Hi friends! Well the day has arrived and we're headed out to Salt Lake City for the SU! convention. I had told you I'd share how this trip came to be about so instead of re-typing it I will just copy here what I had posted to my personal Facebook page. I am so truly blessed and I think this story is definitely worth sharing.
As most of you know I am a Stampin’Up! demonstrator, what
some of you don’t know is what SU is all about.
We are a company who sells rubber stamps and accessories of all kinds for
paper crafting. From card making,
scrapbooking, home décor and so much more is part of what SU is about. As demonstrators we are creative coaches who
can help you find that inner artist in you, no matter the skill level. The other part is about relationships. Over the last 13 years I have been blessed
with meeting so many people and those people have in turn become some of my
best friends. On Wednesday, Frank and I
will be flying to Salt Lake City for SU’s 25th convention
celebration. I had really wanted to
attend this event, but knew that money was going to be the deciding factor
especially when airfare is so high. I
had looked into tickets and they were well over $500 and I knew we didn’t have
that kind of money to spare, plus the price of convention, hotel, and food. You know the basics of when you travel. So along mid March I started to pray and told
the Lord that if it was His will that I be able to attend this year that He
would have to perform a miracle and work something out and if it wasn’t, then I
would just accept it. Along about mid
April we were going to be able to register for convention and I knew tickets
would go fast and would sell out it no time.
As the time grew nearer I continued to pray, not loosing heart, but
knowing that it might not be God’s will.
Convention registration opened up and still no money. In one of the demo groups I belong to there
was a discussion about who was going and who wasn’t and I said it just didn’t
look like it was going to work for me this year unless a miracle happened. Later on that evening I received a private
message from another demonstrator from that group who I don’t really know other
than I did recognize her from that group.
In that email she stated that she would like to pay for airline tickets
for not only me, but for my husband as well if that would help in our desire to
go to convention. You could have knocked
me over with a feather. I sat on the
couch and just bawled. Lindsay and Frank
were asking me what was wrong. I told
them you are not going to believe it, but my miracle just happened. God
had heard my prayer and we were going to convention. Like I said before this isn’t a woman I even
know, but she felt led to do this for us.
I still get goose bumps every time I tell this story. So you see SU is about so much more than
rubber stamps and ink or even relationships.
It’s about people with very kind and generous hearts. In spite of all the bad in the world there
are still good people out there. It’s
hard for me to accept things when I like to be the giver, but I’m slowly
learning that it’s ok to be on the receiving end sometimes because if you can’t
receive then you are making someone else miss out on the blessing they receive,
just like you do when you give. So I
said all that to say this, never give up hope.
God is still in the miracle business.
Sure this may seem trivial to some, but nothing is trivial to God. If it’s important to us it’s important to
God. I not only thank Him, but I thank
my convention angel Jaydee for being willing to let God use her. It’s been a long time since we have been on a
vacation and as most of you know the last few years have been tough, but praise
God He’s seen us through. I am blessed
so much more than I deserve, but you can better believe I will pay it forward
when I can. Thanks if you’ve stuck
through me with this long post, but it was really something that I wanted to
share with you. Not only to tell you
what a great company SU is and it’s demonstrators, but most importantly to tell
you what an awesome God I serve. To
those of you, who are struggling, don’t lose hope in your struggles. God has a plan. We may not always know what it is and it may
not always be the way we would like it to work or the way we expect it to work,
but He has a plan. I just want to close
with my favorite verses.
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto
thine own understanding, but in all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall
direct your paths. Proverbs 3:5&6
I will try and post from convention, but don't know if I will be able to share pics since I am only taking my Kindle. Don't want the hassle of taking my laptop. I'll do my best though. Have a blessed day and I will check in from Salt Lake City next.
Blessings,
Renee
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