Supporting Erwin Family Ministries

As you know, we will be making a ministry transition March 1 to serve as Development Directors for Serve India Ministries http://www.serve-im.org/ . We will be able to stay in Olathe, Kansas, and work with the headquarters in Charleston, Illinois. Because of the travel that is required with development work, there isn't any advantage in moving.

Serve India is only three years old but has had great success in that time. Currently there are 400 pastor-missionaries planting churches in India, and 300 of them are already supported. Each of the pastors we help will eventually plant 5 churches in their area within the next 5 years.

I have three major goals to accomplish this year: (1) Develop a regional volunteer network to find ministry partners all over the USA. (2) Write a development plan that will outline the way that we will build a donor base for supporting the planting of 100,000 churches by 2020. (3) Develop a consistent brand identity and consistent messaging that will allow Serve India to grow to the next level.

We are encouraged by your support of our ministry and are appreciative for your continued support as we make a ministry transition after three fruitful years with Servant Christian Community Foundation. We feel that it is very important to make this transition right now because the times are urgent and the mission fields are fruitful. As I look back, I can see God's hand connecting me up with so many people who taught me much about ministry funding, especially funding through noncash donations. Serving at Servant Christian Community Foundation has been like going to Giving University, and now I think through our partnership we can continue to find new and effective ways to fund the Great Commission.

One of the nice aspects of our relationship with Servant Christian Community Foundation is that your donations to our ministry can continue to be sent to SCCF because we have a Ministry Foundation with SCCF and we are able to direct the proceeds for our support at our new ministry, Serve India Ministries. Your support is such a blessing and will enable us to serve native missionaries who are planting churches in unreached villages in India.

Please pray with us as we seek to raise an additional $1000 per month support in the coming 3 months. While serving at Servant Christian Community Foundation, we were able to receive our full support amount even when it did not come in through our normal donor base.

With Serve India Ministries http://www.serve-im.org/ , we are not able to do that because Serve India has a very small administrative budget and 100% of the missionary donations go to the specific project that the donor designated.

You can donate to support our ministry by mailing your support to:

Erwin Family Ministries

c/o SCCF / Erwin Family Ministries Fund

1500 S Sioux Drive

Olathe, KS 66062

Make checks payable to SCCF with Erwin Family Ministries written in the memo.

A New and EXCITING Chapter in the Erwin Family Ministry

Greetings:

We have been given an amazing opportunity beginning March 1, and we will need your prayer and support more than ever before. We will begin serving as Development Directors for Serve India Ministries http://www.serve-im.org/ . We will truly be living by faith so whatever support comes in is what we get. When we were with Gospel for Asia and Servant Christian Community Foundation, they made it a policy to subsidize our support so that we had a consistent salary. Serve India is not large enough to be able to cover our shortfalls. So we would ask that you consider supporting our ministry and, if able, increasing your support. I am reminded by God's Word, "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these other things will be added to you."

As long as we focus on the vision that God gives us, He will provide our needs. We must not be focused on our needs but on the vision that God gives us.

Serve India is a new and emerging ministry that is beginning to leave its mark on the nation of India. Currently they are helping 400 native pastor-missionaries to each plant 5 churches in their communities in the next 5 years. We are very excited about this vision, and we believe that God is doing a very special and important work in India. Currently there are still around 500,000 villages in India that have not had a Gospel witness or a church planted in them. India has a large army of independent native pastors who felt the call of God to go to the north of India and plant churches. It was in the late 60s that a great missionary revival began among the Christians of South India. The call was sent out, "Reach India in Our Generation!" and thousands of brothers and sister obeyed that call, most going to North India with no financial support. Today there is an army of independent pastors who have successfully planted churches.

Serve India's strategy is to come alongside these pastors and wash their feet and help them plant at least 5 additional churches. The pastors also get training once a month to help them with their outreach as well as discipling their current and new congregation.

India is truly the greatest mission field in the world. With 1.2 billion people, only 2.3% of the population is Christians with hundreds of millions who have not heard the Gospel. Most of these are in North India; some areas may only be 1/10 of 1% Christian. Ah, but the fields are white and the Vision is clear, "Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations." Matthew 18:19-20.

Ministry Finds an Inventory Donation in Its Neighborhood

One of our partner ministries contacted me last week with an opportunity to liquidate some surplus inventory. They were given four pickup loads (three pallets) of inventory from a lamp store. The donation came about because the ministry development director noticed that the store was going out of business so he took the initiative to ask the manager if they would donate the remaining inventory. This would save them the final liquidations. Amazingly, the manager said yes and they arranged to have the merchandise picked up and stored at the charity's headquarters.
The moral of the story is "Ask" and you may be surprised that the company may say yes. We are currently making arrangements with a liquidator to sell these lamps, and there should be a very nice donation for the charity. As a ministry representative or a person who has a burden for a specific charity, look for companies that are moving their locations, consolidating their warehouses or headquarters or closing stores. There are opportunities to get multiple floors of office furniture, surplus inventory or surplus equipment.
The key: Pray that you will be in the right place at the right time and you speak to the right person who can make the decision to donate inventory or equipment.

