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Friends United Meeting |
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December 1997
Commitments
Fundraising for God's People
Johan Maurer
Paul wrote to the Corinthians,
"About the provision of aid for God's people, it is superfluous for me to write to you. I know how eager you are to help...." (2 Corinthians 9:1)
I think I know what Paul meant: Back in January, when I was visiting the simple pole-frame schools in Turkana, Kenya, seeing the lack of the most basic school supplies and talking with dedicated teachers who walked miles every day for lack of local housing or transport, I knew that if most of Quaker Life's readers could see what I was seeing, there would be a spectacular response.
We have seen generous responses when our call went out to help impoverished patients at Friends Lugulu Hospital in Kenya through the Adopt-a-Bed program, and, more recently, when Moscow Friends asked for help for a war victim's eye surgery and for elderly pensioners. One donor, a lifer in a California prison who earns a few dollars a month, has given both to the Moscow pensioners and to Lugulu Hospital. Others have felt a special concern for students in Ramallah and Belize City, or children in Chicago and Jamaica, or future Friends leaders in Cuba and Kenya, or church-planting in North America and East Africa, or Friends literature in the Russian language. Equally important, many individual Friends and meetings are committed to supporting our field staff and overseas partners-those who take the lead in facilitating "the provision of aid for God's people."
This work depends on the present-day "Corinthians" who respond eagerly to the needs of God's people. Normally they can only respond if they have been informed of those needs. Because of the many concerns under our stewardship, we are publicizing and begging constantly in every way we can. We hope that this task never becomes routine for us or for you-each time we "beg," we are standing in for a real need, a real person or group for whom we have the high privilege of being advocates.
Sometimes I wish that everyone who cares about this work would just send huge unrestricted checks to us and let us put all these special concerns into the operating budget. But we know how important it is to build a relationship between those who carry out a ministry and those who support it with finances and prayer. My own family has special commitments in Cuba and Kenya in addition to the general FUM budget and our local commitments, so we are not good ones to advocate 100% unrestricted gifts! In addition, most of my travel to Russia over the last three years has been funded by special designated gifts (mostly from Paul and Marie Turner here in Richmond, who have a long-standing concern for Russia; I'm surely glad they designate).
Our plans for 1998 include new field staff and church planters in several places; studies of new fields in urban USA, in West Africa and in the Middle East; a first-time retreat for overseas field staff; and three new educational resources for use by the local meeting. Some of this activity is in the modestly increased general budget for 1998, but most of it will depend on designated gifts. In other words, we will be begging even more next year. We especially hope that individual Friends meetings will study and pray about what FUM is doing in your name, and choose some areas of special interest to support beyond what you already provide through your existing contributions to FUM.
My last word for this year is a note of thanks. Bob Vogel, one of my
teachers in the fundraising field, says that no transaction is complete
until the donor is thanked. I hope you all know how grateful we are for
your eagerness to help. It is "not only a contribution towards the
needs of God's people; more than that, it overflows in a flood of thanksgiving
to God." (2 Corinthians 9:12 NEB)
Copyright (c) Friends United Meeting 1997
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