This summarizes my feelings toward support raising. Every time I think I’ve made some progress I get slapped in the face. The hardest part is that soo much of it is stuff that is completely beyond my control. I don’t want to get into details, but some “complications” arose with my sending agency. That took about three weeks to clear up. I finally had all my t’s crossed and all my I’s dotted. I was going to buy a plane ticket the next day. Then I get slapped in the face again. To make a long story short, I lost one of my biggest financial supporters this week; and now I need to raise more money (to make up for what I thought they were going to give) before I can go. [insert shameless plug to donate here]
Bottom line = this sucks.
I was talking with a pastor friend of mine and he was sharing some stories with me. Mostly personal stuff; but he also shared a story with me from the Bible, in the book of Judges (chapters 19 & 20). I would encourage you to read the story, but here is a quick summary. A man is traveling through a city of the tribe of Benjamin. The people they are extremely wicked, but a friendly, polite man offers them lodging (as was the custom of hospitality). Later that night, some of the locals find out there are strangers in town. They go to this mans’ house and demand he sends out this visitor so they can force him to have sex with them. The man pleads with the locals to leave, but they won’t listen. Eventually they agree to only rape the visitors concubine. The next morning, the traveler woke up to find his concubine dead on the doorstep. After finding out what happened, he took her home, cut her into twelve pieces and mailed her body parts to all twelve tribes of Israel. That got everyone’s attention. So all the leaders of Israel gathered to find out why this guy was mailing out body parts. He told them the terrible story of the rape and murder of his concubine; and all the evil that was taking place in that town. All the people of Israel agreed that something must be done. They went to the town to seek justice but were turned away. They prayed to see what God wanted them to do and God told them to attack the city. So they obeyed. And they got whooped. 22,000 Israelite men were killed. So they went back to God, to see what to do next. God told them to attack again. And they got whooped again. This time another 18,000 Israelites were cut down. Now the Israelites were very confused. Why was God telling them to do this? They were obedient, and all that resulted was thousands of deaths. So they cry out to God again. And this time God says; attack them and you will win. And against all odds the Israelites overtake them the next day in battle.
Ok, so that was a long summary. But it really speaks to me where I am at … beating my head against a wall, trying to obey God.
Has any one else been in a situation like this? How does this story speak to you?