For those of you unfamiliar with the missionary itineration process, let me give you a run down. We are given a budget and then the task of raising said budget by asking (hounding) our friends and families and speaking at churches that will have us.
Soapbox: #thingsthatmakememad It takes an average of 5 points of contact to get a pastor to respond yea or nay.
1. In person (Give me a call at the church when I have my calendar in front of me)
2. Follow up phone call (He's in a meeting if you give me your info he'll call you back)
3. Follow up e-mail ... not sure if you got my message(s)
4. Handwritten letter with enclosed pledge form just for kicks
5. FB message or wall post to both pastor AND his WIFE (Most of the time you will get a yea or nay shortly after the #5 action, the "why now?" is not a mystery.
DISCLAIMER: All pastors are not like the above mentioned pastors and we missionaries salute YOU Randy Carter, Beaver Morgan, Mark Kirkpatrick, Brian Ross, Dan Doty, Rick Seaton, Scott Dobbins, Wes Bell, Nick Serban, Aaron Allison, and Billy Meek just to name a FEW!!! **This was NOT an all inclusive list, please continue your support!
So, as you can imagine the excitement & relief & gratitude of when you DO book a service! (Okay, so, maybe you can't, but when your next meal AND the opportunity to fulfill the call of God on your life depends on it, you get pretty giddy about the booking!)
So, we get the service, it could be a 2 minute window, a 5-10 minute window or an invitation to preach the whole service. We're not too particular about what we're asked to do, we're just happy to be there! BUT we do want to be able to communicate our passion for the Lord, what work we're doing on the field, our gratitude for your help, and our need for your continued prayer and financial support! AND NOT GO OVER! Sometimes we hit a homerun and other times we become the reason it takes 5 points of contact for a pastor to respond to a missionary!
I'm going to tell you about the latter before I tell you about my homerun.
The good people at Destiny Church in Columbia, TN lead by good friends Beaver (Steven) & Shannon Morgan gave me the 5-10 min window. Love these guys! The whole church is Amazing! They've been GREAT supporters since day 1 when they first planted the church! Mostly I just wanted to say, "Thank you!" and let them know a little about what I'd been doing on the field. I somehow got off on a tangent about composting where I said "Poop" excessively and then I tried to describe eating Ballut (a filipino delicacy which is a partially developed DUCK fetus!) Apparently what I said was,
"As a missionary I've eaten goat, termites, and "PARTIALLY DEVELOPED FETUS!" needless to say I'm pretty sure that's all they remember from that day! #EpicFAIL #whentheDUCKisVERYimportant
Incidentally, this is the SAME church where just a few years ago I got up and told them, "As a missionary I'm very involved in human trafficking events!" #whenthewordANTIisveryimportant
Lucky for me they're good people and support me in spite of me!
Now, for the good stuff, for the HOMERUN of all missionary windows!
I was recently at Northside AOG with Pastor Randy Carter! Who was the very FIRST pastor to begin to support me monthly from only ONE point of contact! Yes and Amen! He gave me a 7 minute window (and a Saturday night cookout, a Sunday School class, and Kid's church!) Something about making missionaries work for their money!
I gave my 7 min window without incident. And the offering was GREAT, but what made it a homerun?
2 ladies in the lobby made it a homerun.
Lady #1 approaches in tears. "Thank you so much for what you said today. That part of the service was just for me! Thank you for saying God can redeem our past, I needed that; It was so anointed!"
Lady #2 approaches NOT in tears. "I just wanted to let you know that if you did stand up comedy, I'd buy those tickets!"
And THAT my friends is a successful 7 minute window for MBK!
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