You people are even more wonderful than I’ve been giving you credit for, and I’ve been giving you credit for a LOT!

I never expected all this laughter, and I’m so grateful.

Al’s comment sums up how I’m feeling about all this right now:

“Isn’t this God’s first superb surprise for us?  Yes!  We thought this would be easy, that we’d just have to figure out how to spend the funds, but God says, oh, yes, you provide the first fish and loaves, okay?  You don’t mind, do you?  There’s precedent for this, you know.  And I’m laughing.”

I think Al means that he himself is laughing, but it almost sounds as if he means that God is laughing.  And I think that’s right.  God is laughing, having a little fun with us.  Maybe one of the things I personally have to learn to do is laugh about money.  This is pretty hard for me.

I am thinking right now that we encourage one another to go ahead anyway with our project and let the first step be finding the money somehow, expecting it to come your way in by some surprise or coincidence or providential something.  Still, of course this is optional.  After all, how on earth would we REQUIRE this of one another??

Here are some excerpts from your e-mails over the last 24 hours.  (We really should post the full e-mails from everyone so we have a full record of all this.  Would you each be willing to do that?  Or I will.)  Also see Andy’s blog post below.

From Al H:
At 9:08:30 I’m reading on the blog that this is quote “really bad news.” 
At 9:08:45 I read “There is no money for our project.”
I start laughing.
At 9:09:15 Still laughing.
LAUGHING
Some of it is relief, of course.  Everyone is okay!  It’s just money we’re talking about…
And the money.  Why should there be money?  Isn’t this God’s first superb surprise for us?  Yes!  We thought this would be easy, that we’d just have to figure out how to spend the funds, but God says, oh, yes, you provide the first fish and loaves, okay?  You don’t mind, do you?  There’s precedent for this, you know.  And I’m laughing.

From Debra A:
The theme of “not enough money” is the throughline in the plot of my life.
And as for the loss of $100.00 that I never had to begin with, well… Oh
well.  My project is still important to me and I can do it with equipment I
already have on hand.  In fact, I want to do it - perhaps all the more.

From Agnes:
And so: let this money coming and the way it will be used be a surprisingly joyful thing.  Let the quest evoke laughter, be like new wine.”
In my desk drawer I have $60 (Cdn) extra cash because I withdrew from my ATM not seeing and immediately forgetting the $60 I’d withdrawn two days earlier.

From Karen:
A few days ago, I got a check in the mail.  It was for my initial participation in the study.  It is for $100.  It is still sitting on my dining room table waiting for me to decide what interesting thing I will do with money I was not planning on.  It is in reading Al’s and then Agnes’ email that it became clear to me what I will do with my check. 
Nick:
I will be getting 100 dollars American for the piece on the Leadership Blog.
Found out about that just before hearing that I would be deprived of the
Lilly funds.

It is obvious via coincidence and conscience that I have been condemned not
to enjoy the Blog cheque.

Dear friends,

There’s no good way to say this, so I will simply say it.

There is no money for our project.

This is a result of a mistake on my part.  I’ll explain what happened and then propose some possible ways we can choose to deal with it.

Last February, Jamie Smith wrote me and asked what I wanted to do with the $1600 follow-up money that came with each seminar grant.  At the time, he gave me the choice between doing a follow-up project of some kind or giving each of you a $100 voucher (effectively) to buy books.  I chose the voucher, wanting to spare you the book expenses as much as possible.

When you were all here, Jamie asked again what I wanted to do with my $1600.  He had apparently forgotten that he had given me a choice, and I had completely forgotten that I had already made a choice back in February somewhere in California.  So I merrily proposed the question to you all, we came up with our fabulous project, and you know all about that part.

Then, last week, when I requested that the Seminars office cut some checks for you, Alysha figured it out: we had already spent all the money.

I am so sorry.  I am embarrassed and ashamed and very very sorry.

So what do we do now?

Well, there are several options that I can think of.  Perhaps you can think of more.

1) We forget the project.  We chalk it up to a fantastic idea that ran into an obstacle and we move on with our other projects.  This will involve some grief, but it has the obvious benefit of resulting in one less thing to do.

2) We seek funding from some other source.  If we could think of a good source quickly, this might work.  Any ideas?

3) We go ahead with the project, but use our own money.  I was thinking I could sell my son’s old quarter-size violin for about $100.  I could use that money.  Or we could use our own money but make it a smaller amount.  In this scenario, our efforts to scramble together some money could become part of what we write about, part of the interest of the project.

I am honestly not at all sure which option I personally favor.  I am hoping to listen to our collective wisdom.

Please think about this, pray some, and post your suggestions.

Many thanks for your good graces, in which I still hope I am…

Debra

This blog is a follow-up forum for the reflections, reactions, and revisions of 17 writers from the 2006 Seminars in Christian Scholarship Seminar that met on the campus of Calvin College during the summer of 2006.
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