Why Crowdfunding? : Because it’s not that easy to submit an invoice for a live sheep.

One of the projects that 5 Small Loaves is involved with is the planning of a Native American Student Conference called “Would Jesus Eat Frybread?” (WJEF?) This is a conference that is primarily for the Native Student ministries of CRU (formally Campus Crusade) and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. We have hosted this conference twice so far. The first WJEF? was located near my home on the Navajo Reservation and the second one was held on the Yakama Reservation in Washington state. One event that is quickly becoming a tradition a  WJEF? is the hosting of a feast with the local community and featuring foods from the local tribes. So last year, with the Yakama tribe, we had fresh salmon that was donated by the tribe, and an elk that was hunted and then donated that same day to our conference to be cut up and prepared.

At our first WJEF Conference, on the Navajo Reservation, I was in charge of planning the feast with foods from the Navajo tribe, which, of course, had to include fresh mutton. One of our partners had agreed to donate funds for the feast and asked me to submit my receipts for the food we bought. I told our partner that I intended to buy a live sheep so some of our local elders could butcher it for us and then teach the students how to prepare fresh mutton. This was a little baffling to them and they asked if they could instead donate funds to some other aspect of our conference that would cost in the same price range as a live sheep. They went on to explain that they were not too sure if they were able to reimburse receipts for the purchase of live animals. I was happy to oblige as I completely understood that the finance directors and accountants of most western organizations were not used to reimbursing costs for food that was purchased live.  🙂

5 Small Loaves is Crowd Funding because we recognize that life and ministry in a Native context is very unique and quite different from elsewhere throughout the country. Our desire is to contextualize our work as closely as we can to the culture of the people we are ministering to. Because of this, we decided that the easiest way to go about it, and with the least amount of red tape, would be to crowd fund through individuals. So we welcome you to partner with us.

Our campaign is called “5 Small Bucks and 2 Little Shares.” We are asking is for people to consider donating $5 to our work and then giving our ministry 2 shares on your social media networks (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Google+, email, etc.) And for those who are really tech savvy our hashtag for this campaign is #5Bucks2Shares.

Donations can be made at our page on GoFundMe:

Ahe’hee’ (thank-you)

Mark Charles

P.S. The next Would Jesus Eat Frybread? conference is being held on the Ojibwa lands near Cloquet MN.