After I received all that money last weekend (see "Trust Him At All Times"), the Lord continued to bless me with more. First of all, I miscalculated how much I had left to raise. Rather than $300, it was only $200 I had left. :) That's a good mistake to make I think.
I got together twice this week with my "little sister" Ashley. On Tuesday we had lunch together, and on Wednesday she was babysitting her baby sister Jamie, so I stopped by to see them (and say goodbye) on my way to Solid Rock for the college group meeting.
Ashley and me. I started babysitting her when she was 8 years old, and she's 16 now.
This is her baby sister Jamie. What a doll!
Ashley told me at the beginning of my fundraising journey that she wanted to help me out somehow with the money. She said she'd be doing a lot of babysitting for her step-sisters and half-sister this summer, so she wanted to give me a small percentage of that. I had forgotten about it until not too long ago when Ashley said she wanted to give me some money before I left. When we got together for lunch, Ashley gave me an envelope with my name on it. Inside was $150. That was much more than what I had expected. I think that coming from a 16 year old who just got her first car and is going into her junior year of high school, $150 is a lot of money. She could have spent that money on so many other things, but the fact that she gave it to me really shows the condition of her heart. She is selfless and loving. Thank you, Ashley, for being such a wonderful little sister to me.
After receiving Ashley's donation, I was only $50 short. One of my friends from the Solid Rock college group willfully gave me the last $50 to bring me up to my goal of $11,000. So that was that. I reached my goal without putting in ANY money that I had earned this summer at Costco!
God's blessings didn't end there, though.
I got to play guitar and sing for worship at the Solid Rock college group meeting on Wednesday night, so that was really fun. I have really loved going there this summer. I have developed some really great friendships with the people that go there, and God has spoken so much to me through the talks each week. It was nice to be a part of worship for my last night there. :) After the meeting we all hung out at Leo's Coney Island. I got a delicious brownie sundae and enjoyed talking with everyone.
Some of the Solid Rock group at Leo's
Just about all of the Solid Rock college group :)
Hannah came over after all that to spend the night, and we ended up talking and trading music until around 4:30 in the morning. It was so nice to spend time with her though. I'm going to miss you, Hannah!
My friend Zack wrote this on Hannah's car for me. :)
*Note: when I came home from hanging out with the college group on Wednesday night, there was an envelope on the counter with my name on it from one of my dad's coworkers. Inside was $100 for my GAP year! Praise God for continued blessings. :)
I spent all day yesterday and last night with my grandparents. I visited my dad's mom (my Papa wasn't there) and my Aunt Kathy yesterday morning, and then spent the rest of the day and evening at my mom's parents' house. The time I spent at my dad's mom's house was very nice. I shared some stories about my fundraising (mostly the big one from last weekend), and we just talked about Ireland for a while. My grandma also gave me a really nice card, a beautiful necklace (sorry the picture's not that great!), and some amazing almond shortbread cookies.
I also enjoyed the time I spent with my mom's parents. We met up with my Uncle Mark for dinner at a yummy restaurant called Pesto's and had a great meal and good conversation. My uncle also gave me $50 toward my GAP year. I got to share some fundraising stories and share God's blessings with them as well. :) I spent the night there and was spoiled rotten by my grandmother. She even let me take a bubble bath! This morning we had a nice breakfast and then my grandma and I walked to the church to pray for a little bit. I had a lot to be thankful for and was so grateful for this opportunity to praise God my provider.
When I came home from my grandparents' house this afternoon, there was yet ANOTHER envelope with my name on it from my next door neighbors. God blessed me with another $100 donation! Thanks to all of this wonderful last minute support, I have raised about $500 OVER my goal! I never expected that to happen...at least not before I left for Ireland. God is so so good.
One more blessing I have received is from work. Costco has been both a horrible and a wonderful place for me to work. Horrible because I have had to do some pretty gross things at work. Things like dumping out 6-7 huge buckets of chicken grease every night, scraping chunks of chicken grease off the inside of the rotisserie ovens, dumping out spoiled milk, meat, cheese, and pretty much anything else that stinks horribly when it spoils. Oh and cleaning the women's bathroom a couple of times. Sorry ladies, but I think men just might be neater than us when it comes to public bathrooms. At least at Costco. Anyway, those are some of the horrible things I've done at work. But my Costco experience was definitely not ALL horrible. I had some really great and supportive coworkers, supervisors, and managers. I also had a pretty decent pay plus benefits while I worked there. I just checked my bank statement online and found out that Costco had just "direct deposited" about $1900 into my checking account (separate from my GAP account). $1900! I had been expecting my last pay check, plus a little bit from the 3 days I worked this week, but I definitely wasn't expecting that much. It turns out they had given me the money from all of my unused vacation days and sick/personal days! Praaaaaaise God, and thank you Costco!
So I now have about $500 over my goal of $11,000, plus I have a bunch of extra money for traveling and buying anything I may need while in Ireland and the rest of Europe!
Enough of that. I have one and a half days left....let the packing begin!
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