Volunteers-for-Hire

It's a peculiar bit of reality; an irony if ever there was one. Much of our world teaches us to fixate on wealth, that salary is a scorecard for success in life, and yet it's generally taboo to strut around showing off an impressive scorecard.

Yes, at risk of making you a little uncomfortable for a moment, I'm going to talk about money.

There are as many ways of approaching missions and international development work as there are people, but the spectrum can be roughly divided into two approaches, based on whether or not there is a salary involved.

The first approach is arguably the easiest to understand: apply for and receive a job with a salary with a well-funded organization such as one of the many United Nations agencies, World Vision or Opportunity International. Under this approach, you become an employee with a supervisor and clear expectations.

The alternative is to participate on a voluntary basis as part of a smaller organization (often a faith-based group) who are motivated to do good work but cannot afford to pay for that work. Under this approach, you become responsible both for your work assignments and for seeking donors to cover travel and living expenses.

Laura and I have landed in the latter camp, but there's no value judgment between the two -- neither is superior or inferior to the other, both having their benefits and drawbacks.

As we embark on this strange new frontier of volunteering-as-occupation, Laura and I have been making presentations to large groups and small, hosting fundraising events and writing many letters, all with the hope of capturing the imaginations of people who are willing to contribute to missions and development work with their money.

And people have been responding!

In fact, some of the people that we talk to are only too pleased to give money, seeing it as a way to relieve any obligation to actually travel to Africa themselves. It's perhaps the first time in my life that I've heard people express relief to be asked to provide financial support!

So far, about 75 per cent of our estimated budget for the year has been provided: over $30,000 from 100 different families. That's an absolutely amazing testimony of support from a very broad range of people.

And it's a wonderful encouragement from family, friends and some perfect strangers as we set off to tame the wilds of Africa.