Procrastinating or Waiting

As the countdown draws nearer to four months, I am beginning to feel a weight settling on my shoulders. I think this weight is one part procrastination and another part waiting for information on which direction God is leading me. I'm going to just run through several of these situations now.

First, I have been very blessed by the generosity of my family and friends. As of right now I am estimating that I have raised 80% of the $10,000 goal that was set for me by the tour. People have donated in greater amounts than I imagined they would, but I still need to go out and get that last portion. The amount that I can still raise may even be larger than what I have gotten already, however, it requires me to become far more uncomfortable. The group of people I'm refering to are people that I do not know.

How do you go about asking someone who you haven't met, don't know their occupation, don't know their financial situation, don't know their ideas about poverty or cycling to support you? How do you break the ice? I've been able to sit back and try to create a strategy because I am so far along in my goal, but because I am just thinking about it and not acting it feels like I am procrastinating. The last month I have been trying to get lined up with my classis to give a presentation at their meeting on March 4, so I can get the word out to all the area churches that don't have a rider. At the same time I am trying to plan a large fundraiser for sometime in May, but I don't know how large. By that time I may not need to raise a huge amount, so smaller would be okay, but I don't want to short change this fundraising effort, so I might want to plan for several hundred people. I don't want to limit my asking for support to people in the church community because poverty is not just an issue for people on a mission. I want to get an article in the local paper that informs people of the tour and its' goal, but if I invite the whole community to participate in the fundraiser I have no way of knowing how many people will show up because the local paper has a circulation over 100,000. I need to get in contact with the newspaper first, which may give me some time to figure out my scope.

Another thing that has come up recently that I am waiting to hear about is my roommates' job situation. Currently, we are both working at the Field museum in Chicago, but he has applied for a job in Massechusetts that he is very qualified for and I would love to see him get. It just creates a logistical problem for me if he does get it. He will likely hear if he has the job in early March and the job starts April 1st. This would mean that I would have a month to figure out a new living situation because I can't afford our apartment alone. I could move back to my parents' a couple months earlier than expected and commute to work from Indiana. This is a decent option because I could still ride my bike to and from work and use it as my training, but that would be 50 miles per day in two sections. I could sublet my apartment and have all the utilities transfered to my name. I would need to find someone on pretty short notice that would be willing to move out by mid June and that may prove a more difficult than I'm willing to deal with. I could always hope some of my friends might be willing to let me crash at their place too for a short time. This is just one of those things I have to wait on because I have no control over it.

The last thing I am not sure whether I am waiting for or procrastinating about is buying my tickets to and from the tour. Because I have to resign from my job in order to take part in the tour I have the freedom to make my last day whenever I choose. I'd like to make it as late as possible to put a little extra money in the bank, but I would also like to visit my friend in California and possibly road trip the west coast to the start of the tour. I'm waiting to find out what my friends' plans are for this summer before I can make that decision. The longer I wait for that information, though, the more expensive and full flights become. Likewise, because I will not be employed right after the tour ends, I might think about continuing on after all of us riders reach Jersey City. I've never been to New England and I see no better time to do it. If I choose to do this I will need to ship a lot of my equipment home and figure out a way to carry the essentials the rest of the way. On top of this I need to buy temporary health insurance and have no idea how long to buy it for. The museum said that there is a good possibility of being rehired when I get back, but now would be a good time to explore other options as well, maybe find a job in a field that I would want to go to graduate school for so I can get some experience to put on my resume.

My life right now is like a novel or movie show. I've read the first few chapters or seen the preview and I know what it is building toward, but no one knows how I will get to that point. And I am as curious as anyone.