All right!

So, I've hit the phone circuit hard this week and called 120 churches in the past five days. Ok, technically I only attempted to call 120 churches because several of the phone numbers I had were incorrect. But overall it didn't go horribly. I booked a service for the end of February. I had several pastors tell me to call back in a couple of weeks after they had figured out with their board whether they could do something or not. I'm really hopeful.

Earlier this week I posted a blog on Myspace that covers the first half of the week's calls. It's here for your enjoyment.

here's how the numbers breakdown:

33- Number of churches where I did not get to talk to a living person and had to just leave a message at the beep.

9- Number of pastors I actually got to talk to. This is where it's always the most interesting.
There were a couple of the general, "No, sorry, we're all maxed out."
One pastor was in the middle of something, promised to call me back, but hasn't yet...
But I had a couple of really awesome conversations. Both pastors said there was basically nothing they could do for me. One asked me my age, how long until I needed to be over there, rank, serial number... Ok, it wasn't that out there but it was pretty funny. He just kept chatting away. The other was really encouraging and actually knew who I was and had read the letter I sent him! He didn't think they could do anything but he seemed like he might try and he told me to call back if I still needed support in few months.
One pastor answered the phone and sounded like he was baking a cake. Seriously sounded like pots and pans were banging in the background.
I asked one gentleman if the pastor had received the letter and he says, "Oh, yes, he has." Then tells me he's the pastor. A little unusual.
One phone call ended up with me a little red in the face because the pastor that is now there was not the one I sent the letter to. The other had resigned and the new senior pastor was the one who took my call. He was very nice though and said he thought they probably did have the letter and he would ask his secretary about it.
Another pastor said he had to meet with the board and it didn't look good for me because they preferred to meet new missionaries and they were booked through October.
Number 420 for the day told me the chances of their being able to support me were, and I quote here, "Slim-to-none."

6- Number of secretaries I talked to. One, promised to check and call me back, I'm still sitting by the phone...

4- Number of phones that rang with no answer. Invest the money, buy a $10 machine.

3- Number of phones that went to fax machine. Although I'm not sure one was the fax because instead of the dulcet screes of the fax machine it was this funny three tone beeping.

3- Number of phone numbers that were wrong. 2 were just disconnected, "we're sorry but the number you are dialing no longer exists," kind of calls. One though was awesome... curmudgeonly... old... man. Yeah! It was pretty great!

1- Number of pastor's wives I talked to who handle missions giving who sounded hopeful and then had to call me back today and tell me there was nothing the church could do right now.

1- Number of times I got called Becky!