“This isn’t about you.”

After my first week of support raising, I was pretty burnt out. Over five days I had met with ten people and didn’t receive a firm commitment from anyone. I had a lot of “Let me get back to you” and a couple of noes. I was tired from the many phone calls, text messages, and conversations I had from my support meetings. I was thinking to myself, “What have I signed myself up for? Is this going to take longer than I had planned? I thought I did everything right. Why isn’t God holding his end of the bargain?”

All of these feelings are real and have some validity in them, except for the last thought. I expected God to meet my support goals because of what I had done: made a long list of contacts, went to SRS Bootcamp, set a budget, set up appointments, made the ask, and zipped the lip. Yet, I wasn’t seeing what I wanted. I wanted to see the results. After presenting these thoughts and feelings to the LORD, he gently reminded me of the bigger picture behind support raising. 

“This isn’t about you.”

This very short yet profound truth struck me to my core. I had made support-raising all about getting my needs met. What I was missing was the incredible opportunity of inviting the people God wants to be involved in His story of preaching the Gospel to the ends of the earth. From that point on, the next three weeks were filled with even more appointments, phone calls, and follow-ups. All with renewed purpose and vision to invite those in my life to invest in the Kingdom of God advancing to the ends of the earth. By the end of the fourth week of fundraising, I had reached my goal and made it to my assignment by the beginning of September. Now when I look at my support team and future support appointments, I am reminded that this is all for God’s purposes, to will and to work however he pleases, and to glorify his name through his church across the world. That is a purpose I will hold on to forever.