The Bottom Line

It’s been so exciting to see how God continues to provide for our needs in so many different ways.With another child coming, we’ve needed a larger vehicle, and we were able to purchase one.  Praise God!  This was made possible through personal savings, donations, an outside billable job, help from International Teams (IT), and a short-term interest-free loan from IT, that we expect to have paid off by May of next year.

With the baby coming in February, I expect to be going on Parental leave for a few months.  During this time, EI will be covering a good chunk of our expenses, so the extra support coming in will help cover what’s currently owing to IT for the car.

Praise God for how He continues to provide!  We are certainly very blessed!  Pray that people will continue to answer Gods call in this area.  We’re looking to raise an additional $1000/month in order to cover current needs plus RRSP’s and car replacement savings.

The Bottom Line

Thanks so much to all of you who are part of our financial support team. You are truly partners with us in this ministry God has called us to.

Since our last financial update last October, our outlook has improved — IT Canada is supplementing our support by an additional $600/month. Praise God! We are still trusting God to provide an additional $560/month in order to meet our budget. We have been encouraged to see God meet our needs so far, and look forward to seeing how he will meet them in the coming months.

In addition to our regular expenses, we are also considering missions trips in the coming years, and recognize that our car will need to be replaced within the next year.

Please pray that God will continue to meet our needs. Pray also about how God has called you to respond.

Steve's Evolving Role

Well my role with International Teams continues to evolve. This past year, I was doing all sorts of projects, which largely involved graphic design and web development, along with some other computer stuff.

Recently, funding has been tight, and I haven't been as busy as I could be.

At the same time, International Teams has been struggling to communicate with our various constituents as well as we could. Part of the problem in this area has been a lack of people to help pull it off effectively.

So our leaders put two and two together, and decided that I was just the person to help pull this off. As I've already been doing quite a bit of web development and graphic design, my role has now evolved to one in which that is my primary role. Rather than reporting to our head computer guy, and doing projects for the department responsible for communication, I'm now reporting to them directly. I expect I'll still do some computer projects from time to time, and will continue to be our webmaster. But I'll be reporting to the guys who have the work to do, so I'll probably be much busier.

The change also involves some money. In this role, IT is able to free up more budget to supplement the support I raise from churches, friends & family. This past year, they've been putting $400/month towards my support. Starting in April, this is going up to $1000. Praise God! I still have more to raise to be where I should be, but this is certainly a big help!

Feel free to ask questions about these changes, or connect with me for any other reason too! (my contact info should be in the contact area of this site.)

Steve.

The Bottom Line

A lot has happened since our last letter, and finances are no exception.  As our family has grown, our needs have grown too.  With a larger living space has come increased financial needs.  And through it all, God has been

Since our last letter, several individuals have joined our support team.  Together, they’re giving another $280/month.  And we’re receiving almost $300 more a month from churches.  Since I started this faith journey, I have always been able to pay the bills.  God is still the great provider!  Thanks for your part in that!

Going forward, the needs continue to grow.  Would you prayerfully consider helping to meet these needs?

We know God will continue to guide us in where He wants us to be.  And where He calls, He always provides.  Thanks so much for being part of His provision!

The Bottom Line

A debate has been going on in Missions circles for years regarding finances and support raising.  How much information should you share?  Should you ever ask anyone for money?

In the past, I’ve been more conservative in my approach, but am beginning to recognize that my supporters do need to know where we’re at, and those God has called to support us need to know our needs.  Hopefully this brief info will help.

Praise God, our needs have been met so far.  God is good.  As a result of the parental leave I took last year, we have a surplus in our ministry account.  Unfortunately, on a monthly basis, we have about $1000 more going out than coming in.  As a result, at current rates we’ll run out of money next April.  On top of this, we really should be saving for car replacement, retirement, life insurance, etc., and will need to upgrade to a larger living space.

The bottom line — we need $1000 more per month by April of next year, and more than that in order to meet our other needs long-term.

Would you pray about how you might be a part of God’s provision?  Thanks so much if you already are.  Feel free to contact me if you want to know more.

A great year!

Hello all!



This is just a quick note to let you all know that God has been very good this past month! In my last letter, I mentioned that finances were rather tight for Grace and I. Well people responded big, and for the month of December we received a total of just over $10,000 (over 6 times the average month, and more than a third of our total gifts for 2004). Praise God! While this doesn't take us to where we need to be long term, it will make great strides in paying our monthly bills for 2005. God is so good.



Grace and I have also changed our number at home (so we don't need to share the line with the family upstairs anymore). Please contact us if you'd like it.



Have a great weekend! I'll look forward to connecting with you all.



Your Friend,

Steve.