Fundraising

Going Back to Bolivia – Heroes & $28,000 So Far

Date: October 29, 2009 Author: Jason 1 Comment

Good Morning Everyone!

What a great trip this has been. I’m heading back home (Santa Cruz) today. I’ll leave from Pittsburgh at 3:00 PM, arriving in Bolivia at 5:30am tomorrow morning after a layover in Miami. Santa Cruz sure seems closer than Sucre always has! This is definitely a very short trip.

I’ve learned something important during this trip. Many times we have felt so alone in this work that we do there. Almost as if nobody really cares. Well, I WAS WRONG. It’s true that many have been disconnected because they are busy, and I wish that I could somehow get them interested in what we are doing. At the same time I have found that SO MANY here really do care about winning the lost in a faraway land, and they do care about us and our work. It’s been such a joy seeing some people work harder than I probably did to raise support for us. We’ve seen people give sacrificially, even to the point of some considering getting a loan to help more. I consider these people “God’s Heroes”. It’s been and continues to be a humbling experience.

As I return today, we are at $28,008.22 as of right now, but we WILL reach our goal. I have that promise (and more) from God. You can continue to send. Remember that the Hand of Hur, our sending organization is a non-profit 501©(3) tax deductible institution. All gifts can be sent to:

The Hand of Hur, Inc.
293 Bray Hill Lane
Oakland, MD 21550

You can also give online through our website… http://www.hohnet.com (We prefer that larger gifts come through check because of the percentage that paypal takes off of the gift).

Our goal is $36,000, and we are very close! If you haven’t been able to help yet, please do! Also, don’t worry if we go OVER our goal… for two reasons. 1) Our original budget was over $50,000, but I ended up having to take many many things off of the list to make it a truly reachable goal. The budget that we have now is MINIMUM for us to really be able to get things going there. 2) We were behind paying several things, having to send in payroll taxes and salaries out of the first several thousand that came in. That was not budgeted in this money, but it was an urgent need at the time, so we had to use it. Sooooo…. I’ve asked God for a little bit more. ;-) No need to worry about going over.

Please pray for my trip home. Keep in touch by writing or calling! Remember that we have a Vonage phone number, so you can call us locally, and it’ll ring down there. It is not an international call. The phone number is: 301-859-4401. We’ll answer in English… don’t worry :-D . We love you all, and we thank you for loving us! Have a great day and GOD BLESS!

WOW! $24,383.22… I Believe!

Date: October 26, 2009 Author: Jason Leave a comment

Good morning everyone. As I said that I’d keep you up to date, things are going VERY well. Last night I received a check from a church for $12,000! That puts our total at $24,383.22. Will we make it? YES! We have put this in God’s hands, and he is moving. Many people are becoming a BIG PART of what God wants to do in Santa Cruz. I believe that THOUSANDS will find God through this church plant. Will YOU get in on it too?

Love,

Over $12,000… God’s Moving Now!!!

Date: October 24, 2009 Author: Jason Leave a comment

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to continue to update you on how things are going with the fundraising. I’ve wrestled with my faith and feelings a lot, but I’ve come to a conclusion. We are doing this because God called us to do it AND we ASKED him for all of these things that we TRULY need to take off with the church. SOOOOOO…. I’m laying all of my faith in HIM and we WILL reach this goal of $36,000. I won’t accept coming up short! I’m resting on his promises!!!

You can see that we’re over $12,000 now! I’m keeping the website updated daily. We thank all that give and pray so much! At the same time, I send this letter out to over 350 people, so many have not responded either (Only 20). Would you?

(For more details on what we need click here and read our Santa Cruz Church Plant Proposal)

Update on Fundraising

Date: October 20, 2009 Author: Jason Leave a comment

If there is ONE THING that I truly do not enjoy about being a missionary/pastor/church planter… it is the fact that we have to raise the funds to do those things. I guess that comes with the territory, although I resist it with everything in me. $:-\$ I guess that in God’s eyes it is good though, because it constantly humbles us and reminds us that we need him and everyone else too. So, I guess that I need to change my attitude towards it a little. I need to treat it like I’ve treated the heat in Santa Cruz this year. I’ll say to myself every day that I love it, even when I’m suffering badly, and sooner or later the feelings will come along afterwards… right?

