I want to share with you a very special and encouraging message that I received from major donors of ours who set up $100,000 for a matching fund this summer.
They wrote:
“In June of 2019, I felt the Holy Spirit nudging me to send money to the Home of Hope. I ignored it for a while, but I finally mentioned it to my wife. She replied that she had the same feeling. We decided that the Holy Spirit wanted us to trust God and make a sacrificial gift. We pledged $100,000 in matching funds for the Home of Hope. This was a significant portion of money that we had saved for our retirement. As we now prepare to send the last installment of our pledge, we have found that you cannot out give God. Since we made our pledge in June, our retirement investments have increased sufficiently to cover our pledge and the additional taxes we have to pay. After paying our $100,000 pledge and $20,000 in taxes to the government, our retirement savings will have the same amount of money that it did in June.”
And they added also passage from Malachi 3:6-12:
“I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty. “But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’ “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the Lord Almighty. “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty.
This is truly an encouraging story and gives us strong affirmation that we are walking on the correct path where God is walking in front of us. It’s clear that God is choosing people to become His ambassadors. We are thankful to God that He has chosen so many people to work alongside of us and we pray that we continue to see God’s mighty work in the future.
If you have similar stories to share with encouragement, write to me and I will pass them on.
I’m glad to share with you that we are moving firmly forward with our fundraising campaign. Today we are missing $35,387 of the first loan payment on December 31. And 2019 annual budget deficit is $39,527. God is good!
In order to track better our fundraising goals and process, we are coming up with a new pledge program. As our quarterly loan payment is almost $80,000, we need eight congregations or private persons each quarter pledging $10,000. We have some pledges already made and both of them are for the full 5 years. At the same time, we need to maintain the level of giving to TAT for yearly operation expenses.
We ask you and your congregation to consider becoming part of this pledge program. Please let me know if you’d like to make a pledge.
Blessed Advent and coming Christmas time,
Siimon Haamer
Dean of Tartu Academy of Theology
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