I'm just going to wear my frustration on my sleeve for a bit. I'm finding some (what I thought to be) really slam dunk fundraisers coming up fruitless right now. It's bumming me out.
First, at work. There is a coffee pot in my department. It is run by a couple of the employees, with cups of Joe costing a meager $0.15; drinking coffee for a day will run you $1.00. Here's the deal: the coffee is BAD. Terrible. It's Maxwell house, which they buy in bulk, then pre-fill into filters which then sit for up to 48 hours in a drawer in the kitchen. And they make it so WEAK. Every day, entering the office means being hit by a wave of stale coffee aroma. If you ever had to go to work with a parents on a sick day, you know that smell I'm talking talking about. I mean, there are a solid dozen coworkers that HATE this coffee, and only drink it because it's the only game in town.
Why bring up the nasty coffee? Because Lindsey and I have a Just Love Coffee storefront and it donates to our adoption every time someone buys through the storefront here. Fair Trade Organic Ethiopian coffee. Real primo stuff. I mean, coffee BEGAN in Ethiopia, before it was anywhere else in the WORLD! Sadly, not a single bag of this coffee has been purchased, and I thought it would be cool to brew it and sell it at work. You know, like they ALREADY DO. I wanted to be above board, and I contacted HR. Bad idea.
HR said they couldn't allow it because it would be supporting my personal fundraiser and if they did that they'd open the door to a myriad of other fundraisers. Apparently they're not hip to the Girl Scout Cookies, Greg's daughter's band trip candy bar sale, and all the other rackets going on. Somehow putting a second coffee pot (so that I don't upset the people who like the bad coffee) just won't do. This all kinds of stinks.
Second, my cigar and Scotch night. I had the idea to do a guy-friendly fundraiser after seeing Lindsey do all these girly parties to raise adoption funds. I found a local cigar shop with a private lounge. They agreed to host. I had four bottles of Scotch donated by family. Men could come and pay a cover charge and get a cigar and some Scotch (included in the price). All the proceeds would go to the adoption.
At one point I had 15 confirmed attendees. Then, one-by-one, they dropped out. I even had a buddy coming all the way from Maryland. But sadly he had to drop out last-minute. The night before the event, several folks dropped out, too. I decided to cancel when I got down to three confirmed attendees. I couldn't see the benefit in cracking open $150 worth of Scotch for donations totaling less than that. Sigh...I'll reschedule and hopefully it'll go better.
I'm really trying to be ok with these failures. Surely the Lord is in control. In fact, we just received a donation which put us over our next funding hurdle. Praise Him for providence.
Phillippians 2:12 has been on my heart for a week now, and it hits me right now: "Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling..."
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