Beth: So, tonight I danced to the YMCA and the Macarena. Tyler: classics in their own right Tyler: are the motions the same over there?
Beth: oh, yes! Tyler: dance is your first international language
Beth: hey, that’s encouraging. Beth: Oh, I just remembered the most awesome thing happened tonight on the dance floor. Beth: So, some airband song from the 80s came on and Nicola and I started air gitarre. Beth: Then we danced with our air gitarres. Then Chris came over and started playing drums. I moved to playing base. someone else joined in with more electric. Beth: Then Nicola and I slid down on our knees for the big solo moment, right in the middle of the dance floor. Tyler: imaginary rock band. on the wii
Beth: Then for the last part of the song I smashed my air gitarre and Nicola smashed his, Chris threw his drums. People started to pretend crowd surf. I pretend to hit Nicola and it was awesome. The end. Tyler: that *is* awesome
Beth: Yes, imaginary rock band it was one of the best moments of my life.
Note the German spelling of the word “guitar.” Language school has worked, I would say.
From Sunday. Tyler delivers a message about the Great Commission and shares his experience with campus ministry at Georgia Tech and Globalscope.
Edit:
I talk to Shalynn about my latest blog entry…
Tyler: I watched myself give a sermon today. It was the most awful sound I have ever heard. Shalynn: Oh, come on. Everybody hates the sound of your voice. Tyler: … Shalynn: I mean their own voice. The sound of their own voice.
churchill brought flashing gang signs to mainstream english culture
It was Winston Churchill that famously said: “When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.” Good advice for those whose task at hand is to endure. I wonder what advice the British Prime Minister (1940-1945, 1951-1955) would have for me, who must not endure – but procure another 60% of monthly support to leave for Germany. Probably something like “When you come to the end of your rope, swing wildly and yell obscenities,” or, “When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and use it as a bludgeon. I don’t know. Be creative.”
Great advice from a great man – especially that “be creative” part.
As it turns out, raising support full time is significantly less active that I could have guessed. I had imagined my days being filled with writing letters, making personal contacts, and meeting people to discuss Globalscope. But a week and a half into the job, I have found my weekdays relatively relaxed and empty. After sending out so many letters and asking so many people for support, it is mostly a waiting game at this point.
So here’s how I am filling my days:
I send an information packet to at least one Atlanta-area church every day. (I follow up a week later with a call to see if they are interested in partnering with me.)
I eek out those few people I have not yet contacted on Facebook and send an email with a brief description of what I’m doing and an invitation to get together to talk about it more.
I do favors for supporters. (P.S. If you need a favor, let me know.)
I make extended trips to run everyday errands – and I usually see someone I know in the process. This is one of the greatest parts of my support-raising day.
I practice guitar and blog.
As support trickles in, I continue to hang by the knot at the end of my rope, and as per Mr. Churchill’s advice, I will seek to “be creative”.
It was a weekend of ups and downs in sleepy Tucker, GA. Mighty Joe Espresso announced much shorter hours in the hopes of fending off shutting the shop down entirely. Despite increasing business, Joe has been in the red for a while, and getting to the black will take a super-caffeinated effort. I also attended my first Ignite Worship Sunday evening service at Briarcliff UMC – only to find out that this was the surprise last time that service would meet. The service is being closed for now due to financial constraints.
Meanwhile, six hours to the south in lively Panama City Beach, FL, it is a totally different story. Georgia Tech CCF is on its annual beach retreat, and the stories that result from the two days on the beach are remarkable, hopeful, inspiring stories of lives transformed… Hundreds of students attended; seven students decided to get baptized, including some of the students I worked with as an intern; countless more connected with God through worship and listening to Globalscope ministers Mark and Lukas talk about Globalscope Chile. Shalynn comes home bubbling over (having not taken the time to shower the entire weekend) and talks about how a freshman student she invited who had only heard of Christianity read a Bible for the first time and joined in singing the worship music. She is confident he will become a Christian.
Here is what Globalscope England minister Jason Tatum has to say…
The fact is, I never had one moment. I have had about a million. And every time I sit just sit there, and I gaze off into nothing, and I make up my mind once again, “This is what God made me for.” And I am grateful, once again. I am humbled, too. Because this stuff doesn’t happen on our own. It happens when God decides to show up, when he decides to move, and only his timing is good, only his timing is right. Sometimes we feel like we are waiting for so long, but when he is there, when he moves in the fullness of his power and his love, we are never the same again. We are never the same.
