By Bill Hood, Dir. of Development
Posted October 26, 2006
I wanted to share three stories of how God has provided in some neat ways this past month for our IGNITE Campaign:
A week before our October 6th event we were at $1,967,000 on a Friday morning when I came into the office. I mentioned to my assistant, Dee Smith, that it would be great if we were at $2,000,000 by the end of the day – so we could go into the weekend rejoicing that we had reached that mark. We stood in the office and prayed that God would do His work in His time. I got on the phone and began to call some people who I had talked to earlier about their partnership with us for the campaign. One of those donors said “Yes” to a $5,000 pledge. That was wonderful and brought us to only $28,000 more needed for the 2 million mark. After a few more calls that went to voice mails or answering machines, it was time to go teach Bible class. I left the office telling Dee that God hadn’t done it yet, but it would come in his timing. After Bible class was done, I was walking through the front office and the man I had been trying to reach was sitting there. He said that he had was dropping off lunch to his child and got my message – “Could we talk?” he asked. When we sat down in my office and he asked how the campaign was going and where we were at, I told him we were a little bit away from a big number. He said, “How far away?” When I told him $28,000, he said “Well, you got it! But, let’s round it up to an even $30,000.” It was an encouragement to me that God provided that amount at that time.
The morning of our October 6th event I was meeting with another donor about his partnership in the campaign. We had tried and tried to connect earlier in the school year, but God just knew that I needed some encouragement that morning. When I presented a leadership proposal to this gentleman and asked if he would be able to partner with us for $150,000 toward the campaign, he paused for a long moment. He then replied, “No, that is too low. Put me down for $250,000 now and I am going to try to do ½ a million.” WOW! Praise God! I just couldn’t believe it – that was the first time someone went over the amount that I was asking them for. I told that gentleman how incredible it was and how thankful I was for the encouragement he gave me on that specific morning of our Evening of Celebration and Partnership. Now I had even more to celebrate about!
This afternoon after middle school lunchtime, I received a call from Mrs. Perry at the front desk. She said there was a sixth grade boy in the office who had something for the campaign. When I got there, I was told that all the sixth graders had received $1.00 from Mrs. DiStefano and Mrs. Gannett. Each one was told to see what they could do to help it multiply and then they would give it to the IGNITE campaign. The boy in the office was our first gift from that project – he had gone home and made bags of chips and salsa (very good chips and salsa!!). He then sold them at middle school lunch and gave our campaign a wonderful gift of $41.35!!! It was such an incredible encouragement to me to see our own students wanting to do their part to see our IGNITE campaign be successful.
Thank you to everyone who has given to the IGNITE campaign in one way or another. Remember that we are to “Seize the Moment” and “Hear God’s call”. I trust that you are listening to what God has to say to you today! Thank you for all your prayers about our campaign – keep praying that God will move in the hearts of people to help us reach our benchmark goal of $7.8 million and our ultimate goal of $16.9 million. |
