19259 fun_raising

here's how coming on staff with sojourn works, in a nutshell: a person gets really excited about what sojourn does, feels the call of God on his or her life, does the pertinent research and conversation having, decides to go for it, makes the necessary arrangements, and then begins the arduous, and nerve wracking, process of raising sufficient funds.

I'm at the arduous and nerve wracking stage.

in july i got back my first round of receipts, which would have been for the month of june. not bad for the first month! we received well over a third of what our monthly budget would be. awesome, i thought, what a great start. then july came and went and we had a grand total of nothing. not awesome.

here's how the process has gone so far:

we did two fundraising events, one in Boston and one in Salinas. both went well, with the Salinas event being particularly special and affirming. then i spent the summer working on packets for churches. we ended up sending out nine packets, fully equipped with video and other visuals. so far, we've heard back positively from four of the nine, and the other five i am in the process of following up with. actually, i've been pleased with the response we've received from churches, as campus ministry has kind of a historical love-hate relationship with church. all, along i've felt like if three of the nine came on board financially we'd be well on our way.

now i am in the stage of writing letters and sending off packets to individuals. this is actually kind of fun (hence the "fun" raising title, not a typo)...i enjoy the time i get to put in to each one, and love being able to think about great moments i've shared with the person i'm writing, or some way that they have influenced me over the years. but it is slow. i've eschewed the mass form letter for person petitions. that feels better to me, especially since so many people i know are in California and i can't sit down and take them out to coffee and explain what we are doing.

i like this process in some ways and hate it in others...how do you ask for money without being annoying? how do you follow up with people with out being super annoying? is asking boldly a great act of faith and courage, or does that just put people off? is asking humbly a simple and nicer way to do it, or is that just being a chicken? and on and on the self-questioning goes.

the bottom line is this: i have never been more convinced in my entire life that what i am doing is exactly what i am supposed to be doing with my life. i also know, based on a long history of seeing God work, that our needs will be more than met. but despite all that i still struggle in the in-between place.

so there are some thoughts on the weird life of a fund-raiser.

be checking back tuesday for the beginning of a new approach to the illumination dilemma...i think you all will like it.

19159

- some pics and video from the end of camp. the pictures are from the overnight experience amy and i took the kids on. the video is of my two favorite campers...they are new to the US from Ethiopia (ten months ago). they are simply two of the brightest and most polite kids i've ever met. and they're not bad at step either =)

- overnight fun!

- stepping awesomeness! (my apologies for the poor quality)

19059

updates to last week's post:

1) one week of camp to go. this last week was especially crazy. two of my counselors (and two of my better staff as far as working with the kids goes) got into a crazy fight. the police were called, threats were made, charges were considered to be pressed. it was out of control. both were terminated which means we've been short staffed and will be through the end of camp. crazy, crazy, craziness. all that to say the sense of heaviness i've experienced this summer hasn't lessened this last week.

also, amy and i are feeling more and more compelled to consider adoption. not like next week or anything, but, you know, it's something we are talking about.

2) we have some dates now for closing on the house. october 9th is the magic day! we still do not have a solution for the intermediate, no house, time. we're getting mildly nervous, but not too much. at least not yet =)

3) we've had some preliminary meetings with the Boston University team and I am getting really excited about jumping in there in a few weeks! we've also finished all the church packets and are waiting to hear from a few and following up with some others. now it is time to move on to individuals. we are continually impressed with all the ways God is taking of us in this time.

that's it for now! peace.

18959

many, many things going on....so here we go:

1) in two weeks from today, camp will be over and i will no longer be employed by bird street community center.  what an interesting adventure this has been.  camp, this summer, has been challenging in so many ways and i have been incredibly stretched as a leader.  the most challenging thing has been what i am calling the "expansion of knowledge and care."  last summer i had 10-15 kids in my unit...i got to know them and their stories of brokenness and it was hard.  then this year in my after school program i had 25 kids, and i got to know them and their stories of brokenness and it was hard.  and now, this summer, we have had 100+ kids and 20 or so staff and i have gotten to know them and their stories of brokenness and it's REALLY hard.  

this last week has been especially difficult.  we have this little boy in camp who is six and has already been in four foster homes over the last year.  his mom is on drugs and in a lot of trouble.  he is a really sweet boy (most of the time) but is extremely angry and you can see the foster child story playing out already (even though he hasn't even been in the system a year).  i just found out on thursday that the couple he is with now (also really sweet people, but they are in their sixties and can't really handle his energy) are trying to move him.  this is just one of a hundred stories that rips me apart on a daily basis.  amy met him yesterday and wants to adopt him!

also, this week there was a double homicide that took place about half a mile from our home and right across the street from the community center (also, very near to the quincy street neighborhood).  there are a number of homicides that happen in the area, and i usually read about them, but feel somewhat disconnected even though they happen in our "neighborhood."  well, this time there was no disconnect. one of the victims was a really neat young guy who had life guarded at a pool i took the after school kids to every friday.  we were by no means close, but saw each other often, knew each other's first names, and i always appreciated the way he dealt with some of our rowdier students.  the incident happened early monday morning and affected a couple of people on my staff (as well as me and several people in our community group).  in some ways, this demonstrates that we are getting "deeper" into the community at large, but also it's been a tougher pill to swallow.

all that to say, it's been a heavy summer.

2) the process of buying a house has been extremely difficult and slow.  it's looking very much like it's going to happen, but man is it taking forever!  because of the slowness of this process we are going to be out of housing for about six weeks (yikes!) and are scrambling to figure that out.  for those of you who are praying types, this is a huge request!  this is another situation where i know in a year we will look back and have some good stories and laughs, but right now feels totally ridiculous.  

3) school (as in colleges and universities) is beginning soon, and i can't wait to tackle my first semester with Sojourn.  i am getting really excited about some partnerships with local stuff that we can get students plugged into.  some cool opportunities are starting to present themselves and this gets me fired up!  

the other side of that is the continual process of raising sufficient funds.  on the one hand this process has also been really slow (mostly due to my lack of time), and on the other it's already been amazing to see how people are responding and being even more generous than expected.  right now, my focus has been on churches.  i have created a little packet for ten churches to look at and review.  my hope and prayer is that three (i don't know where that number came from, but it feels like the right one) will financially support us, another three will be willing to send teams to help us out with our house and other projects, and that all of them will be praying for our ministry.

apologies for the long update.  i usually try to keep things shorter, but not this week!

peace