$24,000 in the first day.
Nov 9th by JonWhat opening sentence do you possibly write for this post? I’ve got no opener, other than “whoa.”
And that feels wildly inadequate.
Maybe, I’ll just repeat the title.
We raised $24,000 in about 15 hours. That is bananas.
We are a mere $6,000 away from our initial goal of $30,000 to build a kindergarten in Vietnam. And I’m working with Samaritan’s Purse on what happens when we go over.
Does anything feel impossible to you right now? Don’t you feel like we can do anything in this moment? Doesn’t this seem like one of those times where you laugh and tell a friend, “Oh that’s right, God is huge! I forget that for a second, that He keeps $30,000 in loose change in His massive Frisbee He uses for disc golf. That $30,000 is a breath to Him.”
OK, you might not have had that exact thought, but you can’t watch this today and think God is small. Or that blogs are just blogs.
I think we can hit our goal in the first 48 hours. I’ve been blown away by the $5 gifts and think that before 5AM on Wednesday, they are going to pile up and we will hit $30,000.
You up for that?
If you’ve already given, thank you so much for doing something that feels impossible in an economy like this one. If you haven’t, I need to warn you, there’s a celebrity guest stopping by tomorrow who will probably convince you. His name starts with a C and he’s a crazy frequent flyer.
Until then …
Comments
All I can say to that:
Glory to God in the highest.
Wow. Amen. God can truly do anything and everything.
Today, I really feel the unity of the Church that the Bible talks about… it's not about a church or a denomination or any other barriers we humans like to put up. I'm praying that the last $6,000 comes before we hit the 24 hour mark–and that the children in Vietnam will be blessed and have life changing experiences in this school.
I've been following this all day, refreshing the page compulsively and with great excitement. My boss has loved hearing me yell "We hit $__,____!!!!" every 20 minutes or so! I have been so encouraged and all I can think is how HUGE and AWESOME and (I'm sure) EXCITED God is to see his children respond with such abandon to this call to action! Praise the Lord!
It is so incredible, what God can do with some words on a blog.
I'll be doing my best to donate tomorrow, after I get some finances in order. As a long time reader (who is now commenting for the first time), it's pretty cool to see how God can use this blog to move things across the world.
Is it Captain Sully???
Suze, great guess, but it's not captain sully. He smokes a pipe. There's another clue.
Is it Paul Crouch?
CS Lewis?
Oh man, what if it was CS Lewis.
After raising $25,000 in less than 24 hours… I'd believe CS Lewis provided a guest post for SCL. He probably rode down from heaven on a unicorn to deliver it.
It is me. It's for the children.
Love that even CS Lewis stopped by today.
Yeah, now I have my hopes up. I feel kind of bad for who ever is posting tomorrow. Sorry, pipe-smoking C-name person.
I'd still smoke a pipe with them, though.
And they said it was a crazy idea… and it wouldn't work.
good. So next times please come up with a CRAZIER idea!!
God is amazing… thanks for trusting Him!
Great to see you doing this! After hearing your heart at Cultivate (desire to be doing "comedy" full-time), I know you could be using the money for other thing. I hope others realize that.
When I first read the post, I thought to my self. "Man, God is going to blow this 30K out of the water in no time!"
Never seizes to amaze…
8:54 pm. Um, $26,653.
$26,743.00!
[...] Today Jon Acuff started raising $30,000 for a kindergarten in Vietnam. [...]
I love it when God works. Our church asked for $6000 for help in Ethiopia and we raised $36000 in one day! God is amazing! Thanks everyone!
I really should stop refreshing the donation page and go get some work done!
I am totally blown away, joyful, heartened… It's been completely amazing to watch the donations grow all day. The North Point I attend is currently doing a series on "making an impact" and this just totally shows what we can achieve together in the name of Jesus.
Now we just need a school mascot. SideHuggers? Fighting Acuffs? Flying V-Necks?
I think it should be a worship eagle
you are going to love what I post tomorrow if we reach our goal
I love this comment from Hailey (8 yrs old) "I could spend my money on toys for me but I already have too much. This is for kids who don't. "
$27,723.39 !!!!!!
$27,808.39
"Hmm… I think I'll raise $30,000 today to build a school in Vietnam. Yup. All in a days work."
What are you going to challenge us with tomorrow?
God is (insert string of descriptors that don't even get close to describing how big our God is).
$27,969.00
wow i'm so excited. how is it that we forget how cool our God is?
We're going to make it. Truly unbelievable. $28,234!
I'm amazed, blown away by all the people spread out all over the globe that are coming together to help out children in need. The goal is nearly met, in not even 24 hours? SCL is a tighter community now than ever before. I'm grateful to be a part of it. God is big, and wants to do big things through us. Incredible.
$28,682.00 at 9:03pm (central) – AMAZING.
Ummm,…don't think it'll take until 5am to reach the goal. I just donated and you're less than $500 away at 7pm, Monday (pacific time). God is good….All the time….God is good.
this is really exciting to watch!
Make that less than $300…
Praise you, Jesus!
I can't even keep up…make that less than $200!
And, now, less than $100!!!
Oops! I meant $1,100. So excited I can't subtract!
Holycrap. Less than $1000 to go.
This is seriously amazing! Is anyone else on the donation site continuously clicking "refresh"??? Less than $1,00 to go!!!
God is doing an absolutely amazing thing here! And I don't think He intends for this to be the end. Looking at the facebook page, there are 4,380 members…and I'm sure there are many more that come to this site that aren't part of the facebook group. But think about it…if 4,380 people averaged giving $6.85/week each (about one fast food meal), God could use us to do a $30,000 miracle on a weekly basis. Miracle Monday's anyone???
$30151!!!
WE DID IT!
$30,000 at 10:28 pm!! God is awesome!!!
Over the top, guys, over the top!
30,000, yay!
And it only took less than 18 hours!
Holy Crap $30,246!!!!!!!!!
It sucks that we're everywhere. Who am I gonna celebrate with, ya know?
Wow. I don't really know what to say. Wow. Can you guys believe this?
I'll be frank, I thought to myself that December 31 seemed unlikely, but you need a deadline of some sort, right? So, whatever….
I have really enjoyed being put in my place today.
This totally hijacked my day and I'm glad for it. I really didn't know what to expect. One of the many things I love about this is that you didn't have any media. As far as I can tell, only like 5 blogs even posted something about it (one of which was mine, so really it was only 4 blogs).
I agree that it sucks not to be able to celebrate. Grab a <noun> of <alcoholic beverage> and take a hearty drink. You guys did good.
Remarkable! You did it! Sidehug to you and a great big one for L.E.
Certainly didn't take 48 hours….not even 18! Let's start on School #2…..
I like the idea for Miracle Mondays!!!
Awesome. God is awesome.
Like everyone else, I just kept hitting refresh. Maybe two schools in two days?
did that just happen? i clicked refresh so many times.
beauitful.
How much would we need to sponsor some of the children?
There are actually three schools in the area. Let's celebrate the craziness and beauty of God tomorrow and talk about what we do next. How's that sound?
Jon
Praise God from whom all blessings flow
Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise Him above ye heavenly host
Praise Father Son & Holy Ghost!!!!!
You're a mind reader. I was just about to post exactly that
Don't quit now Church!!
I'm up for it Jon. Let's keep it going!