So here’s the long overdue recap of my fund raising trip down to North Palm Beach and Lakeland last month, as well as some of the events since then. I know it’s been over a month since I’ve last blogged. The week after that trip was an emotional roller coaster. I felt depressed, jealous and bitter a good bit of the week, and when I get that way I don’t do a lot of things I enjoy, hence my lack of blogging despite having more than my fair share of time on my hands. Since the end of that week, as you’ll infer, I’ve been very busy and haven’t had any time on my hands, hence my lack of blogging.
I left for North Palm later than I hoped on the morning of Thursday, August 16. I was going there to make a final fund raising trip to raise support for my ministry with the Navigators at FSU. When I left I was at 40% of my funding goal and couldn’t start working until I hit at least 75%. It’s a six hour drive down, not nearly as long as I remembered it being. When I left I really didn’t know why I was going. A part of me felt like it was going to be just like my Connecticut trip all over again. When I left for that trip I didn’t have too many face-to-face fund raising appointments made before arriving and I ended up not having many during the trip. The same could be said for this trip (though, once again, not for lack of trying). Many people were out of town or otherwise unavailable. Many I just hadn’t managed to talk to; I could only get their message machines. But I had a lot of peace about making the trip. I’ve learned to trust that feeling of peace a lot more in recent months. There’s something to it.
I got off the Florida Turnpike at PGA Blvd and decided that, since I was in Palm Beach Gardens, I would take a spin by my old house. I lived in Palm Beach Gardens for the first sixteen years of my life before my dad’s job was transferred to Connecticut. I had been back to the area a few times since I moved (though not since Thanksgiving 2002) but I had always refused to go by the old house. I didn’t want to see how the new owners had made changes. But it had been seven years since I moved and I figured I could handle it now. I don’t know how else to say it, but the people living there have bad taste. The house looks ugly. I mean, the law and the bushes and the trees and pretty still. But the front door and the shutters and the roof are all brown now. It’s a brick house so with all that brown it just looks too dark. Dark colors don’t play well in tropical south Florida. I couldn’t help but feel disappointed.
I then made my way over to North Palm Beach, which is only a few miles away from the Gardens. I was staying with my grandmother’s best friends Dick and Rosemary Truesdale. They live across the street from where my grandmother used to live. She moved to Lakeland a few years back so she could be closer to one of her daughters. The Truesdales were amazing hosts. They went out of their way to take care of me while I was there. Not having to pay for a hotel was such a major blessing, but it was also nice to have people to come home to who would ask you how the fund raising went that day. It’s nice to have people around you that care about what you’re doing.
There were a number of surreal experiences during this trip. The first of these was when I pulled up to the Truesdale home. The house my grandmother used to live in had been knocked down and in its place was a house that looked like it belonged in the Keys. It was huge and yellow and expensive looking. It’s also not quite done, but it’ll probably be finished in a month or two. Later on in the trip I worked up the courage to trespass in the backyard so I could have a look at their pool and deck. I would love to throw a party in a house like that. Heck, I’d love to be invited to a party held in a house like that.
Friday morning I started my day bright and early. I made a totally unannounced trip over to my old elementary and middle school, St. Mark’s Episcopal. I wanted to see if there were any teachers there that would remember me. There were, in fact, quite a number of teachers who not only remembered me but who were happy to stop what they were doing to talk to me. Understand that classes had not yet started; the teachers were preparing their classrooms for the school year. Most notably I spoke with my fourth grade teacher Mrs. Shuford. I’d actually seen her a couple of times recently in Tallahassee at church while her son was in grad school at FSU. All told, it was a great morning. I spoke with about six teachers that remembered me and who were interested in what I was doing at FSU. I left there very encouraged that my trip had started out so well.
Since it had been so long since I’d been to the Palm Beach area I wanted to go to all the places I remembered loving when I lived there. So my first such stop was for lunch at a restaurant called C. R. Chicks. Talk about a great chicken sandwich! Well worth the steep price tag.
I tried to meet up with another of my old teachers who had actually switched to another school in the area during the afternoon. I wasn’t as successful this time around. In fact, I sort of got chased off the grounds. Let me explain. I walked into the school building at St Claire’s Catholic Church. I was surprised the door wasn’t locked. I was going to sign in with the office, but no one was there. So I just started looking for my teacher’s classroom. I found it and, upon discovering that she’d already gone home for the day, I decided to write her a note. Well, someone who worked there was pretty mad that I had managed to get in at all, not to mention that I hadn’t signed in. So after writing my note I left before they got on the yard sticks.
That evening I went to a bar with some old friends of mine. When I say old friends what I mean is friends that I haven’t seen since I was about fourteen or sixteen years old. This was definitely surreal moment number two for a couple of reasons. First just because we were all at a bar and the last time I saw these people we were so much younger. But also because I am the only one of the group that looks any different. No joke, the rest of them just look older and taller, but their overall appearance is more or less unchanged. Here I am with no hair on my head and facial hair looking far different than I used to. Weird. I only stuck around for about an hour or so. I wanted to be well-rested for the next day. Plus at this point I’m pretty sure the only thing we all have in common is our past and alcohol. But it was still good to see them.
Saturday was a much less busy day than Friday. I had hoped to meet with three people but only ended up meeting with one. My old Scoutmaster from Troop 150 wasn’t available and neither was my old piano teacher. I was able to speak to both of them over the phone on Saturday though, which was enjoyable even if it wasn’t preferable. I was able to have a face-to-face appointment with the father of my childhood best friend. He was extremely interested in what I’m doing at FSU. My appointment with him was one of the best I’ve had all summer. It was very encouraging and a lot of fun. The only other thing I did on Saturday was take the Truesdales out to dinner to thank them for letting me stay with them. This was also a lot of fun. Both of them are great conversationalists and they pick on each other just like a stereotypical old married couple.
