“If you want to go fast, go alone.
If you want to go far, go together.”
- African proverb

When I began full-time, vocational ministry, fundraising seemed to be - if I can share quite honestly - the “necessary evil” in order to do the “real work” of being on campus with students. In reflecting on the quote above, I just wanted to go fast, and in terms of funding, wished money grew on trees so that I could wouldn’t have to “do” fundraising. At best, it felt like a Robin Hood type task - taking from those who have in order to…. well anyway, you get the idea. Somehow, that is what fundraising felt like.

Now - with this coming January marking my 9th year in vocational ministry - I’ve learned that going the distance, whether fast or not, is what carries me in ministry. Without financial partners, I can’t preach at the beginning of the quarter on Luke 3 about being God’s beloved and hear comments back from students, saying “tonight’s message has taught me not to think about what everyone else says. I am the Lord’s beloved child and I do not need to prove myself.” Or I can’t meet new students at the beginning of the year and get emails like this one, sharing “i really don’t know. i feel so..empty..lately. i feel so out of place. don’t u get that feeling sometimes?… i don’t know where to start.” Or get back from our annual Fall Conference at Catalina… and so on and so on.

Without financial partners, I’m not just unable to do the ministry that I do, but whatever ministry I would do I’d just be a lone-ranger type hero.  But with my partners, I am part of a community of faith that demonstrates the love of God in tangible form - from the generosity of letting go of wealth to the generosity of investing time with students.

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