For me, fundraising is definitely a journey. I’ve come into this with a lot of baggage. However, I also am thankful for this journey. It has given me rich experiences, especially as a missionary, which have taught me a lot.
Fundraising has been a matter of prayer for years, and I’ve gone through periods of intense questioning and learning. I don’t remember now what brought up this current period. … Oh, yes. Now I remember some of it … and I’m not going to tell you about it.
:)~
Let me just share the current progress.
Vitaliy and I are reading and re-reading Scott Morton’s book, Funding Your Ministry. He answers every question of conscience I’ve ever had, and even some I haven’t had–imagine that. He has a whole chapter on the subject of conscience, so hey, I am not alone.
Insert thankfulness here: Thankful for Vitaliy and I going through this together. For our shared concerns about fundraising and our shared answers.
We worked through the budget in the back of the book and made up a budget that’s been approved by our mission agency. Our mission agency is also going through a phase of growth about this topic, so we are all growing together, and that’s another good thing. God is matching us up.
Thankfulness insert: We are currently at approximately 32% support…. That’s a good thing ,too! We’re not starting this cycle from zero.
Vitaliy’s swamped with ministry stuff right now–let me just write that out– you can pray for him! 2 upcoming days of Easter evangelism (May 1-2), a week of counseling classes (May 3-5), homework for that course (ongoing), and getting ready for the church training in May 6-8. But we’re slowly going through Morton’s book and working through incorporating his suggestions.
Thankfulness insert: Our faithful supporters and supporting churches. They are generous and good to us, and we are just amazed by the Lord living in them.
We recently firmed up dates for our next trip to the States, August 2017. And our mission agency wants us to be at full support before we return, so we will be busy planning our time there even now.
This is all terribly exciting.