Sunday I went to my old church Trinity UMC. I had been there on Friday briefly to talk business with the financial people there but this time I was there on the off chance I would run into someone I used to know back in the day. I did see a few familiar faces; unfortunately my face isn’t quite as familiar. So my attempt to network at my old church wasn’t as successful as I had hoped. But I did get to meet the new minister. I think I may have been a little forward with him. It’s not my fault really; he pushed one of my buttons. I really don’t like it when someone says “I’ll be praying for you” but you get the feeling that it’s just a line to get you to stop talking about what you’re in need of. And I feel bad mostly because he very well could have been sincere when he said that to me. So in response to this, before I left, I went up to him again and gave him my info packet and told him if he’s going to be praying for me he might need some help remembering my name. I’ve also added him to my email updates. Hey, if he doesn’t want to know how he can pray for me he shouldn’t have volunteered.
This more or less concluded my trip to Palm Beach. Before I went back to the Truesdale home to say thank you and goodbye I made a detour over to the Gardens Mall. Since I left town they’ve added an Apple Store. I’m such a nerd. But I still hadn’t had a chance to play around with an iPhone and I wanted to see the new iMacs too. So I spent about a half hour feeding my inner geek. After that I went back to pack, said my goodbyes and hit the road.
I wasn’t going back to Tallahassee just yet. I had decided to make a stop in Lakeland to see my grandmother. She’s not quite on the way, but she is in between Point A and Point B so I made the extra effort. I actually hadn’t seen her since Thanksgiving. I know, I’m a bad person. I had hoped to get down there to see her every other month, but I’ve been bad about making time for her. I spent only one night there in Lakeland, just long enough to catch up and see how she was doing. I left midday on Monday to head home for Tallahassee.
I haven’t given a lot of details about who gave what while I was on this trip. I want to keep that information private. I’m saying this because what you’re about to read will probably surprise you. When I arrived home I found three checks waiting for me on my desk, two of which I wasn’t expecting. I was really overwhelmed by how generous these people were in giving to my ministry. I inputted these gifts and the others I’d received while on my trip into my handy dandy Excel spreadsheet and discovered that I had reached 61% of my funding goal! I couldn’t hardly believe that God had blessed me like that. All of a sudden the task at hand didn’t seem so daunting. I really believed I would get to 75% before classes started the following Monday.
I’m going to fast forward a bit. Thursday I had sent out an email to all my financial and prayer supported asking them to pray for me, specifically that I’d reach my minimum goal before Monday. That weekend I received an unexpected email from a friend who had been a teammate of mine at NCP two summer ago. I had sent him an email about my desperate funding need eleven days earlier but hadn’t heard back from him. His reply read:
Hi Andrew! Good to hear from you. I just read [your email] a half hour ago, and the timing is very interesting! I’ll give you a call tomorrow afternoon (today now, I guess–I’m up very late). Looks like you have the same phone number you had at NCP.
The timing was interesting? What did that mean? I tried not to think about it too much, but it was certainly exciting.
So now it’s Sunday, August 26. Through the normal course of follow-up during the week I was now sitting at 71% of my funding goal. I had a face-to-face appointment with two students that afternoon and also that phone call from my NCP buddy. Even though it was hard to logically make sense of how I was going to get my final four percent I really wasn’t worried. You see, as I’d been reading the Bible this summer the verses that had popped out to me were verses about perseverance and provision. But since I sent that email to my supporters the verses that were popping were about God’s love and His heart for people to know Him. That’s a major change. I was being prepared. I really felt like I was going to be on campus on Monday.
I sat down with not two but three students Sunday afternoon. I hardly knew the third student at all, so I figured that I’d really only be talking to the two and the other was just curious about what I was doing. I was wrong. I gave my presentation and all three students wanted to give monthly! I was left speechless.
I went home from that face-to-face very excited. I had been trying to do the arithmetic in my head and I knew I’d be close to my goal. I brought up that Excel spreadsheet again, added the newest contributions and discovered that I was now at… 74%. I feel bad about saying this but I actually felt kind of angry. If I wasn’t going to be able to report to campus on the first day of classes because I was a mere 1% away I was going to be a mess.
But later that day I got that call from my NCP friend. He explained to me that on Friday he had received his bonus. He works at Microsoft so he’s already pulling in some good money, especially for a guy his age. As he was driving home that day he asked God to show him a need that he could give his bonus to. Well, like his reply to me said, he hadn’t yet read my email even though I’d sent it over a week ago. He got home, opened that message and knew God had shown him what he’d asked to see. So my friend said he was giving me his entire bonus. I was completely overwhelmed. I mean, what do you say to that?
When August 26 came to a close, I had reached 80% of my funding goal. God had answered my prayer. I thank all of you who have been praying for this all summer, especially those who joined in that weekend to pray as I made the final push.
I’m going to end this post now even though there’s plenty more to talk about. A lot has happened in the first three weeks of school, but I’m going to save that for another post (or two). As I publish this entry I am at 85% of my goal. I am still waiting to hear back from a few sources. I’ve spent far less time fund raising since I started my work on campus, which is why my total has only increased five percent. Please continue to pray for my funding.
I will do my best to keep my blog from collecting dust. I have Monday off from both of my jobs, so if all else fails I should be able to update once per week.
