As I mentioned in my Public Service Announcement earlier this week, I want to make every effort for this site to be a helpful place, and not be perceived as the rantings and ramblings of a disgruntled missionary. I’m thoroughly gruntled.
So I want to welcome you to the first edition of “Thankful Thursdays.” I’ll use Thursdays as a chance to pull back the veil and tell you about something for which I am thankful.
This week, in honor of the end of Bobby Cox’s career, I’m going to toss a curveball at you: I’m thankful for the process of raising support. I spend a lot of time making light of support raising on this site (and I’ll continue to, going forward) but the honest truth is that support raising, even now that I am no longer on staff and no longer doing it, is one of the things about vocational missions that I miss and am thankful for.
Was it always fun? No. Was it ever easy? Nope.
But there’s nothing God used more during my time on staff than Ministry Partner Development. He used it to show me my greed, my selfishness, my materialism, and the surpassing beauty of my Savior when compared to a measly (in every sense of the word, at times) paycheck. If you don’t have anything in your life that forces you to go toe-to-toe with your own idolatrous heart, you’d really ought to get something. For me, for the past 8 years, it was raising support. And for that, I’m extremely thankful.