So, this is one of THOSE blogs.
It's about the F word-fundraising.
Josh and I have been fundraising for over a year, and some days I just feel over it. But the weird thing is, I don't really feel stressed so much about our fundraising account as I do our personal expenses when it comes to getting ready for the World Race.
Where our personal money has been going:
- Gear. I don't know how much it has cost us so far, but it would be somewhere in the hundreds. These may seem like unnecessary purchases to some, but we are only taking internal fram backpacks, and school sized backpacks with us for the year. We need to consider size, weight, and functionality of all of our belongings we will be taking with us. For example, it would not be a good idea to bring regular towels with us. They are bulky, and we will probably not have access to dryers for a good amount of the time we are gone. So, we bought a couple of lightweight camping towels. They kind of feel like a shamwow, and they dry super fast. I knew that we wouldn't want to have bulky, mildewy towels in our bags, so the purchase of camping towels was one that we didn't necessarily have to make, but will be more functional than a regular towel, thus allowing us to focus more on ministry rather than on how our clothes smell like mildew.
- International Travel Insurance. AIM requires all Racers to purchase a travel insurance policy. It is very smart because even if we are very careful, something probably will end up happening-we will trip and break a bone, get malaria, an intestinal parasite, etc. Unfortunately, since there are two of us, we had to pay for insurance for both of us, which ended up being about $800.
- Vaccinations. We have not gotten these yet, but we estimate it will be at least $300.
- Paying off our credit card. This is the big one. We have been working our butts off and making huge payments on our card. We have paid it down by $1,ooo, but we still have about $1,500 left on it. This is my big struggle. I feel like there is NO WAY we are going to be able to pay it off before we leave. We only have a month and a half of working left, and although our living expenses have dramatically decreased by living with Josh's family, and most of our money is going towards this, it still feels like paying it off is moving at turtle speed. Very discouraging.
- Saving up emergency money before we leave. This is another big one that I stress about. If all of our money is going towards paying off our credit card, and we will likely be working on that up until we leave, we will not be able to save any money for emergencies while we are gone. This includes medical emergencies, money to buy shampoo and deodorant, and money to do fun stuff on our days off. Just like any other job, we will need days to relax and have fun, but Josh and I will not get to do some of the things like riding elephants, white water rafting the Nile, or sightseeing if we have no money. We will also need money to buy our plane tickets back to Missouri from whichever airport in the States we fly into when we return.
So there you have it. This is what I have been stressing about for the past several months. If you ever wanted to know what is inside a World Racer's head, here you go. Traveling the world? Excited. Living in poor conditions? No problem. Ministry? Can't wait. Money? Feels like my brain is going to melt out of my ears and makes me want to cry and give up all at the same time.
I don't know why I stress about these things more than raising money for our support account. I guess because I feel alone on this. No one is going to want to donate money to help pay off our credit card. They likely have credit card payments of their own. But what I fail to see is that it doesn't matter whether it is raising money for our support account, or for our personal finances to prepare us to go, because God has called us to this, He will work it out. I fully believe that God is omnipotent (all powerful), so why don't I believe that He can do the impossible in our own money problems and not just in our WR account?
I think that is just the problem. I have big faith when it comes to our support account, but I have little to no faith in the other. And I also have jealousy for Racers who don't have to deal with double the gear, vaccinations, insurance, etc, as well as a dumb credit card to pay off.
I don't want to feel this way. I want to be happy, and to be able to fully enjoy this time with our family and friends. So, I ask you to please pray for Josh and I in this area. Pray that we wouldn't feel alone in this, and that we would have faith that it will work out.
Also I ask for help. I know that it is crazy and weird to ask for help with personal finances, and I really hope that it is not offensive. I just know that Josh and I are trying as hard as we can on our own, and it is not working. Or rather it is, just way too slowly. So if you feel led to helping us in this area, please feel free to email me at [email protected], Facebook message me, or comment here. We have a paypal account that you can donate to, if you would like to support us in this way. Just go to the link that I'll put at the bottom, type in my email address ([email protected]), and select the amount you would like to donate. If you would like your gift to be used in a certain way, please email or message me to let me know.
Also, we are currently at $7,414.69 in our support account, which is amazing. We have a deadline coming up on August 18th, on which we must have $13,000. If you would like to give towards that, just click the link above on the left that says "Support Us", or you can mail a check with "Josh and Jen Mendenhall-The World Race" the the memo line to:
Adventures In Missions
P.O. Box 534470
Atlanta, GA 30353-4470
If you have already supported us in some way, please know that we are so appreciative. It has been a loooong journey, and apparently when you try to do it on your own it doesn't work out so well. So, we are very thankful that we have friends and family that have helped us along. I am SO looking forward to the day when I can say that we are credit card debt free. What a relief it will be!
Paypal link: https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/send-money-online
