{"id":9836,"date":"2023-01-06T03:24:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-06T03:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=9836"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:33:46","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:33:46","slug":"hands-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=9836","title":{"rendered":"HANDS OUT"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Can I be honest with you about something?<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(I don&#8217;t know why I am asking you &#8211; seems like &#8220;being honest&#8221; is more up to me than you, right?)\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After 13 years or so of being a missionary, I continue to struggle with raising financial support.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When Melissa and I first felt God&#8217;s call to Haiti and started to raise support, my Mom asked me pointedly, &#8220;So you&#8217;re going to spend the rest of your life <i><b>with your hand out<\/b><\/i>?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(She came around to where she fully supported our efforts in Haiti, but it took a few years!)<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She meant well. Besides, the same sentiment was already haunting me.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And, to one extent or another, has haunted me ever since.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Asking other people for financial support goes against every fiber of my being as\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\n<li>An adult<\/li>\n\n\n<li>A man<\/li>\n\n\n<li>An American<\/li>\n\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In fact, the only level on which it doesn&#8217;t bother me is as &#8230; a Christian.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After all, we all pray for God&#8217;s &#8220;will to be done on earth as it is in heaven&#8221;.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Do I believe that it is God&#8217;s will that those who have wealth should be sharing with those in need?<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yes I do. That doesn&#8217;t mean anyone <b><i>has to give<\/i><\/b> to my work with Mission Resource, but it does mean I don&#8217;t need to be ashamed to ask.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Can I be honest with you about something? (I don&#8217;t know why I am asking you &#8211; seems like &#8220;being honest&#8221; is more up to me than you, right?)\u00a0 After 13 years or so of being a missionary, I continue to struggle with raising financial support. When Melissa and I first felt God&#8217;s call to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9836"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9837,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9836\/revisions\/9837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}