After procrastinating sending the support letters for 2/3 of the summer, I finally wrote them. They are sort of the color of this pig. I was laying on the lawn with Zion (7) the next day addressing envelopes as we sunned together. She asked what I was doing. I explained that I was fundraising for one or some of the trips that Tommy is doing in the next 6 months or so that I might go on, or some other trip, and sending the letters out to people. This got her started on the subject of money. "I have some money! I have a piggy bank - can you guess how much money I have in it?" She talked about it for a while, and then said, brightly, "do you want to see my piggy bank? I can show you how much money I have in it!" I said "sure" and she disappeared into the house for a longish time. When she came back, she pulled it open and dumped what looked like a dollar and 75 cents or so, mostly in pennies. We then ate our snacks and chatted. She said, "I need help to put this back in" so we put the coins back in the piggy together. At one point she stops and hands me 7 pennies. Then she gave me 5 more. "These are for you. You can have those." "....and this!" she said, handing me a nickel. She was totally serious.
It reminded me a little of when I was a kid and found a letter from World Concern in the garbage. It said that they needed money to care for the lepers (I don't remember where). Upon learning there were actual lepers still in the world, I took it upon myself to organize help for them. I and 5 or so other kids (I'm guessing, this is 25+ yrs ago) went door to door offering to do odd jobs to raise money for the lepers. We raised about $14.16 if I remember right. I was just going to send it in, but my mom made me write a letter and tell them how we raised it. They called back a month or two later and asked me a bunch of questions and put an article with my picture in their newsletter about how "kids can give too!". It's funny. I don't think about kids as 'supporters of ministries' usually. I mean, I'm sending my letters to folks who happen to have kids, but mainly to their parents. It's an interesting thought.
Updates on my goals since the details given in my first post on May 31st:
1 - Still unsure which trip(s) I'll be joining on...obviously, I'm already on the first of them here in S. Dakota (story of how this came to be here). Helping orphans in Honduras? Lepers in India? Assisting a ministry in Wales? We'll see.
2 - Still hoping to raise $2,000. However, I'm not going to run more or less than the 20 hours I set out to, and weirdly pro-rate the hours run. I'm just going to complete the goal of running 20 hours, and I'm seeking 100 persons to pledge $1 per hour (total of $20 buckaroos). More or less works too, everything helps (!), I just thought that would work out neatly math-wise. (On that note, if someone could give $19.83 to offset Zion's $0.17....? KIDDING! ;P)
Thank you for all your love and notes etc. Literally, both prayer-wise and financially, I can't do this without you. Hugs to y'all! ~ Christy
PS - I'm sending out 'actual' letters so if you want one and are not sure I have your address, send it to me at hey@christymerry.com. But if you prefer just to read the blog & give, you can send a tax deductible gift via a check made out to Church in Uptown (with my name in the memo portion) to:
Christy Merry
c/o Church in Uptown
PO Box 19572
Minneapolis, MN 55419
* photo from brandmerchandise.com
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