Monday night, my mom, sister, and I spent around four hours baking five dozen homemade cupcakes and 50 cake pops. We had a bake sale at my aunt's beauty shop all day Tuesday. We raised $250!! Then, on Wednesday, my Granddad and I cleaned a house to raise more money. Thursday, I had my traditional Thursday night dinner at my Grandparents house, and Friday was spent cleaning another house. Like I said, it has been a busy week haha! But, it has been a very rewarding week as well! This week God has brought in $600! Now, I am only $1,400 short, but I am not worried at all!
This week, I felt God talking to me a lot about trusting Him, especially in the way of finances. Lately I have been making a lot of trips to the bank. I go in, deposit my money, and trust the person to put the right amount into the right account. I do not ever think twice about doing this. It is just natural. I know that when I go to the teller machine, my money will be there. When I thought about this, I immediately wondered how I can put such trust into a person I've never exchanged more than a few words with and a system that I know nothing about, but I find it hard to trust God sometimes? In my devotion Wednesday night I read this verse, "It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in humans" Psalm 118:8. I was amazed and excited! I have never heard His voice as clearly as I have this week. It has been so wonderful! I always thought I had all of my trust in Him, but after thinking and praying I realized there has been some doubts in the back of my head. Doubts like what if I get called to do international outreach? That's really expensive. How will I raise the money if I'm in Belize? Or, what if I get called somewhere cold for outreach? All of the clothes I'm taking are for tropical weather since it will be hot for the first three months. The answer to these questions is simply God. I just have to know He will take care of all the details! I know I don't need to worry. After all, if I can trust the bank with the amount of money God has been bringing in, I can trust Him, the "Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them." So, that is just what I feel God has been speaking to me this week, and I wanted to share it with all of you!
Also, earlier I said I was cleaning houses this week. I have said this a few times in my blog, but I have never gone into detail about what it is exactly that we do. I figured I would briefly skim the surface of the details because it's quite the nasty job! Let's just say I truly thank God for making rubber cleaning gloves. My dad and his family own a property management company and when tenants move out they need someone to clean the property and get it ready for the next tenants. That would be where I come in. It's very sporadic work, I have to take what I can get, when I can get it. It is also not the most glorious job either. To the right is a picture of the freezer I cleaned this week. Surprisingly, this is one of the cleaner ones. I won't go into details, but the picture actually doesn't give it justice. It's a job where you have to be there and smell it to get the full idea of how grateful I am for soap! In all honesty though I am very lucky to have this job. I thank God for giving me the opportunity to be able to work and earn money. He has brought in a good amount of money through this job. It's not the world's best job, but it is a job that pays, and pays well most of the time. One of the perks is I get to spend time with my Granddad and dad. We get the chance to bond over other people's messes :) How many teenage girls get to say that!?Well, I hope I haven't completely grossed you out and scared you away! I want you to know I will be a complete open book of my life, and I want to include you in every way I can! Don't worry though, I won't make it a habit of posting gross pictures. Hopefully this time next month I will be posting pictures of clear blue water!!
Thank you so much for all you are doing! I truly appreciate everything!
Brittney Timberlake
Psalm 118:8