I’m not a big gifts person, at least not in terms of wrapped presents to open. Even at Christmas I’m not interested in a pile of packages with my name on them. My love languages are more words and invested time, which I confess I crave like a child who wants a pony with a huge bow around her neck.
Big celebrations and parties also aren’t my thing. I do enjoy planning them or participating in them if the festivity is for someone else. Even then, I care more about momentous occasions like graduations and weddings or retirement parties than the more mundane Hallmark events, even birthdays.
But this week I’ll be 60 years old on Wednesday, May 4th, and for once I’m hoping for a HUGE CELEBRATION! If you’re reading this blog, you’re probably aware that I’ve dedicated my professional life to Bethesda Workshops. Since God prompted me to offer the first clinical intensive for female sex and love addicts in 1997, almost 4500 people have attended a healing workshop. Men, women, sex addicts and partners of addicts…. I’m humbled at the number of people who have found help and hope through this ministry.
Many of you through these almost 20 years have offered kind words about how much the workshop meant to you and the ways it changed your life. I cherish those emails and notes. I have a sweet, fat file folder of many of them that I turn to sometimes when I’m feeling discouraged. Thank you!
This week I’m asking for something tangible. Would you celebrate my birthday by making a gift to Bethesda Workshops’ building fund? We are making steady progress toward matching our amazing challenge gift, and we still have a long way to go. I’m hoping that you’ll plug your donation into this formula:
600 people giving $60 = $36,000!
I believe there are 600 people in the Bethesda Workshops family of 4500 who can make this gift of $60. How about 6 of you who would give $600? Or hey, maybe there is one person (or six, in keeping with the 60 theme) who could give $60,000!
The celebration isn’t about me, of course. It’s to further the work of this incredible ministry and the healing God empowers us to do. Yet, I find it more than fortuitous that I heard about this fundraising strategy in time for a fairly significant birthday.
Sixty years old. Thirty-six thousand dollars. I’ll definitely blow some noisemakers and blow out five dozen candles for that! (Especially if the gifts include a sweet note).
Marnie C. Ferree