The process of leaving my current job for service overseas has forced me to think about financial questions. The central one has tended to be "Why do we have to raise support to take on this position?"
As I thought about that question, the first answer is the obvious one - because this service does not lead to a direct financial profit. However, I've always worked jobs that didn't have direct profits - working at charity centers, teaching in jails and public schools, and doing basic scientific research. So there is an additional issue going on here.
When I did science research for a college, the funding came from donations to the school as well as federal grants that they received. In a way I actually was working off of support, it's just that I didn't have to raise the support myself - the college had a whole division focused on that. When I was working for public schools, the funding came from the government. They were able to raise that funding through taxes. At my charter school, they also raised additional funds through private and corporate donations. When I worked at a charity center, part of the money came from the government and part came from private donations for the center.
So I've actually been living off of the support of others already. Nearly everyone who works in a nonprofit enterprise is either getting their support from the government or from private donors. (Some nonprofits run for-profit businesses to help their bottom line, but these often fail to cover even their own costs and almost never cover all the work of the nonprofit.) A few (Bill Gates) may be working off of their own former earnings. Since I'm not independently wealthy, working overseas and in a religious context pretty much assures that I will be living off of the support of other people.
The big difference between everything I've done before and the work I'm doing now is that I'm the one responsible for raising the funds. I'm not relying on the federal government or USC or operations of the Catholic Church to raise the money for me anymore. That's good and bad. It should be much better for the people supporting me - they get to be in direct contact with the service they're supporting, they get to feel more a part of what is going on there, and we get to grow together through our relationship with each other throughout the whole process. And I've seen this in my own life - there's a difference between sending money to an agency or cause that you support and being able to directly support someone who is working towards that cause. However, there's a downside too. The biggest is the lack of certainty. That should be an upside, right? It allows us to trust in God and helps us avoid the trap of thinking that we "deserve" our money via the fruits of our labors. But that's hard! And having to ask is scary too - I think that many of us have an internal desire and embarrassment about asking other people for money.
I really want to get joy out of this part of the process too. Partnering with other people in this service should be a joyful thing. Working with the support of a wide network of friends back home should be much more fulfilling than just being sent by a faceless agency to do the work in isolation. We just have to figure out how to focus on those positives, and overcome our own issues with asking for money and living "off of" other people. Getting support from other people may be completely Godly and Biblical, but it still takes a lot of getting used to.
p.s. - I've been thinking about this since the beginning, but I posted now because we are discussing having to write an email to everyone to talk about our support situation. It led me to share all those feelings I've been having about this whole idea of support. If you got this far, you're amazing - thank you for reading!
As I thought about that question, the first answer is the obvious one - because this service does not lead to a direct financial profit. However, I've always worked jobs that didn't have direct profits - working at charity centers, teaching in jails and public schools, and doing basic scientific research. So there is an additional issue going on here.
When I did science research for a college, the funding came from donations to the school as well as federal grants that they received. In a way I actually was working off of support, it's just that I didn't have to raise the support myself - the college had a whole division focused on that. When I was working for public schools, the funding came from the government. They were able to raise that funding through taxes. At my charter school, they also raised additional funds through private and corporate donations. When I worked at a charity center, part of the money came from the government and part came from private donations for the center.
So I've actually been living off of the support of others already. Nearly everyone who works in a nonprofit enterprise is either getting their support from the government or from private donors. (Some nonprofits run for-profit businesses to help their bottom line, but these often fail to cover even their own costs and almost never cover all the work of the nonprofit.) A few (Bill Gates) may be working off of their own former earnings. Since I'm not independently wealthy, working overseas and in a religious context pretty much assures that I will be living off of the support of other people.
The big difference between everything I've done before and the work I'm doing now is that I'm the one responsible for raising the funds. I'm not relying on the federal government or USC or operations of the Catholic Church to raise the money for me anymore. That's good and bad. It should be much better for the people supporting me - they get to be in direct contact with the service they're supporting, they get to feel more a part of what is going on there, and we get to grow together through our relationship with each other throughout the whole process. And I've seen this in my own life - there's a difference between sending money to an agency or cause that you support and being able to directly support someone who is working towards that cause. However, there's a downside too. The biggest is the lack of certainty. That should be an upside, right? It allows us to trust in God and helps us avoid the trap of thinking that we "deserve" our money via the fruits of our labors. But that's hard! And having to ask is scary too - I think that many of us have an internal desire and embarrassment about asking other people for money.
I really want to get joy out of this part of the process too. Partnering with other people in this service should be a joyful thing. Working with the support of a wide network of friends back home should be much more fulfilling than just being sent by a faceless agency to do the work in isolation. We just have to figure out how to focus on those positives, and overcome our own issues with asking for money and living "off of" other people. Getting support from other people may be completely Godly and Biblical, but it still takes a lot of getting used to.
p.s. - I've been thinking about this since the beginning, but I posted now because we are discussing having to write an email to everyone to talk about our support situation. It led me to share all those feelings I've been having about this whole idea of support. If you got this far, you're amazing - thank you for reading!
2 comments:
hey jon!
can you send me info about support? I'd love to contribute to God's work there...you might have sent it over email already but I didn't read it because this summer was so hectic for me...
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