I arrived back in Edinburgh last night for a short stint before the next adventure. I alluded to it in my last post and am now able to sit down for a moment and pen this post to share what’s going on. In an unexpected twist for the summer, I am joining a ministry called News Release Basketball (NRB) to teach basketball and do ministry.
A few weeks ago, I connected with a good friend of mine that runs NRB. He told me about the tour and how preparations were going. They had a coach lined up and things looked solid. A few days after we talked, he reached out and told me that the coach had unexpectedly needed to drop out. They were now scrambling to find a coach.
The cost for me to join the trip would be around $1500 to cover the necessary expenses for 3+ weeks and travel between the clubs they work with in Germany, Sweden, and Belgium (video that explains a bit more at the end of the post). Because I’m in the middle of writing a dissertation and don’t exactly have a lot of time or money lying around this summer, my initial response was no. My friend asked me to reconsider. I told him, and God as I was praying and thinking about it, that I would go ahead and request the approval I’d need from both my supervisor and several other academic officials at my university to take a trip like this, secretly hoping that they would tell me I was crazy for asking to be out of the country for the 3+ weeks before my dissertation is due and not approve the trip.
Uncharacteristically, every single one said yes — that it was fine for me to leave. I picked my jaw up off the floor and briefly glowered at God for shunting me through a rather inconvenient and daunting door I hadn’t planned to encounter. But I believe this is a step I’m meant to take so I’m going for it.
That brings us to the present. I am furiously writing my diss and hoping to have it finished several weeks earlier than planned to have to work on it as little as possible while with the tour. I also need to *gulp* find $1500 to cover my expenses for the trip for which we leave in 10 days.
It can easily be argued that agreeing to go on the tour wasn’t the most responsible move considering my available resources. I’ll be the first one to agree. However, I believe God is big and can provide and is also opening this door. I’m going for it.
I’m posting this on my blog because I consider you guys my family and I’m looking forward to being able to share the other side of this crazy wager in a few weeks’ time when God has come through and done something amazing with this tour that I get to be a part of. This is also a three-part humble request to each of you to consider. Will you think today and tonight about doing one or more of the following things to support this?
- Will you pray for this trip that God would show up and do cool things through and in everyone involved?
- Will you think about donating any amount you’d like to contribute? There’s a link below to send in money to the organization or you can shoot me a message and let me know if you’d like to send it directly to me. If you donate through the link, I believe it’s tax-deductible — just put my name in the memo so they know who to credit it to.
- Will you share this message with anyone that might be interested in hearing about it or getting involved?
If no one gives, I won’t be the least bit offended. God will provide for me if I end up paying the full amount myself. But if you believe in the ways God can move through sport, and want to help me cover this amount, I would love to have you on my team for this one.
If you’d like to donate, you can do that through this link via PayPal (works with debit/credit cards). Hit “Click here to donate,” enter the amount you’d like to send, and enter my name in the “special instructions” box:
Click here to donate through News Release Basketball
Or if you’d prefer, just shoot me a message and we can work out something that’s easier for you.
Last bit: I haven’t been doing as much freelance writing this year while at school but I’m a writer and copy-editor and want to use that skill to contribute to this undertaking. For anyone who wants to donate $75 or more and have something written for them — blog post, marketing copy, or any other piece of professional writing created or edited (in the up-to-1000-ish-words range) — I’d love to do that for you. Note: it would be great if it was a piece for which you don’t need a super-quick turnaround, but I’m happy to look at any project you’d be interested in discussing. I’ll put up an additional facebook post about this in the next day or two as well. If you know of anyone in business that might be interested, please feel free to pass along to them. I’d be incredibly grateful.
Love you all. Questions? Thoughts? Please shoot me an email, Facebook message, carrier pigeon, etc. I’d love to hear from you.
Speak soon,
-LS
Lauren, we just made a donation via the website but there was no place to designate you as the recipient of the funds. I did email NRB with that information but wanted you to know so you can be looking for it. Email or text me when you know for sure the $$ are in your account.
Will do! Thank you ever so much, Pam. I’ll shoot you a message now.