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By Jeremy | April 26, 2007
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here for Part 1]
The third signpost came after I left Lisa at peace with the idea that if Generation Xcel's holiday appeal failed to produce an effective donor response, we could close our doors in January 2006 in good conscience. So we sent out our appeal, and we got ... an abysmal response. Perhaps it was compassion fatigue after a year of giving that included the Indian Ocean tsunami and hurricanes
Katrina and Rita; perhaps it was the timing of the letter or its
"unconventional" content; or perhaps God was just setting us up. Whatever the reason, our letter generated $1,100 in donations, and $1,000 came from two people. Not exactly the response required to keep us open through the end of the school year.
With that settled, we were
thisclose to closing. But as a "by youth for youth" organization, Xcel is answerable to the youth it serves, especially its youth leaders. When I sat down with them, their response shouldn't have surprised me. Yet it did. Better, it reminded me that Xcel is not about me.
"Don't close," they said. "We'll volunteer for as long as necessary, and we'll help fundraise." They sent
another fundraising appeal right after the holidays, this time with much better results. In fact, they raised enough to finish out the school year -- but not enough to pay my salary, or back pay all the checks I couldn't deposit.
We hung on, believing that perseverance would complete its work. Foolishly, I held out hope that a grant we were expecting to receive in February would come through and I could actually deposit some paychecks. But because of the instability of the prior six months, that foundation decided to postpone its grant indefinitely.
So I was broker than I had ever been, and our family finances were spinning out of control. In March a fourth sign post appeared at
my Encounter. I left there convinced that I could no longer excuse and overspiritualize the financial pressures I was inflicting on my family. My responsibility as a father and husband includes providing stability and resources to live and I wasn't doing that. So I came back from the Encounter determined to find additional income.
Immediately I updated a resume and began strategizing on the best approach. But before I could implement any of the ideas, I flew to California to honor a prior commitment to work with
Urban Youth Workers Institute to help develop curriculum for Reload 2006-2007. There, more sign posts.
I met
Kara Powell of Fuller Seminary's Center for Youth and Families, and during dinner shared with her my desire to write more. Three months later she called and offered me my first shot to contribute two chapters to an upcoming YS/Zondervan book called
Deep Justice in a Broken World. Later that night, I mentioned my situation to Lina Thompson of
World Vision. A week later she called to ask if I'd be interested in working with WV, Fuller Seminary and UYWI as a consultant to a national social justice initiative. And before I left California, Justine Conley prayed for me and felt led to receive an offering from my friends for my family -- a surreal reminder that God never leaves his children "
begging bread"! When I returned to NYC, Kevin Young of Student Venture asked if I'd be interested in helping them craft staff training materials. That project turned into
the Playbook.
Very quickly, circumstances began to change. The quagmire that had suffocated me began to lose its grip.
[To be continued ...]rugby league accringtonringtone 6015i nokia free verizonadam harrington basketballgirls 21st century ringtoneringtone 2waywireless ringtones cingular absolutely free countrylogo free 3595 ringtone nokiasplit a second cingular ringtone Map
Topics: faith, life, resiliency | 1 Comment »
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(Two chapters)
(Commentary throughout)
(Study questions throughout)
May 1st, 2007 at 1:58 am
AMEN y AMEN!