Project 2013 of Need Not Thirst begins with a story of teenage disappointment...As a recent high school graduate, going to South Africa to spread the gospel with Teen Mania was just as much a matter of fact as was knowing that my acne was now going to completely clear up having exited the hallowed halls of high school.
I heard of Teen Mania at an event called Acquire the Fire at Ball State University in Indiana. It was my answer to God's calling on my life..., to be a missionary. So at the appointed time during the event, I found the Teen Mania booth and signed up to go to South Africa. I came home stoked! A few weeks later my South Africa info package was received in the mail. I took the package and opened it with baited breath. Immediately, I began devouring all the information that I had been sent. (I don't remember clearly, but I may have immediately put the Teen Mania t-shirt they had sent me on over my clothes I was wearing.) I sat there, heart fluttering and imagining all the people who were going to come to Christ because I had finally reached the shores of South Africa. I had this sense that they had been waiting on me to get there. As I kept pouring over all the information, time lines, vaccine requirements, departure dates, etc., etc. I came across another sheet with a bottom line... . Below this bottom line was a number. And, with this number came a symbol. A dollar symbol.
My jaw dropped when the numbers came into focus..., $3500.00, and I had only a few months to raise that amount!!! That number doesn't seem today to be as large as it once was. When I was eighteen and pimple-faced, however, that figure might as well have read, "the National Deficit."
Needless to say, my feeble attempts to raise that amount of money ended in grave disappointment. I felt too embarrassed to ask people for their money, and, if I were honest -- as opposed to all the lying I've been doing in this blog post?? -- the enormity of the amount made me lazy. There was another part of me too that thought, "If God needs me there so badly, He'll send the money to me." -- well, I never received a letter.
But that isn't to say that He wasn't acting on my behalf. In fact, I believe my disappointment was His grand design. I have come to believe in these last few months that my disappointment had a purpose. And that purpose was to evoke action from me, at 34 years of age, to act on behalf of someone who God does want to send to South Africa, Uganda, Sudan, India or wherever that may be.
With Need Not Thirst, one of our two focus points of this ministry is to provide "eternal water" so that thirsty people "Need not Thirst" again (John 4). By December 31st, of 2013, our goal is to provide a scholarship for at least one person who thinks God may be leading them down the path of foreign mission work. We want to provide an opportunity as well as foster God's calling in someone's life, by removing the hurdle of money and sending them on their way. Hurdles aren't always bad, in fact they make us stronger. But money shouldn't hinder some young kid from launching out into the possibility of Kingdom service either.
More information will be coming via our Facebook page www.facebook.com/neednotthirst and on this blog as to how we intend to raise the money and, through much prayer, select the candidate to receive Need Not Thirst's first ever Mission Scholarship through Project 2013.
This story begins with teenage disappointment, but it ends with a renewed mission to send laborers into the field. Now that I'm 34... still graduated from high school... and a few less pimples than back then, Need Not Thirst is sending a budding missionary to a nation who needs Jesus... will you be that person to carry this "eternal water" to a thirsty people? If not, then maybe you'll be that person to help send them. Help us to pray, support us by giving... and for goodness sakes help me find the Clearasil. This is becoming ridiculous...
