Adventures in Support Raising: My Phone Fear

Since support raising is something that is pretty much brand new to me, I've been trying to get as much advice as I can. Recently, I got the advice to call the people I've sent support letters to, let them get to know me and my future ministry better. Of course this makes good sense. Except for the fact that this idea made me feel a tad uneasy.

Growing up, my brother, sister, and I all had a pretty ridiculous fear of calling people. I can remember one summer afternoon, when we all got in an enormous fight over who was going to call for pizza (obviously, if we were old enough to be home alone, we were surely old enough not to cry about calling the pizza place). As I've gotten older though, I've gotten almost completely comfortable talking on the phone. Occasionally, however certain situations bring back my phone anxiety. Calling people to talk to them about possibly supporting me is one of those situations.

The first day, I only mustered up the nerve to call 5 people. Thankfully, all of them went to voicemail. Then I got to thinking about how absolutely silly I was being. I thought about all those songs I've sung, with lines about sacrificing things for Jesus: "I surrender all" and "Everything I am for your kingdoms cause" and "Jesus lead on, I will follow"
I've sung these lines so many times and often I think of big ways that I can follow Jesus. Like go to Africa for a year. I never think of small day to day choices that I might have to make for Him, like make some phone calls that have the potential to be slightly uncomfortable.

The next day I made 22 phone calls. I had a couple disconnected lines, left a few messages, and had some good conversations with people, quite a few of whom were happy to support me!! So all in all, it wasn't bad.

Now I have 62%, with a little more than $8,000 left to go and 17 days to go until Sept 1st, but this week I will not be busy support raising, instead I am vanishing into the wilderness. Before the deadline was pushed back I had already made a commitment to be on staff at a young adult adventure camp. Basically, a bunch of 18-25 year olds will be backpacking, canoeing, cave-diving, climbing, rafting, talking about Jesus, and hanging out together. I'm hoping that I can take this opportunity to really let go and just let God do his thing. And then next week get right back to support raising!!

Quand (When)

So far I've answered the questions qui, quoi, ou, et pourquoi (who, what, where, and why). Now its time for quand (or when). In other words: When will I be heading to Côte d'Ivoire?

Originally, the first group of journeyers were to leave mid-september and I would have been able to join only if I raised enough support by August 1st. About a week ago the deadline was pushed back to September 1st with the departure in mid-October. This was pretty exciting news to me, since getting the support I needed by August 1st seemed pretty unlikely. Now I have 3 weeks to raise the rest of my support, if I'm to leave in October. If I don't, then I'll continue support raising and will leave in early 2011.

Support raising has turned out to be a lot tougher than I first thought. My biggest struggle with it has been the right mindset: I have the (incorrect) tendency of thinking of support raising as a necessary evil. There are a lot of reasons for this: support raising can be a tad awkward, there doesn't seem to be a step by step plan that will work 100% of the time (and I really like plans), and I don't feel like its something I'm terribly good at (and like many others, I really really like to be good at things). While perhaps understandable, this mindset has lead to a fair amount of procrastination and lack of motivation.

However, a couple weeks ago I was convicted after two things: reading 'The Spirituality of Fundraising' by Henri Nouwen and having a hard conversation with my very wise mom. Raising this support, like most things, is not really about me at all. God is inviting me to serve in Côte d'Ivoire. He's also using me to invite others to participate in His service in a different way: supporting me (whether with prayer or money). Both are opportunities for me to obey and serve. Jesus wants my humility, love, trust, and obedience with both.

The cool thing is that Jesus doesn't call everyone to serve in places like Côte d'Ivoire, but He does call all of us to love and serve one another. By asking others for their support I am giving them and opportunity to do this. My supporters love and serve me while I try to love and serve.

Right now I have a bit over 58% raised ($12,620 of the $21,500). God sure is good!!!

So here I go: 3 weeks to raise 42%!!!