Since 2001, I have been writing and speaking and it has been one of the biggest sources of joy in my life. Each time I write, I feel a thrill. And each time I speak, I thank God that he lets me use my pain and life experience to encourage women in their walks with him. The life I lead is truly a gift and I am one really grateful girl on a constant basis.
However, I am finding myself at an interesting place. Up to this point, writing and speaking have been more of a hobby/ministry than a self-sustaining career, and that needs to change. I either need to lay all of this down, all that I love, and get what our culture would consider a quote-unquote real job; or I need to take some steps toward becoming a self-sustained writer and speaker.
I have been working with a leadership coach and am in the process of setting forth some goals to pursue my dream, which is to help as many women as I can through my writing and speaking, while being able to take care of myself and my children financially. I have decided to pursue this until I sense God leading otherwise.
I’ve spent five years blogging, becoming more consistent in the past year, posting original content three times a week. I hear great feedback from readers in the comments section, on Facebook and over email, and I am so grateful that what I write seems to not only resonate with so many women but also – it’s hard for me to even believe – helps them as well. Helps them in their hard, hard marriages; helps them as they separate and divorce; helps them come back to life a little bit as they heal; and even helps church leaders to hopefully shift their thinking regarding domestic abuse. I am continually so humbled and honored, seriously.
However, a majority of what I do under my mission of reaching out to hurting women – leading small groups in my home, meeting one-on-one, going to divorce court for support, speaking at domestic violence conferences, and writing online and for my blog – yield no monetary results. I’ve been fine with that for a very long time because I always felt I was helping someone; but the bottomline is that ministry costs money, my time is valuable, and I am a single mom who needs to support herself and her children.
Why am I telling you this? Because I am asking for your help.
One of the ways I am moving forward is by joining Patreon, a website that connects artists with their patrons/supporters.
If you are a regular reader of this blog, I am asking you to simply consider supporting me through Patreon. For those who do support me, there will be incentives of things like bonus content that only you’d get to see, sneak peeks of upcoming projects, and the occasional private webcast or Google chat.
I realize this is a shift in thinking for many of you…it was for me as well. But just like everyone else, I need to earn a living for my work. We pay for the books and magazines we read, we pay for someone to paint our nails and make us a latte, we pay for most things.
This is a no-pressure request. I will continue to keep writing for my blog as I have been. Please keep reading and sharing it. But I simply ask that you pray about whether you would consider supporting me in this, and if you decide to, go here.
Thank you, sweet ones.
Elisabeth
elisabeth@elisabethklein.com
~creating resources that help hurting women by bringing them hope~
Elisabeth, this is a good step, and I pray that your ministry can truly become your “full time job” and can sustain you and the kiddos. Do you mind sharing why you have chosen to go through a service like Patreon, which is designed for patrons of the arts, rather than a site that is designed to facilitate ministry for charitable causes, or even a mission board? I have a very limited budget, but I have also been helped my your ministry for several years now, so I feel like it’s an easy step for me to support someone like you in full-time ministry via a Christian organization with tax-deductible donations. But I have to admit, I don’t have a budget area for “patronage of the arts.” Maybe it’s a little thing, but there are multiple ways that you could accept donations that would designate you as being in ministry. And if you are a self-supporting missionary through a local church or mission board, that also provides a type of accountability that helps me to feel comfortable giving regular donations 🙂
Ruthie, thank you for writing and this is a very good question. I’ve decided not to become a non-profit but to continue on as a sole proprietorship as I have been for over a dozen years. Also, regarding not having a budget for the arts, which I totally get, the starting monthly pledge is only $2, which I think is pretty doable for most people. I’m so glad you’re a faithful reader!