November 11, 2021 - There are days when we wish we could be doing something other than what we are doing. Don’t get us wrong we know this is where God wants us right now. But that still does not negate the feelings and stress caused by our new roles.
The job and opportunities with the people that we are serving are invigorating. We see God opening up doors and opportunities every week. The stress and angst from the financial stress of raising support and negotiating fair deals as we expand and add new merchandise to our lineup is the issue.
Sharing the needs of others and their stories is the enjoyable part. Finding and convincing donors of the need for development funds and personal support is where we are concerned. With the change in our status, the rise of inflation, the supply chain concerns, and people being cautious has seen a decline in our support and development funds.
We live a modest lifestyle (not anywhere I thought I would be at this age) and are not complaining but rather we are asking our supporters to pray with us about what we need to do. Who do we need to approach and ask? How do we complete the transition so that we can do what God has given us to do to help the poor, disenfranchised, persecuted disabled and unemployed?
We are not very often working the retail locations; therefore, we do not take funds from them to support us. Those funds cover the costs and are reinvested in the people around the world that we are trying to serve. Our role is working with people to start groups, training in churches and with other groups, education of folks, and the oversight and compliance part of the operation. Besides the hundreds of people, the livelihood groups and micro-enterprises support we have employees stateside that are supporting themselves and their families too from the sales in our retail outlets. Most months there is little if anything left over.
We know that the folks reading this are already doing what they can for us and for that we say thank you! We are really wanting to expand our support and create a larger base from which we serve. Would you pray that God would help us to that? That we would know what to say and to whom, to gather the needed resources for the work.
If you are looking at your year-end donations we would love to chat and explain what our needs are and how you can be a part of them.