What Can I Do To Help?
"What can I do to help?" "If there's anything I can do, please let me know" "We're here if there's anything we can do" I'm in the process of fighting some health issues at the moment, and I get asked this question several times a week. Different expressions, different word order and phrasing, but at heart, the same question. Although there are some who say it because it's the 'right thing' to say, I am beyond blessed to know that except for a rare exception, the people who are asking me really do mean it. Mostly I thank them and move on, in part because there's really very little people can do at the moment except prayer. Unless they are either able to help financially or help by driving me to appointments (which are actually much less anyway now that I was able to find medication cheaply enough to be able to self-inject), there wasn't anything easily coming to mind.
It got me thinking though, that there MUST be other things people could do, and so I came up with some ideas. Many are connected to finances as that really is my biggest need at the moment (think of the amount needed to buy a house, ten year's worth of renting a studio in Brooklyn etc), but some are time, energy, and creative thinking. If you are one of those people who would like to DO something, please read on and see if any of these appeal to you: 1. Prayer. For health, for good management of my time and energy, for provision (as well as needing medical costs, I also don't have sufficient regular committed support), for direction and for favor. 2. Personally support my online fundraiser or give a gift on the home page of this website.
3.Start your own fundraiser! I know not everybody can give financially, but could you organise something to help me either cover past bills or upcoming surgery? Bake sales, sponsored events, yard sales, donating profit from a party for one of the companies that are around at the moment?
4. If you're creative, I thought of selling t-shirts to raise money toward my surgery. I have no thoughts for a theme, design or anything. Do you?
5. Does your church have a benevolent fund for missionaries that find themselves in these situations? Can you find out how that could be accessed?
6. Do you have time to research charities for grants, donations, benevolent funds for missionaries etc? I'm told there are many, and the internet is a vast place. I've made some headway, but there could be more, I'm sure.
7. Do you have time to help me research issues with insurance, billing, immigration etc? I have spent around 250 hours on this since October and still don't have an answer as to HOW to move forward. I can fill you in on the boring details and needs any time!
8. Are you an expert negotiator? Can you help me negotiate some of my bills? I didn't even know that was a thing you could do until a month or so ago!
9. Can you promote fundraisers that I'm doing on your social media?
10. If you live in Smithtown (or near by), are you able to help me by driving me to an appointment or grocery store from time to time?
