A Fully Funded Promise

Anxiety can be crippling. It can hold you back from incredible opportunities, relationships, love, friendships, etc.

In my case, anxiety, along with other things, was holding me back from applying to the World Race.

If you all don’t know the price to go on this amazing missions trip, it’s $19,900. 

Did you just develop anxiety over the thought of that? 

No?

Just me? 

Ok cool.

~

Before applying, I had mentioned to a handful of people about my desire to go on the World Race, and without fail, I would also mention how impossible I thought it was to raise $19,900.

I would say, “Imagine having to raise that amount? That’s insane. I don’t think I could do it.” and almost every time someone would say something along the lines of, “But if this is something that you’re doing to further God’s kingdom, don’t you think God is gonna come through for you?”.  

First of all, who do they think they are to call me out like that?

Second, they were 100% right, and I’m stupid. 

My anxiety was rooted from thinking that it was all up to my ability and power to raise that amount of money. I’m the kind of person that tries not to ask for anything if I think it would cause any kind inconvenience in another person’s life. I would rather sit in a restaurant and eat the wrong food order that was served to me before I ask the waiter to take my plate back to the kitchen and return with the dish I originally ordered. I couldn’t even fathom the thought of asking people to support me on this almost $20,000 missions trip.

After applying, I still didn’t know how I was going to come up with that kind of money, but I changed my mindset, and I was willing to put my faith in God. I believed He would somehow make a way and if His way meant asking others for support, then I was ready to do that.

~

On a Sunday morning, just two days before I got my acceptance call to go to the World Race, my dad had requested that I announce my decision to our church family. Our church just so happened to be having our annual missions conference so he thought it would be an appropriate occasion to take the opportunity to ask for prayers. I was a bit nervous because it was a last minute request, but I sat down all that afternoon planning what I was going to say to my church. That evening before our guest pastor was to preach his sermon; I made my announcement to go on the World Race, and all I asked was for prayers.

Once I finished I walked out of the auditorium, and I went straight to my sister to help take care of babies in the nursery. After some time passed by, I went to the restroom, and on my way there a lady from our church had stopped me to congratulate me and told me to go inside of the auditorium to see what was going on. I was a bit confused, but I went through the side of our baptistry room so I could look at what was going on from in there. I peeked inside the auditorium, and all I saw was our piano player on his phone jotting down numbers on the calculator app. I looked at his phone, and the number was somewhere at about 8,000. As I was trying to process what was going on at that moment, I felt this massive knot in my stomach.

People who have known me since I was a baby were raising their hands and were pledging to support me in 100’s and even 1,000’s of dollars at a time. 

Soon the numbers on the calculator would rise to $10,000. A couple of minutes later, it would change to $13,000, then $15,000, then $18,000.

The final number that my church family pledged to support me with was a little over $21,000.

What. In. The. World. 

At that moment, I felt so sick to my stomach, and I was uncontrollably sobbing.

All I could think was, “God, how and why are you doing this?” 

It had only been TWO days after my acceptance call, and there I was crying in disbelief because I had just been promised to be fully funded for the trip. 

How crazy is it that God had touched this visiting pastor’s heart and he felt the need to ask my church family to not only support me but to take care of the ENTIRE cost of the trip in one night? God knew my fears and embarrassment about asking others to support me and He literally just used someone else to do it for me.

What’s even crazier is that I had never mentioned how much this trip was going to cost me when I made my announcement to them, yet the total amount that I was promised was a little over $1,000 more than what I need to make this trip possible!

Unbelievable.

I thanked every church member walking out of the auditorium that night with black mascara tears running down my face because I couldn’t stop crying.

My parents were crying, the members were crying, and I was crying. We all went home a mess. lol 

~

After continually failing God in my life, He still somehow decided I was worthy of being blessed. If you ever think you’ve lost God’s love or mercy because of failure in your spiritual life, remind yourself of what Paul says in Romans 8:38-39, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, neither angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” No failure, no sin, no lack of spirituality can make Him stop loving you, and His mercies are new every morning. All He wants is your willingness to be transformed.

As if God sending His Son to die for me wasn’t enough proof of His love towards me, that night will forever be another huge reminder of how much He truly loves me and how good, and merciful, and gracious He is towards me.

~

I can gladly say that most of my anxiety over raising funds for this trip has decreased immensely. Obviously, I have other expenses that I need to save for to have total peace of mind, but I’m so crazy grateful that the biggest worry I had for this trip has been brought to a halt.

Some of these pledges were made by word of mouth, and I may or may not get the full amount that I was promised. I completely understand that sometimes circumstances might come up that may not allow some people to support me with the amount that they originally intended to give; but honestly, just the thought of them being so willing to raise their hand to support me in any way makes me so deeply thankful. Some of those money pledges have already come in, and I still can’t believe it!

Like I said before, I still have other expenses to raise and save for, so if you at all find it in your heart to support me there are two ways you can help that I have listed below:

1. If you would still like to contribute to the cost of the trip itself, you may click the orange “Donate!” button that is on my World Race page. Any amount that is donated through the missions organization page will directly go to the organization and will be put towards my goal of the $19,900. Once that goal is reached, whatever donation comes in through organization’s page, after that, will no longer go towards supporting me. Instead, it would go straight to the missions organization to further support their cause.

2. I have set up a CashApp account under the name “IsSalazar.”.  Any amount that is donated through this app will go straight to my bank account and will be a huge help in taking care of the extra expenses (vaccinations, passport renewal, traveling gear, etc.) that are outside of the $19,900 required for this trip. 

Whether you support me financially or support me by lifting me up in prayer, please know that I am forever grateful for you. Thank you again for taking the time to read this and for taking an interest in my journey to go on the World Race. 

All my love,

Isabel Salazar