It’s 2:15am and I am obviously awake. Nate hit the pillow tonight and was out! My mind usually decides to go through the “to do” list just after the clock strikes midnight and tonight I am filled with so much emotion, love, overwhelming gratitude, as well as a bit of stress, and I wanted to share it with you.
It’s interesting, when we came up with the www.chairthehope.com project just a few months ago, I don’t think Nate or I had any idea of how HUGE of a project this would be. Starting from the beginning we knew that there were many unknowns that we would have to figure out and that we would not be able to do it alone. We know that this cause was inspired by our Heavenly Father and we are honored that He allowed us the chance to say yes. I wonder how many times in our lives that we have been offered opportunities to help others and to be His hands and we have been too busy, had our priorities in other areas, or simply have had too “loud” of a life to hear Him. We are deeply grateful for opportunity.
With that as our complete focus, it doesn’t mean that my shoulders and neck muscles aren’t tied up in knots right now and really could use a massage to help relieve some of the tension! We have taken on a large task and even though there have been a few nights that I have cried to Nathan asking how we are going to pull all of this together, have been a bit short with my answers to my family because I don’t feel like I can make one more uncomfortable call or write one more email asking for help, we have faith that it will all work out the way it should.
I have seen the big and small mercies and miracles in the past few months that have allowed me to know that He is in control and that I need to have complete trust in His timing. I so badly wanted to have one or two large “Title” sponsors that could help fund our event. This would have relieved so much stress off our plates, but as the weeks have passed by and we have had to turn our focus onto smaller donations I have been able to see what and who our SUPERIOR SUPPORT SYSTEM is! In Nate’s book one of the latter chapters in titled, “Who’s In Your Raft?” It talks about surrounding ourselves with the people who will believe in you, go to bat for you, and show up when you need them the most. We have been able to witness the immense generosity of many companies, family, friends, and our social media followers that have given us the boosts that we have needed when Plan A didn’t work out, or even Plan B and C! We know who is in our “raft” and we know as a group we will not sink and we will make it to our destination.
We are often asked about our bike ride and how difficult it will be to ride the long distances and for multiple days. As these questions come the first thing that pops into my mind is the images that we have plastered in our Bonus Room of the beautiful people that are in need of or have already received the red wheelchairs from Wheelchair Foundation. Their bright eyes and hopeful smiles brings me to tears as I am exhausted from my long bike rides or completely overwhelmed at the complexity of this goal. It is seeing each of these individuals as sons and daughters of God and knowing that He wants them to experience joy.
A week ago I was at Cortlyn’s baseball game and a couple came up to me and handed me a check for $200. This was the second check that this family had given us, with the sum totally $300. We do not personally know this family and the first time we met was when she handed me our first donation back in April before we even had donations open. They have 9 beautiful children and I’m sure that this money could easily have been spent between a family of eleven. As she handed me the second check and said, “We’ve decided that we had more to give and wanted to make sure that we were able to give two people a wheelchair and a chance for independence,” my heart burst from the pure love of Christ that I saw in them. They were not showy, I don’t know what their financial situation is, but I saw unconditional love in that amazing couple that night.
There are so many other individuals that have lightened our burdens and have been answers to our prayers and we want you to know that we are so grateful for you generosity. We are only able to make www.chairthehope.com happen because we are all working together.
Tonight as we said our family prayers, our daughter prayed for the people who need the wheelchairs. That they would be praying for us too and that together we can have enough faith to get to their land soon to deliver the chairs. I am grateful for these lessons that we are learning through this process. I’m not sure what our donation dollar amount is up to right now, but I know as of last week that we had over 150 WHEELCHAIRS ALREADY DONATED! THAT IS 150 LIVES OF INDIVIDUALS THAT WILL BE FOREVER CHANGED! You all have helped us reach this point and I know that before we are done, there will be many more lives changed.
We as an Ogden Family love you!!! We are honored that you are following and taking apart in our journey. We are so grateful for your generous donations and willingness to help us reach this amazing goal. Please keep us in your prayers these next couple of weeks as well as the beautiful people who will be receiving this new chance at life!
With Deepest Appreciation and Love,
Heather, Nathan, and Clan
*To Donate go to www.chairthehope.com.