But there are times when I think Ned had a point.
Take, for example, QR code. Please.
Apparently, QR code, with a downloadable app on your mobile device (there's a sentence I never would have used two years ago!), enables you to pay for things directly through your cell phone, even (according to one CBC reporter who breathlessly described it to me a few weeks ago) ordering a latte from your SkyTrain ride and having it ready for you when you get off the train.
She didn't explain why I would want to do that, but that's not the point. The point is that now, one can debit one's bank or credit card account for practically anything, faster than the speed of thought.
And therein lies the issue.
The QR ("Quick Response") phenomenon does appear to be a boon for fundraisers. Show a poster with a gripping image of a person being helped by an organization, put the code on the poster, someone is moved by the image and can quickly make a donation to the cause and go about the rest of their lives. "Less than five bucks? Hey: no skin off my nose!", and on they go.
But what's the spirit behind that fundraising method? Is it a prayerful, considered contribution, or the same thought process that leads us to buy a package of Life Savers when we get to the cashier?
It makes our way of raising funds at Gospel Mission seem so Last Century -- cash, checks and credit card donations (and we only added the credit card option a year ago, when someone said that she couldn't find the credit card option on our website so she gave her donation to another organization, instead). But the whole success of our Mission -- surviving through 81 years and counting -- has been due to those old-time charitable contributions. When you actually sit down, write the check, count out the cash or fill out the credit card form, you find yourself thinking:
- Whom am I giving this to?
- have I done "due diligence" about the organization?
- how will it be used?
- whom does it benefit?
- how does it benefit them?
- is this a tithe or an offering?
- how much?
- can I afford to do this?
- can I afford not to?
- how else can I help?
The way the Lord has been providing for Gospel Mission -- and His provision for The Lord's Rain against all odds confirms it -- tells me there's something to be said for them old-time thought processes and we really don't need to go to Fundraising 2.0. People bringing in what they can, as they can, has worked since the time of the Tabernacle; as a result, we receive what we need, exactly as we need it. (Or, as Senior Pastor Barry Babcook puts it, God comes through in the 11th hour, 59th minute; a constant faith test for us.)
The spirit of prayerful consideration covers the contribution and thence the Mission itself. The people we minister to see the place as their Mission, supported by a variety of people with a variety of levels of means, from those contributing socks for the Vancouver Sock Exchange, to those handing over regular checks, to the occasional big-ticket donation. For many, it's a significant amount of skin off the nose, but it's something they're led to out of love and duty.
And so it has been this week, as an email arrived out of the blue from The W. Garfield Weston Foundation. Last year, The Foundation set up by the bakery and grocery corporation picked us to receive a $15,000 grant from a special fund set up to help charitable organizations like ours get through the economic downturn, when donations from "usual" sources could be expected to ease off. That was a one-time thing, so hearing from The Foundation that it would like to give us another $3000.00 was an unexpected and extremely welcome surprise. A letter from Wendy Rebanks, treasurer of The Foundation (one of Garfield's daughters and aunt of Mark W. Mitchell, who yesterday brought the check to the Mission personally), noted the success of The Lord's Rain both as a showers facility and a place to "escape the street and find friendly conversation".
To say we're grateful would grossly understate the case.
I mentioned the Vancouver Sock Exchange. It's about to receive another massive injection from Francis Heng's Spare Some Socks campaign -- part of his "Change Everything" initiative. Last year, he and his wife rustled up 450 pairs of socks, which took us several months to give away and led to the idea of the VSE, in which "street people" can turn in the socks they're wearing -- so long as they're still wearable -- and we wash them up and put them into "circulation" for others. Check out this video that Francis posted on his blog: http://www.changeeverything.ca/blog/francis/paul-socks-are-gold. "Paul"'s description of having to scrape the socks off his feet (because he'd worn them for so long) reminds me of the story the regional RCMP commander in Port Hardy told me about a homeless guy who'd been brought into the drunk tank there.
We also had a welcome visit from an anonymous donor who, with her son, brought in a boxload of socks and shampoo, having heard about us in a TV report about the recent cold snap in Vancouver.
Lives move forward -- recently, we posted Randall's testimony on God Tube. On Wednesday, Randall informed me he wants to go into Ministry and help others as he's been helped. Another brother, Marty, who started by coming to The Lord's Rain earlier this year and became a regular at Gospel Mission, has taken the big step of checking himself into a recovery program. It's times like these that we marvel at the works of God when people turn to Him through His Son.
No comments:
Post a Comment