this is a story about two persons.
do you remember THAT guy (or maybe THAT girl) in middle school that you avoided at all costs? maybe it was because you hated their guts (as middle schoolers are prone to do). or maybe they hated your guts. or maybe it was because he/she “liked” you and you weren’t returning the favor. or maybe they were just THAT guy that everybody avoided, just because they were weird.
yeah, you know who i’m talking about. we’ll come back to THAT guy/girl.
now think back to first couple weeks in high school or maybe college. life is good. your classes are going well, you’ve made some new friends this year, and your teachers are ok too. the only problem is it’s saturday night, and you’re kinda bored. you didn’t have to work tonight, you’ve finished all your homework, but your friends aren’t answering their phones. and the only thing to watch on TV is reruns of some lame sitcom, or some dumb reality show. so you kinda waste the night away on facebook or youtube hoping something worthwhile will happen.
it doesn’t.
and to top it off you find out the next monday morning in class that all of you new friends went out that saturday night. they had fun, they went to a movie, and they decided spur of the moment to go camping for the weekend. they made memories.
but you weren’t there. and the only excuse they had was that they forgot about you. or they didn’t have your number. or once they did remember they had already left camping and it would be too hard to explain where to find them even if they did have cell phone coverage.
yeah, you know the feeling i’m talking about. you know what it feels like to be THAT guy/girl.
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sidenote: MPD = Ministry Partner Development – thats the name given to the process of us raising funds for becoming staff missionaries with FamilyLife
over the course of the next year or so with us going through MPD we don’t want to feel like THAT guy in the first story. perhaps it’s simply perceived or maybe the feelings/actions are real. but it would be easy for us to start feeling like people are avoiding answering our calls, not returning our emails/voicemails, not making eye contact for fear of thinking that we’re just gonna be asking for money again.
on the other hand, we don’t want you to feel like THAT guy in the second story. the reason we’re doing what we’re doing is because we believe in the vision/values of FamilyLIfe and feel that it is what God is calling us to do in this season of our lives. the reason we’re calling/emailing/writing letters is to give everyone we know an opportunity to join with us and with God in fulfilling that purpose; whether that’s through finances, or prayer, or referrals, or simply encouragement.
we don’t want to get to the end of our journey and have you wonder why didn’t they call me? why didn’t they want me on their team? did they think i was too poor? couldn’t pray well enough? didn’t know the right people to refer? wasn’t encouraging? or did they simply forget?
so that’s why we’re doing what we’re doing.
and as for they money… it is an actual need that we need to meet in order to do what God’s called us to do. but we’re not trusting in people, we’re trusting in God. if God hasn’t called you to support us financially, that’s ok. it won’t offend us. we’d at least like a straight answer either way or an opportunity to answer anymore questions you may have.
so is it a deal? we’ll try not to make you feel like the “forgotten” guy and we’ll do our best not to make you feel like you have to treat us like the “weird” guy.
ok?
ok.
