul

It's scary to ask for money. It's scary to bring up heart-breaking topics like orphans with Down syndrome.

Eli Danila

Take a little jump and you might catch a little air. God may work through you if you let Him!

Arina

In case you forgot, here is the info about my December giveaway:

Same rules as last time except that the prizes (so far) are a brand new Keurig Elite Brewer + 5 (24ct/box) boxes of K-cups.

and a $100 gift card to anywhere of your choosing! (think Amazon, WalMart, Target, Best Buy, etc.)

Every donation of $5 will give you 1 entry into my giveaway. A donation of $35 will qualify you for 10 entries plus Reece's Rainbow will send you an ornament with Sergei's picture on it!

$5 = 1 entry
$10= 2 entries
$35 = 10 entries + an ornament
$40 = 11 entries
Bonus Entries: Anyone who donates has the added option to gain more entries by posting about this giveaway on their blog, Facebook, or Twitter. You will get an additional entry per post/FB/Twitter, per day, once a donation is received. Please comment or email me (sweetsergei@hotmail.com) to tell me about your cross posts!

I will draw a winner on December 16th, 2011 via random.com and will post the results on December 17th.

Addition Info:
Click Sergei's picture on the right to get all the Angel Tree info from Reece's Rainbow.
As for information on my fundraising for Sergei, all the money donated through the white Reece's Rainbow donation box(Online Paypal) goes directly to Sergei's adoption fund. I never come in contact with the money and

I need you to email or comment to let me know you've donated.

If you'd prefer to donate by writing a check, please make it out to Reece's Rainbow, put a notation that it's for Sergei G. on the Angel Tree, and mail it to:

Reece’s Rainbow
PO Box 4024
Gaithersburg, MD 20885

Thanks for helping Sergei!

Congratulations to Melissa W. for winning the Kindle Fire!! It is ordered and on its way to your house!! Yahoo!

Now, onto December's giveaway. Same rules as last time except that the prizes (so far) are a brand new Keurig Elite Brewer + 5 (24ct/box) boxes of K-cups.

and a $100 gift card to anywhere of your choosing! (think Amazon, WalMart, Target, Best Buy, etc.)

Every donation of $5 will give you 1 entry into my giveaway. A donation of $35 will qualify you for 10 entries plus Reece's Rainbow will send you an ornament with Sergei's picture on it!

$5 = 1 entry
$10= 2 entries
$35 = 10 entries + an ornament
$40 = 11 entries
Bonus Entries: Anyone who donates has the added option to gain more entries by posting about this giveaway on their blog, Facebook, or Twitter. You will get an additional entry per post/FB/Twitter, per day, once a donation is received. Please comment or email me (sweetsergei@hotmail.com) to tell me about your cross posts!

I will draw a winner on December 16th, 2011 via random.com and will post the results on December 17th.

Addition Info:
Click Sergei's picture on the right to get all the Angel Tree info from Reece's Rainbow.

As for information on my fundraising for Sergei, all the money donated through the white Reece's Rainbow donation box(Online Paypal) goes directly to Sergei's adoption fund. I never come in contact with the money and

I need you to email or comment to let me know you've donated. If you'd prefer to donate by writing a check, please make it out to Reece's Rainbow, put a notation that it's for Sergei G. on the Angel Tree, and mail it to:

Reece’s Rainbow
PO Box 4024
Gaithersburg, MD 20885

Thanks for helping Sergei!