Thursday, September 15, 2005
LONG THEN SHORT
September 15, 2005
By the grace of God, He has let me know about various online prayer support groups. Two of these have restrictions on how long the prayer request can be. So when I have a very important matter requiring much prayer I first write the long version that is unrestricted.
Then I edit that down to 720 characters including spaces.
Then I prune that version to 250 characters.
The Holy Spirit reminded me of this process recently because I have been struggling to craft a short presentation for the major donors. I know that they want just the highlights. Yet the way I think and write I cannot create the shortest version in the first draft. So remembering this similar process it gives me permission to go ahead and just OUTLINE the long version. Then from that SELECT the most important highlights.
For example I have started three Power Point slide shows. The first one is like a mind dump with all the key points in my notes. I have just put the titles on about 50 slides. A few of them have some bullet points. I would guess that I could roughly sketch the entire project in less than 100 slides. That may seem like a huge number but consider the scope
1) one million displaced people
2) all those people who are helping them and especially those who are hosting them in their residences
3) the massive rebuilding actions that will take years
4) how to gracefully weave together benevolence, evangelism and discipleship
5) how to connect the Body of Christ over the Internet to facilitate the long term prayer, sending of things and sending money.
The first version has EVERY major point. And the beauty of Power Point is that I can easily juggle the sequence of the slides to bring better order while I keep dumping my ideas.
The second version is a narrative story that seems to be singing to me amidst the data.
The third version has just begun. It is a collection of the most essential points that need to be covered in the short face to face presentation.
I have committed to an accountability partner that I will email him today that I have completed the first step of listing 20 names of prospects. These are key people who either could contribute 1 to 10 thousand dollars or could introduce me to such people. As of right now there are 14 on that list and 12 of those are networking contacts. I still have two small boxes to explore. These are filled with business cards, notes and previous personal phone books.
After I have 20 on the list then the next challenge is to set 5 appointments. At those appointments I will be using the Power Point slide show mentioned previously plus mind map posters that I had made for previous projects.
Thanks for your prayers to get into motion. As this get rolling then I will use the point system mentioned previously. That will give you and me a short cut to understand how things are going on a weekly and monthly basis. For review the points are based on what I learned at a fund raising seminar. It was how the leader challenged fund raising departments of hospitals, museums, libraries, etc. to measure their efforts.
1 point for setting the appointment
2 points for making the presentation
3 points for asking for the donation
4 points for receiving the money
MAJOR THEN MINOR
Let me state again why I am going to the major donors first. All the fund raising seminars I have attended over the years have said that when a nonprofit organization is adding to infrastructure then that appeals to those who can write big checks.
The quote from the web designer and developer was for 25 thousand dollars. This company creates web sites for missions agencies, radio teachers and mega churches. That is a fair price for all I am asking them to do. Then after that is in place the donations of 5 to 50 dollars will be rapidly and accurately processed. There will be all kinds of ways to coordinate prayer and volunteering.
PROVISION
Let me state briefly that God is meeting my needs one day at a time. The loss of 1,700 dollars income at the first of this month is still rippling through my life.
Pray for God to guide my thoughts, words and actions about these matters.
May my prayer life improve and increase.
LINKS
Let me invite you to use the online prayer services that I use. And like I tell those in the midst of a difficult transition go ahead and make as many requests as needed.
The unrestricted requests are with In Jesus
http://injesus.com/Groups/?Cat=PR&UCD=ys5
720 characters with Brooklyn Tabernacle
http://www.brooklyntabernacle.org/about/prayer.cfm
250 characters with World Prayer Team
http://worldprayerteam.org
Believe me when I say there are dozens of people on the other end of these links that genuinely want to receive your prayer requests and pray over them.
John 12:49 PM
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