A fundraising story

Originally, one of the biggest reasons as to why I never considered Young Life staff was the fundraising aspect. As the Lord would have it, I decided to go on International Staff which means I would raise everything that I need to live abroad. What a daunting task that seemed! Still, I was confident of the Lord's call and so I embarked on my fundraising journey. The process was hard, frustrating and identity stripping  - yet allowed me to fall on my face before the Lord in a way I had never experienced before. I had to re-learn how to trust God. 

One of the biggest blessings the Lord gave me during this process was having Jeff Hall as my fundraising coach. Before I even began meeting with people, we had 3-4 phone calls that were basically Bible study, where he pointed out different places in scripture that talks about fundraising. This scripture foundation was something that I kept falling back to when things got hard. It was also very obvious that Jeff wanted our phone calls to be very centered on the Lord - he prayed at the beginning of every call and I prayed at the end. It really spoke of his character that he wanted to remain centered on Christ in the midst of figuring out the details and more administrative side of fundraising. 

And lastly, Jeff was so understanding to every emotion I was feeling in the process and always spoke in grace and encouragement. I left every phone call feeling confident and ready to take on the world! I am sure that this was the Holy Spirit working through Jeff. While the process was not easy, having a coach was super helpful for me and helped hold me accountable. Jeff would ask me at the end of every call what my goals were for the next two weeks before we would talk again. This allowed me to really think through what I wanted to get done and made things seem more tangible. 

While I cannot say that fundraising is my favorite thing in the world, I feel I have learned how to make it a lifelong idea (or at least as long as I'm on staff). Fundraising is not over just because I have reached 100%. There are always more people who want to be invited into something bigger than themselves. And I get the opportunity to share God's vision for my life with others and allow them to partake. What a unique opportunity!