I’ve been raising some support this summer which brings  the usual amount of faith-stretching experiences.  I had asked a friend to financially support our ministry and he said he wanted to and would give online.
And then a month passed.
I went out of town for vacation and visiting family.  When I got back in town, I knew I had to contact him again but I hesitated to ask  – I didn’t want to pester him or affect our friendship.  But I e-mailed him and this was his response:
Ben Arment had a great post on this last year on his blog.
Whenever you “make an ask” and don’t hear back from the person, it’s not because they’re giving you a silent “no.”
It’s because you’re number 37 or 52 in their in-box… and they’re busy. They don’t despise the ask at all.
But that’s not where we go first.
We think, “They hate me for asking,” “They’re avoiding me now,” “I’ve upset the relationship,” and “I should never have gone there…”
But it’s usually ask #2 or #3 that gets a response. And if we’d stick it out… we’d discover it’s more often a good one.