Let us plant the seed and watch it grow
Mar. 13th, 2011 01:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogI am so sorry for that lyric- if you don't recognize it, I won't be the one to earworm you with it- but it's what fits the situation perfectly. I'm also timorous about even getting into this whole thing here, because (a) it's pushy and weepy and all that, and (b) there's a lot of the story I've learned in confidence that I can't share. Still, it needs to be done, and I will deeply appreciate anyone who listens, even more anyone who helps.
So there's this friend of ours who works at the church.
X has been there for several years, arriving when Pastor Gail was here. Gail was the one who really brought me back into the fold, accepting my faith-as-it-is in a way nobody else ever really did (or at least expressed) before. Hell, she had a Buddy Christ in her study! Around the time she retired from full-time ministry, she asked me to serve in a capacity that would, one way or another, look out for X's role in the church. "She doesn't have a lot of support in the hierarchy here, and she could really use some of that" was the message I got. And so I became, at least, partially invested with X's career, eventually becoming her formal liaison to the committee that hires, fires and sets other employment parameters.
Along the way, X had health issues. Big ones. When she returned to work, still having regular (and with expensive co-payments) after-care treatments, it became clear there was a need for me to start liaison-ing. This went exactly nowhere until last week, when it finally became an Agenda Item for later this month.
Meanwhile, the seeds from the Parable of the Sower (which, yes, was actually read this morning) hit the proverbial ceiling fan right before the service started. In the bulletin was a pink sheet announcing a pancake breakfast fund-raiser for X. To be accompanied by a free-will offering to defray her post-cancer treatment expenses. Two weeks from today, at 10 a.m.
At the Lutheran church around the corner from ours. And whose service guild has committed to match, dollar for dollar, all proceeds raised at the event.
No controversy, please; we're Methodist. One of the older, and looser-cannon, members of the congregation actually asked about the conundrum during prayer concerns, and Rich answered it as diplomatically as I'm sure he could: "Well, they're the congregation who organized it." Begging the question of why THEY had to, but nevermind. It's the giant Pancake in the Room right now, and on a day when we were called to be disciples of action and not just printed creed, I intend to flip them right out by making this dead serious proposal here, and eventually to our own muckety-mucks.
Finished? Didn't read it? Don't matter. I couldn't tell you half the story anyway. Suffice it that we have a friend in real life who needs help, and I am determined to do something about it.
Behold: Something About It.
Here's where your seeds can fall on "good soil." On March 27, we will attend the fundraiser for X, and will donate all proceeds received in response to this call to action. Additionally, Eleanor and I will match those donations, dollar-for-dollar, up to a total of an additional $500 that you put in by that date. In turn, the Lutherans will match (or at least say they will match) everything we donate a third time round. Once I know that total, I will go back to our congregation and challenge them to match IT.
A few disclaimers and whatnots:
1) You donating to this site is not tax-deductible, but the donation to the church presumably is. If you want that made in your own name for USA tax purposes, say so, and I'll find out what you need to do to get the needed receipt from the church.
2) Since I will need to present the check on the 27th, and from past experience with PayPal's dreaded floats, it'd probably be best if you did this by the preceding Friday, the 25th.
3) Void in Nebraska. ( I don't know why; it just always is;)
4) I've never done this before, but I presume you can always come back to this entry if you want to check progress. I may add a weekly update if that's possible, but it will be behind a cut. I will also be printing it out and/or linking to this entry and showing it to X, to our pastor, and to the head of the committee who will be having that meeting on, wait for it, the week of March 27th. It may very well be my last one, depending on how things go.
Thank you for whatever, if ever, you do, and know that I appreciate you even just reading and thinking about this.
So there's this friend of ours who works at the church.
X has been there for several years, arriving when Pastor Gail was here. Gail was the one who really brought me back into the fold, accepting my faith-as-it-is in a way nobody else ever really did (or at least expressed) before. Hell, she had a Buddy Christ in her study! Around the time she retired from full-time ministry, she asked me to serve in a capacity that would, one way or another, look out for X's role in the church. "She doesn't have a lot of support in the hierarchy here, and she could really use some of that" was the message I got. And so I became, at least, partially invested with X's career, eventually becoming her formal liaison to the committee that hires, fires and sets other employment parameters.
Along the way, X had health issues. Big ones. When she returned to work, still having regular (and with expensive co-payments) after-care treatments, it became clear there was a need for me to start liaison-ing. This went exactly nowhere until last week, when it finally became an Agenda Item for later this month.
Meanwhile, the seeds from the Parable of the Sower (which, yes, was actually read this morning) hit the proverbial ceiling fan right before the service started. In the bulletin was a pink sheet announcing a pancake breakfast fund-raiser for X. To be accompanied by a free-will offering to defray her post-cancer treatment expenses. Two weeks from today, at 10 a.m.
At the Lutheran church around the corner from ours. And whose service guild has committed to match, dollar for dollar, all proceeds raised at the event.
No controversy, please; we're Methodist. One of the older, and looser-cannon, members of the congregation actually asked about the conundrum during prayer concerns, and Rich answered it as diplomatically as I'm sure he could: "Well, they're the congregation who organized it." Begging the question of why THEY had to, but nevermind. It's the giant Pancake in the Room right now, and on a day when we were called to be disciples of action and not just printed creed, I intend to flip them right out by making this dead serious proposal here, and eventually to our own muckety-mucks.
Finished? Didn't read it? Don't matter. I couldn't tell you half the story anyway. Suffice it that we have a friend in real life who needs help, and I am determined to do something about it.
Behold: Something About It.
Here's where your seeds can fall on "good soil." On March 27, we will attend the fundraiser for X, and will donate all proceeds received in response to this call to action. Additionally, Eleanor and I will match those donations, dollar-for-dollar, up to a total of an additional $500 that you put in by that date. In turn, the Lutherans will match (or at least say they will match) everything we donate a third time round. Once I know that total, I will go back to our congregation and challenge them to match IT.
A few disclaimers and whatnots:
1) You donating to this site is not tax-deductible, but the donation to the church presumably is. If you want that made in your own name for USA tax purposes, say so, and I'll find out what you need to do to get the needed receipt from the church.
2) Since I will need to present the check on the 27th, and from past experience with PayPal's dreaded floats, it'd probably be best if you did this by the preceding Friday, the 25th.
3) Void in Nebraska. ( I don't know why; it just always is;)
4) I've never done this before, but I presume you can always come back to this entry if you want to check progress. I may add a weekly update if that's possible, but it will be behind a cut. I will also be printing it out and/or linking to this entry and showing it to X, to our pastor, and to the head of the committee who will be having that meeting on, wait for it, the week of March 27th. It may very well be my last one, depending on how things go.
Thank you for whatever, if ever, you do, and know that I appreciate you even just reading and thinking about this.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-03-14 02:16 pm (UTC)I'll be back to this entry after I get paid, hopefully.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-15 02:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-16 01:23 am (UTC)