let me be honest … at one time i enjoyed spending church money. i’m not talking about wasting money or doing anything unethical with it. no what i mean is that when i had to buy something big for the church and/or youth ministry i enjoyed it. it was fun. doing the research, trying to get the best deal, and ultimately making the purchase without it being my own money. all the pressure was off. if the purchased bombed (because the product was a lemon or was accidentally destroyed by a teen) things could be corrected in the next year’s budget. no pressure.
that’s not true anymore.
any purchase i make for tapestry causes my stomach to go into knots. there is no assurance that things will be corrected next year. there’s no assurance that there will be a budget next year. if a purchase bombs then i have wasted a valuable tapestry resource. each purchase is a choice between money for one thing or money for another. thanks to some very generous donors we at least have a budget to buy the the initial stuff we need. of course, ever time i buy something large it drives me nuts. i write this because i just spent a grand on a rear projection screen, a projector table, and an asus 901 back up computer. i also still have more sound equipment to buy.
MAJOR SIDE NOTE – as i was typing this post arnold austin popped up on facebook for a quick but important chat. for those who know and love the austins they have a pray request for you to jump on. this summer there were 60 summer missionaries in peru. these are students who give up there summer to be a part of GOD’s work in peru. one of those summer missionaries who had gone down to peru was greg gomez. this past week he was involved in a van accident and died in peru of a head injury. he was 19 hours away from lima and even further away from his family in st. louis. they are now in the process of getting his body back to lima to be taken to the states. please pray for the gomez family as well as the austins and remaining summer missionaries as they deal with this.