“From beginning to end, fundraising as ministry is grounded in prayer and undertaken in gratitude.” -Henri Nouwen
This quote jumped right off the page as I was reading Henri Nouwen’s Spirituality of Fundraising recently. The further along we get in this process of building our team, the more we see this as profoundly true.
Prayer
During this season of support raising, we spend a lot of time praying for this process. We pray for those who have already joined our team. We pray for the Lord to lead us to those who will complete our team. We have a series of white boards here in our office where we track all of this and we start almost every day by sitting in front of them and asking for the Lord’s help.
A couple weeks ago we were asking for the Lord to open a door of contact at a particular church here in the area. The very next morning I was having breakfast with another local pastor when he pointed to the other side of the restaurant and said “That’s Pastor _____ over there, I’ll have to introduce you.” Sure enough, it was the pastor of the very church we had just prayed about.
It is so exciting to see the Lord work!
By the way, you know how we were initially connected with the first pastor in that story? A friend who receives this newsletter was generous enough to forward it on to someone from the missions committee at his church – and that church has just now joined our support team!
God is good.
Gratitude
As we look at the team the Lord has assembled so far, our hearts overflow with gratitude!
Just last week I went back over the monthly reports from the past year and came away so grateful for the faithfulness our team has shown all along the way. I confess at times I wonder “Will all these people stick with us? We’re not even there yet!” But sure enough, you have. Not only are we grateful for the amount of people the Lord has brought to our team so far, but also for the kind of team he has assembled. To you who have been faithfully in partnership with us all along, thank you so much!
Preaching and Meeting
We’ve been busy this summer, speaking at churches and meeting with individuals and we’ve been having a blast. This past week I spent almost every day on the road meeting with pastors in this area.
Every time we go to a new church now, Grace asks us: “Is Daddy going to preach again?” In fact, she’s even starting to get the message herself. The other day, she gathered Becca and I into the living room, pulled a play table into the middle of it, stood behind it and said “OK, Mommy and Daddy, How many people don’t know about Jesus yet?”
Looking Ahead
As we head into the fall and work to finish up our support team, there are a few things we would appreciate your prayers for.
75% by early October – In order to complete our final bit of training at the Crossworld home office in November, we need to reach 75% of our monthly support budget soon. As of now, we’re at 63% and have just over $1,000 per month to go before we reach that goal. If we don’t get there, our departure to Haiti would need to be delayed. 75% is definitely within reach now, but we won’t get there without God’s help. Would you pray specifically about this?
Elections in Haiti – As we’ve mentioned before, Haiti generally does not do elections well. Just yesterday we got an email from the embassy warning of another election related protest in Port-au-Prince. There will be a few rounds of voting over the next few months with the larger presidential election to be held in October. Would you pray for peace throughout this process?
Upcoming Travel – We’ll be headed to Dallas at the end of the month to visit with current supporters and connect with potential new ones. Would you pray for smooth travel as we fly with the kids and for fruitful visits with people while we’re in town?
