August 30, 2023

We got a new dog this month, Lola.  She had been at the shelter longer than any other dog there.  She is super friendly and smart. 

               I hope you had a good summer.  Last time I wrote a newsletter was around Independence Day… it doesn’t seem like it was that long ago!  We’ve had a lot happen in the last couple of months, it feels like our lives are always busy, but the summer months are particularly so.

               My job has quite a few different faces.  People often ask me “What does a normal day look like for you?” and I never really know how to answer.  Since we made the transition to Encountering Muslims my official role on the team is organizing our CRM, which is the way an organization keeps track of contacts, leads, fundraising activities, course participants, campaign management and other information.  If we were a typical for-profit company, this would be the heartbeat of our sales program, or inventory management, but in the missions and nonprofit world it’s a little different.  Most of the people on our team have “siloed” information, meaning that whether the information is “local” to a personal computer, or even stored in other out of date systems like a spreadsheet or <shudder> index cards, it can take a lot of time to keep track of what we’re doing.

               Siloed information also causes other problems.  A few months ago I called one of my donors to ask him if we could get together while I was in town.  He told me that he was busy that weekend doing a fundraiser for another missionary that the church supports, but invited me to join him there.  Long story short, that other missionary was one of my coworkers.  We didn’t even know that we were talking to the same person about support at the same time – see how that could be problematic?

               Since I have a programming background, and we decided to stay in the USA for a while, The leader for Encountering Muslims approached me and asked me if I would learn Salesforce, and design an org for our team to solve some of these problems.  If you’re a nerd like me, who is also back from the field because of complex family dynamics that are unpredictable and deserve a lot of focused attention in themselves, being asked to do a job like this is pretty exciting!

Ezekiel was showing Rosie how to drive the go kart... and then she broke my retaining wall with it.

               But that’s just one part of it.  It’s hard to be a person who feels such a call to reach unreached people, and to disciple people who are young in faith and/or leadership, but then sit in the office all day learning how to use a new program.  This is especially true when the team of which I’m a part has a mission to reach unreached Muslim people in the USA and around the world, while also mobilizing US churches to do the same.  So another part of my role on this new team involves both of those things.  We live close to a storefront called the Sudan Coffee Shop.  I’ve gone there with the kids and played cards with the guys and tried to build relationships.  I’ve also been speaking in lots of churches about Encountering Muslims and the importance of refocusing our sight on lost people who need the gospel, but whom we typically treat as enemies.  If I’ve visited your church recently, you’ve already heard what I have to share, but that’s not the only reason I’m speaking in churches.

               As some of you already understand, there are seasons of missionary work where the majority of your time is spent doing fundraising activity.  Mailing letters, making phone calls, having meetings with pastors or potential donors, writing thank you cards, traveling to various networking opportunities…it’s a full-time job in itself!  That aspect of my job is always there, there are always people to call and thank, always updates to give, always a little bit more fundraising to do, but this has been a unique season for lots of missionaries, including myself.  Ever since 2020, giving to charitable organizations has been tenuous.  Jobs are less certain, everything is getting more expensive, banks are failing…  this is a season where people are hesitant to take on new financial commitments, and some who have been faithfully committed for a long time just can’t do it anymore.  Because this everyday reality has been more pronounced in recent years, we’ve had roughly the same deficit in our support level since joining Encountering Muslims.  God has provided us with so many new friends and financial partners, but at the same time, others have had to stop.

               This summer has actually been a really busy and productive season for fundraising.  It’s hard to learn new things in Salesforce when the kids are home all day, but I’ve spoken at churches or visited with pastors in six different states, I got to be the missionary speaker at a kids and youth camp where I met some new churches, and have really spent the bulk of my “work” hours (way more than 40 in a week!) on these things while they’re available.  But now, the kids are back in school, the house is quiet, and I want to be done!

               Now that school is back in full swing, the busyness is different (homework, practices, etc) but I’m free to get back into the Salesforce learning, and the other various outreach opportunities that the Lord has provided me with, but that means I have to trust Him enough to stop spending so much time on fundraising!  Pray with us that God provides the monthly partners that we need (and maintains the ones that we have) to ease up on that area of ministry and move into the next!

               I know this is longer than usual, but it HAS been 2 months…and sometimes I talk to you people at church or on the phone and realize that some of you still have no idea what I’m doing now!  Thanks for reading, praying, emailing, giving, caring and being awesome!

At Alton Bible Church, Pastor Fred wanted to call me up for Q&A before I preached.  I threw Ezekiel under the bus... He did great!