Link: Somebody Else Waving Our Flag.
You might have recieved this letter (click the link above) a week or so ago. But many of the readers of this blog aren’t on our mailing list.
Mike and Sharon Mehaffie have been on staff for 33 years with Campus Crusade for Christ. They directed our summer project this summer in Santa Cruz. I greatly enjoyed learning much from them about what it means to lead and what godly parents and directors look like.
Mike offered to write a letter to our ministry partners after I shared with him how things have been going financially. We wanted to send the letter for two reasons. First, as the title of the above link indicates, it is great from time to time for someone else to wave our flag. You get letters twice a year from us asking for money. Mike has an interesting perspective on raising support, having done so for so many years (he raised his salary in the midst of the last major US economic crisis!). We thought it would be good for you to hear from someone else about the impact that your giving has had, and for someone else to encourage you to continue taking financial steps of faith with us.
The second reason we wanted Mike to write a letter is that we wanted to show folks that there are people who do this as a career. Many of the folks we challenge to join us financially may be of the impression that we are going to be in ministry for a few years and then go get “a real job.” Our heart, however, is to be in this for the long haul. I’m now on the verge of 30 years old, and I feel like I have learned a lot about myself and about ministry in the past 7 years. I am just now hitting my stride. I’d love to be in this ministry until I’m 60 years old.
The letter was not in any way meant to be just another appeal for funds. We want to sucessfully navigate the tension between being bold in asking folks to join God in what he is doing in this ministry and being sensitive to the fact that many people are in serious financial difficulty now, and we’ve already asked for money once this summer. Our heart is to be honest in our need (which is significant) but also fully acknowledging that God has been so faithful to grant our every need, and even many of our wants!
As always, if you have any questions or concerns about this or any other issue, please don’t hesitate to call or email me at ben.meredith@gmail.com
If you feel like God is calling you to respond to Mike’s letter, you can do that here.