Donating at the Door
During the 23+ years that I lived in Hague, at my parents’ house, we often had people come to the door to ask for donations, or to sell something. (The town had a reputation for good prospecting).
I’m basically a kind, compassionate and generous person, but this issue of having to decide on a moment’s notice whether to donate at the door, or how to know which ones to give to and which ones to turn away - well, it was hard on me. For one thing, I had so little money myself. If I did have a dollar or two to spare, I didn’t want to give it away foolishly at the door.
The school kids often came to sell chocolates, or to ask for donations for UNICEF. (In the latter case I asked them to explain to their teacher that I did not donate because UNICEF supported abortion in other countries).
When the young people would come around dragging garbage bags and asking for empty pop bottles or cans, I could honestly say that we didn’t drink such stuff in this home. (However, I didn’t mention that Dad has his own stash of collected bottles and cans in the back shed, and when he had a good load, he’d ask me to take help him take them in to turn in for cash. It’s a plan of our provincial government to keep them out of the landfills). However, when they asked for support to go on a missions trip… that would tug at my heart strings.
Sometimes they would be strangers with wonderful-sounding charities that would do so much good for orphans, and the blind, etc., but if I had never heard of them before, I wondered…if they might be for real or not.
Sometimes it would be friendly woman from the community collecting for one cancer research fund or another.
I was frustrated by this donating at the door business. I wanted to be a good giver, but I didn’t like to be jerked around, or to fall into impulse giving. I prayed about it a number of times, and gradually came up with a plan.
My church tithe would always be a foregone decision, but I would try to set aside another tithe in a special wallet, and I would pray and wait for guidance to know when to give out of that. If it was empty, I could say “no” with a clear conscience.
There are always plenty of opportunities to give, so I would gather information, study it and pray about it until I could settle on a confirmed list of missions and charities that I would give to regularly or whenever prompted. At the same time I would pray about each ‘gift’ and keep my spirit tuned to discern well when I should donate. I would count on God to show me.
With that plan settled on, when the doorbell rang, I would dash down the ramp in the garage to the outer door, and cheerfully say, “Sorry, I don’t buy or donate at the door.” Most often they turned away immediately, so I didn’t even have to explain about my prayer plan.
One day though, a salesman with a heavy case, asked, “Why?”
I answered frankly, “Because I don’t have time to pray about it and discern the Lord’s will.”
His quick repartee was, “Okay. Let’s pray.”
That flustered me a bit, but I told him it didn’t work like a magic button.
In my present circumstances I just don’t see that many people at the door, and generally not ones asking for donations at the door. (Maybe that was unique to Hague).
Now that I have some incomes and and am contributing my time to various missions, I think about planning my giving even more. In fact, I’m doing a study in the Bible on giving and working on a good grid of discernment to help me find the worthy missions and projects and people to support.
My missions wallet swells sometimes and there is a very unique joy and delight in feeding orphans in one country, buying school supplies for poor kids in another, and supporting missionaries who need their daily groceries. When it goes flat I am at peace; it will fill up again.
But no rash, unconsidered donating at the door for me.