It's a numbers game. If you call enough, and get rejected enough, some will say yes and you will start to build a business. There is an axiom in the industry that the salesman who succeeds is the one who persists. For most it is an awkward, but strengthening process.
I thought that I would have a future free of cold calling when our family accepted the commission to be missionaries to Manila, Philippines. However, even as my life in financial services is starting to wind down, I find myself staring at a telephone and a list of names.
As you may know, we are faith based missionaries. This means that we derive all of our income from supporters; our Gospel Partners. This does not just include ministry expenses, but money for insurance, housing, Isaac's school, transportation, food, and everything else. As missionary appointees, we are now in the process of Partnership Development. Partnership Development is not selling a product or a service like I did for so many years and it is not fund raising like our family has done for the Osteogenesis Imperfect foundation.
All we have is from God and when we give to further the Kingdom, we give to God. This means that our support is not horizontal; person to person, but vertical.
I've been thinking about how grateful I am that the relationship works this way. We could never merit or earn a single dollar just as we cannot earn our salvation. Both are gifts, not deserved, but freely given.
I looked up and smiled at our team of volunteers who stared back at me with anxious eyes and sweat beading on their brows; Heidi the most nervous of the bunch. "Let's find the Gospel Partners that God has for us," I said as we picked up our cell phones and divided up the list of names. Everyone exhaled and laughed nervously, not a salesman or telemarketer in the bunch. But they love God, love us, and take ownership in the ministry, wanting to see the Gospel spread so much more than they treasure their own comfort.
First call - voicemail. Bullet dodged.
Next call - interest, but no commitment. Then, conversation. Then, prayer. Then, Gospel Partners in prayer and financial support.
Over the course of the day, we set up meetings with a group of friends, a men's prayer group and two small groups. A Gospel Partner committed to introduce us to his missions Pastor. We got commitments for regular prayer and a few special gifts have been sent. God has provided both monthly and quarterly financial supporters and we got an excellent recipe for clam chowder.
Our agency wisely insists that our family's monthly budget is 100% funded before we can leave for Southeast Asia. Right now, we are hovering around 10% and while we still have much work to do, God has encouraged us through this process.
Most of all, we were able to see the love of Jesus through our friends who gave up their Saturday and their fear of rejection to be on mission with us. We got to talk to people about what God is doing and so did they. People were informed, and encouraged, and mobilized. Can God's work be done from your kitchen, on a cell phone, while you wait for pizza? You better believe it.
If God is touching your heart to be a Gospel Partner, to host a meeting where we can talk about God's work in Manila, or just to learn more about what God is doing; don't wait for your ring tone. Pick up your phone and cold call us.
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