Let Your Hearts Cry Become God's Vision for Your Life

I have been studying vision a lot lately and have been studying through the Book of Nehemiah. Just like Habakkuk did some 70 years earlier, they both saw devastation and injustice around them and shared their burden with God.

Often when we feel a burden for a specific cause or situation, that burden is from God. God wants to express His love through our transformed lives, and as Nehemiah began to weep for Jerusalem, God opened a door for the walls of Jerusalem to be rebuilt.

What burdens your heart? What situation are you facing that seems overwhelming that there doesn't seem to be a way out? You too can cry out to God and share your burden, and as we allow the wisdom of God to speak to us, we will find out how we can be a part of the solution. As someone once said, "Don't curse the darkness; light a candle," so that others can see. Or we can pray, "Lord take me and break me and give me away!" The solution for many of the world's problems is within our heart's cry and our yielded obedience to wisdom.

News from Benjamin

Benjamin continues to grow in his faith in God. He takes personal interest in reading his Bible and will spend time every day reading his "Hands On" Bible that has many illustrations explaining what each book is about and also has activities to do to apply his Bible lessons. I have been helping with his Wednesday night classes at church, and we are getting ready to start Royal Rangers for the boys 1st-4th grades. Royal Rangers is a very good program because it is specifically for boys and has a similar structure to the Boy Scouts but with a very strong Biblical emphasis.

Benjamin and I will be setting up a booth at the local home school conference held near the Kansas City Airport on April 17-18. We will be setting up an easel with a large India map and will be giving materials out about Serve India as well as bringing attention to the Dalit movement. To encourage the homeschoolers to sign up for our e-newsletter, we are giving out fill-in-the-blank India maps that the students can research to find out the different states in India. Our hope is that the subscribers will begin to get a burden for the nation of India and begin to pray and support native missionaries and Stepping Stone Tutorial Centers. A sponsor can support 7 children through the Stepping Stone program for only $21 per month or they can support an entire Stepping Stone program of 50 children for $150 per month.

Benjamin does great at conferences. He is very dilligent to make sure everyone who comes by takes some materials. I am curious to see how his endurance holds up through the long day. Benjamin is starting to really get an interest in India, and I hope to take him to India within the next year of two.

A Testimony from the Impact of a Stepping Stone Center
A child who went home one day from the Steeping Stone Center saw her father fighting with their neighbor. Both men were exchanging words of abuse. The problem had started when her younger brother quarreled with their neighbor’s son.
Wanting to bring peace between her father and neighbor, the little girl went to the neighbor’s house immediately and brought the offended boy to her house and made him sit with her own brother and served them some snacks. Their fathers were still quarreling, and when they all on a sudden noticed that the kids had been reconciled, they were ashamed. The little girl told her father how she had learned at the Stepping Stone not to hate her neighbors but to love them.

Stepping Stone Tutorial Centers

India has an enormous population - 1.2 billion people - and within this population is around 700 million that would classified as low caste and 300 million of these are called Dalits, or untouchables.

Who are the Dalits?

According the "The Dalit Freedom Network http://www.dalitnetwork.org/ the caste system is one of the more confusing mysteries of India. The caste system, which has existed for more than 3,000 years, was developed by the Brahmin (priest) caste in order to maintain their superiority. Eventually, the caste system became formalized into four distinct classes (Varna).
The Brahmins are the highest Varna and are the priests and arbiters of what is right and wrong in matters of religion and society. Below them are the Kshatriyas, who served traditionally as soldiers and administrators. The Vaisyas are the artisan and commercial class, while the Sudras are the farmers and the peasants. It is said that the Brahmin come from Brahma’s mouth, Kshatriyas from his arms, Vaisyas from his thighs, and Sudras from his feet.
Beneath the four main castes is a fifth group, the Scheduled Castes. The people of the Scheduled Castes are not part of the Varna system. They are the untouchables, the Dalit.
A Dalit is not considered part of human society, but instead is considered something less than human. The Dalits generally perform the most menial and degrading jobs. Caste rules hold that Dalits pollute higher caste people with their presence. If higher caste Hindus touch an untouchable or even come within a Dalit’s shadow, they must undergo rigorous series of cleansing rituals (See gomutra).
Approximately 250 million Indians (a full 25% of the population) are Dalits. In a country where everybody is supposed to have equal rights and opportunities, one out of four people is condemned to be untouchable.
Although the Indian Constitution guarantees fundamental rights and freedoms for all Indians, Dalits are systematically abused. Dalits are poor, deprived and socially backward. Their most basic needs of food, shelter, and safety are not fulfilled. They also cannot access decent education and employment. The systematic denial of their basic human rights results in a lack of education, food, healthcare, and economic opportunity, thereby keeping Dalits in perpetual bondage to the upper castes.

