Wed
Jun
07
2006

Shave or save?

No 3 son, Joel is dipping his toes in the waters of short term mission in just over a month.
We are delighted with this. We could want nothing more than for our kids to grow in their life with Christ, and express it in these kinds of ways.
The trip is with a team from Credo, the Christian group at UTS, to Vanuatu. They will spend some time working with Christian groups there, doing some training in ministry stuff, some evangelism, some time in remote villages, experiencing the local culture, and so on.

It’s a big investment of time, energy and money to do the trip, and we are impressed with the effort and sacrifices Joel is making to raise the funds for his personal expenses. Having secured those costs, he is now setting about raising funds to take some resources (like Bibles) with them. To do that, he has put his famous hair on the line!

Joel offered to shave off his voluminous locks in return for sponsorship. Not an unusual trick in fund-raising circles. The twist here though, is that some of Joel’s friends started a rival fund – to save his hair.

It’s a great gimmick, and you can follow the progress in this blog post. At the time of writing, the save fund is badly in need of more support!

Update: The fundraiser has ended, with an amazing $1150 raised! This is more than five times the amount the team expected.
Big thanks to everyone who supported the effort, and kudos to Joel who was prepared to loose his abundant locks for the sake of the gospel! Gory details here

Posted by Neil, 7 June 06
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Comment

  1. This actually sounds like a lot of fun. I am going to share this with my fundraising buddies. I will see if they could use this idea next year.
    My sister Ann believes God will call her to another country to minister. Could you recommend ways she could explore this option?

    — EDEN · May 27, 01:58 AM · #

  2. I think the best way to explore those kind of options is to talk to a trusted missionary organisation about opportunities, training, theological education, etc. Then perhaps do one or two short term mission trips (2 weeks – 3 months) to parts of the world that she is interested in.

    — NeilA · May 27, 04:53 AM · #

  3. Your sister would probably enjoy and benefit from going to ‘Reachout,’ a conference in the latter half of the year for those who are keen to test the waters.

    — J · May 27, 09:27 AM · #

  4. Good suggestion Joel – expect that Eden is in the States (that’s right, isn’t it Eden?) ;-)

    — NeilA · May 27, 10:46 AM · #

  5. that could make things a little difficult…

    — J · May 27, 12:54 PM · #

  6. Yeah…I am in Michigan.

    — EDEN · May 30, 10:23 PM · #

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