Well, look at the time… it’s been two and a half months since my last blog post! Sorry about that, this is supposed to be updated weekly; I’ll try harder to hold up my end of the bargain, if you all will agree to stop by more often as well.
The last two months have been productive and educational. Despite the fact that I’ve technically been raising support for 8 months now, the reality is that I’ve only been really focusing on it for the last two and a half. Before I was too busy with short term trips to really sit down and work out how I’m going to get to Japan long term, but I’ve made that excuse too many times before, so here I go. Onward and upward. Since the start of this year I’ve formed my HEART (Home Encouragement And Resource Team) team, published my first Newsletter, sent out prayer updates, and started my bid to take over Facebook. Really I have no idea what I’m doing, but its exciting doing it, and even more exciting to see, little by little, God begin to bring in the support.
Most of what I’ve done so far is lay the necessary groundwork for support raising. The next phase is going to consist of actually looking for people who will partner with me, financially, so that I can go to Japan and spread the gospel and start churches, be a part of the amazing work God is doing over there. But I’m still nervous about asking people to support me. The whole process seems awkward, still, as I’ve noted before it all comes down to trusting God; if I can’t trust him to bring in the support I need, then I won’t make a good missionary anyways. I suppose this is a sort of on the job training.
Coming from a computer background (ok, so I’m only 27, and don’t really have a “background” yet), one of the things I wanted to do from the out set was to use technology as much as I could in the support raising process. That’s why I created this website, and intend to keep blogging. The internet is an incredible tool for contacting people, and support raising is all about making contacts. I’ve also been using Facebook more and more, and I’m begining to be impressed with its networking features, and the potential to get in contact with mission minded people that I’ve never met before. I started a group on Facebook for my mission to become a missionary (to do missions in Japan) and so far I have 114 people who have joined. That’s larger than my both my traditional mailing list, and my email mailing list. We’re having a great time over there right now, and I’m holding monthly contests giving away cool Japanese things that my brother Jon sent me. So if any of you are a member of Facebook, go join my group here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=21081615028.
Let me know how you’re doing, leave a comment!