You too can be a superhero. Generosity saves lives!

Benjamin is very interested in superheros these days. I think all little boys dream of being a superhero and all of us at one time maybe tied a bath towel around our neck and dreamed of flying through the air and crushing the villains and saving the innocent.

I think God has put in all of us the desire to be a superhero. What is a superhero? I think a superhero is someone who sees a need and allows God's burden to move their heart and then as we begin to cry out to God to save the helpless and hopeless, God calls us to give our lives to the cause.

Jesus was the greatest superhero and he said in John 14:12; "these things that I do, you shall do also and greater things than these you will do because I go to my father."

I think that all God is expecting us to do is make ourselves available to something much bigger than we are and this is the heart of what idonate.com and Servant Christian Community Foundation is all about: helping people to become superheros. There are families that I have met who have opened a Donor Advised Fund within our organization to that they can raise support for their cause. It may be missions, orphanages, ministry to the poor, ministry to youth and our children. Ask God for that compelling vision and begin to trust Him and pray that you will be able to fund that vision. Put a banner on your vehicle, "Donate your car boat, RV, timeshare to ABC Foundation." Share your vision; you may be surprised at who will help fund that vision. In studies about donors and donations; statistics clearly show that donors are more prone to donate to a compelling vision than they are to a need. Don't get me wrong; Americans are the world's greatest givers in times of need, but after all the newscasts leave a disaster area and the hype dies down, donations drop drastically. When we as donor continue to see a compelling vision that is before us on a regular basis, we give to support that vision.

What is the ministry that we can give to that has the best return on investment? I asked the missionary statesman George Verwer last month while attending one of his area meetings. George said that there are many great opportunities for us to give our funds to but the best one to give to is the one that God by His Holy Spirit tells us to give to. God truly does know how to spread the wealth around because He owns it all anyway and our assignment as Christians is to take care of God's money until He tells us what to do with it!

Be a Superhero Today; Give Generously!

Mobile Home for Missions

We have a new first; a mobile home! We received a call from a woman in Chicago who had recently lost her uncle and her father was the heir to his estate. The donor willed his trailer house to his brother. Distressed from the trauma of losing his brother, the new owner did not want to go through the hassle of selling the mobile home as well as paying the lot rent while it sells. As he spoke with his daughter, they decided to donate the trailer home to benefit Wycliffe Bible Translators. This mobile home is the perfect snowbird haven, and it is located very close to the Gulf of Mexico near Ft. Myer. We are hoping to sell the mobile home quickly so we have priced it to sell; $7900 and it is totally furnished. A potential snowbird buyer could come down with only a suitcase and move in and would only be responsible for the lot rent after buying the mobile home. Best of all, the donor will leave a legacy of helping Wycliffe Bible Translators to print a Bible for every people group. Other options are on the table for Wycliffe as well. If a retiring missionary couple needs a nice and inexpensive place to retire, this trailer can also benefit them as well.

Stone Medallions (A building donation):

We were recently contacted by a ministry in Plano, Texas, that received a very unique noncash donation two years ago from a Dallas stone flooring company. They were given eight stone floor medallions. These medallions are found in very elegant homes that have large entryways and often will be the focal point of the entry of the home. To say the least, these are very difficult to sell and especially difficult to sell anywhere near their retail value. Each of these stone medallions is worth about $1,500 retail. After doing some research, I found a flooring company that specializes in stone and they agreed to consign these medallions. Because these medallions are very much custom and anyone who buys one will want to build a color scheme around them, Ebay won’t help on these. Only a retail showroom is the way prospective buyers will be able to not only see the medallion but touch it as well. I have learned not to get too proud of myself when I am able to liquidate a complicated inventory; as soon as I start to relax, something harder comes along.