Serve India helps the Dalits by setting up Stepping Stone Tutorial Centers.

Program Overview
At each Stepping Stone tutorial center, located in villages where Serve India Ministries is at work, school age children (6-10) from mostly poor families gather each evening to receive help with their school lessons, projects, and homework. These children are loved, cared for, and given spiritual foundation stones as they are served through this program. The project is an outreach tool and complements the Gospel work being done in the community by the pastor who oversees the center.

Why Stepping Stone Centers are Important
The government-run, Indian village schools do provide free education; however, 60-70% of the children from poor and illiterate families drop out because their parents are not able to provide the necessary home support for their education. Without an education, these children will find themselves trapped in the vicious cycle of poverty perpetuated throughout rural India.
Most children in SIM’s programs come from the lower strata of society. They are more than just poor and illiterate. They are the Dalits, or “untouchables,” who are not allowed by their religion to rise above the subhuman status they have been given within Indian society. At least 300 million people fall into this category. These children need extra help to overcome this social discrimination. By government legislation the official caste system no longer exists in India, but centuries of cultural tradition continue to offer little hope for millions of these people.
A Stepping Stone Tutoring Center is a practical and effective way for missionaries to show the love and compassion of Jesus Christ as they share His Gospel message with those who need to hear.

How the Stepping Stone Program Works
A minimum of 50 school-age children are enrolled at the center.
The children come to the center for two hours after the school day and receive tutorial help.
The pastor and volunteers from the church run the center and give spiritual input to the life of each child by teaching Bible stories, songs, and how to pray to Jesus. Several part-time teaching staff are hired to help the children with their school lessons, projects, and homework.
On Saturday, children are invited to attend a three-hour session of fun activities and skill-building lessons. The children will play games, learn Bible stories and songs, and receive instruction concerning better health and hygiene habits, good manners, and life skills.

How to Link your Life with a Stepping Stone Center
The cost to run a Stepping Stone Tutoring Center is $150 per month for 50 children. In other words, for only $3 a child can receive 25 days of help each month. The potential for impact is enormous. Please pray about joining us in this important endeavor.

You can learn more about sponsoring a Stepping Stone Center by going to:

http://www.serve-im.org/home/stepping-stone-centers

Formerly a Temple Priest; now a Shepherd of Souls!

In India there are still temples that have temple prostitutes. This practice has gone on for thousands of years as we read throughout the bible. The darkness of sin destroys so many lives.

One of our Serve India pastors, before he came to know Jesus, used to be a priest at one of these temples dedicated to temple prostitutes. The lifestyle of such a priest is very wicked, and through this debauchery, he contracted HIV and his health started to deteriorate fast. He became extremely thin and was dying. The doctor gave him only a few days to live.

As he lay dying, his grandmother, who had a Christian friend, brought him a bottle of oil and anointed him and said he would be healed. The miracle happened. Gradually he was healed!

Today he is healthy and at a normal body weight with no signs of HIV. He is now married and has two healthy children. He has a congregation of 80+ people in the same village where he was temple priest. The Lord is using him to heal many people. What a privilege it is to serve this brother who has taken on the challenge to plant five more churches. *****This is a new mission field for Serve India; please pray that we are able to find the sponsors to support this field. *****

Serve India Minsitries; The Time Has Come!

Greetings: By the time that you read this article, we will have begun our service with Serve India Ministries. This is the most difficult yet rewarding assignment we have ever had. We are teamed up with three other USA staff who, like me, are raising their support and investing there lives into the mission field. I am serving with:

Gene Mackie, a former contractor who has done work in Sudan as well as with Gospel for Asia. Gene keeps the ministry schedule up to date as well as manages many of the correspondences from the mission field to the supporting churches and donors.

I am also serving with Susan Westfall, a 20-year veteran of the mission fields of South America. Susan also served a tour with Gospel for Asia as the videographer. Susan has dedicated her life to fulfill the great commission, is our Operations Manager, and runs a very disciplined and tight ship. When it comes to administrative budget, we are very lean and mean because all of the missions-dedicated funds are sent to India for their specific projects. Not even the administrative budget in Asia is taken out of the proceeds. All the administrative funds are raised separately.

