As you may or may not know, this month I started an internship with Gator Christian Life at the University of Florida. To do this, I was charged with building a support team, who would agree to pray for my ministry at UF and to raise $16,000 for the twelve month internship. Many of my friends throughout the years have had to raise a smaller amount of support for short term mission trips to the Dominican Republic or Spain or to our summer projects at other universities and were already familiar with the process, but I had no such stepping stone. I had never been on a foreign mission trip or on a summer project. The only mission trips I had taken in all my years at UF were domestic and had a grand total cost of maybe about fifty bucks for gas and cheep food. I had no idea what support raising entailed nor did I even know how much $16,000 actually was, I had no idea if that was large or small or what. As a college student I had never made or even seen money like that. I'd never looked at car prices or other large purchase like that for me to even compare or know how much that money was even worth. I was used to measuring money in, "How many gum balls can I buy with that?" To me, 16000 was just a number. I had no idea how easy or difficult it would be to raise this money.
Nor did I have any idea what people's reactions would be. I had heard of so many different experiences from different people on what support raising was like, many of them unpleasant. In addition to prayer, I would be asking for money. People like their money. It's a scary thing to ask for.
I knew the Biblical principals of support raising as a head knowledge. I had read about how Paul encouraged the church in Corinth and Galatia to give the the needy church in Jerusalem [I Cor 16:1-4]. Did that not describe GCL as a needy church full of college students with no income to tithe from? I knew what I Corinthians 9 said about not muzzling an ox when he is threshing and how the minister has the right to be paid for his ministry if he chose to take it, and about how Peter, Andrew, James, John, and Matthew all left their secular jobs to follow Christ (though ministers are highly needed in the workplace) while Paul remained as a tent maker so as not to take advantage of the right he had mentioned in I Corinthians 9, though even he was supported by the church in Macedonia [II Cor 11:9]. I had read how John encouraged the church in III John 1:5-8 to give even to ministers who were strangers if they were preaching the true Gospel. I had countless verses, but it was still all a head knowledge. Knowing the facts had little effect on my fear of human judgement.
To be honest, I had expected to hate the summer. I was afraid I would form this hard heart that saw support raising as a "necessary evil" that I had to suffer through in order to get to the good part of the work in Gainesville. But once the process started, I discovered that I couldn't have been more wrong!
Of course, there was the occasional less-than-ideal conversation, but I found that the whole experience was even actually quite enjoyable. There is no denying that I am an introvert, but I still loved having this process as the perfect excuse to call old friends I hadn't talked to in a while and catch up, hearing how I could be praying for them in addition to telling them how they could be praying for me. In addition, I got to make new friendships, meeting new people who were interested in what I was doing. All of a sudden, it wasn't about money any more. Yes, I was asking for money, but it became more about relationships and friendships. Wasn't that a big part of the reason I wanted to do ministry anyways? To form and build relationships?
Besides learning that support raising could be enjoyed as relationship builder, I learned a lot about God's grace. Even though parts of the process were enjoyable, it was still a tiring experience, and there were many many times when I dreaded the time I had to my "support raising desk" my parents let me use. There were times where I said, "well, I guess I'll end a little early tonight," or I'll start making calls a little late." Though I did work hard this summer, it was very apparent to me that the support that came in was not due to my own efforts, but due to God's grace in the times I certainly did not deserve it.
And of course, I learned so much about how generous God's people can be. I talked to and met so many people who have such a heart to see God glorified, people who fit perfectly the description of the cheerful giver in II Cor 9, who gives from the supply God gave them, giving glory to God, so that those they give too can in turn also give glory to God. It amazed me how those who even have little gave out of what little they had. As an example, I had determined not to even contact one family other than to ask for prayer because I knew that they were going through a rough time financially. But without even asking, I received a facebook message from the mother in the family saying that she had committed to fast one day a week so she could pray for me and afford to support me. And as if that wasn't more than enough they offered for me to use their car for the year so that I could easily go from my pastor's house where I am living to campus for my internship and classes. I was overwhelmed by the generosity!
I was particularly amazed at those who gave who really did not even know me before this summer. I had had this fear that I would not live up to people's expectations of me during this internship, that people would feel like they waisted their hard-earned money on me. But seeing people give when they didn't really even know me was proof to me that these brothers and sisters were not giving because they trusted me. They didn't even know me. They give because they trust God who knows them intimately. They give because they know that no matter who I am other than a son of God and a willing vessel, that the God we both trust is going to do some awesome stuff this year. And I fully expect that He will!
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