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.