We also are blessed with Todd Cornwell, who is a gifted CPA and has given his time to Serve India as well as an adjacent ministry called Good Measure. Todd defines integrity and keeps us very current with tax law and our IRS reporting.

Then of course there is Brother Ebenezer Samuel, and his bio is too long to enter in this blog, but here is a link that you can go to in order to learn more about our founder.

He is a 32-year veteran of the mission fields of India, beginning as a young man with Friends Missionary Prayer Band, where he would preach from village to village for just $25 per month. He then served as the director of Trans World Radio India for 13 years as well as the Asian director of Gospel for Asia. He carries our God's vision very well, and I will tell you more as time goes.

Pray for us as we serve, and please be generous as the Lord enables you; the Lord's return is closer and closer so let's serve together and await His return.

The Love of My Life

Janey is doing very well. She is busy keeping the home and teaching Bennie with his homeschool and training him to be a mighty man of God. We were able to attend a Valentine's banquet at church that was centered around the recent "Fire Proof" movie. The movie has caused me to reflect much more the gift that Janey is to me and how perfectly she completes me. I often say the difference between Janey and Ben is that Janey will light up a room when she enters and Ben will take charge of the room. Her smile puts anyone at ease when they meet her and children have always been attracted to her. It is very hard to imagine that we have been married going on 27 years. It doesn't seem that long ago that we were first married and driving to Camp Pendleton, California, from Arkansas with our little car stuffed full of all our possessions.

I very much look forward to going old with her and seeing our grandchildren!

Please feel free to give Janey a call and say hello, or just drop her an email at janeandmikee@msn.com.

Ben's World

It is great fun to watch Benjamin learn new things and take an interest in new studies and subjects. He is really improving his chess game and seems to play more offensively than defensively. He is doing very well in his homeshooling and is racing through his curriculum without missing a beat. I am very impressed at how easily he is able to diagram a sentence and can quickly pick out the subject noun, verb, adverb, adjective, preposition and object of the preposition. He is able to read his Bible very extensively and even likes to stay up late at night reading it. As a parent, you want to tell him to go to sleep but you can't tell him not read his bible. He was giving me a lesson on the book of Jude the other day and telling who Jude was and why he wrote the book and what the problems were with the churches he was writing to.

Basketball is going very well for him and he will have his last game this Saturday. Most games he will score a couple of baskets, but he is getting more willing to pass the ball to the open man. I tell him that an assist is as good if not better than scoring. Most of the boys he plays with don't want to give up the ball because they want to score. We are really seeing his skill level in basketball improve very quickly, but I strongly emphasize to him that I am much more interested that he display the character of Christ and not how many baskets he makes.

I look forward to being able to take Bennie to India in the next couple of years; at least that way I know that Janey will come with us! She won't let me take Bennie to India without her. :)

Loaves and Fishes

The story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 with 5 loaves and 5 fish is probably one of the most recognizable stories in Scripture. In the days of Jesus feeding your family was the most important task. Hours per day were spent in the fields preparing the crop for harvest, and if the harvest failed it would be disastrous. There wasn't any government safety net for the common citizen to turn to. So we could imagine the excitement that arose when Jesus performed this miracle! Here is a King that can multiply bread; talk about prosperity! He must be the Messiah. As the story unfolds, we learn how the masses tried to make Jesus king by force and Jesus' response to the crowds eventually drove most of them away as we read in John Chapter 6.

I think that the real point of the miracle points more to the giver than the crowd that received. Think of the little boy who came to Andrew and offered his 5 loaves and 5 fish. Possibly the little boy had the extra to sell to the crowd? Whenever you travel to many parts of India, you will see thousands of people on the sidewalks selling just about anything so they can make enough money to survive. But I believe what we can take from the miracle is the fact that God can take our gifts or donations and multiply them! That is the exciting thing about partnering with native pastors in church planting. For $35 per month or the cost of a dinner out, we can help reach 5 villages with the Gospel and in turn bring the bread of life to thousands of villages. One could even say 5000 people would be witnessed to and a church planted among them.

I know that God has and will always prosper His people when they follow His principle, but have we ever stopped to think about how much God will multiply our gifts? 2 Corinthians 9:10-12 says
Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness;
Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God.
For the administration of this service not only supplieth the want of the saints, but is abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God;

We can safely say that when we give with the right motives according to God's will, God will multiply our giving and make it do much, much more than if we spend it on ourselves. Our commitment to you as you give to our ministry is to do all that we can to multiply your gift to touch thousands with the message of the Gospel. That is how God's economy works!