Viral Networking - What is it?

I received a call from one of our friends in Kansas City who has a Donor Advised Fund with Servant Christian Community Foundation http://www.servantchristian.com/web/Individuals_and_Families/open_a_fund.asp. The fun part about Donor Advised Funds is that anyone can have one and this allows us to give money and raise money to support our causes. We have some families that have burdens for orphanages, missions, clean water or feeding the poor. Our ministry friend called idonate.com and let them know that he had someone interested in donating some precious metals to benefit his donor-advised fund. This is where http://www.idonate.com/ comes in; they are experts in taking noncash donations and liquidating them on behalf of his Donor Advised Fund. I had a good conversation with the donor, who lived in a different city, and made arrangements to receive the donation, and I quickly entered his information on http://www.idonate.com/; we call it "The Donation Station."

When a donation is entered into "The Donation Station," the donor and the ministry or fund holder gets an email confirming the donation and each party (the donor and recipient ministry) receive a confirmation email and a log in to view the donation information. Each party also receives the ability to view the progress and eventual liquidation on the donation. It is a very nice feature for both the donor and the recipient charity because they can be updated when it is convenient to them and not be burdened with the worry on what to do with noncash donation.
The people at idonate.com like to think that they keep ministries and charities freed up to focus more on their ministry and less on fund raising.

Here is the viral part.....

The next day, I received a call from a friend of the donor who happened to run a ministry that welcomed returning soldiers at the airports across the country. He was excited to tell her about this idonate.com web site that allows ministries to take in noncash donations from anywhere in the U.S. by partnering with idonate.com and placing a donation link on their web site. This was a great benefit to this small ministry because they did not have the staff to receive and liquidate noncash donations. I spoke with this ministry leader, and they had great excitement about subscribing to idonate.com.

Here Is a Year-End Exercise You Will Enjoy!

Here is a great article written by Abiah.com that talks about the vision of Bill Bright, the late founder of Campus Crusade, and how the Jesus Film project was funded. We too can write the vision down that God gives us and see provision come as we obey God. This is a great year-end exercise that we can use as an individual or as an organization.
YEAR-END EXERCISE
The propensity of the majority is to react. The prevailing desire to please causes many individuals to adapt in order to accommodate others. The same is true in business. The result is a loss of identity, the compromising of our brand, and a migration to non-threatening mediocrity.
Greatness stands out. It is different than the ordinary, it is bold and distinctive. But the trend is always toward the center, and great people as well as great companies lose something over time when their focus is shifted away from vision to all the obstacles that prevent achieving it.
In 1979, Bill Bright, the founder and former president of Campus Crusade for Christ, commissioned The Jesus Film, a feature-length documentary of the Life of Christ. It was the first step of a multi-phased plan to share the gospel with the people of the world.
The vision was staggering. On a planet with a population of over 5 billion many responded with shrugged shoulders seeing the project as being too big, too expensive, and impossible to execute.
Undeterred, Bill assembled a team and together they created a strategy that led to the successful completion of the goal. Within a 15-year window over 5.1 billion have viewed the film in almost every country in the world. Translated in 786 languages, The Jesus Film quickly became the most widely translated film in history.
Bill Bright lived in a different world. He could “see” millions watching the film in their own languages. These people lived in cities and in jungles; some were easily accessible and others required arduous journeys into some of the most remote villages on earth.
Bill Bright went to be with the Lord on July 19, 2003. His vision had been realized; millions had embraced the Christ of The Jesus Film.
Keeping your focus requires articulating it. As you end the year, why not take a few minutes to respond to the following questions:
1. What would be different 10 years from now if you were totally successful in fulfilling your life’s mission? Be specific in your response.
2. What would your customers or clients look like in ten years? How would they be different because of the services you provide?
3. How would the community in which you live be different? How would the world be different if you were to achieve total success?
4. What will your company or ministry look like in 10 years?
Success begins with a clear vision and the best way to bring clarity is to write it down. This is the essential beginning of a process that will lead to objective assessment of where you are and the development of a brand and strategy to take you where you want to be.
Along the way you’ll be invited to compromise, to lower your expectations. You might hear that “it can’t be done” or “you must be more realistic.” Bill Bright was told his vision was far too big and Thomas Edison failed over 6,000 times before perfecting the light bulb. When a young journalist approached Edison asking “Why do you keep trying to make light by using electricity when you have failed so many times? he responded, “Young man, don’t you realize that I have not failed but have successfully discovered six thousand ways that won’t work!”
The pathway to success is arduous. The majority in the world refuses to pay the price for achievement but there is little to enjoy apart from the faith, energy, and hard work that is required to gain it. Will you follow or lead? That’s the question to ponder as you approach the challenging year ahead.