Finish That Support!

Here are some helpful thoughts on raising the rest of your money for stint from Gary Schmalz (gary.schmalz@uscm.org). Gary has been on staff with Campus Crusade for 15 years, 10 of them as the Campus Director at Iowa State. He and his wife Cristen currently serve on the WSN team in Minneapolis helping mobilize students in the Upper Midwest.

You’ve been raising support for three months now, your airplane leaves in two weeks and you are at 75%. Why aren't you finished? There are many reasons, but one might be that you're tired of making calls. That phone can get very heavy after a few months of support raising, even though you feel called by God and motivated to go. Isn’t it amazing how many people actually said no? Some were even upset with you that you called. So let’s look at a passage or two that might get that last 20% of support raised so you can actually go do what the Lord has called you to do.

Grab your Bible and turn to Luke 8: 1-3. No, I am not going to list it for you, go get your bible! As you see (because you just read it) Jesus traveled from “one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God.” Now you are not Jesus, but you are traveling in order to preach the good news of Jesus to another culture. Your mission is very similar to His mission. In verses 2 and 3 we see a list of folks that supported The Twelve out of “their own means.” They were taking their own resources out of their own pockets and giving it to Jesus and His disciples so that the good news would be preached. Just like you need to have in order to go to your location.

If I had a list like this, and I do, it would actually be much larger than this list and it is (and they support my family of 6). One of the names you would read on my list would be Gelene. Gelene had just lost her husband to cancer and she had two elementary aged children. Looking at it from a worldly perspective I never should have asked Gelene to be a part of my ministry team, but I did, and I do not know why I did that. I met her at her farm, and after telling her about my ministry that did not yet exist, she showed me a machine shed in her back yard. She was going to rent it out and give the rent money to my ministry. She said, “as long as it rents out, you will get support from me.” Fifteen years ago that was $100/mo, now its $150/mo. Absolutely amazing, only God does stuff like that!

Now, there is a person out there that God has chosen to be a part of your support team, and for some reason you have not asked them yet. Please go, call them now, and if they are close to your location, ask to meet with them, if they are an hour away or more, just cast vision over the phone and ask them now. Why over the phone? Because you have 20% to raise in 2 weeks. The plane will leave with or without you. It’s time to have a 5 min presentation with an ask over the phone. Put it together, practice it, practice it some more and then start calling. We’re praying for you!