Next week we will begin re-assuming full responsibilities with our team with Cru at the office.  Our deadline for touching the summit of Mt. Fully Funded has arrived as of Oct 1.   So we’ll be leaving our mountain-climbing, full time fundraising mode …for now.

We’re incredibly close to reaching our total “Fully Funded” support goal.  In mountaineering terms, the summit is only about 150 vertical meters away.   The Lord has done incredible things to bring us up to such a high elevation on the mountain.   We feel amazed and so grateful!!  Incredibly grateful to God and for you our cherished friends and ministry partners.   The view is awesome up here!

All along this journey up the face of Mt. FF, we have realized that the Lord wants us to learn heart lessons as much as He wants to provide the dollars we need.  The heart lessons have been treasured milestones and in some ways – especially considering the limitless wealth and ability of the Lord to provide – the dollar-raising has been trivial.

What’s been the most significant heart lesson we’ve learned (or struggled to learn) along the way?

Honestly, it’s simply been a struggle to be OK with God when things don’t work out the way we plan: To be fully content when His timing and His answers are not precisely what we had in mind.

We have prayed for our timing and our desired route up to the summit of Mt. Fully Funded.  Our faith has been in Jehovah Jirah (our Provider) and not our own strength.  We’ve taken what have seemed to be the right steps.  It has been flat out hard work.  So in human terms, it seems like we should have arrived at the summit weeks ago. Although the Lord has greatly provided, His timing has been different than ours.  We wanted to meet the total dollar goal by the deadline, but we’re still 150 meters short.

With the Lord, A plus B does not always equal C.   His ways are higher than our ways.   Translation: this means His ways are BETTER than our ways even when they don’t fully make sense to us.

In 1953, two men (Evans and Bourdillon) made a serious and calculated attempt to summit Mt. Everest.  Due to oxygen problems, they missed it by merely 330ft and turned back.  Two days later, their teammates Hillary and Norgay did reach the peak for the first time in history.  In a different type of “climbing,” the Wright brothers had finished building their flying machine and had all the knowledge necessary to make a successful flight weeks before Dec 17, 1903 (date of 1st success).   They were delayed several times by broken propeller shafts and weather.  The lessons from history seem to show that man so often thinks he is ready before God is ready.   We make our plans but the Lord determines our steps (Prov 16:9).

What will we do if we’re not fully funded?

Thankfully, at least a couple people we’ve recently invited to join us as partners in ministry may make a financial commitment within the next week.  So the Lord may yet bring us up the final 150m to the peak of Fully Funded.  But regardless, we are now “funded enough” to minister unhindered for many months.

Again, please know we are so grateful for you!!

In terms of prayer requests, please continue to pray for the remaining few commitments we need.   But also spend time praising and thanking the Lord, by faith, for meeting all our needs.   Here’s a short prayer we wrote from our hearts to thank Him:

“We have been asking, seeking and knocking for a year. The Lord has answered. He is answering. He is so faithful.

Rejoice in what He has done.
Sing to Him: ‘God is good. He alone hears and cares.’
‘God is great. He has answered so many prayers.’
‘So many I can not recount. He has given freely for the glory of His name no doubt.’

Lord, You said to keep asking, knocking in shameless persistence.
Today hear my heart and let there be no resistance to my praise.

No matter the dollar amount of the support, You have given freely and Your Holy Spirit has poured, poured, poured out love and a surrounding of Jesus. Thank You!!”

See previous “Climbing Mt. Fully Funded” Updates Here