Support raising is hard. Although there are weeks such as this one, when it seems that every conversation, email, phone or otherwise is encouraging, and at the same time, makes me thankful for the amazing people the Father has brought into Elizabeth’s & my lives!

As you might guess, one of the most humbling things about support raising is having to admit over and over again, “I can’t do this on my own. I really need your help.” While Elizabeth and I believe with everything we’ve got that planting a church in Ireland is what we are being called to, we also believe that this is not something we are being called to do by ourselves. We are called to do this with a community of people. With a community of friends who are praying for us, for this church, and for the people of Dublin. With a community of people who are committed to supporting us financially while we move over there.

This concept doesn’t fit too well with the whole Rugged-American-Individualism, I grew up with…but it does seems to fit pretty well with the inter-dependency we see modeled in the New Testament church. Not that that makes it any less humbling to contact a friend and say, “I need your help to do what God is calling me to do.”

Speaking of humbling…One of the first families who got on board with supporting us financially as we talked about Ireland were Ann & Patrick Taylor. And not only are they doing that, Patrick has asked me to share the following letter with as many people as possible.

Hello –

My name is Patrick Taylor. I lived in Ithaca for only one year, but it made a huge difference in my life.

I’m not referring to the “shop local” attitude, the fabulous Farmer’s Market, or the “gorgeous” surroundings. While I do eat healthier, and take more hikes, it’s the time I spent at the Ithaca Vineyard that made the biggest difference in my life.

Ithaca is a place of transition; people come and go. We came to town because my wife had accepted a short term research position at Cornell. We quickly found the Ithaca Vineyard, which was meeting at the local movie theater.

It was awesome!

At the Vineyard, I learned how to pray. I learned how to heal, and to be healed. I learned to love the body of Christ, and to have compassion for the lost.

That’s what Bob and Liz want to take to Dublin. Prayer. Healing. Love. And that’s why our family is financially supporting the Wilsons.

If you attended the Ithaca Vineyard, I would ask you to think back to the time you spent there. Think about the creative Sunday messages, the small groups, the authentic love of Christ. And then think about supporting Bob and Liz.

In Him,

Patrick Taylor

To be honest, I’ve sat on that letter a bit. (Figuratively, of course, I didn’t actually sit on it…) Not because I didn’t appreciate it…(In fact, it’d be hard to explain how getting a letter like this impacts me.)  But I sat on it because it’s humbling to need others in the Body of Christ the way our family does now, as we are in the midst of one of the biggest transitions in our lives. It’s humbling to have people say to others on your behalf…”please help them.” However, just as we are needing people to come along side through monthly financial giving, and prayer, I needed a friend to come along side and say, not only are we joining with…but this is why with think investing in you, your family and what you are going to do in Ireland is worth it. Thanks Patrick!

To those of you who have already begun supporting us, or have said, “we will, just need to figure out an amount,” thank you. To those of you whom we haven’t gotten in touch with yet, but would like to be part of what we are doing, please drop us a note & we’ll get back in touch with you. (for many of you, we’d love to get in touch…we just need help finding your contact info:-)

If you’d like some more info on what we’re planning as we head to Dublin, please head over to our website, dublinchurchplant.com and look around a bit.

Thanks for reading…hope to hear from you!