Warning: this is LONG. I mean, real long. Hey everyone, come read these really long blogs I just wrote.
It’s 2:47 a.m. EST as I begin writing this. Launch is a mere 16 (for me and two others, it’s 17) days away and many of my brothers and sisters still have support outstanding. If you’ve been reading our blogs, you’ve noticed the wave of posts pleading for financial partnership and since we’re all family, I’m going to throw my hat in the ring [ding].
I’m borrowing the title of my post from one of Tim Keller’s sermons (the church only makes a limited number of them available for free) on stewardship. Please go here to download and listen to them.
Anyway, now with that plug out of the way. . . I just want to get it out there that we are all confident that everyone who is currently a part of this squad will remain in this squad. It will not be for lack of finances that some of us will be staying behind. Nothing is impossible with God. He provides. We are waiting on Him.
That said, I want to make something obvious even more so. Many of us, and you, too, I’m sure, have been learning that God’s answer to the suffering and injustice and evil in the world is His children. We are part of His response to the enemy’s attempts to hinder the Kingdom from coming on earth. So just as we, the G-Squad, have been called forth to the 11+ nations this upcoming year, our heavenly Father is calling YOU, dear readers and friends and the like, to send us out.
The World Race is an extraordinary adventure of faith. It’s a revolution of radical disciples. So it should be no surprise that we are going to be sent in radical ways, also. My team leader Neil is on the receiving end of radical generosity. I know that a brother on the H-Squad has also been blessed on a grand scale as well.
You, brother or sister, sitting there in front of your laptop/deskop screen, reading these words, may not (yet) be called to do this crazy, radical thing we’ve been called to do, but that doesn’t excuse you from stepping out in faith right here. We’re not reinventing the wheel; we simply follow in the footsteps of our radical, counter-cultural (that’s putting it mildly) Lord, ’cause a servant is no greater than His master.
I don’t deserve it, but I’ve been so blessed. God’s been faithfully providing the finances necessary to send me to the nations. And really, when you look at the number – $13,800 – it only seems like a lot. But I bet some of you spent that much on the car you drive. According to U.S. Census Bureau, the median household income is $50,233; the U.S. Office of Management and Budget reports that the weighted average poverty threshold for unrelated individuals is $10,590.
Some of you as individuals make the median household income, or your household income is twice or thrice that figure. On the Race, we’re essentially living off an income that’s doesn’t exceed the poverty threshold by much. Considering the cost of just traversing multiple continents, food, lodging and transportation, the minimum $13,800 is a small, strategic, cost-effective investment that will reap eternal (and present!) dividends.
Finally, I share this not to shame or guilt-trip anyone into giving. That’s not what we’re after; God loves cheerful givers (and even if you aren’t a cheerful giver, God still loves you anyway), and we prefer cheerful givers than grumbling ones. In fact, I think if you’re gonna fall into the latter camp, I’d much rather leave you be than to receive a gift given unfreely.
No, I want us to plunge in together, with faith, and explore the depths of God’s goodness and generosity. Tonight, I had dinner with a great group of friends (each of them have all been so generous in partnering with me, by the way) and one of them, bless his heart, gave me support and freedom to use it how I see fit.
to be continued…
