"A reverent communication with God during which a person gives thanks and asks for blessings. Prayers are addressed to our Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ. Prayers can be either spoken aloud or silent. A person's thoughts may also be a prayer if they are directed to God... The object of prayer is not to change the will of God, but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant, but that we must ask for in order to obtain."
For as long as I can remember I have found it easier to strike up a conversation with my Heavenly Father through silent thoughts in my head than to start talking out loud. Maybe it is because I'm always on the move and those were more frequent opportunities, but either way it works for me. The truthfulness of God hearing prayers spoken silently was reiterated to me today.
I have been working at USU with Aggies Elevated for a little over a year now. It has been an adventure and huge learning experience for me. As we've gone through the year one of the biggest things weighing on my mind, and the minds of my team, has been how can we make this thing sustainable. For those that don't know, Aggies Elevated is a college experience program for students with intellectual disabilities. These students wouldn't have access to college if this program were not here. We have seen amazing things as expectations have been raised for each of the students and they in turn, have risen to and surpassed those expectations. In order to set those expectations and create an environment where our students can be successful a lot of supports are necessary. We have a vast pipeline of volunteers, school interns, dedicated faculty, and support staff that all give of their time without pay. Each student also has a mentor that works with them individually on areas that they need to improve. The mentor is key to the success of each student as they are the front line in helping them access the supports they need. These mentors are part-time students or graduates that are paid through our program.
Our program is small at this point, but we know in order to make real change we have to be able to support more students, which in turn means we need more money. This is a very expensive program to run and we are trying to keep it as cost effective for families so it is accessible. With all these issues bouncing around in my head we have reached out to a plethora of foundations, legislative funding, grants, and private donors to stay afloat. Some have been more generous than others, but the past couple months I was starting to get discouraged. Every route we tried to go seemed to be a dead end. Every person we talked to would praise what we were trying to do, but had no $$$ to back it up. Each time we would find a new option to pursue I would have the conversation in my head with my Heavenly Father, "If this thing is going to work, we need the money to make it happen... Please intervene in our behalf...I may not have a job after June, I'd really like to still be working if it is thy will...I know what we are doing is a good thing, so why can't we find people to support it?" I've always had faith that He was listening to me, but it was hard to see his timing.
Today, when I got into work I was getting ready to join a conference call when an email popped up on my computer screen from our development officer in the CPD. It was a forwarded email so I went to click the x and look at it later when I read the first line of the email, "HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS!! I think it’s a real testament to how incredible of a program you guys have going." I looked at it closer and it was an email informing us that our application was accepted for a grant award of $100,000! One hundred THOUSAND dollars! I had to look again...my eyes were not deceiving me. I was completely boggled, the last grant we applied for was just last week and I knew we wouldn't hear from them for quite some time, what was this from? I called our development officer and he explained that when he went to fill out the application for the last grant, he ended up filling out two applications to two different foundations. The first one he filled out thinking it was a different grant and when he called to clarify the people told him to fill out another application and submit it to this other foundation. Well, long story short, the original application he filled out, thinking that was a hopeless venture, was the one that just awarded us $100,000. The beautiful thing in all of this is we still have the possibility of the second grant application coming back awarded as well.
Heavenly Father was listening to those quietly spoken/thought prayers. He loves us. He wants us to be happy, and he wants us to be successful. I knew that what we were attempting was a good thing, and I knew that he wouldn't let us down. We are not completely out of the water forever, and I know that we are expected to continue to do our part. For this moment though, God knew I needed a little nudge to validate what I was doing and show me we are on the right path. God answers prayers.
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