Thurman Mitchell Leadership Awards (A celebration of ministry and generosity):

Every November on the first Monday, Servant Christian Community Foundation holds its annual Thurman Mitchell Leadership Awards banquet. SCCF will grant out $144,000 to 22 different ministries. The grants will range from $2000 to one winner of $25,000. The event is designed to be a celebration of ministry and a celebration of generosity. This year's top winner was Urban Scholastic Center. USC is a ministry founded by Chuck Allen, a former public school teacher. Chuck realized that the public schools were very limited because all that they are designed to do is to give students knowledge but that the greater need is to develop character and leadership. USC is a Christ-centered ministry that is located in low-income neighborhoods of Kansas City, Kansas.

Steel Prices (a lesson in adversity):

With the recent economic slowdown, there are beginning to be adverse effects in the salvage steel industry. For the past couple of years, I have been researching ways that idonate.com can process junk vehicles and come out with enough proceeds to truly benefit the charities that we serve. Until recently, junk cars could bring an average of $200 a piece just from the parts and steel value. When the economic slowdown began, steel prices plummeted, going from around $300 per ton to its current level of $50 per ton. No businesses are buying steel and there is a tremendous strain on the entire scrap steel industry.
I was recently visiting with one of our junk car buyers, End of Life Vehicles. My contact is Paul Coon. Paul was saying there are advantages to this slowdown. When steel went up to $300 per ton, hundreds of fly-by-night junk car buyers came out of the woodwork. Some even bought a tow truck just to take advantage to make a quick buck, often picking up the junk cars for free and then quickly selling them at a tremendous profit. With the $50 per ton price, these fly-by-nighters are quickly going by the wayside because they can’t even pay for their fuel with the sale of the junk cars.
I guess that we as Christians can take away the same thing as we struggle to make ends meet or struggle to understand the political turmoil in our country. When we survive the crisis, we are much stronger in the battle. I truly believe effective military units are not really effective until they have gone through difficult battles, Once they are battle tested, they are much, much stronger! Let us learn from adversity. Since we can’t do anything about it, we can learn from the steel industry.

Awana Update (Ben, the man of God in training!):

Benjamin is just flying through his AWANA booklet. He will probably finish it by the end of the year and won’t be able to go to the next book until next fall. In the meanwhile, next January, our home church will begin a Royal Ranger’s program that is especially designed for boys. This will be a good opportunity for Benjamin to grow in his walk with the Lord and I will be assisting as well. The children’s pastor at our church told us that half of the families that bring their children to the children’s classes don’t have a dad at home. Again this just re-emphasizes the importance of male role models especially in the younger years. Even in the volunteering Janey and I do for AWANA, the encouragement you can have with children can be tremendous and most of that is just by paying special attention to them and helping them to learn God’s Word.

Harvest Festival (Celebrating Reformation Day!):

On October 31 we celebrated Reformation Day (the day that Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses on the door of the Church at Wittenberg) as well as celebrating my birthday. We celebrated by helping at the Harvest Festival hosted by our home church, Antioch Family Worship Center. There were many games, bounce houses, inflatable slides as well as loads of candy. My job was to go to each station and refill their candy buckets and it was all we could do to keep them full. Each station would give out three pieces of candy to each participant. Janey and Ben worked in the black light room and they hosted a styrofoam bowling game. All in all we were able to be a blessing to the families in the community and we hope to see many of visit our church during a Sunday service.

Hotel Room Donations (Every good and perfect gift comes from God!)

I am currently working with a national ministry, assisting them with a process to receive and liquidate 5000 hotel room nights donated by a resort hotel. The recipient organization is a mission organization so I am especially excited to come up with a plan. Our hope is that the donating hotel will allow us to list the rooms on one of the hotel booking websites like Priceline or Hotwire and then we will be able to track these rooms and the hotel will be able to forward the proceeds to the ministry's fund that we host at Servant Christian Community Foundation. The more that I serve at Servant Christian Community Foundation and idonate.com, the more I believe that God’s work can be funded in any economy as long as we remain humble and ask God for wisdom. He may lead us to ask for a noncash gift and by God’s grace, we will have a process in place that can be used over and over again. Giving is fun! Creative receiving is fun as well; God is not limited by anyone’s checkbook. Every good and perfect gift comes from God above!