Out of the Pockets of Babes

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.