Costa Rica - Fully Funded!

Over the weekend and on Monday I received a few more support donations for my trip. I finally got around to sitting down last night and doing the math to see where everything came out. I'm still waiting on one donation from someone who told me it's on the way, but even without that I'm only $20 shy of being 100% funded! I never expected to come anywhere near 100% and I was expecting to pay for part of the trip myself. I'm now going to be able to use my own money to pay some extra expenses (bringing supplies for our ministry down there, checked bag fees) and possibly buying sports equipment for our sports outreach.

The fact that God has provided pretty much the exact amount that I need for this trip is a beautiful example of how God provides for our needs. I've been extremely blessed by my church through this process, and completely humbled by how many people I have in my life who support me on so many levels.

I'm now able to shift my main focus from paperwork and support raising to my final packing list and spiritual preparation. More than anything, I'm trying to spend a lot more time in prayer for this trip. You can raise enough money to go, you can bring everything you need, but I don't think there is anything more important in situations like these than bringing them to God in prayer.

Before I leave for Costa Rica I plan on making a specific prayer list for this trip. I'll probably post it here on my blog, so you can check back if you're interested in that. In the meantime, I want to thank everyone for how incredibly supportive you've been! And I want to ask for continued prayers as the rest of my team prepares to go, and especially for a couple of team members who are still support raising and waiting on passports.

Side note: If you check my support raising site it actually says I'm $25 over funded, but that's only because I put down some money initially to get my account started. I count my amount raised by adding up all of my donations, and that's how I got the full amount minus $20.

What I'm Loving - October 2011

I'm loving how the preparations for Costa Rica are coming together. God is good!

I'm loving my new phone (the Droid Bionic). There are things in life worth splurging on, and for me a smart phone is worth it.

I'm loving the decorating inspiration that I'm getting from Pinterest. It's about time for another transformation in my house and the master bath is looking like the prime target.

I'm loving that the weather is finally starting to get to the point where I can make homemade stews and soups. Time to pull out the trusty crock pot.

I'm loving The Hunger Games trilogy. It's unlike any other series I've read before and is the kind of story that stays in your head, in a good way. Hopefully the movie coming out in March will do the books justice.