A quick
break from our Zooming In series to reflect on recent events...
Fundraising
is a full-time job—at least mentally, if not also in hours dedicated. We travel
and share our call and our plans with old friends and new. We compile email
lists and write letters and thank-you notes.
We fill up social media in an attempt to remain present and make the
process at least somewhat enjoyable for all involved. We methodically try to
widen our circle through “shares” and remain current with “likes,” and we are
often bewildered with the new Facebook design that has still left many of our
closest supporters asking “are you guys going to have a social media campaign”
or “how can we donate?”
(The answer
to both of those questions can be found on this blog or on our YouCaring page…)
Beyond this,
we feel that things are made more complicated by our relative inexperience. We
are new to missionary service, and we are new to community development; we are
learning, finding our place in the world, figuring out how to use our
experience and training, and trying to explore that exciting horizon of
potentialities. Fundraising is partially a process of convincing other people
that we, or the work we are doing, is a good investment. Of course, we fully
believe that God has called us to go, and that the work is good, and that
therefore the financial cost is absolutely worth any sacrifice. Now we find
ourselves in the position of trying to convince others with our refrain: “This
service is important; God is in this; please be a part of it too.”
Nonetheless,
our fundraising experience has been a testament to the “divine economy”-- that
is, the way in which money has appeared without explanation from sources we
never expected or in quantities we never imagined, keeping us eerily calm
throughout the process.
This last
week we were incredibly humbled to receive our most valuable donation yet
(catalyzing this blog post), in the form of two dollars from a little girl, L,
at our church here in Chicago. L earned some money and had the whole world of
opportunity before her in regards to how she could spend that money. After some
thought, she told her mom that she wanted to give some of it to help people in
need; we are honored that her mom thought of our cause as worthy to be the
recipient of this teachable moment. When her mom explained that Meg would be
working with sick kids, L pulled out her markers and construction paper and
channeled her remarkable love and compassion into making two beautiful “get
well soon” cards, then tucked a dollar bill inside each one. I know that when
we were children, saving money was difficult and giving that money to anyone
but the ice cream man was rare. But the heart of the Savior and the divine
economy were at work in this little girl, motivating a selfless and beautiful
act of sacrifice in the name of Christ.
Friends, be
both encouraged and challenged by this today—the economic adjustments and
corrections of the divine economy that work through the body of Christ will
always intervene to undo the logic and systems of this world. The widow’s mite
has been exchanged for an American child’s dollar (you know, inflation), but
Aslan is ever and always on the move.