We love you; Michael, Jane and Benjamin Erwin; Serve India Ministries

Church Planting Report from Remote North India

One of the pastors serving in North India that Serve India partners with recently sent us a report from Uttar Pradesh, which is one of the most densely populated regions in the world with 150 million people living in an area the size of Missouri. Yet only .016% of these people are Christian. Our pastor recently led a man to the Lord who was a “magician.” These “magicians” are much more than sleight of hand artists but use witchcraft and demonic powers. Over the centuries, these magicians have used these powers to exert control over communities and profit from the fears of the local people.

This former “magician” got a burden for his mentor who controlled a village near his and shared the story of Jesus with him. The mentor wanted to know more and invited our pastor along with Serve India president Ebenezer Samuel to tell the whole village about Jesus. I have included some pictures of this village.

The mentor listened to the whole message intently and said the message was working in him. He has stopped his sorcery and does not worship his gods anymore. BUT he is not a believer yet. He has been reading his Bible for some time even before he heard the message of the Gospel. He now sends those seeking his help to the nearby Serve India pastor to hear the Gospel instead.

There are literally thousands of these small communities throughout India that are controlled by this type of witchcraft, and most of these villages have never had a Gospel witness. Often these villages are difficult to travel to, as the roads and transportation have changed little in 3000 years. The native pastors are very well suited to make the difficult journeys to these villages to plant churches and raise their families in these poor areas. They are the true unsung heroes of the native missionary movement. Most came to these villages with their own resources and had no means of support and with dogged determination started a church in a totally unreached area. There are also thousands of these native pastors dotted across the map of India who have paid the price to establish a foothold in unreached regions.

Please pray for this magician/sorcerer while he reads his Bible that He will receive Christ. Pray that he will have courage since rejection will come from his caste (he is a Brahmin) and that he will have courage not to fear the demons that he submitted to. Pray that he will know the power of God to forgive and protect him from evil and strengthen him from hardship.

Interesting Information for Charities about Car Donations

I was doing some research today for a ministry client that is looking into signing up with idonate.com, and I came to an interesting conclusion. Did you know that about 2% of American taxpayers will donate a car each year? This amounts to around 300,000 vehicles that are reported on tax returns to the IRS.
Why didn't your ministry receive any of these cars?
If you think about it, let's say that your charity has a mailing list of 10,000 people that you communicate to regularly about your organization. If this is true, then about 200 of the people you communicate with donated a vehicle last year to an organization somewhere.
Wouldn't it be safe to say that if those same people knew that your organization was able to receive vehicles anywhere in the United States or Canada that they might be inclined to donate their vehicle to your organization?
Most donors when donating a vehicle will look for the obvious places, like the organization that has the big billboard on the interstate, or will automatically respond to the radio ad. Most of the time these donors do not have a relationship with these big organizations, but they only give because they have been told that the opportunity exists.
Your charity can receive many of these vehicle donations by making a specific plan to communicate to each one in a very clear way so the next time they have a vehicle to donate, they will remember your organization.
idonate.com can help your organization receive vehicle donations and many other noncash donations through their web site subscription. You can go to http://www.idonate.com/ and click on "Membership."

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.

What happens with recycled materials?

As you have read in our past post on this blog, I have been spending a lot of emphasis on recycled materials as an opportunity for donations for charities. The amount paid for all types of recyclables has dropped drastically in the past 4 months. This is not all bad! While prices were high, thousands of little start-up recycling businesses were popping up just to make a quick buck on the opportunity. Just like any financial trend, it is those who have a long-term vision and are willing to plan for the long haul that will succeed. Now that the price of recyclables has dropped many of these overnight businesses have closed their doors so the opportunity for charities is to position themselves to receive recyclable when the markets rebound.

Here is a fascinating utube video that will show you the recycle process.



How does a charity position itself?

