This Just Out

I just sent out my support letter for my trip to Calcutta. I sent it to a lot of people, but I'm sure I still missed someone that would have liked one. If you would like to support me and don't get a copy in the mail within the next week or so, please just email me and I'll be happy to mail you a copy, along with a response card and return envelope.

Here is the letter itself:

Dear Friends and Family,

As many of you know, I graduated from Harvey Mudd College last May and spent the summer at the Los Angeles Urban Project (LAUP). At LAUP, I was working with a summer program for children in a poor, Black and Latino neighborhood. My experiences there were among the most amazing of my life, and caused me to reevaluate just about everything. One of the most powerful things I experienced at LAUP was God’s love for the poor. It is topic mentioned throughout the Bible, yet has become very easy to forget about.

I know that God wants me to have additional experiences with urban poverty. To that end, I made a personal commitment to put myself back into a situation of poverty, so that I may continue to experience God's love for the poor, as well as investigate where God may be taking me in life.

I have been accepted, and I am currently preparing for a trip to Calcutta, India in February of 2005 with an organization called Word Made Flesh (www.wordmadeflesh.org). I will be a member of a six person team serving among the poor. I will be in Calcutta for four months, long enough to immerse me in many of the realities of life in Calcutta without being able to escape into my American comfort zone. I will experience some of the most extreme urban poverty anywhere in the world. Just the thought of it is both exciting and scary to me. Even a year ago I wouldn't have considered this trip. God has done an amazing work in my heart to bring me to this point.

To make this trip I will require a great amount of support both financially and in prayer. Please consider if and how God is leading you to partner with me. Whether or not you choose to support me financially, please consider supporting me through prayer. This will be a very intense four months for me, and I will need to rely on God more deeply than I ever have before.

My total budget is $4800, and I need to raise it by January 15th. If you choose to support me financially, I have enclosed an envelope and a response card. All donations are tax deductible. Checks should be made out to “Word Made Flesh” and my name should not appear anywhere on the check. Make sure to include the response card so that they will know that you are supporting me.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Thank you for your loving support,
Philip