First of all, I am apparently terrible at keeping up with a blog when I’m not out doing something exciting. I guess I just feel like there’s nothing especially exciting or profound about my life right now as I am heading into my last semester of undergrad EVER! But I have been thinking about this whole fundraising process a lot lately and thought I would share some of my thoughts.
When I was younger, I was a fundraising champion. Okay so maybe I wasn’t that good, but I could definitely convince people to buy something from me. I used to get really excited in school when it was time to sell Sally Foster (that’s a type of wrapping paper if you didn’t know) and I would go all over my neighborhood knocking on doors and showing off the new patterns of that year. I also remember being pretty excited about helping my brothers AAU baseball team sell raffle tickets for one of their fundraisers. When I think back to these experiences, I remember being pretty bold and unashamed about asking people for money. I was always pretty confident that I could convince people that I was selling something great that they should definitely invest in.
So why do I now feel so weird about asking people for donations? Why am I not confident that I can get people to invest in something as great as the Kingdom of God?
I recently mailed out about 250 support letters and I will be sending out at least 75 more as soon as I can go get more copies made. But I keep thinking, what if my letter wasn’t good enough? What if I can’t get people interested in supporting me? I think the worst part for me though, is asking people for support in person. When I talk to someone about the race and the subject of funds comes up, I start to feel a bit uneasy. It took me a little while, but I think I finally figured out why I felt this way.
You see at first I thought I was asking people to give ME money. I was asking them for money for MY ministry and MY trip. But then I realized that I shouldn’t feel guilty or ashamed to ask, because this is not about me. Yes, I will be the one going on this amazing spiritual journey and having incredible experiences, but that’s not why I’m going. Instead, I realized I’m asking for money so that I can do God’s work. I’m going for HIM to share HIS message to HIS people. I’m asking for money so that I can reach the orphans in Africa, the prostitutes in Thailand, the sick, the broken, the hurting, and the lost.
And you know what? After I got that through my head, I became excited to ask people to be involved. I want people to know all that God is about to do this next year and how they can contribute. I am no longer afraid to be bold and put myself out there to ask for financial support.
So, I am asking you to prayerfully consider making a donation to my account. You can click on the Support Me link on the left or you can click here. If you would like to mail a check you can send me a message and I will get you all of the information.
To everyone who has already given, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Your overwhelming generosity means so much to me and is going to allow me to share our Father's love all over the world.