#1 Regularly mention in your newsletters to your donor base about your ability to receive noncash donations such as cars (running or not), jewelry, collectibles, business inventory and recyclables. It will take several months of continuing to remind your donor base of these types of opportunities until you will see noncash donations being offered.
#2 Consider using media outlets such as billboard space, radio spots or newsprint. If you are a public charity, many times media outlets and billboard companies will offer public service advertising for free for charities when space is available. One thing to remember, you get what you pay for! If you want good ad space or good radio spots or good billboards, you will need to pay for it.
#3 Talk about noncash donation whenever you are speaking with your donors. This especially holds true when talking with board members, major donors, core donors and anyone interested in supporting your charity. The idea of noncash donations is very viral and as you tell as many people whom you have influence with, they will tell the people they know and before you know it, you will have a regular stream of noncash donations to supplement your cash donor base.

One of the neat things about noncash donations whether they are recyclables, unused items or overstock, the donation is usually a win win for the donor and the recipient charity. Always remember that www.idonate.com is always there to help liquidate noncash donations. They are also there to advise in what donations you should or should not receive. Please go to their web site www.idonate.com to learn more or you can give them a call at 913-538-7850. You can subscribe to a noncash donations web site giving link for $45 per month that will allow your donors to offer noncash donations and they will be able to assess and liquidate the donations while allowing your charity to monitor the progress and give input where needed.

Medical Center Changes Computers - An Opportunity for Generosity

We have recently worked with an IT contracting company that had donated multiple pieces of surplus networking equipment that we were able to contract with a consignment company to sell them. When it was all said and done, there was a nice donation to benefit an inner-city ministry in Kansas City.
After establishing this relationship with this IT company, we recently received a call from them offering a donation from one of their clients, a local hospital. The local medical center was changing out 140 of their computer units and was offering them as a donation minus the hard drives (most companies require that hard drives are destroyed before they're donated to protect hospital data.) Even without a hard drive, newer computers still have resale value and can be sold to be rebuilt.
We often see these wonderful phenomena, what we call viral marketing. By building good relationships with donors and liquidators, word gets around about the joy of generosity!

Merry Christmas, December 2008 Update

Greetings, Friends:
Another Christmas season has come and even though we face greater challenges as a nation than we have seen for many years, Jesus is just as loving and powerful as ever. What a wonderful opportunity we have to grow in our faith and see God’s provision. Just as Abraham was walking to the top of the mountain and told Isaac that God would supply a sacrifice, we too can take courage. As we walk in obedience, we will see God’s provision in the Mountain of the Lord. Genesis 22:14.
“Jane” the Recording Artist
Janey and Benjamin are doing well. To the left you see the cover of her CD. We had an old cassette tape she made back in 1992. I thought it would be nice to have it duplicated on CD. Janey sings several well-known hymns and songs of faith that are very easy to sing along with. If you would like a copy, we would gladly send it to you, just write us a note.
Benjamin is doing excellent in Home School and is learning to be a great chess player. I was playing him the other night and he sneaked around and captured my King and I wasn’t going easy on him to let him win either.
I asked Jesus to live in my heart!
Last week as we were driving home from church Benjamin told us that in children’s church that he prayed a very simple pray and he was very serious about the prayer. He said that he asked Jesus to come and live in his heart. We obviously were very blessed. God’s wonderful love has drawn Benjamin to have a relationship with Him for eternity.

Electronic Waste, Electronic Recycling: a Donation Option

Donation of electronics is becoming more of an option for companies and individuals because of recycling. Electronic items such as computers, monitors, TVs, cell phones, servers, computer cabling, server decks, printers, copiers, etc., are becoming more economical to recycle. TVs are becoming more of an environmental hazard especially after the conversion from analog to digital goes into effect in February of 2009; the amount of e-waste will surely grow significantly. Electronic scrap is being collected in larger and larger volumes and is the fastest growing segment of the recycling stream.
Some of the responsible factors are from the cost of raw materials continuing to rise making it environmentally viable for recycling to extract the metals in printed circuit boards. Also, there is a need to increase security to ensure safe data destruction when companies replace computer units. As we look to the future, more and more states are passing legislation mandating reductions in the amount of hazardous waste in the waste stream. New technologies are making it much more cost effective to recycle e-waste profitably, which in essence creates an entire new industry.
Electronic scrap can be difficult to process and to sort. Some of the methods currently being used are state of the art with optical separators, electro-static separators, sink-float, hydro-cyclones, density separators, magnets and eddy current separators and air tables.
If you or your company has a surplus of electronic units, consider the opportunity to donate them to benefit a nonprofit. Donated electronics can be properly processed without compromising security or the environment. You can learn more about donating electronics to our ministry foundation equipment by going to the top right of this blog and click "Donate a NonCash Donation" and the instructions will follow.

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.