Raising support is a huge part of any missionary, pastor, or A.P.E. leaders life. I would venture to say that especially for apostolic leaders that are either going to oversee the mission of an organization or leave and go start new things, support raising and trusting God for provision will be a huge part of their life and calling.

I would also say that apostolic leaders in the marketplace, many who are entrepreneurs, are going to have to raise capital and trust God for financing in many projects.

Apostolic leaders risk big by God’s leading and many times those risks are financial.

I hope this story below really encourages you to stay the course and follow God into your calling no matter the financial ramifications or amount of trust you have to exercise.

Challenges in Fundraising

In a previous post about God calling us onward, I explained the joys and challenges of leaving your life behind in one city to go to another. I laid before you the difficulty of moving to Los Angeles and losing $25,000 of support in our transition.

As I shared with people the vision, some moved on because they felt called to other things. That is totally understandable and expected.

One person who stopped supporting our mission asked me,

“when do you get too old for this?”

Ouch.

After a number of people leaving our team, and not having any new people say yes to funding our mission to LA Greeks, it was hard many days to keep the faith and believe in our calling. As strong as you want to be and no matter how much you know you are called and heard from God, this kind of repsponse can be discouraging.

On my worst days I needed people to remind me of my call and not to give up as I dreamt about other jobs.

On my best days, I was full of faith, reminding my self that I do not live by sight but by faith and that God would provide what we need. Just hang in there and keep doing what you are doing. Be faithful in the little things every day.

However, the reality at the end of every day the last three months was this:

We were in LA now: a more expensive city, a bigger ministry, and more money to raise.

Because I took a director position I wasn’t just responsible to oversee my own support, but the other staff in the ministry and all the operating costs as well.

Breakthrough in Funding

Well just last Friday I got a game changing call!

A couple that I had met with last Monday (September 24), and never had met with before that date, called me up on three way and explained to me that they loved the vision of Greek InterVarsity, they loved my presentation, and they really felt God asking them to invest into this ministry in a big way.

They went on to explain to me that they couldn’t stand that we had five schools with students asking for Greek InterVarsity to come to them, but because of the time we are spending raising support we couldn’t get to them. So they were going to provide half of what the ministry needed still, $50,000, as a matching grant to raise the other half so we could be fully funded.

WOW!

Luke 5 perspective

In the moment, I was totally blown away. I was thankful, ecstatic and also kicking my self for not having more faith in the weeks to before. I felt a little like Peter in Luke 5. He was catching no fish, and then Jesus said lets go again and the huge load was caught. I was overwhelmed and embarrassed in front of God that I didn’t believe Him whole-heartedly for this moment.

Part of me, through this gift, was awe struck by God and it made me more scared of him in a reverent way. I understood Peter in that moment when he said, “Lord, depart from me for I am a sinful man.” I also felt the call of God more strongly in this moment as he said once again to me, “follow me, and I will make you into a fisher for men.”

This was confirming and affirming gift to my wife and my calling. It was also a springboard to hear the Lord more clearly say, “It’s go time. I have called you here.”

But I still have a lot to process with God as he has given us this huge gift. It truly changes my fall and year with respect to raising support for the ministry.

Luke 10 Perspective

Just the other day I was talking with a friend asking him how I should see this gift from God.  He has been a friend of mine in this process and someone praying for us.

This is what he told me.

“I think of Luke 10, the sending of the 72. They were asked to leave all they had behind and go from one city to another. When they got to that new town, they were asked to find people to support them and provide for them there. Beau, you left some significant resources in San Diego, and now God has given someone to you in LA that is receiving your call, taking part in it, and cheerfully wanting to support the work. That is what happens when we follow Jesus into the harvest and fully depend on him!”

Wow, what a word from him and I totally resonate with that.

I am still totally processing this gift and provision from God, but I did want to share it with you because I know many of you will be called to leave much behind to go start other things. We have to trust God for his provision no matter the shape or form it takes. If he calls us somewhere, he will sustain the work! I hope this story helps you pray with more faith and believe God will provide for you.

Just to say a quick note about God’s provision and our calling:

I don’t believe fundraising and our calling is a 1+1=2 kind of thing. I obviously know that there is no formula and many people who are called have trouble getting funded and some that are not so called raise funds easily. We have to be careful equating provision with our calling.

But that being said, when you know you are called and its confirmed in you, these kinds of gifts are obviously encouraging.

I felt conflicted whether to even share this story with the world because I know fundraising is hard and most of us won’t get a $50k gift. I know raising support is a challenging way to live and I am sensitive to that. The main reason I wrote this post telling this story is for this reason alone:

I don’t want you to give up on or say no to a calling God may have for you that requires a lot of fundraising.

I know I would want to hear this story from someone in my shoes to encourage me to keep going and keep praying.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments. How does this story encourage you?