"Sympathy is no substitute for action" ~David Livingstone
Missionary to Africa
We are actively seeking team members for Feb 10-17th. This will be a combination work/medical team with hopefully a beach day. We are seeking both skilled and unskilled team members. Anyone with a willingness to simply serve others is encouraged to join the team!
The main way we get supplies into the country and complete projects is through team members. Please consider joining a team! There are a range of projects from counting pills in the pharmacy to weighing babies in the clinic or doing manual labor helping with various building projects.
Airfare on JetBlue is actually incredibly low. They have just began flying back into Haiti through New York. Flights that used to cost $800 or $900 from Oregon are now under $600, so it is an excellent time to join. Team members from other parts of the country are also encouraged to join a team. If you are not in a city where JetBlue flies, we can work out the details.
Please spread the word to anyone you know! This could be an excellent opportunity for High School students to complete their service hours or their senior project. I have a sample fundraiser letter that team members can distribute to raise support. Please don't let funds stop you from joining a team!
Over the years, we have never had the funds for all the mission teams, often until the last minute. A missionary friend of mine asked me about our support raising and where we were at and I remember saying, "um...well...we're nowhere near where we had hoped to be" and her reply was that "Our God is a just-in-time God". That is very much the truth! If God calls, He provides the way, but it will take dedicated prayer and usually a great deal of personal commitment and work.
Here's a few ways we've raised funds over the years:
Sending out 100+ letters asking for prayer support and financial support
I would say on average we bring in about 1/2 through donations from friends/family
Keep in mind that if the total cost is $1500, you only need 15 people to come along side and commit to $100 or 30 people to support you at $50 or a combination of $100 donations and $20 donations.
Spread the News on Social Media
Let people know what you are doing and post continual updates on your newsfeed or blog. You can also start a fundraising event on CrowdRise, YouCaring, etc. These are free sites where people can directly donate and the site will track your goal and percentage you have raised so far. I have had success sometimes with these sites and other times I have had limited success.
Braiding hair for a donation of $50-75/piece
If you know how to braid African-American hair, let me know because I can connect with people in certain areas that have adopted kids and are always looking for people to braid their children's hair and LOVE to have the funds go to a good cause.
Garage Sales or Rummage Sales
I have seen some team members raise their entire support and even over $3K in a weekend garage sale. It's a lot of work and we personally haven't had as much success with this, but if you have people donating items that are worth money and you are advertising the reason for the sale, often you can raise the entire funds you need this way.
Selling things on Craigslist, Amazon, Ebay
We literally have gone through the house for years and sold off things to pay for the trips. We also let people know that we are seeking donations in order to sell them to pay for the trip. The person can get a tax write-off for donating and it's proceeds go to a very good cause. Selling college text books used to be profitable, but I think currently any kind of baby item seems to sell well. If someone has a bouncy seat, crib, playpen, furniture, or various other item that you can sell on craigslist, a few higher dollar items can go a long ways.
Babysitting, Landscaping, Tutoring, Pet Sitting, House Sitting, etc.
Let people know what you are doing and ask for side jobs. A range of home skills can earn money quickly. I have one team member that earns most of her funds from pet sitting. She has a regular job, but on the side she pet sits and puts all of that money aside for mission work. Our kids have always had to raise their own support and have done various side jobs to earn the money. Just about anything you plug away at will eventually earn your support as long as you are dedicated to putting that money aside for the trip. Always tithe off the top. If you're short on funds, always start giving more to other people. I do also think it is important to take a small percentage to do something fun such as after I earn $300 in wages from side jobs, I will take $20 and go the movie with my friends to help encourage you to move forward.
Home Parties- Jewelry, Candle, etc.
Various home parties have options where you can take a percentage of proceeds from the home party and put towards your project. I have a friend that sells $5 jewelry that is really amazing (I believe it's called Paparatzi) and you can mark up the jewelry for fundraising events and pretty easily make significant money. I had a home party and easily made a couple hundred dollars.
Dinner Events/Fundraiser
Spaghetti dinners or other events at a church where you can show a power point about what you are doing and request a donation can be successful. Spaghetti is relatively inexpensive to serve and you can have a recommended $5 or $10 a plate amount. You want people to come, so sometimes a lower suggested donation can be beneficial. You can then show a video (there are many videos about MTM already on YouTube) and you can ask for additional prayer support as well as financial support.
My biggest recommendation though is to gather a prayer team of 5 or 6 people that are committed to praying for your trip (and for the team). Then develop a plan which incorporates raising support in various ways such as 1/3 from gifts/donations, 1/3 from personal funds (selling your own stuff), 1/3 from side jobs. If we break it down into sections it becomes more manageable and we also don't have all our eggs in one basket.
Never think of a specific event as not being a success even if you do not raise a specific amount of $$. We have had times where we haven't raised much money, but years later people have come to me and talked about the event and it lead them to join a team or led them to give financial support later on. Our primary should always be to seek the will of God and gather those to pray!
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