Living Without A Salary

I’m going to be honest. Most of typical mission life does not make a lot of sense in the secular world.

My life (sometimes)

I am willingly living thousands of miles from my family, friends, and culture; so I can offer a home to children who sometimes repay me with ungratefulness, run a low-budget business to employ women who’d rather make quicker money selling their bodies, get marriage proposals from strange men daily, and do all of this without a salary.

NOT MY LIFE

Yes, it’s hard. It’s not the romantic running-around-with-elephants-on-the-savannah-and-taking-selfies-with-children life people make it out to be. Sometimes, I’ll watch an American movie about a woman with a husband and kids and a house with a yard and a dog and a well-paying-upper-middle-class career with book clubs and concerts and drive-thrus and microwaves and washing machines and Panera, and I’ll think, Why can’t I have that?

If I take God out of the equation, I could totally have that. I could be on a plane to Atlanta to Kansas City tomorrow to start a career and be on that magical path to the American dream (whatever that means these days).

I could do that. I could totally do that. But guess what? I don’t want to. And I have a feeling that if I did hop on that plane, God would figure out a way to send me right back to the mission field, whether I wanted it or not.

“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”  - Frederick Buechner

Here, pursuing prostitutes, mentoring struggling women, taking care of traumatized girls, I have my deep gladness. And there's definitely a deep hunger. This is the place God calls me to. 

There is freedom in living without a salary. I'm not tied to any contracts. Yes, there are expectations and people rely on me for certain things, but I can go above and beyond without feeling shortchanged when it comes without a bonus.

I can do what I love purely because I love it, and not because I have to.

Living without a salary teaches you a lot of things. Your budget looks different. Your hobbies and free time might look a little different. Most importantly, it’s a huge lesson in humility.

Every day, I have to wake up with open arms and ask God to provide what I need for that day. Instead of signing up to take more shifts or applying for a promotion, I humble myself before the God of the universe and ask for help.

And here’s the tricky part. Choosing the mission life means humbling myself before you, my family and friends, to ask for help.

My goal for the 2016-2017 stretch is to live on $10,000, which is over $18,000 less than the average cost of living in the States. Yeah, that’s a little tough. That $10,000 will cover rent, utilities, food, gas, a trip to the States, and (hopefully) at least a little recreation. This is my fifth year in a row to fundraise, and every year so far, God has put me on that plane fully funded.

So far (as of May 15, 2016), I am halfway to that goal. If 20 people pledge $20 per month for a year, I will be fully funded.

So here I am, once again, asking for help.

If you’re interested in donating, visit here to give via PayPal. Please remember to put my name in the memo.

This life is challenging. But I love it. And it's worth it. And I need your help to do it.

Thanks again. Blessings.