One of my least favorite things about living overseas is raising financial support for our family.
Like, I really, really, really hate it.
I circle around these haunting ideas that we should be “tent making” and should go learn how to be a doctor or something, that everyone else in our family has “real” jobs, and that the money it takes to keep us here is far beyond what it would take to support a local family.
And these are hard questions for any supported worker to go to sleep with at night.
Add this struggle with the philosophy of it all to the reality that our check literally isn’t the same amount each month and that amazing people sometimes forget, and, well, you can imagine why living on support sometimes really sucks.
I am learning, however, that my negative outlook towards living on charity is largely a result of two things: pride in myself and lack of trust in God. And I am learning, too, that swallowing this pride and learning to walk in greater faith start first with the baby step of the ask–
Just the simple {awful} practice of communicating the need.
And while, it’s been easy to communicate the financial needs of a little girl who needed surgery or the need for an indoor bathroom at a girls’ home, I’ll admit that asking for finances for our own family seems in a league of hard all its own.
But, here’s where I swallow and baby step, anyway. . .
The short version is that we moved out here two years ago from Colorado, independently, to direct a children’s home {see photo above– weren’t those kids cute back then?}. We had planned for 1/4 of our salary to come from hosting teams of volunteers, through our business/ministry Destined Traveler. We have since handed over the leadership of the home to a national director and another Western couple, and we have discovered that hosting teams in the volume that we thought isn’t where we are being lead. {Incidentally, we have for the past year primarily focused on counter-trafficking efforts with various NGOs.}
In the meantime, we’ve chosen to move to a different part of town {I’m afraid we would have bailed on Asia all together had we stayed out in the country where we lived for the first year,} which has proven to be more expensive. We’ve also lost over $1,000 in monthly support, for various very-valid reasons {financial-stretching is very much a reality in the States right now, too, we know}.
And while I have been homeschooling up until this point, we are feeling the need to send the kids to school for the first time next year. {The reasons for this won’t be talked much about in detail on the blog, but we are feeling like it is the healthiest move for all five of us at this point.} Since the kids are not fluent in Asian, and thus cannot go to a Asian public school, we are looking at the Christian International School right down the road from our house. Convenient, but not cheap, I’m afraid.
From our estimates, it will cost roughly an extra $12,000 for next year for all three kids to go to school in the Fall– as in, in two months. And, honestly, that number makes me want to throw up. It seems like an awfully big one– especially when you are limping along already.
And, here is where you might come in. Would you consider giving to our family in any of the following ways?
1. Pray. I know it sounds chintzy, but seriously, I would be so grateful to have people praying for our financial situation and for our hearts and faith and discipline in the midst of it.
2. Connect. We are involved in a ministry that we aren’t at liberty to directly communicate online right now, but if you go to a church that is interested in investing in the fight against human trafficking in tangible ways, please contact me directly or shoot me an email with the name/contact information of a pastor/person at your church. A simple email introduction from you about us could connect your church with our ministry here in exciting ways. Very exciting ways. Email me personally at: lauraleighparker {at} gmail {dot} com.
3. Give. We are looking for monthly supporters, as well as one-time gifts for our kids’ education fund. All gifts are tax-deductible, of course, and go through our accounting agency, New Horizons Foundation in Colorado.
Monthly Giving: CLICK HERE and select operating project: “Joy to the World- SE Asia Parkers”
And/or you can donate directly to the school fund through GoFundMe below {also tax deductible}. Any amount helps.
4. Share. Maybe you are limping along yourself and can’t give {We understand that– we do!}, but perhaps you know of someone who has a heart for Christian Education or supporting missionary families or fighting sex slavery that might be able to donate financially. Would you consider sharing this need to your social networks, your spheres of influence, your friends? Again, we would be beyond grateful.
Whew.
The ask is out there. Now, the wait and faith part begin.
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A Note to Supporters: I know that many people reading here have already sacrificed so much personally for us to be here in Asia, and there are no words great enough to thank you. We are consistently humbled– which, in some ways, might be part of the point. Thank you.
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Is it just me, or do you hate asking for money, too?
And, while we’re talking about hard things, what do you think those not raised in a church/missions-minded community think about our Christian notion of sending people to work overseas on supported salaries? It must seem a bit weird to them, do you think?
LauraParkerBlog.com.
