by Brad Jr.
This week, Activate High School ministry received an anonymous letter from a student that was impacted by what Pastor Brian McDaniel spoke about last Wednesday night. Here is the letter:
Dear Activate Harvest,
Last Wednesday night when I listened to Pastor Brian’s message, I was amazed and awestruck by the wonders of God’s power and presence moving in action through Pastor Brian and his team. I became even more amazed at how God brought those people in Haiti, whom were wrecked by the horror of the earthquake, and showed them His beautiful love, and how He is always with them even when a tragedy befalls them.
I felt sad and disappointed in myself because my parents said I am not ready to go on a mission trip, but right then and there God told me, “hey, I have a different plan in store for you, I want you to raise as much money as you can and donate it to the mission trip.” At first I doubted that God wanted me to do a fundraiser, but then I started to pray and ask God, “do you really want me to do this?”
The very next day I prayed again, asking the same question. After that I grabbed my devotion & began the day’s lesson. That day’s lesson was about “A Heart that Serves”, and the lesson’s verse was 1 Corinthians 15:58, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” This lesson and verse just confirmed that God wants me to raise money to donate to the mission trip, and my thoughts were, “oh…ok…cool. I’ll do it!”
So I set up my fundraising table at a car show that was near my home, and the host of the car show okayed my fundraiser stand. The first couple of hours nobody made a donation…until a dad donated $20.00, and yet again everything was slow. So I came up with an idea to have my cousin and my brother walk around the car show with the donation jar and ask for donations. It worked!! Nobody could resist two little kids. I was truly blessed to be a part of God’s work. He worked through so many people, He even worked through a ten-year old kid.
It was crazy, the kid walked up and looked at the board that I made that was filled with pictures of Haiti, and he asked me, “what’s this all about?” I told him about what happened in Haiti and how kids in Haiti became orphans because of this massive earthquake that killed their parents. The kid asked me, “Don’t they have foster homes in Haiti?” I told him, “no because of the earthquake.” He asked, “can’t they make more foster homes?” I told him, “no, because they don’t have enough money to build new buildings.” “Where are the kids going to go?”, he asked. I told him they don’t have anywhere to go, I mean can you imagine being without your mom or dad and having nowhere to go?
The kid was horrified by this and told me, “no I can’t imagine it.” The boy started to reach into his pockets and pulled out the only money he had with him, which was only a dime. This definitely tells me that God can work through so many ways and through even the smallest people. I am blessed that God gave me that opportunity to raise money and help in some way, and I pray that God will keep showing the Haitians hope through the help from the missionary team, the Hope of Jesus Christ.
God Bless You, Your Sister in Christ
P.S. And to the missionary team, I am praying for you. Colossians 1:27
