That fund-raising thing...

We've stopped counting the number of times that good people among our believing friends in the States have told us, "So, why don't you come raise support in America?" or something along those lines.

We HAVE indeed considered this option, but only to find it was not viable for us. Here are the main reasons why:

-For several reasons we won't comment here and now, most U.S. mission agencies we could have considered working with do not allow foreign nationals to be part of their staff and to raise support in America (of course, we found out later that there are always exceptions for the lucky guys who know the right persons, but that was not our case).
It would have taken several years for Thomas to get U.S. citizenship, to add to the months and often years required to complete support-raising (something you can never be sure to succeed in anyway). Right after our marriage, we felt a sense of urgency to go back to France to work alongside its churches and decided not to take this extremely long and uncertain path.

-One of the big reason why people work with mission bords is to get visas. Neither of us needs help getting a visa nor do we need language school or, for that matter, classes on cross-cultural relationships (our LIFE is a class on cross-cultural relationships, OK?)

-Realistically speaking, our network of potential donors was way too small.

-Missions to Europe don't "sell" well in American churches.
Too expensive, results are long in coming, the communities that can be created do not always reflect the values/lifestyle of the donors and besides, haven't the French had their chance already? (Authentic quote, actually heard several times.)

-Dawn comes from a Bible-Church background, Thomas from a classic French Reformed one. It would have been tough to find churches whose doctrinal statements both of us could sign in good conscience (yes, that word again...).

-It is always good to know one's strengths and weaknesses. Honestly speaking, people like us are terrible fund-raisers. We're not good at that game. Period.

-The amount of money most mission boards require you to raise is astronomical, and in some cases, indecent, especially when compared to the average income of a national pastor (when he gets one).

-We prefer sharing the same conditions as normal French people.

-Dawn is uncomfortable with the whole system, anyway. And Thomas hates when his baby is uncomfortable.

-Thomas still remembers very well this evening in Paris where a recruiter for a mission agency told him he needed to be more entrepreneurial about ministry money. Well, Thomas is a minister, not a professional or an entrepreneur (a word that he, by the way, can pronounce correctly at least). That was the final blow to the "mission agency/fund-raising" idea.


So this is the reason why, until very recently, we were bi-vocational (and, quite frankly, nothing says we won't have to go that route again).
It's not to say that "tentmaking" was easy, far from it. Actually, it's a hindrance to ministry.

But, overall, it was all too clear the mission agency/fund-raising thing was not for us and us not for it.

At least, you will not have to have our faces on your fridge...