Ireland. Belfast Bible College. September 2013. 9 months. $24,000. A once in a lifetime experience.
These are a few of the facts about what I’m doing this fall.
I know that most of you don’t know all the details about my plans for this
fall, and some of you may not know anything at all. So I want to begin this
blog by telling you more details of my plan that hopefully will answer a lot of
questions you may have!
To
start off with, my name is Karey Stivers.
I live in the countryside of Idaho where
a lot of the time the weather is not what the weatherman said it would be, it’s a 45 minute drive to the nearest city, and a starlit night sky makes you feel really,
really small. I am passionate about Jesus, art in any form, and life in
general. I feel like I've been living longer than my twenty years, but at the
same time I feel like I still have so much life to live! I grew up in a
Christian family and was homeschooled Pre-K through 12th grade. I’m an introvert by nature, but as I grow
older I am choosing to be more of a people person, an adventurer and a risk-taker.
Speaking
of being more of an adventurer and a risk-taker…Last spring I decided that I
was going to apply for a small bible college called Belfast Bible College in
Belfast, Ireland. At the end of last month I was accepted to their one year
foundational course in Theology that will go from September 2013 to June 2014. (I
plan on posting more about the college later, but it looks like a really good
school!)
As the
way of the world goes, pretty much nothing is free and costs something. It’s
going to cost around $24,000 for me to go to Belfast Bible College (BBC). About
half of that money is for living costs that I need to have to get a student
visa and the other half will be for the cost of tuition, room and board, and a
plane ticket. $24,000 is just an estimated amount and there most likely will be
other expenses that I will have, but for the purpose of having a firm number to
tell people, that’s what I’m giving. I’m also going to have to have all the
money by the beginning of July so I have enough time to get my student visa. So
that gives me 20 weeks to raise $24,000.
When people ask me how much it’ll
cost for me to go to Ireland I hesitate before answering and I know what kind
of response I’m going to get…Yes, it’s a lot of money. Before going through
this, I thought that $10,000 was a lot of money. So multiplying that by almost
2 and half seems almost an unreal and unreachable amount. Almost.
I am 99.9% convinced that if God
wants me to go to Ireland, I will go. I don’t know how, but it will happen. It doesn't matter if it’s $2400 or $24,000 or even $24,000,000 that I will need,
He will get me there if that is His will. To be honest, I say 99.9% percent
because at times I still wrestle with doubt. However, I do have to say that
99.9% is a lot more conviction than I had when I first applied to BBC. I was
maybe 50% convinced at that point. (That’s something I’m going to post about
later too – the stretching of my faith.)
Because I’m convinced that it’s up
to God whether or not I go to Ireland, what I ask from you above anything else
is that you pray for me! Please ask God, that if it be His will, to provide all
the money that I will need before July.
At this point I don’t have a whole
lot of fundraisers planned (although, I will in the near future!), but if you “like” my fundraising page on Facebook I’ll
be posting ways that you can help support me and fundraisers that I’ll be
putting on and telling you about when I post something on this blog!
With Christ's love,
Karey
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