Beleiving Beyond 13

    Mid-October 2017 was when God got the ball rolling in my heart for Free to Hope but, at that point, I didn’t have a name for it, nor did I have any ideas or steps for moving forward. All I had was a very sudden, overwhelming  passion with which I knew I needed to do something. Before answering my question about what my first step should be, God took me through a 2-week season of radical confirmations to make it clear that “this is the moment for which you were created” (Esther 4:14). Then, in November, as I was in finance class, He suddenly gave me specific instructions for step one. So I stopped taking notes for a few minutes to write it all down. 
    The goal was to kick off Free to Hope with testimonies and stories of freedom, hope and Jesus’ power while advertising the shirt design God gave me, allowing others to then order one as well. The last thing I wanted was to do yet another t shirt fundraiser (which I told God several times when He first put a design on my heart) but, by doing things God's way, it was less about the money or fundraising and more about people's stories and the Free to Hope movement as a whole. I decided to shoot for 13 to 25 people for this first step but, in reality, my goal was really just 13 because I was scared to hope for getting 25. I have never liked asking for help so, of course, God challenged me with an assignment requiring me to reach out to people and ask them to join me in a journey full of unknowns. 
   I started out asking God what I would do if it didn't work out. “What if I don’t even get 13 people and this whole thing falls apart before it even gets started?” My mom kept telling me to dream bigger but, to me, that just meant being willing to shoot for 25. God initially gave me a list of 25 people to reach out to and over time, He put more and more people on my heart, a few at a time, to reach out to also, so I got 13 people without any trouble. Before I knew it, 13 turned into 25 which quickly grew to 30 and, in a matter of 2 days, 30 became 40.  Looking back, it’s crazy that I was so afraid I wouldn’t get the bare minimum support needed to move forward with this project after 2 weeks of God continuously confirming that He's been strategically planning this moment for years. I was stuck in a mindset of “God did His part in giving me the vision and idea, now it’s my turn to make it happen” rather than surrendering all of it into His hands. 
    From the t shirt company delaying the project start to weather-related package delivery delays to adjusting the schedule countless times when people missed their deadlines, I struggled with a lot of stress and frustration throughout this first step of the Free to Hope movement. Despite the struggle though, I was still constantly overwhelmed by God’s grace and favor through it all and encouraged beyond words by people’s excitement and dedication to prayer over me and the project. It's crazy to think that this is only the beginning! If Step 1 is any indication of what to expect moving forward, I think it’s safe to say that things are about to get pretty epic!