My Time of Need

I come to you now requesting your very best prayers.

I have been working more than 60 hours a week for many weeks.

Nearly all that time was focused on preparing the crowd funding platform.

By the grace of God that site went public last week.

I sent out prayer requests and promoted the site to many dozen of my contacts.

Honestly I had fully expected to receive some donations by now.

I did get feedback today saying that the introduction video audio quality is poor.

I will reshoot that video and replace the original one soon.

As of noon on Tuesday there were zero donations.

Frankly I feel surprised and disappointed.

This has caused a minor crisis of my faith.

I had felt sure that God was guiding me in this direction.

I had felt that this will lead to both paying my modest bills and getting me on the road trips.

There are many more ways to promote the crowd funding site that I have not used yet.

I have 27 more days until the campaign end on October 5.

The goal is 3 thousand dollars and I had hoped to raise 5 thousand.

I have been using other options to promote the crowd funding site already.

Pray for God to grant me His wisdom in doing this effectively.

There are many online articles about how to do this.

I have read some and applied their instructions.

I will read and apply more.

Meanwhile there are bills to pay.

I had been very blessed by generous donors recently that got me this far.

However here is what is due and past due.

I had been waiting and hoping for income from the crowd funding site until the last minute

But now I need to request special prayers for these immediate needs.

I recall that during the last 10 weeks God had provided at the last minute before.

31 dollars for a month of cell phone

30 to 100 dollars for 10 dollars per night to sleep at the homeless shelter 3 to 10 nights

70 to 140 dollars with fees is a minimum

110 dollars for storage of my things to be paid before September 19 or goes on auction

I have paid for my stay tonight at the shelter.

I need to pay at least 10 dollars by tomorrow evening.

I would like to pay 30 to 100 dollars.

I hope that my cell phone service does not get cut off.

Then there is likely an additional fee to reconnect.

Pray for God to guide and provide.

May the Lord Jesus Christ lead my thoughts, words and deeds.

If you have lots of faith then go ahead and pray for the 3 thousand dollar goal to be met.

Pray for the 500 dollars to come in soon that will break the ice.

The 500 and 3 thousand dollars can be raised as God leads me to promote the site.

Here is the link to the crowd funding platform.

You can go there to promote it to others and to make a gift.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/road-trips-to-relieve-severe-poverty/x/8411792

Shalom 

Ice Breaking Time

Long ago God delivered me from drug addiction and a cult due to answered prayers. God put me in a loving Christian community for my drug rehab. There I learned about Jesus and the Bible. Thanks to many more answered prayers I was born again January 16, 1977. I was 23 years old then and that same year God called me to ministry.

During the past decades I have done my best to follow Jesus by faith daily.

I have made dozens of attempts to launch ministries. All of those ministries were Bible based, educational and used the latest medias. None of those attempts got the plans off the drawing table.

I have kept the best parts of all those visions and game plans. That is why the materials online are dozens of pages of text and hours of videos.

During the last 2 months God has answered many more prayers. By His grace many logistical and technical problems were solved. Many internal challenges were met. Some examples of those internal challenges include the following: Perfectionism, procrastination, fears of success, failure and rejection.

Last week I finally promoted the crowd funding platform to the public. It was a stretch to go beyond sending the link to friends. I sent the link to strangers. And I asked them to promote it to their social media contacts. That took some humility and courage to let people come see my less that fantastic presentation.

Zero money has been raised as of this minute. Yet the dashboard of the crowd funding site gives me this report: 92 is how many visits there were to the site and 16 is how many referrals were made using social media.

The fund raising goal is only 3 thousand dollars. That is 1 thousand for each of the following: 1. prepare a promotional DVD, 2. fund initial road trips and 3. my living expenses.

My living expenses include the following: housing, storage of my things, cell phone and personal care items.

