A Missionary’s Life :: GLEE, New Jobs, & the IRS

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this post, Friday’s are for updating you on the random happenings of our lives. To those of you (all 2 of you, plus my mom) who asked me to bring back our Friday Updates, here you go!

I can’t promise a “Friday Update” every week, because, well, we just aren’t that interesting anymore! No, really…. we are working a lot lately and not traveling as much…. so without kids or pets, there aren’t always interesting updates. The last thing I want to do is bore you guys to death! haha! I will try to do a Friday Update when we do have an interesting week though, or fun pictures to share! In the meantime, I have a new blog idea that I am working on…. so stay tuned for that! 😉

Fed-Exed to the IRS. “What”? you might be asking? Our 1023!!!! For those of you who don’t speak “lawyer” or “IRS”, a 1023 is the massive, confusing, crazy detailed application you have to fill out in order to get tax-exempt status for your non-profit organization. See, you can be a “non-profit organization” but not be a “501c3” (501c3 status means you are recognized by the IRS as being tax exempt, and the donations you receive are a tax write off). Needless to say, that status is a BIG DEAL if you ever want major donors or grants. I have been pouring over the 26 page application (all in “IRS” language – AGH!) for months now… doing my very best to get it finished and ready to file for The Sound of Hope. Thanks to some explanations from our wonderful, supportive, patient accountant friend Lane (he is awesome!) I was able to finish!

Monday, we took the 60+ pages of information (which I had either prepared myself or answered questions on) to our lawyer. *Note – when filing your 1023, the IRS typically sends it back once or twice for “more information”. We are really hoping to avoid that delay since we’ll be in Thailand for almost 4 months next year. Here’s the really good news – our lawyer was so impressed with my work, that he said he thought we had an 85% chance of getting approved on the first try! YES!!!!

I can’t tell you how good it feels to have heard him say that! After being consumed by this application for so long and working SO hard, it was incredibly affirming to hear “job well done”! Now we wait and pray for FAVOR – that it will be approved on the first try and that we will get the results by the end of this year. Please pray with us!

Paperwork and meetings. If you’re wondering, that’s not all we’ve been up to lately for The Sound of Hope. Since our last update, we had our first Board Meeting, approved our bylaws, and named an organizational lawyer and accountant. We’ve also created lots of necessary paperwork, like an accountable expense reimbursement policy, reimbursement forms, and a partnership agreement for our overseas partners. (I know it sounds boring, but it had to be done!) Our next big undertaking will be our website. We are in GREAT need of a website – it’s been holding us back for months now. Please be in prayer about this process with us!

Our Sound of Hope Board :: Rusty Jackson, Ericka Jackson, Tina Essmaker, & Michael Hindes

Hard-working husband. I’m not the only one that’s been working hard around here, Rusty has been BUSY! This week, he worked 5 different jobs. Yes, I said 5! His main job (job #1) is of course working for The World Race, recruiting and equipping missionaries. His next job (job #2) is Treasurer and Vice President of The Sound of Hope (which means he does our bookkeeping and accounting, and helps me with other projects when I need him). Unfortunately (as you all know) those are support raised jobs (with no benefits) and don’t provide everything we need. With the holidays approaching and our trip to Thailand only about 4 months away, we are in need of some extra money. So, Rusty has also been substitute teaching some days (job #3) and working here and there with a friend who does masonry work (job #4). Job #5 is working for our church doing video work. This is Rusty’s favorite thing to do (and he’s SO good at it!) We were so grateful when the church hired him on for this year as a part-time employee! This was Rusty’s only constant, paying, extra job. Unfortunately, the economy has not been kind to our church. We found out this week they were having to cut back on some things, and can’t pay Rusty anymore. While this news was disappointing, we are still so thankful for all they have done for us! Please pray for PROVISION for us and for our church. They are an incredible body of believers that are doing wonderful things for the Kingdom. It’s just unfortunate that they’re located in one of the hardest hit economic areas in our country.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL! As my husband says, “It’s the MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR!” No, not Christmas…. FOOTBALL SEASON! We could not be more thrilled that it’s THAT time of year again! We may have a lot of different interests, but FOOTBALL is one thing we both LOVE! We had an opportunity to go to the season opener here at Michigan’s stadium (the largest stadium in the nation). Let me tell you friends – it was a very different experience than the SEC, but still lots of fun. Stay tuned for another blog about that trip 🙂

35 and counting. Since we’ve been away from blogging, we celebrated Rusty’s 35th birthday! We spent the day resting, watching movies and cooking out together. His birthday present from me was a day at the Tiger’s game (yes, the same as last year. It’s all he wanted! haha!) So a few days later we went out for a day of baseball. We had a blast!

Hanging out in the hammock….

Rusty getting ready to blow out his candles!
(and yes, I know the cake it pitiful….Baskin Robbins did an awful job!)

Celebrating at the Detroit Tigers Baseball game in our orange and blue!

Modeling Missionaries. We
are still modeling for our friend’s iStock business… so I guess
that’s job #6 for Rusty! I haven’t been doing a good job of posting
pictures (sorry!) so there are a few too many to add here today. I’ll
try to put up a blog next week with a few new pictures from our shoots,
and a link where you can view new photos as they are updated.

GLEE! The countdown has begun!!! 4 days until GLEE is back! If you’ve never watched this show, you are missing out. Considering I was in High School Show Choir for 4 years, All-State Show Choir for 2 years, and AU Singers for 2 years, it’s pretty easy to understand why I am OBSESSED with all things musical/show choir/glee club 😉 I’m SO EXCITED Glee is coming back next week! Anyone with me?