Many hands [500k Day 12]

"Many hands makes light work" is an old proverb about the power of collaboration.

Fundraising is soul crushing work, but doing this with 7 people has made this journey very much more enjoyable--and lighter. When one of us discouraged, another one of us is on mountain top. Maybe one of us got rejected or ignored 20 times today, but because of someone's one success story, we all feel a little more encouraged. 

Already so many people have come out of the woodwork to lend us a helping hand. People who have fundraised thousands upon thousands of dollars are taking hours out of their day to walk us through the process that worked for them. Others have connected us with friends and family who are interested in helping out. We've gotten way further because of the support of our community.

And, having 6 others who are blogging this fundraising journey, provides us all with great strength. 

It's hard work, but it would have been much harder alone. 

 Thank you for all who are investing in this journey.  

Fundraising is hard work [500k Day 11]

When it comes to fundraising, I often hope for a miracle.

There is a problem, however, when I I hope for a miracle because I'm lazy. This isn't crazy profound, but the harder I work, the more results I see. It's almost like you reap what you sow. 

I've found that the more people I ask, the more people give. If I personally ask 10 people to give, 1 or 2 usually give. So, If I ask 100 people, probably 10 to 20 will give. 

That's one of the reasons I've created a list of almost 1000 people--it makes our chances of success way higher. 

Met with 8 Pastors [500k Day 10]

Met with 8 pastors yesterday, and one who leads a large church in the area with 5 campuses said really encouraging words to me:

"Bellevue is wide open for a church plant"

"I'm so glad you're planting here"

I'm meeting with this pastor tomorrow. He's interested in helping planters. Please pray for me! I'm, again, encouraged by the local support of pastors. 

It truly does take the Kingdom to build the Kingdom, and that's exactly what's happening. 

Another church wants to help us! [500k Day 9]

A fourth local church said they want to have us share about Kalos during their Sunday morning Service and pray for us! They also want to see how they can help us financially! 

Seeing such a lack of territorialism brings fresh awe every time--has not gotten old. I'm encouraged see all the pastors willing to take time to listen, give us advice and open their platforms to us. 

Today alone, I met with about 8 pastors! I'm exhausted and invigorated! We're working hard and seeing God's grace through it all. 

Chick-fil-A Reached out! [500k Day 8]

Yesterday, I reached out to the /Christianity page on Reddit. This is a community of 120,000 Christians from all kinds of backgrounds. 

With that big of an audience, I got a lot of responses--primarily naysayers. 

"One more simply dilutes the pool and makes all the other churches a little less viable."

"be gone with your money. i have no need of it."

"Are you doing this in your own strength? Pray to God, if he wants this to happen, he will get behind it and make it happen. Otherwise your wasting your time."

Reddit is a community known for intellectualism and trolling. It's the front door of the internet with a lot of anonymous contributors. At the same time, there were a few wonderful responses.

One of them was from Chick-Fil-A!

I got a private message from the general manager of Chick-fil-A last night! He said that this task of planting a church seems really daunting, and he would like to help us out. He's willing to introduce us to local businesses and asked me to let him know if there's anything they can do for Kalos Church!

For all the rejections and trolling, this was a huge boost of encouragement! Chick-fil-A got major points with this! 

We took a shot in the dark, and it payed off! Praise God!

I've asked over 120,000 people [500k Day 7]

I'm casting a wide net. 

For the last two days, I've been throwing really big nets to raise money for Kalos Church. I've made mass appeals to networks online. 

Some of those networks include the following:

• Reddit's /christianity subreddit (120,000)
• My old college floor called Men of God (161 people)
• The Missions Department at my old college (372 people)
• And some random groups I didn't even know I was part of (241 people)

To be honest, I'm not staking much on these networks However, if we get even a 1% success rate, we'll be completely funded. To God be the glory!  

If you want to upvote our reddit post, click here!