Hey everyone!
Well…The time has come. I've avoided this post for a long time. It's much easier for me to tell you about what God has done, or what I have learned, or how He's been sufficient, or how I've been weak. It's difficult for me to ask for help. But the World Race is bigger than I can do alone. Basically, in this post, I want to accomplish three things (I feel like a preacher, telling you what I'll tell you, telling you, and telling you what I told you. haha): I want you to better understand my needs, my heart, and my game-plan.
Here are the needs that I have right now:
The World Race costs $15,500. That is simultaneously so much and so little. For what it covers, this is really a very minimal price. This includes all of my food, lodging, transportation, ministry supplies, and international travel for almost a year. It is really unbelievable. It really is a lot of money though, and especially as I write this post, I recognize just how black and white money can be. It is either there or it isn't. So I need 15,500 really real, 'actually there' dollars. Beyond that, I also need to buy travelers' insurance, vaccinations, and the gear that I will use for the year.
Beyond this, I'm also leading and coordinating a mission trip to South America in June before launching for the Race in July.
We will be building a church in rural Argentina and then partnering with my church in Peru for outreach there. I need around $3000 for this trip, plus the cost of materials for building the church. I'm hoping that within the next week, I can be meeting with local construction firms to talk about donating to the building costs (PLEASE PRAY for these meetings, as they are sort of linchpins in this whole operation). The guys that I'm taking with me have graciously offered to try to cover my costs within theirs, as I am fundraising for the Race and doing all the logistics of the South America trip. I'm really blessed and honored by this offer, but I'd like to ask for prayer for this situation. If you don't really feel led to give toward the Race, but you have a heart for South America, please contact me! We have a lot of opportunity for partnerships toward this trip.
Here is my heart in all of this:
I don't really believe in fundraising for missions. Fundraising is a great thing for causes, non-profits, and that sort of thing, but I don't want your funds to be raised for me. God really made this clear to me. I'm not a good cause, and I'm not someone asking for hand-outs; I'm not something you should give your money to so that you feel better. All of that ends up being very hollow.
I believe in partnership. See, not everyone is called to the mission field overseas, but we are all called to missions. I know that as you send me out on these trips, your ability and choice to send me is answering that call. Also, I'm all about sharing, and I know that God is too, so I gladly give you, my ministry partners, credit for what Jesus does through me. I represent you, as I re-present Jesus. As you send me out, you are sowing into the harvest fields of the Kingdom. What a beautiful thing! That's why I'm so invested and so excited about blogging. I want you to know the fruit of your sown seed as it continues to bear fruit throughout my time overseas. I want you to pray for me. I don't take this year lightly. I'm expecting God to do big things in and through me, and I need your prayers to go out before me. I also want my life on the Race to be a good steward of your sown seed (of prayer and finances); I want to make the most of everyday! So pray against sickness, bad attitudes, demonic attack, and closed doors from the authorities in each country. Pray for God's Kingdom to come and His will to be done in and through me as it is in Heaven.
I don't want to come across as harsh or something, so let me clarify: I believe God can use "donating", but I believe that the heart behind it is ultimately finite and soulish instead of Spirit-led. God can totally redeem things like this though, and so while I'm so much more interested in receiving from people whose hearts are to sow into the Kingdom than from people who want to just give to a good cause, I also choose to be thankful for any donating that is done. I will receive it with the same gratitude and expectancy. I guess I feel the need to write all this because I have taken some flak for being too brazenly Christian about all this. But the more I think about it, the more sure I am that "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Peace! For it is the power of God unto salvation!" (Rom. 1:16), and the more sure I am that I don't want money for money's sake, and I don't want to do good things for goodness's sake. I want supporters, not donators. Everything I do, I want to do for the Glory of God. And so every gift I receive, I gladly and boldly declare is for the Kingdom of God.
Here is my game-plan:
As of right now, God has (through my wonderful friends, and several anonymous gifts) blessed me with $2,017.50 of the $15,500 total. The World Race has given us specific support-raising goals to keep us on track. They are as follows:
- $3,500 Due 5/5/2012 (2 weeks before training camp)
- $6,500 Due 6/17/2012 (2 weeks prior to the trip)
- $11,000 Due 10/1/2012 (End of 3 months on the field)
- $15,500 Due 1/1/2013 (End of 6 months on the field)
So my first support goal is exactly 1 month away! I only need $1,482.50 to reach this goal! I think that's pretty exciting.
I have finished my newsletter and have printed the first round of those. If you would like me to mail you one, please send me your contact information! Those will be out very soon.
There are several ways that you can give, and the process is really easy thanks to Adventures in Missions. There are two main ways to give: online or by mailing in a check to the Adventures in Missions office. If you click on the Support Me tab on the left side of my blog it will walk you through the process whether you are sending in a check or donating online. Here is some important information regarding support raising.
- Checks can take up to two weeks to show up in my account, while online transactions take up to four days.
- If you use a debit or credit card to donate, 3% of the amount donated will be used for processing fees by the bank. If you donate through a bank transfer, 2% will be used.
- Supporters who chose to donate monthly will not have any processing fees – 100% of the donation will be credited to the account, if they choose to set it up through AIM's automatic monthly Electronic Funds Transfer program. If this interests you, let me know & I can send you the details and forms.
- If you are making a large one-time donation, I recommend that the donation be sent via mail so that 100% of the amount is credited to my account.
- All donations are tax-deductible.
- Adventures in Missions does not accept cash donations
- Please make checks payable to: Adventures in Missions and write my name on the memo line.
I would really love to meet up individually and talk more specifically about prayer/support needs. Please let me know if you want to grab coffee. I'm so in. 🙂
Also, just for fun, I came up with some creative support strategies in case you want to help, but don't know how.
- If you have gift cards to an outdoors store that you don't think you will use, I can use it for gear. Buying the equipment and the kind of clothing that you need to rough it for a year is not the cheapest, as it turns out!
- If you have frequent flyer miles I can use to get to South America, that would literally change everything about the trip. That is the majority of my costs, and having that taken care of would be the biggest load off of my back.
- I also need to buy a ticket to get to my launch destination. My squad will fly individually and meet up in a to-be-determined US city (probably Washington DC or NYC, as my first country is Ireland and they have the largest international airports in the northern east coast) from where we will launch officially. If you have frequent flyer miles or want to road trip to there, I'm totally down.
- Throughout this upcoming year, I will be traveling to Peru, Chile, and Argentina, prior to the Race, and then to Ireland, Ukraine, Russia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, India, Nepal, Cambodia, Malaysia, and one other unannounced Asian country. If any of these places are dear to your heart, and you would like to "adopt a country" for the year, let me know! The Race ends up costing just about $1410 per month, so if 2 people adopted each country (at $705 each), 22 people could completely cover my World Race, and 4 more could cover the South America trip!
- I realized that my half-birthday is this month! April 25th (and I checked…that considers leap day, and is still correct). For my half-birthday, would you consider calculating how much money you spend on an average day or in an average week and sow half of that total into the Kingdom as a half-birthday present? If all my Facebook friends gave $5, then in 1 day we could bring in over $10,000.
This whole numbers thing is so hard for me. It isn't how I think, but it is so good for me to be stretched in this way. I will be keeping you posted as I have financial updates for you.
Thank you for reading, sowing, and caring so much!
Blessings!
In Christ,
Caleb
