Child-like Faith

Hello again!  Well, if there is one thing I have learned about this whole new world of blogging, it's that I'm not very good at it!  It has been forever since my last post!!  I think it's safe to say that I'm more of a facebook-girl, where you can update your status in 3 seconds and be on with your day.  When I sit down to write a blog, I always feel like I need to have something very important to say....Some cool God story to tell....something.....And lately, even as great things have been happening with the Maple Tree (a.k.a my cancer rehab center), I just haven't found the time to sit down and update everyone!  But today is the day....my baby is taking a nap, my older two kiddo's are at school, and my house is very peaceful and quiet.  Perfect for blogging!

The last 2 months have been very exciting for me.  At the end of January, I held my very first Board of Directors meeting!!  How official does that sound?!?!  And let me just say that I have the BEST Board....I can just see God's blessing all over this, as He has provided me with wonderful people who support this ministry and are willing to help me get it off the ground.  My Board is assembled of two attorneys, a Pastor, and a retired chaplin who does medical missions specializing in end-of-life care (the night before I met him, I was praying that God would put someone in my path who could help me reach those who were terminal....feeling insecure about what I would say to someone who was dying.  The VERY next morning at church, my Pastor introduced me to him!  How is that for a cool God story?!).  Our meeting in January was wonderful....I don't think I've ever felt so much love and support before.  It made me so excited for what lies ahead for all of us.  I really think that God is up to something BIG.

After the Board meeting, we spent the next seveal weeks finalizing the paperwork for our non-profit status application....Let me just say that this was a BEAR....In total, my application was 77 pages long!!!  It took a total of 4 different attorneys to complete.....Two to write my Conflict of Interest statement and Code of Regulations (who knew that simply googling "code of regulations" and using whatever form I found was not good enough?!), and two different tax attorneys to review the completed application.  Finally, after nearly 6 months of hard work, the application was ready!  On Tuesday of this week I sent it in to the IRS!  Now we just wait and pray and wait and pray and wait and pray.....I heard that the wait time can be anywhere from 4 months to over a year!

While we are waiting to hear if we will be granted non-profit status, my Board members are busily preparing a fundraising campaign.  This whole thing is very much out of my comfort zone.  I have never felt very comfortable asking people for money.....and I've found that I don't really have the ability to think "BIG" when it comes to this stuff.  My grand idea for fundraising was to sell some cute little hair bows that I have learned to make.  My husband reminded me that in order to raise the kind of money we will need, I'd have to sell about 200,000 hair bows....and maybe quit my job so I had the time to actually make the bows.....So, I've decided to leave the fundraising up to the experts.  One of the attorneys on my Board was recently on a capital campaign for the Boy Scouts that raised 5 million dollars.....Now that's a LOT of hair bows!! 

The main thing we will be raising money for is a building....some place for Maple Tree to call home.  I have my eye on a very specific building, that just so happens to be up the street from my house.  It was previously owned by an orthopedic surgeon, so it is handicapped-accessable, and it has the perfect lay out for what I would need - a big room for exercising, along with smaller rooms for one-on-one counseling and medical evaluations.  Not to mention, it is literally 100 yards from my front door step....So, for the last several weeks, I have spent time walking around the building and praying over it (think of the Fall of Jericho, from Joshua 6...but without the trumpets and shouting).  A few times I took my oldest daugher with me and explained to her that we were walking around the building, to pray that God would make a way for us to get this building so we could use it to help sick people.   One of the last times we did this together, she looked up at me with the biggest, most excited look on her face and said "I just can't wait for God to give you this building, mommy!"  It was so precious...and such a good reminder to me to stay steadfast in my faith.  God calls us to have faith like a child.....without getting caught up in all the what-if's and what-not's of the world....I tend to be a little bit of a doubter.....when I prayed for the building, I would often think things like "Well, I know that God could provide this building if He wanted to........but maybe He has another one in mind.....".   This is a great reminder to me to be bold in my faith.  God WILL provide!

In light of this, I will end this entry with the words of Joshua 3:5, "Concecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you!".  I just can't wait to see what God has planned!