Throughout this phase of support raising that our family has been in (seemingly forever sometimes) a response that has come up more than once is that this is a bad time to be trying to raise support.  Gas prices keep going up, everybody feels uncertain about the future, civil unrest around the world, and unemployment (or the fear of unemployment) would all make great reasons to suggest that this is a bad time for us to be asking people for support.

That would be all well and good, except that God really isn’t limited by an American (or even a worldwide) financial downturn.

A look back at the history of HCJB Global shows how God provided even during the Great Depresion for a mission that would have a worldwide impact.  If God owns the “cattle on a thousand hills” (Psalm 50:10) then He is more than sufficient to supply the financial needs for us as we go through this process.  He spoke creation into being… a few dollars isn’t much of a stretch.

That’s not to say that it’s been easy. There have been too many times that I forget how powerful God really is.

So it is with the confidence that God will provide people to partner with us that we concentrate on  our part… identifying those God has already been preparing.  That’s a help to an introverted guy like me who panics at the thought of making phone calls.  I get calls at work from people trying to sell me teleprompters and distribution amplifiers and who-knows-what.  I don’t have anything to sell.  All I have to do is lay out what God has put on our family’s heart and see where God leads.

But even if we did take all that out of the equation the numbers are very realistic.  From a pure mathematical standpoint it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch for God to provide all that remains.  If 75% of the people who attended Sunday worship (“Big church”… not counting the kids) at our home church committed to $1 a month we’d be focusing on getting our bags packed.  It would only take about 60 or so families adjusting their lifestyle a little ($35/month) to get us there.  Eating a couple meals at home instead of going out could cover that.  For those that God has blessed a little more financially or take on more of a lifestyle change it would only take around 30  families committing to $65 a month (about 1% of our support budget) to help us get close to the finish line.

Some people have asked what amount we are asking them to commit to.  The first thought for me is to take the remaining support needed and divide by one (just kidding).  We’ve suggested people prayerfully consider taking on a percentage of our support needs.  One percent comes out to about $65 a month.  For some that’s a lot… one-half a percent is about $35/month (not much more than $1 a day).  God has blessed others with more and could join with us at 2% or more.

Either way all we want are people to be obedient to what God has called them to do.  That might even mean supporting some other ministry.  However, we do know that since God has called us to help reach the lost in Asia that He will connect us with the right people to join with us financially to make that happen.