Are You Off Work?
I got my hair cut in the middle of the day yesterday. When the stylist asked me if I was off work, I think I said something like "I have an...interesting job right now." As an LCMS Career Missionary, the first line of my job description reads as follows:
I'm also working on raising up a network of individual donors. A mass mailing will hit 500+ mailboxes next week sometime. I segmented my list into 2 groups and wrote a personal letter to each: previous supporters (during my time as a GEO Missionary from 2009-2011) and new prospects.
Thanking and staying in touch with both congregations and individual donors by blogging, sending a monthly newsletter, etc. is a critical component of this stage as well and will continue to occupy about 25% of my time post-deployment.
Other to-do list items (some checked off, some not!):
I am accountable to my employer - the LCMS - and to all of you, yet at the same time I have far more flexibility than I'm accustomed to. As a rule though, I find it difficult to relax if there is work to be done, so I haven't struggled to stay busy thus far. It's weird not having to set an alarm or be anywhere in particular (I still shower and change out of my pajamas...most days) but at the same time not weird at all; it feels 100% like what I was created to be doing at this moment (I felt similarly not long after beginning my GEO Missionary service), and I wouldn't have it any other way. Welcome to my life!
Until next time, blessings!
Commits to an ongoing schedule and strategy for ministry support raising, in coordination with the Mission Advancement Department, the Communications Department, and related service areas.I work. Full time. My focus right now is fleshing out my spring & summer calendar with missionary visits and presentations. Reaching out to congregations I'm connected to in hopes they'll welcome me to speak or present occupies most of my time. Once I confirm an engagement, I zero in on other congregations I could hit on the way there/back or while I'm there. They may be others I had previously identified, or ones suggested by Mission Advancement (just one of the teams that works out of the International Center and is dedicated to helping missionaries succeed!). The whole strategy was described to us in Orientation like a freight train; mine is beginning to chug. It will probably surprise no one to hear that I have a color coded spreadsheet for tracking contacts. I leave for my first trip on April 4 - more about what #missionarylife on the road is like soon!
I'm also working on raising up a network of individual donors. A mass mailing will hit 500+ mailboxes next week sometime. I segmented my list into 2 groups and wrote a personal letter to each: previous supporters (during my time as a GEO Missionary from 2009-2011) and new prospects.
Thanking and staying in touch with both congregations and individual donors by blogging, sending a monthly newsletter, etc. is a critical component of this stage as well and will continue to occupy about 25% of my time post-deployment.
Other to-do list items (some checked off, some not!):
- Apply for a credit card with no foreign transaction fees
- Brainstorm children's message & school chapel talk ideas
- Claim the @MissionaryMAC handle on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
- Seek out a property manager so I can move forward with renting my house
- Watch 2 TED talks referenced in my psychological Development Assessment
I am accountable to my employer - the LCMS - and to all of you, yet at the same time I have far more flexibility than I'm accustomed to. As a rule though, I find it difficult to relax if there is work to be done, so I haven't struggled to stay busy thus far. It's weird not having to set an alarm or be anywhere in particular (I still shower and change out of my pajamas...most days) but at the same time not weird at all; it feels 100% like what I was created to be doing at this moment (I felt similarly not long after beginning my GEO Missionary service), and I wouldn't have it any other way. Welcome to my life!
Until next time, blessings!
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