I believe that I had planned on doing another blog post in August. With all the craziness of July/August with Wendy’s health, kids back to school, Wendy starting her new job, etc. I kinda forgot about the blog. But by the time I remembered in September, I felt a strange new obstacle: fear.
Fear of what may (or might not) come. Fear of not knowing what to say. Fear related to not knowing what to do. I hit this wall that I couldn’t explain where it came from, or how to get around/through it. So I just pretended the Wall wasn’t there for a while. But of course, the ol’ “head-in-the-sand” model is not only a poor practice for accomplishing anything, but it breeds other nasty little hangers-on: guilt, complacency, discontent, etc…
About a week ago, I attended a workshop called “Never Do Fundraising Again”. The basic premise was about how if you do partner development right the first time, you won’t have to “start over” multiple times throughout your ministry life. Obviously, being a rookie to this self-supporting ministry world, I haven’t been concerned about what things look like years from now…my eyes have been a little nearer to my feet, only looking at a week or a month ahead.
Without going into a full report of what I learned there, the big takeaways are:
- A handful of practical, actionable steps that don’t actually sound too difficult
- Removal of the Fear
- Inspiration to “Just do it” (Sorry, Nike™)
So I’m doing a blog post, to kick off the shackles a bit, and to start doing what I said I’d do: sharing with my MVP’s (Ministry Vision Partners) what’s going on with EMI, and what’s going on with the Neals.
With each post, it is my hope & desire to share three things:
- A brief update or story about our Neal Family and/or EMI Family
- A photo (or link to photos/stories) about EMI ministry impact
- A scripture that I’ve read recently
So for today…I’ve shared above a glimpse into where my head & heart have been in trying to get things moving (at least internally). Here is a link to a story from InsideEMI shared recently about how one young man’s life was changed by a ministry that EMI partnered with:
Psalm 55:22
“Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.”