Once upon a time, there was a man named Stuart. Stuart was a somewhat selfish man, who thought only of himself. One morning, after purchasing his usual, over-priced, unnecessarily specific, probably organic coffee, he was strolling along, and he met a kind-hearted person. This kind-hearted person expressed to Stuart that he (the kind-hearted person) was engaged in helping less fortunate people, and that he (Stuart) could join him in his work by contributing money towards his cause.

Stuart guffawed loudly as he walked away from the kind-hearted man. Maybe someone else had enough extra time and resources to think about other people, but not him! Between running his kitten-drowning business during the week, and his annual baby seal clubbing convention kicking off this weekend, he just didn’t have room for “needy people” or “causes” in his life.

Still chuckling at the very notion of the idea, Stuart distractedly stepped into the street and was run over by a cement truck. If only he had taken the time to engage with that poor kind-hearted man, maybe things would have turned out differently.*

On a completely unrelated note, we need new batteries for our solar system.

The ones that we have here in the jungle are very near the end of their natural lives (4-5 years). We would like to replace them before they actually conk out, but we seem to be lacking the funds to do so.

“But, Seth,” I can hear you asking. “This sounds very much like an expenditure that you knew was coming. Why didn’t you set money aside for this known upcoming expense?”

To answer your question, let me paint a little illustrative picture for the benefit of the group:

Imagine you have been imprisoned on a desert island. You are alone on the island, except for three 25-foot long pythons. These pythons are named “Family,” “Ministry,” & “Boring-but-necessary-things-like-medical-insurance.” Each month you are air-dropped three small dead pigs. Each pig is just enough food to tide 1 snake over for one month. If you fail to feed one of the snakes, it will crush you to death while you sleep and swallow your crumpled body whole.

OK, now let’s say that while this is going on, you become aware that a 4^th snake will eventually be joining you on the island. Let’s call this 4^th snake, oh, I don’t know, we’ll just pick something random like “Batteries.” You want to set aside a couple pork chops here and there to get ready for this upcoming arrival, but whenever you try to, Ministry snuggles a little closer at night than you’re comfortable with and hisses something in your ear that sounds remarkably similar to “It’s time for your Home Assignment, buddy, and plane tickets don’t grow on trees.”

This is what is known as a classic predicament. One the one hand, you want to plan ahead, because that is what responsible people do, and you want to be a responsible person. On the other hand, you’d rather not be pulverized and eaten by a snake.

Because our monthly support is only 75% of what our mission agency recommends for a family of 5, in a helicopter-only bush location, there are some predictable future expenses that we just aren’t able to set aside funds for. The most imminent of these expenses are our solar system batteries.

What we’re looking at cost-wise to purchase these batteries and get them installed is around $6,500. We are really hoping to be able to purchase these by this coming September (2 months from now).

On the plus side, because of advances in battery technology, this next set of batteries should be the last ones that we will need to buy, as they are rated for 10-15 years of deep-cycle use!

A few other perks of these new batteries are that they will allow us to use our fans in the evening (a super humid and muggy time of day), as well as give the team access to the internet after 5 PM (the team internet runs off of our house’s power bank and is a bit of a power hog). It will also cut down on our need to fly in petrol to run our generator (fuel cost + transportation cost = $100 USD per 5 gallons (20 liters))

If you would like to contribute to this project, we would really appreciate it. You can give HERE.

Also, it would be super helpful if you were to share this need with your churches, friends, and small groups. Sharing on social media is hugely appreciated. We will make a public announcement when we reach our goal.

*Rochelle is afraid that my opening illustration might be taken the wrong way by people who aren’t familiar with my sardonic attempts at humor. To assuage her nerves, let me just state explicitly that the story about Stuart is fictional, and is meant as nothing more than a playful introduction to a fundraising endeavor. Any resemblance to any real person named Stuart that you may know is purely coincidental.