God was definitely moving in PCB this weekend. And, despite the sore economic news in Metro Atlanta, it was a good weekend for support raising. I continue to find doors opening for finding new partners in campus ministry in Germany in talking to Sunday School classes and other churches. This will happen – it is just a matter of when.
Before every newsletter I send out, I traditionally ask my teammates for their input. Teammate Chandler provided lots of feedback, but not all of it was included in the final version. Of his many edits, perhaps this one was my favorite (Chandler’s additions in red):
To those who are considering committing their support: please send in your support as soon as possible! With our fourth team member practically boarding the plane to go to Germany, it is imperative that I join my team soon, but don’t take my word for it: “Tyler is vital to the Globalscope team. His creative, hardworking, and humorous attitude pushes everyone around him to be better.”
Called three churches for contact info for missions. Sent out three more big-A letters.
Three personal notes to people supporting me already.
Three thank-you’s to the Sunday School classes where I have spoken.
Create a facebook group dedicated to getting me to Germany.
Call folks in the evening. Really pushing for people to make monthly commitments, even if isn’t that much. Commitments made ranged from $4/month to $50/month.
Today’s goals:
Vote.
Find more churches in Tucker/Atlanta to ask.
Need something to do during the day while waiting on info to reach churches… supporter websites.
Call more people in the evening. I am expecting calls from now on to be a push for that needed monthly support.
please help us make sure skit goes down in tübingen
There is a crisis in Germany.
Many of the things we take for granted here in the States are simply not available in central Europe. Peanut butter. Marshmallows. Pickup trucks.
But we are a group that aims to rectify perhaps one of the most cruel and unjust absences in the lives of German university students: quality, funny, enjoyable skits that may or may not have moral lessons embedded in them.
The increasing presence of Globalscope Germany in Tübingen allows our group, the Commission for Quality Skits, an inroad for a Tübingen branch. We are asking to join our group (henceforth referred to as QSIT) by committing to support Globalscope team member and skit writer Tyler Crawford on a monthly basis – at $15 a month (50 cents a day), or more, or less.
Not only will your support allow us to give German students opportunities to see quality skits for the first time, but donors can secure their legacy… All supporting members will have their names written into a skit, given an appropriate opportunity. You can make sure your name lives on forever – or at least for the length of a four-minute skit.
Those who have enjoyed CCF skits know what a valuable and necessary part of campus ministry – and, indeed, life – this is. Please help us. Please help German students. Please make sure skit happens.
usain bolt, olympic gold medalist, knows something about pace - he heard about it once from an acquaintance he ran by at a sprinting party
Tomorrow is the official start of the first work week dedicated completely to raising support. It is important that tomorrow set a precedent for the level of productivity I want to achieve on a daily basis. Setting the pace. It is an art I learned on those 8-mile stretches of cross-country practice in high school and am perfecting as a Crossfit athlete (hello, Gewichtheben small group).
A list of people who have earned notoriety for their ability to pace themselves: Cool Hand Luke, who managed to down 50 boiled eggs in an hour; Lance Armstrong, who has patiently circumnavigated France quicker than any rival (fact check) seven years in a row; Jason Tatum, who has managed to lose more than 100 pounds (approximately one seventh grader) over the last year on his path to losing 150 total – quite the foil to Cool Hand Luke.
A list of people who have not paced themselves: anybody who competes in the annual Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest; the Trix Rabbit, who, although determined, always ditches his clever disguise too early and gets caught by the kids to whom the cereal is really for.
So, with the goal of 50% by week’s end, here’s what I plan to do tomorrow:
Wake up early.
Call churches for contact info for missions. Send out four more big-A* letters.
Personal notes to people supporting me already.
Thank-you’s to the Sunday School classes where I have spoken (3).
Create a facebook group dedicated to getting me to Germany.
Call folks in the evening. Focus on offering businesses the chance to make those 501(c)3 contributions and get the big tax break.
The goal is to celebrate Christmas in Tübingen.
*The “A” stands for “Ask”. I am asking for a lot more support from churches than I am from individuals.
