[quote]
Dear _,
I hope this letter finds you well. :)
I'm raising money to go to Israel for 9 months, as part of an opportunity to be one of a handful of students to be discipled, while doing full time missions work & being a full time theology student.
Growing up I wanted to be many things- when I was younger, the ice cream man, and later, fields such as law (because Mom said I loved to argue), and microbiology ('cause cells sounded so cool!). But as I got older, I learned that ice cream is bad in large doses, arguing is not the way to solve a problem, and microbiology can save a man's body, but not his soul. The more I thought about the rest of my life, the more I realized I didn't want to do anything other than serve God.
I didn't know quite what that was at 15, as a freshman- but in light of the truth, all other walks of life paled to me. I became convicted that my life was to be one of complete dedication- and this frightened me. This lifestyle was one of complete trust in God; and that trust, while required of all Christians, is easier to casually believe in than depend on. Yet it did not deter me- I knew that my relationship with God would be meaningless unless I learned that trust.
So I translated this thought into action. I began to lead the highschool bible study for our youth group. I began building a youth worship band. I enrolled in VLI (Vineyard Leadership Institute, a college level course in theology offered through my church). But most importantly, I began to seriously contemplate where I was going in life. I learned of this opportunity to go to Israel last year, but decided to wait- I still had a lot to learn from leading the bible study, from VLI, and leading worship. Yet even then I was telling people of my plans to go to Israel for full time discipleship, ministry and college in a year.
Now that time has come. After consulting those who have wisdom and are within reach, I send out this letter to you. To give an idea of what I'll be doing, this is part of an email I received from the pastor running the program:
A typical week - As I have said before, we are dedicated to holistic discipleship, meaning that we want you to grow intellectually, spiritually, and in your practical skills. A typical day would include some time of devotion, study, and work.[...] Ministry opportunities would include youth ministry, public services like teaching English, outreaches at various Israeli events, and on and on.
What this comes to is your support, joining with me to reach Israel. All costs observed, the price is $10,000- a little over $1,000/month. If you can give a one time donation, or are able to give monthly/quarterly support, pray and ask God if that is how he would have you participate- housing is $350/month, tuition is $1650/semester. Regardless of financial support, I ask that you add me to your prayer list. If you have wisdom, I'd love to hear it, and if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.
You can contact me by email or phone @
[censored]
As references, [censored] (counselor), [censored] (friend), and [censored] (pastor), have offered to vouch for me:
[censored] (house) | [censored] (cell) | [censored] (email)
Checks can be made out to "[censored]" (my church), with "[censored]" in the 'note' section to indicate it should go towards my Israel fund; the deadline is the first week of September. Mail checks to:
[censored]
As with all things of value- in love,
[censored]
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I may have to get it even shorter (this is heavily truncated from the original, perhaps a little larger than half its original size), but I think this is the smallest I will be ok having it- anything much beyond this will be losing important content for the sake of snappiness.
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