Fundraising Update

After I finished eating at their church, I stopped by the Rockford Beacon of Light Church to pick up the donations that had come in over the 5 weeks since I'd spoken there.  They gave me a check for $125 that had just come in that day, and another check for $1,127 that had come in over the previous four weeks, for a total of $1,252 from a small church that's already sending multiple people into overseas mission work!!!

Two days later on Monday, I stopped at a friend's house just to visit, and remind them of this mission trip.  These couple are the leaders of a D.A.R.E. support group that I've been a part of since I was in 9th grade (I was one of the original members).  Without me even bringing up the mission, the lady said, "Jeremy, I've got a donation for you that I've been meaning to get in the mail, but I keep forgetting to get it out."  She then sat down and wrote out a check from the D.A.R.E. group for $100, and then another check for $50 from her and her husband personally.  The next day I stopped at the house of a friend of my mom, whom I had sent a letter to before training, concerning this mission.  After updating her on what had been going on with me since the last time we'd talked (which included everything about this mission trip and fundraising progress), I asked her how her son Peter was doing (he joined the army the same time I did.  I'd recomended it to him, and received a promotion for it before I even entered basic training) since he's still in the army.  Before we'd finished talking about that, she called me inside and said that she was going to write out "a small check" for me for my mission.  While she started with that, I went to my car to grab some more information for her.  When she handed me the check, it was for anothre $50.  So in one weekend and the following Monday and Tuesday, $1,452 came in for me!!  And that's not counting whatever donations come from the Belvedere church which are going directly to AFM (since I don't know how much each person is going to donate)!!!

Yesterday I went to local businesses to solicit support.  I found a couple people who seemed like they would probably be willing to help out, and several people who were very skeptical and said their reasons for why they couldn't help.  I left a couple of them donation envelopes anyway, and asked them to just read over it, and pray about it and just follow whatever the Lord is leading them to do.  One such instance was an elderly lady who runs a bed-and-breakfast here in town.  She said she has lots of grandchildren she's supporting, and just doesn't think she'd be able to afford to help out.  I left her with a brochure that I've put together and just asked her to pray about it and follow the Lord's leading.  Today I went out to businesses again.  I talked with a lady whose husband is a local electrician and whose son I went to school with and was good friends with during elementary and junior high.  She remembered me, and as I presented the mission to her, she showed a keen interrest and said she'd take the envelope home and mail something in for me.  I offered to put a stamp on the envelope for her, but she refused insisted on stamping it herself.

Then I went to the barber shop and sat down to wait for a time when I could speak with him since he was cutting someone's hair.  Now normally, I pray every time before going in to a business, but this time, I forgot.  I realized that while I was in there, but kept waiting.  Then I suddenly felt impressed that I shouldn't be in here right now to solicit support.  So I got up and went back to my car, and prayed that God would help me to remember to continue to seek Him first before going in to businesses, and to lead me to whomever I should go to next.  I started driving, and found myself driving along a certain street on which there's an insurance company owned by the father of a girl I who was in my class through all 13 years of pre-college education.  I knew that they have money and that they're pretty nice people, so I stopped across the street, prayed, and went in.  When he got off the phone, I introduced myself and mentioned that his daughter, Alison, and I had gone to school together (his face lit up at that).  As I talked to him about the mission, he seemed very interrested and willing to listen.  When I was finished, he said, "Well Jeremy, there's two things I can do for you.  First thing is, there's this guy I know who's been a missionary to the Philippines many times, and he loves supporting mission work.  He's retired now, but I think he would be very interrested in helping you out.  The other thing I can do is talked to my church and see if they would be willing to have you come speak to them either for Sunday school or for a normal Sunday service."  I he goes to the Luthern church here in town.  Personally, I don't have any problems speaking to a Sunday church if they're willing to help support this mission to spread the truth, even if they're not highly engaged in the truth themselves.  The sermon I give is already non-denominational in nature except for one quote from Ellen White that just re-itterates what Paul is saying in a passage in Romans.  All I would have to do to make it acceptable  to them is take out the Ellen White quote and explain the passage myself without quoting her (since "I" know what she says and understand what the passage means).  After this, I reminded him that there are a few other things he can do as well.  One of them would be  to make a donation himself, either a personal or a business donation, or both, and gave him the information on how  to do that.  Again, I asked him to pray about it.  As I watched his eyes, it looked to me like he would probably be willing to do that as well.  I was out of brochures, so I went back home to get more, and have lunch.  While I was home, I received a call from the lady who ran the bed-and-breakfast, who said she already had lots of grandchildren that she was supporting.  She said that she had thought about it and would give me a donation if I would come and stop by to pick it up.  So I told her I'd be in town in about an hour, and would pick it up then.  She gave $20, but said that she'd thought about it, and even though she was supporting  her grandchildren, she still gives to other oranizations, and recognized that this is a good cause, and it wouldn't hurt to help with this as well.  So I guess the Lord worked on her heart while I was gone.  A  few minutes later, the phone rang again.  This time it was the guy from the insurance company.  He said he spoke with his pastor and the pastor said there was a guy who'd been looking for someone to come speak about mission work to the Luthern Men's group one week from this Wednesday.  After he gave me his name, it turns out that he's actually my neighbor.  To get from my house to his, you can either drive through the river and through a couple fields, which would take about 5-10 minutes, or you can drive for a half hour to 45 minutes taking the actual roads.  In fact, if I go up on my roof, I can look out over the trees in the valley and see the edge of his property.  Because of the strange layout of our houses, we don't have much contact with each other, and rarely remember the other is there when thinking about who our neighbors really are.  I called this guy up and told him who'd referred me and why, and explained that I would be willing  to come speak before his group about mission work.  He said he'd already asked a guy, but this other guy wasn't sure that he could do it.  So he took my number and said he'd get in touch this other person and then get back to me.  I think  there's a good chance for it, but it's in God's hands, so I'll be praying about it.

Ok, I guess that's it for now.  You all know I could go on for a very long time with details, so I'll just end it here.