Amazed by God

This week has been overwhelming with incredible provisions and revelations about God's will for me as it concerns me attending The Relevant Conference this October.

When I first heard about The Relevant Conference, I started praying about the possibility of attending, though if I'm honest I had little faith (if any) that it would happen. There were just too many obstacles in my way:

• Money - The cost of getting to the conference alone was going to be more than I thought I could possibly afford, let alone the conference ticket and hotel cost.
• Timing - We're moving this fall, AND I'm taking more classes towards my MA, not to mention trying to arrange childcare and whatnot.
• Reality - I'm still "new" in the blogging world and am working to build my blog. Aren't these conferences for the "big hitters" in blogging?

After considering the obstacles, though I dreamed of attending, I resigned myself to praying for those who would be attending and living/learning vicariously through them. Until last week, that is...

Last week, I was filling out my new BusyBodyBook planner with various dates for the fall. I still had Relevant on my list of dates, so I penciled it in to remember to pray for those attending. As I did, I noticed that the dates fell during my "week off" from classes. I wondered if this was a sign from God that I was supposed to be considering attending after all. (I didn't get a break between previous classes, so this was a surprise to me.)

I put a comment on Facebook regarding my decision to start praying about the possibility of attending again, listing my concerns of finances and childcare. Within the hour, God had provided the childcare, thanks to my sister!

I decided to pull out the sponsor letter I'd written way back when to update it and started praying about finances for the conference. Sarah Mae and Alicia graciously proof-read it for me, and I sent it off to sponsor-hopeful-number-one. The quick, but kind response was "we'd love to but we can't per company policy."

I re-personalized the letter and sent it off to sponsor-hopeful-number-two. This time, I got a "we'd love to but we can't sponsor the whole thing." I was so glad to have a sponsor on board, even if it was only a partial sponsor - that meant I was 3/4s of the way to Relevant (timing, childcare, and partial funding).

Knowing that I was going to need to come up with some of the money myself, I started exploring other options.

• Yesterday, I decided to start selling my Disciple's Cross necklaces, keychains, and zipper-pulls online. I created a website and also put my product in a few giveaways to hopefully sell my current stock and need to get more!
• I opened up ad space on my blog (see ads on the right sidebar - click over to the blog if you're reading this in a reader), generating some extra income each month.
• I also sent an email to my MA program to see about getting credit towards my MA for attending the conference. They said "yes", so now I have to design the "course" that I'll be taking for credit. Having it count as credits for school will allow me to include the cost in my school costs, lessening my out-of-pocket costs!
• I found someone with an Early Bird ticket that I could buy.
• The cost to fly isn't that much more than it would be to drive, and would save a LOT of time, so I'm looking into that possibility. Otherwise, I have a potential carpooling buddy to help split the cost of the drive.

I'm still praying for all the pieces to come together, but I am so excited to see God work! His hand is definitely all over this, and I can't wait to see how He uses this in my life!