Fundraising: The Extreme Edge of Faith
Posted by C. Holland on Dec 29, 2008A Christian friend recently asked what it’s like to live day-to-day on a fundraised missionary budget. Once I assured her that we haven’t gone without the necessities and God has richly provided for us throughout our entire time here, I gave her the following analogy:
It’s like taking a job where the boss tells you that you cannot know how much you will be paid each month. It can swing wildly without warning, by thousands sometimes, and it’s not dependent on how hard you work. Essentially, you open the envelope every month, draw in a deep breath, and wonder what you’ll get. Meanwhile, the exchange rate guarantees that the cost of usually fixed expenses (like rent) will go up and down, too; another thing you cannot know ahead or control. While budgeting is a nice concept, it’s not always practical.
We’ve lived this way the entire time we’ve been in the mission field, and I’d be lying to say it’s easy. It’s not. Even when we have a good month, it makes it hard to consider purchasing anything extra. That voice in your head starts whispering, “what if you need this surplus money next month?” Meanwhile, it seems like all economic chaos has broken loose throughout the globe. Stories pour in about people losing jobs and houses, while churches are losing substantial income. It can all be incredibly gloomy, especially when we’re so very dependent on the generosity of others and our visa here does not allow us to legally take a job.
So, coming into the holiday season we mentally prepared ourselves that times might get tighter for us, people might reel back their giving, and we certainly wouldn’t expect anyone to send us anything extra for Christmas. Not a problem as we have what we need to eat, etc.
But we were wrong.
No bragging here at all, but for some reason we received substantial extra-funds this year, given in the spirit of the season. From people that we least expected. I can’t explain it at all because last year was almost nil compared to this year, and it seemed like people weren’t too financially scared then. And we made no Christmas appeal at all to our supporters, neither this year nor the last.
God’s ways certainly are not our ways, and I am thankful beyond words for this generosity. In these dark days of economic doom and uncertainty, all I can say is that not every bad scenario will play out. I’ve heard it said that statistics mean nothing to the individual, and in our case this Christmas season did not fit the typical scenario of economic peril.
Our suspicions, based on the information around us at the time, did not come true. We somehow forgot that God is stronger than bad financial situations on a global scale, and He thankfully hasn’t forgotten us. This was a fresh lesson in living by faith on God’s provision, even His favour, when we don’t deserve it. We never did deserve it, and we only have it through His mercy.
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