So, guess what?! We got some great news the other night.
When our six-month partnership and community development time finished in August, we knew that we probably wouldn’t reach the goal we set for 2020: to see an additional $2020 of monthly sustaining support committed. But, we were still SUPER encouraged with what God did on our behalf through you all, especially considering the insanely unexpected circumstances that we all faced this year.
We just didn’t realize exactly how he had answered our prayer until we looked at our numbers for the whole year.
Guys, the numbers are just numbers, but they represent for us the ability to continue serving full-time in this important ministry. At a quick glance, we are so happy to say that the numbers are going in the right direction! When it’s all averaged out (combining regular promised support with other one time gifts), here’s where we started the year: we were at 51% of what is recommended. Now, here’s where we are at as we finish out 2020: 64% of what is recommended! That’s a 13% increase and that is AMAZING!
Overall, we’re really encouraged by the blessing behind these numbers. We had new families join our community of sustaining supporters and we’ve had others who have increased their support amounts.
Now, because we need to be transparent, we’re still ending up this year at just 64% of what Ethnos360 asks us to raise, to do our ministry well, and take care of the needs of our family. And that’s why we’re going to keep working at this effort in 2021.
God is ALWAYS FAITHFUL. So we won’t say the cliché “God’s been faithful”. We realize that by saying that, it makes it sound like that if we don’t have a certain amount of support, then He’s not being true to His Word and character. What is right to say is that whether in abundance or need, we’ve learned how to be content in His faithfulness.
We don’t want to depend on an amount or our finances to give us a sense of security as ministers of the gospel. We want to depend on God’s everlasting faithfulness. And his faithfulness is there no matter what level our support is at.
So rejoice with us in God’s everlasting faithfulness to all of his children. And rejoice with us that he chose to increase our support this year through his faithful servants, you all!
We can’t wait to see how he provides in 2021!
And now we will leave you with the words of one of our students, after finishing a class on the biblical interpretation process…
(note, they’re not a native English speaker and we’ve left the quote as written originally)
“Thank you very much for teaching this course in a simplified way. Your way of teaching is very clear and helped us to grasp this study methodology clearly. We are looking forward to apply these things in our daily study of God’s word and understand the God’s word accurately and communicate to others in clear way with accurate interpretation.
Thanks to all the “program” team. We thank and glorify God for all that we have been learning through this “program” training.“