Something to Celebrate?

Randy’s January 2010 Update

Support Raising?  Yuck!  No Thanks!:

There are times when I think, that at some point in life, everyone should have the experience of raising support to meet their daily needs and to do whatever redemptive thing they feel led to do with their life.

It truly is an amazing journey – filled with humble surrender, redemptive trust building, hurtful discouragement, life-giving excitement, courageous fear conquering, and on-going faith strengthening; a journey I never thought I could or would do, until the more recent past.

Support Raisers’ Uplifting Stories:

I used to hear stories about people who lived on support.  Their stories often told of ways in which they saw God come through for them financially right when they needed it most – almost always to the exact dollar.

Our Current Economic Reality:

As you can imagine, 2009 was a tough economic year for non-profits, with people losing jobs and many people being concerned about their financial futures.  During the year, I heard of many non-profits that expected to end up in the negative for the year.  It looked like Legacy Shepherding Ministries might be among them.  There were times when it was discouraging and a bit scary when I wondered about the future.

Around October or November, I told Legacy’s Board of Directors that it would take a miracle for me to reach my bare-bones support raising goal for 2009.  God needed to raise around $8,000 within a couple months.  I’d done everything I could.  I’d made my “asks” of just about everyone I knew.  All I could do was send out my remaining monthly letters, wait, pray, and see what God might do.

Slowly, unexpected contributions began coming in, some from people I didn’t even know.  I was a little afraid to get my hopes up.  Would He possibly come through?

Something To Celebrate!:

Well, you can guess how the story ends.  It’s so easy for you to have faith.  It wasn’t happening to you!  Tee hee!

Including numerous checks written on the very last day of the year, God accomplished His miraculous mystery – contributions received exceeded expenses paid out by $139.57.  Amazing!  Something to truly celebrate!  The extra will most likely go toward the purchase of a printer and office needs that I put off buying, not being sure where this year would land – wouldn’t it be funny if my foregone purchases cost exactly $139.57?

I feel hopeful for the future, though I know 2010 will still have its financial challenges.

We Did It! Thank You:

When I ventured out into this world of ministry, I included a saying on one of my first support-raising letters: “A single snowflake can’t do much on its own, but if the snowflakes stick together, they can stop traffic.”  I feel like together, we stopped traffic; we made a difference in people’s lives and in the world.

Thank you so much for being a part of this – through your prayers, support, encouragement, free meals, and all the other ways you reached out to me and to the young leaders benefiting from this ministry.  You could have spent your money and prayers on other things.   I’m so grateful you chose to spend them here, investing in people (the true treasures) of the next generation, who desire to make a benevolent difference in our world.

I pray that God will open up the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing on you that you will not have room enough for it (Mal 3:10) and it will overflow onto everyone around you, for God is a God of abundance, not scarcity.

It was your generosity and prayers that made it possible to provide this ministry in 2009 and hopefully your continued generosity and prayers will make it possible to provide it for many years to come.

May God bless you and may God bless the wonderful people of Haiti, who could use our compassion now more than ever.

In His Love,
Randy