May Support Raising Update
Hello Friends!
I've been wanting to write an update on our mission and current status. We've have a lot going on this year. Joe began a new job at Percepta in Dearborn in January, which is a more technical and stressful position than most of his other past positions, and also involves lots of long hours. Ellie is growing all the time, with a large and growing vocabulary for a 20-month-old toddler. Our family is also growing. The new addition is due November 28!
We have been working at Partnership Development (support raising) to serve in France. We are currently at 7% of our monthly budgeted need. Our PD has been an interesting experience so far. We had the great opportunity to present our mission to our church family at Troy Christian Chapel on May 1st. As for following up with friends, we have pretty much reached the end of our list, and now we need to expand beyond. We have asked many of our friends and family if they know of others (churches or individuals) who might be interested in missions or France. Most say no. A few have referred us to friends or churches. We are SO thankful for this help! We need this kind of networking to help reach our goal.
After much prayer and fasting (I set aside 1 day every week to fast and pray, but now Baby Bindeman gets too hungry for that!), we have begun cold-contacting churches. This is the least effective method is forming partnerships. Statistics show that 1 in 300 churches contacted through cold-calling will become a partner! That's quite daunting! But sometimes the Lord calls us to do hard things. This has become my personal endeavor and full-time job while Joe is working long hours at the office. My process includes researching churches, reading their doctrinal statements for compatibility, viewing their missions involvement, logging every church contacted, and tracking every church that responds positively requesting our ministry packet. I set my goal of a minimum of 10 churches contacted every day. This hasn't always been possible between morning sickness and toddler tantrums, but it is nevertheless my goal. And it has been quite an extensive undertaking. BUT I have been incredibly encouraged to receive about a 1 in 20 "positive" response! (Positive meaning a church that is willing to present us to their missions committee or request our ministry packet.) We have even secured our first appointment with a pastor of a local church as a result of cold contacting! Every positive response is super encouraging! I was expecting something closer to the 1-in-300 statistic I've heard in the past.
We currently have 10 churches reviewing our ministry packet, and prayerfully more going out this week. Please join us in prayer for these churches and that God will bless my efforts. Also, we'd love to get connected with others outside of our own congregation, so if you know go to another church or know someone who does, we'd love to connect with them! This is definitely the most effective way to build partners in the gospel. Please pray with us over these things.