Becky Says...

December 2006

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The Fifth Day - December 29

On the fifth day of Christmas, I thought of fundraisers of the charitable kind.

Years ago, when I was active in the local Lutheran parish, there was a young woman who had been involved with the congregation during her college years who went to Japan to do mission work. Leaving out how I feel about overt attempts to convert people (let's say I'm wary), I joined in wishing her well and hoped she'd have a good experience.

To support her there, several congregations, ours and her home parish in another town included, were asked to send donations. So far, quite normal for this sort of thing.

Well, then came a letter home from the missionary, that was available for all church members to read. She spent the first half of it basically excoriating us (in Chapel Hill) for failing to send money, or enough money (It's been a while and I don't remember which) for her expenses. We were supposed to feel duly chastised. And then she made a huge, in my book, mistake.

She told us how much money she had spent on stereo equipment and other things she could find cheaper in Japan than here. These were for her personal use, not for mission purposes. And that convinced me, more than anything else, that she surely did not need any help from me.

I haven't thought about that episode in years, until I was reading a newsletter this afternoon. In it, people who had ever been associated with Lutheran Campus Ministry locally were being gently urged to donate. Tight budget, etc. Well-written, not too hard-sell for my taste. I could see myself setting aside some of my next earnings to go toward that.

Until I turned the page. There I saw that at least part of what the group wanted to spend money on was a trip to Germany over Spring Break for some of the students. It does have a purpose, of sorts, in that those attending will help do some remodeling of a guest house. The piece went on to describe what a glorious plunge into Lutheran history this would be.

I think I'll hold off on that donation. There is no need for me to send anyone on a sight-seeing tour of Eisleben, no matter how much the person might have studied with some seminary professor or another in preparation (that's part of the deal---the students going have to study about what they're going to be seeing).

And I don't see me needing to help pay for remodeling a guest house, especially since I suspect rather strongly that there are plenty of people local to the guest house who could help with the work there, probably much better than unskilled college students.

So no. Not even if I were to be promised a postcard.

Text © copyright 2000-2006 Becky

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