I have been sleeping at a Christian homeless shelter for many weeks. For only 10 dollars a day I get a bed, hot shower and 3 meals a day. My plain Jane cell phone bill is only 31 dollars a month. The rent to store my things is 110 a month. Personal care items include bottled water, Gatorade, etc.

I named this message Ice Breaking Time because it is time for some support to appear on the crowd funding site. That will break the ice and make it easier for others to support too. It would take an act of faith in God and trust of me to give during these early stages. But I believe God will make a way.

God has brought me this far. He will not leave me or forsake me at this important time.

I am requesting extra special prayers for this. If you have been following my updates then you will know that God has provided lots of money right on time over and over again for the last few months. Here is a blog with the records of those provisions since late June http://guidemejesus.blogspot.com/

Recently as I have prayed about this my faith shifted. Most of the time yesterday I was believing God for 500 dollars to break the ice. Just before I fell asleep my faith peaked at 700 dollars. Then this morning while I was feeling groggy the best I could trust God for was 150 dollars. So I will request your prayers for God to provide 500 dollars very soon. He might do more than we ask and even go over 700 dollars.

Besides that specific short term prayer request to break the ice, I have published a list of general long term prayer requests on this blog. Please go here and pray over the items. You might want to print them out to take to your prayer closet.  http://oscintercessors.blogspot.com/

You are invited to go to the crowd funding platform to pray over it. You can use the social media sharing links there to share the vision and game plan for Our Stewardship Community. Your referrals might lead to more prayers and financial support.

Let us look to God that He will used us to bring together people, resources and opportunities. We will provide educational resources through Community Centered Libraries. Those will help to relieve poverty for subsistence farmers, orphans and rural pastors in developing countries.

Here is the link for you to go there and to share. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/road-trips-to-relieve-severe-poverty/x/8411792

Shalom 

Rejoice with Me

God has answered many prayers and thankfully a major milestone was passed. I have finally gone public with the ministry of Our Stewardship Community.

That was a major breakthrough so I invite you to rejoice with me. Dozens of internal and external challenges were met.

After years of research, preparing and planning it is time to go public with my dream of launching and leading an innovative educational nonprofit organization.

I have been working for weeks to set up a crowd funding platform for raising the initial seed capital. This will get the ball rolling. I will use the money raised by this first campaign to start to go on road trips to 5 cities and 3 countries. There I will present the vision and game plan for Our Stewardship Community. I will enroll a Launch Team of intercessors, advisers and donors.

Together we will collaboratively create and distribute educational modules that will bring practical education about the basics of agriculture, literacy and Christianity to those in developing countries. We will aim to serve subsistence farmers, orphans and rural pastors. They will access these materials at community centered libraries. There will be basic audio and video recording equipment so that local teachers can teach their people as well as the materials we will provide.

I believe that there will be plenty of college students that will volunteer to assist with this enterprise online. The significant and measurable results will appeal to generous donors. All along the way many will be praying. And answered prayers is the only way I have gotten this far.

This is a huge and complex undertaking that will reach all the way around the globe. We will be bridging the gaps of language and culture as we bring together people, resources and opportunities.

Today I am requesting your very best prayers. Pray for the fund raising goal of only 3 thousand dollars to me not only met but exceeded.

There are some ways you can help me today.

You can go to this blog where I have a list of prayer requests http://oscintercessors.blogspot.com/

You can go to this blog that has links to the short videos and text versions of the presentation. When you get there I welcome your comments, suggestions and questions. http://oscadvisers.blogspot.com/2014/09/links-to-presentations-for-your-feedback.html

You can use this link to go to the crowd funding platform and from there you can share it with those in your social media contact base. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/road-trips-to-relieve-severe-poverty/x/8411792

When you get there then you are asked to give a generous donation. Your money will make a big difference as it is added with others who together get the ball rolling. After others notice some momentum then they will more likely give. Your dollars today will help to convince them to give later.

Together we will provide practical education that will relieve severe poverty for future generations.

Shalom