Welcome back everybody to Rising 365, a podcast committed to inspiring and supporting others
to embrace the opportunity to rise with each new day.
Rising Daily can be a challenge for many, including myself, and it is my hope that what
you hear in these episodes will assist you in rising every day of the year.
This is your first time pressing play on Rising 365.
Welcome.
I'm Mike Pena, and a little side note, I am no professional.
Like I shared in the intro, I'm just a guy trying to figure life out in order to rise
365 and you are tuned in to episode 25 and it's called, It's a Hype.
So it's been about 20 days since the last episode that I uploaded and a lot's been going
on if you don't know, my family and I are full-time missionaries with a ministry called
CEF of Central Nebraska.
And in doing that, we have to do an annual fundraiser.
That's why it's taken me so long, because we had the fundraiser and sometimes when you
work so hard to do something so well and professional and the results don't pay out the way you
want, it can really drake a chord to your ego, to your purpose, to the reason for everything.
So I've been struggling since then.
So in preparation for this fundraiser, we have been promoting this thing since February
at the beginning of this year with emails and social media and commercials and flyers
and mailers because our family and the ministry depends on financial support of others.
We don't have grants.
We don't have special interest groups providing the funds to go and do what we do here in
Central Nebraska.
It all comes from people who believe in the gospel and taking it into the community.
So that's what we did.
We promoted this fundraiser for months and weeks and in hopes that people would come
to support what God is doing here in Central Nebraska through CEF.
We brought in an entertainer.
His name is Dewayne Hill and he's been on America's Got Talent on Comedy Central.
He's a magician and comedian and he's super talented.
We try to do our best when preparing for these fundraisers by spending no money, by getting
donations from grocery stores in order to prepare the food for our guests.
We like to do what's called sweet treats.
So everything was prepared homemade by my wife and she did such a beautiful job.
We had two days of fundraising events because of the demographic and size of our ministry
field.
We have to do two locations.
So our first location, we're preparing, we're excited.
The entertainer is there and Autumn has made the atmosphere just so beautiful and we're
excited to share what God has done throughout the year and what we feel God is calling us
to do in the coming year and to share the needs of CEF.
So six o'clock the doors are supposed to open and we're going to spend some time fellowshipping
and sharing and celebrating.
But then 6.15 came, 6.30 came.
Entertainment was supposed to start at seven.
By seven o'clock there was only nine people there.
Nine people.
Man, was I disheartened.
I thought maybe, maybe something exciting was going on in town and it's okay.
We've got one more day and God will do something.
So Saturday we do it again.
We decorate, we prepare.
The entertainer is there.
Doors open at six.
Nobody.
6.30.
Nobody.
By seven and it's time for the entertainment.
Really nobody was even there.
Maybe 12 people.
Those are counting the people who volunteered to help set up and to greet people.
There was literally zero people who came to learn about CEF for the first time.
And I'm in Nebraska like I've shared and I knew Nebraska was playing that night a football
game versus Northern Illinois but I thought it's just a small game.
The people who really want to help us continue in this work will show up.
A combined total we had less than 30 people for our fundraiser.
I got to give it to Dwayne Hill because he performed like there was 300 people each night.
I'm super thankful for the 30 people there, for the volunteers who came and set up and
core down.
But I thought to myself, what did I do wrong?
Spent months promoting and telling church after church and friend after friend about
this event and no one came.
I struggled mightily the days after.
The nights before, you know, I'm that positive guy who's like, it's okay, God has a reason
and the people who are supposed to be here are here.
But when I left and we got all cleaned up and I found myself struggling to go to sleep
and finding a purpose to wake up for the next few days to get up and get going.
I started asking myself, am I in the right position?
Am I the right person to be running this ministry?
And I wanted to quit.
I have so many other avenues before me that I could go do with my background in law enforcement
and military that to be honest are super financially more than what I'm doing now.
But I'm driven and conflicted and inspired by what God's Word says is that as a believer,
I'm supposed to be a contender of the faith and I'm supposed to be a person that goes
out and shares the gospel everywhere.
But as a result of the outcome and response and attendance, I was really questioning myself.
So I had to go back and everything I've shared in the episodes leading up to this one, I
had to go redo that stuff.
The getting my mind right, the preparing, the letting the tough days have their days,
but knowing that they don't define who I am.
And then that's where I came across and was reminded in God's Word in John chapter 1 verse
48.
We see this picture of Nathaniel and he's asking Jesus, how do you know me?
And Jesus answered, I saw you while you were still under the fig tree.
This gave me comfort that God saw the hard work and preparation that my family and I
put into this, into the event and how we poured our whole heart and soul of it into it.
And he knows the need of our family and the need of the ministry.
I'm reminded that he is faithful when he is true.
He will comfort and he will make all things work together for good for those who trust
in him and that's where I'm at.
I'm trusting in him that he has our family called into this ministry of CEF for a purpose.
So I'm going to lean into that.
And I got to thinking about that prayer in the Bible where it says, lead me through the
valleys of the shadows of death.
Let me not lean on my own understanding.
So this valley, how did you get into the valley?
That's why I entitled this, it's a hike.
Life is a hike.
It's not climbing up the stairs where it's a constant rise.
The life is peaks and valleys and plateaus and ranges.
It's not going straight up the mountain.
It's more when you see those through hikers or those divide hikers, the cross country
walkers, where they're meeting all kinds of terrains, flat terrain, really steep uphill
battles, really steep downhill weather trying to deter them.
It's the pictures of walking through the mountains.
And I'm reminded that God sees me, not only does he sees me, he's with me.
And this is true for you.
It's taken me this many days to be able to put into words something to provide you the
listener with inspiration.
And that was it.
It was kind of this morning.
It was like life is a hike.
It is a cross country mountain range hike.
The only way we can get through the hike is one step at a time, keeping our head up, our
minds focused on the end.
For me, the end is glorifying Jesus.
So when all is said and done, he will look down upon me and we will see each other face
to face and he will say, well done.
And I want you to take that away from me, for you.
See your life as this great long journey.
But know you're never alone.
Christ is with you.
He sees you.
He's encouraging you to take one step at a time.
You know, I don't know what God's going to do.
We need finances for the ministry and for my family, but I know he is faithful and true
and we will stay devoted to what he's called us to.
Well thank you for tuning in.
I hope each episode brings you inspiration to embrace every new day.
To support this podcast, consider booking me as a speaker for your next conference,
school assembly, youth event, Bible study, or any special occasion where I can share
the message of Rising 365.
It's simple to arrange this.
Just send me a message or an email at rising247365 at gmail.com.
Additionally, you can support by liking, sharing, and rating the podcast on your preferred listening
platform.
And just a reminder, my family and I are all full-time missionaries, so there's going to
be a link in the show notes where you can go to our ministry page to support us if you
feel so inclined.
Until we meet again, I'm Mike Pena, reminding you to rise and seize the gift of a new day.
You are destined for this moment.