Giving Thanks for God’s Abundant Provision

 

I thank my God every time I remember you.  In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Philippians 1:3-6

As we entered 2020, I knew there would be some challenges. We were going to be losing a significant portion of support for our ministry that would leave us with about a $1000 per month deficit, and I wasn’t entirely sure where the additional funds were going to come from. 

When I first felt God calling me into missionary service, I knew that some amount of fundraising would inevitably be necessary to carry on in ministry. However, that concept was probably one of the most frightening things about accepting God’s call on my life. I’m not a naturally gifted public speaker or someone who enjoyed doing that sort of thing. So, I made a deal, so to speak, with God. I agreed to follow His call, wherever it may lead, but when it came to the fundraising, He would need to provide.

That’s not to say that I wouldn’t do my part. Regardless of how inadequate I’ve felt, I’ve still stood in front of churches to share the work that we do and sat down with people one-on-one to ask them to be a part of this ministry by supporting it financially. Ultimately, though, I knew that I needed God to provide through others, in a way that only He can.

Over the years, He has never let me down.  Come December 31, every year, we always seem to make our budget. The one time that didn’t happen, the year Linnea and I were married, the following year we had a surplus of almost the exact amount of the deficit. God has been faithful and upheld His promise to provide and sustain this ministry.

With twelve years of history of watching God provide while I’ve been serving with MAF, sometimes in rather miraculous ways, one may think that it wouldn’t be something that I worry about. However, as much as I try, I still find myself concerned about how it’s going to happen.  The beginning of 2020 was no different, but through the winter, I lined up a number of speaking engagements starting in the spring, trusting that God would work in people’s hearts to want to partner with us in bringing the gospel to northern Canada.

Praying that we're able to get back to times like this soon

My first chance to speak was on March 15. In the weeks preceding, there were rumblings of a new virus spreading around the globe. That weekend, I traveled to Grande Prairie, AB where I was going to give a presentation at a church, as various provincial governments in Canada were debating ordering lockdowns in order to slow the spread of this sickness. I was able to do that one presentation, but the following day, lockdown measures began to come into place.

Over the next few days, my potential speaking engagements began to dry up as one-by-one churches stopped meeting in-person and mission conferences were cancelled. At the same time, the economy was in free-fall and many people were losing their jobs. I thought that not only would we be unable to make up the $1000 deficit, but, understandably, people would need to stop or cut back their giving. At that point, I really had no choice but to put it in God’s hands and trust in Him and His promises.

Then, an unexpected thing happened. Over the next few months, you didn’t stop giving. In fact, some even increased their donations and new people began to send in support. As the year progressed, although it didn't look like we were going to make up the $1000 per month that was lost, the deficit wasn’t getting any bigger. Given the circumstances, I thought that wasn’t too bad.

However, when December hit, there was an overwhelming flood of generosity. It was the best month we’ve ever had and as the year ended, God had provided through you once again. We were able to make up the deficit and reach the minimum monthly support needed to carry on in this ministry. 

We quite literally would not be able to continue this ministry without your generosity and support and so we wanted to say thank you for carrying us through this past year. We know it’s been filled with many challenges, but we are incredibly grateful for people like you who believe in the work that is being done and are willing to make the sacrifices needed to see His work accomplished.