Raising Support

Matt and I were both mission trip kids. We know the support raising dance. And we both hate it.

To be honest, it's part of the reason we aren't pursuing serving in full-time ministry. We really struggle with the idea of people giving you money just to be a Christian and do what Christians should do on the other side of the world or in the bad parts of town, where there are already Christians who can be Christians and do what Christians should do in that place for far less than you probably can. And maybe even more effectively than you could.

This is not to say that we don't support missionaries. Two of our very best friends are missionaries in Nepal and we love them dearly and support them with our prayers and if I had copious amounts of money I would do a daily million dollar drop outside their door to kill two birds with one stone - money and entertainment for their three kids during the electric outages. They are teachers in an international school and they are amazing. Truly.

It's just that for the most part we think that ministry is most effective when it's done by people who would naturally be there on the ground. We've read a couple of books that solidified this way of thinking for us (Revolution in World Missions by KP Yohannan and When Helping Hurts by Brian Fikkert). And while we feel called to "ministry" we are still working out what in the h-e-doublehockeysticks that means for us. And the support raising thing, well.... it's not for us.

{{To be vulnerable, part of the "it's not for us" mentality is really, at it's core, this fear that God wouldn't provide for us in that way. Why would we deserve that? Are we worth such amazing gift? Of generosity? Would God really provide for us? Like give-us-money provide for us? Most of the time, we err on the side of "Nah...surely not. Better figure out a way to do this ourselves."}}

So call it social justice or call it fear, but we are not support raisers.

Except for this one thing.

Our adoption.

We stepped out and started the process in faith and it has been hard. Gut-wrenchingly, nauseatingly, minor anxiety-attack inducing hard. Yet in most of it there has been a steady peace, hope, and lots and lots of encouragement. We're now at the point where we have to put our profile and DVD out into the pool for first moms to pick from and we are at that point in time where we have to put our money where our collective mouth heart is.

Annnnndddd wouldn't you know that this is the time when the financial vice is tightening in other ways, too? Needed to buy a new (very used) car. Medical bills from two surgeries and two semi-major illnesses are still kn-kn-knocking on our door and they are getting louder with each day (or maybe that is just my heart growing louder because of all the stress. Who knows). Matt's seasonal work went away due to the Boss Man's medical problems and we're feeling the crunch. Student loan grace periods are expiring and the dog and the cat need to go the the vet and we're out of dish soap again and ---

{{{{{Whooooooaaaaa Angela, hold your horses. We're gonna be alright. You've got a good job that provides for our needs and we will make it through this by creativity and God's good hand and generosity. Is this really the *BEST* time to shell out tons of money for adoption? Who knows. But I don't think there really is a *BEST* time just like I don't think there is a *BEST* time to have kids. There will always be challenges. If it wasn't  all this it would be something else and just take it a day at a time and do the thing in front of you. OK. okay o.k.}}}}}

It's alright. We will be just fine. We believe the adoption will happen. But we are in need of help with this. In need for God -- and friends and family and strangers met over the Internet - to pull us through. Can't do it on our own.

I had this flash-of-lightening moment of wonder -- our friends and family are wonderful generous people. Would they help us? Yes. Surely. We just have to ask. And some of them will give and some of them won't. And some of them will share the info with others and some of them won't. And through it all, we're gonna be alright.

So we contacted this place called Adoption Bug that makes adoption t-shirts and sets up a commission where if you help them sell shirts they'll give you a good commission. That was step 1. (Check back for the link later -- haven't gotten it from them yet.) Don't really like t-shirts but money sounds good to me.

Step 2 was setting up our own little fundraising site on GoFundMe, which I did last night. We haven't sent out the email yet asking folks to help, just posted in on Facebook last night out of the blue, and already we are at 1% of our goal!

This is encouraging! This is exciting! This is trusting God! This is being held. And this is .... raising support.

So I guess we are raising support. And it is not for a missions trip to bring the Gospel to unbelievers. It's to bring us a baby, which seems selfish by comparison. But hopefully, God will weave this whole experience into a story that will bring the Gospel -- good news -- to those who need it most.