Encouragement is a blessing. In this age of Twitter and Facebook, a handwritten letter is a treasure chest full of gold that fills the emotional bank of our hearts.
Yesterday, I opened a letter addressed to Athentikos from Pennsylvania. We normally don’t receive a lot of mail from people, so this was already a unique experience. Inside the envelope was a check and a handwritten letter that included the following:
“Dear Mr & Mrs Moore,
I viewed your documentary – Reparando – last evening on Hulu Plus and I was moved by the conditions that exist, and the work being done to repair them. Praise God! Enclosed is a gift of $25 which I will send each month for the next year …”
I was unprepared for this encouragement and my eyes filled with tears. The emotional bank of my heart has long been overdrawn – invested in Becoming Fools – a worthy, but underfunded project that has been subsidized with my life for the last three years. To be honest – at this point in production, it’s easy to get discouraged – trapped into thinking the last three years were a waste of my time. It feels like we’ve put something on layaway and made payments every month, but we’ll never get to bring it home …
Three years is a long time, especially in an age when we get instant feedback. We can drive up to a window and get food in seconds. We can instantly watch any one of thousands of movies or tv shows, and if we don’t like that one, we can change our minds and instantly watch another. It’s easy to forget why we do what we do when we are focused on tasks to finish something – especially when we’re insulated and isolated from the reason we are doing it in the first place.
We produced Becoming Fools to share it with an audience – not so that the audience will tell us we did a good job, but so that the audience would be inspired to do something to make a difference in the lives of at-risk youth.
I’m grateful for this letter of encouragement. It testifies the power of story, the importance of our mission, and reminds me that our efforts are not in vain. This individual blew wind into our sails with encouraging words … and financial partnership that helps us amplify authenticity and multiply the mission of other organizations serving on the ground around the world. The irony is that this person was moved to encourage us after watching Reparando on Hulu – a film we released three years ago – the same amount of time that we have invested in Becoming Fools. Maybe three years isn’t that long of an investment when we consider that stories can be passed down from generation to generation, with a return greater than we’ll ever know. It is worth it …
Help us leverage Becoming Fools by giving a tax-deductible donation.
This handwritten letter of encouragement is a treasure chest full of gold.