So let me start over. One of the things that I LOVE to do is to raise funds for God’s work in Bolivia. It’s been tough going so far in Santa Cruz, because we have been so limited by not having a place to meet. We have the strangest situation, one that many would like to have. We have PEOPLE but we don’t have a PLACE to meet. In just a few months of small groups & a couple evangelistic activities, we have between 80 to 100 people who are waiting for us to “start” or “take off”. As I mentioned before, rent for mid-sized (not large) buildings in Santa Cruz runs anywhere between $1,200 to $3,000 US dollars a month. A new church plant in Bolivia can’t do that. We decided to rent a place that only costs us $350 a month… BUT… we have to put a temporary roof (in 2 years we’ll have to take it down) on it. Basically we are converting a garden into an auditorium. This also costs a lot ($8,500), but it beats paying thousands a month for years, and we’ll be able to use this roof later on.

Our goal as a new church plant is to reach as many people as possible in as short a time as possible for God. Wehave received some “flack” for our philosophy… some saying that churches who are 50 years old in the United States don’t have some of the things that we want. “We don’t need those things to worship God”. Those who say that are absolutely right. We don’t need anything else to worship God. But that’s not the ONLY reason we’re planting this church. We’re planting this church to reach the lost. We want to make an impact in Santa Cruz. We want God’s power to hit that city like never before. That is our goal, and that’s why we are there.

To do that, we need to buy some more chairs, a sound system, do advertising, contract a worship leader, etc. Altogether, our budget comes out to $36,000. For more details, please read our Church Plant Proposal. So that is our goal. I’ve been home for a month, leaving Norah & the kids in Santa Cruz (because of school). So far, mostly I’ve only planted seeds, but I know that God has everything planned out. I’ll be returning to Bolivia next Thursday, October 29.

I’m going to keep you as informed as I can as to where we are in this quest that we have. So far, we have raised… $12,233.22 dollars (UPDATED 10/24). I’ll keep the website (hohnet.com) updated every time we get more in! Please check back often. I’m posting in the table that follows the gifts that we have received for this project, without names, so you can see what others have given so far. Please remember that these gifts are what we receive ABOVE and BEYOND the regular monthly support that we receive. Also this only includes gifts that we have received since my trip home, because the budget is based on what we don’t have yet. Several gave some great gifts a few months ago (thank you so much!), and that allowed us to put in the floor and stage of the new place. This budget is based on top of that.

GOAL = $36,000

AMOUNT RECEIVED FOR THIS PROJECT TO DATE = $12,233.22 – UPDATED 10/24

Total Goal: $36,000
Total Raised: $12,233.22

Date	Gift Amount
Oct. 6	$85.00
Oct. 8	$741.00
Oct. 8	$20.00
Oct. 9	$10.00
Oct. 9	$200.00
Oct. 11	$1,000.00
Oct. 14	$3,000.00
Oct. 14	$100.00
Oct. 15	$500.00
Oct. 20	$1,000.00
Oct. 20	$100.00
Oct. 21	$500.00
Oct. 21	$50.00
Oct. 21	$50.00
Oct. 21	$40.00
Oct. 22	$50.00
Oct. 22	$1,772.22
Oct. 23	$500.00
Oct. 23	$15.00
Oct. 24	$2,500.00
TOTAL	$12,233.22

God is, and will do great things during this time. Please pray with us as we continue to throw ourselves at God’s work, trusting in him. God Bless, and Check back often!

Love,

Santa Cruz Church Plant Proposal

Date: October 10, 2009 Author: Jason Leave a comment

PDF File High Quality

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As I begin this proposal, I (Jason) have to look back and laugh about how God works in our lives. Studying Business Management in college, I was taught to plan ahead and to not live life by the seat of my pants. Making a one, five, ten year and even a life plan is important. I took that advice, and really thought that I had it all figured out. I had a date when I would start building my own house, and was to start my own business after college. I guess that God had other plans because in 1996 He took me to Bolivia for two weeks to help build a seminary. Eight months later I returned planning to stay for a year. Then I met Norah. Need I say more? We married in 1998 and have dedicated our lives to God’s work. It seems ironic that 14 years ago I was “the man with a plan” and now here I am writing this proposal to plant our fifth church in a place that I never imagined going in my life!…

Please Read the rest here…

Important Meeting on Saturday, October 3

Date: September 25, 2009 Author: Jason Leave a comment

* I SENT THIS OUT THROUGH REGULAR MAIL TODAY, AND WANTED TO POST IT HERE TOO. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PRINT THIS, CLICK ON THIS .PDF VERSION OF THE FILE.

Letter USA Sept 09

Hello! You know, in this fast paced world, the Internet is SUCH a wonderful thing sometimes. After our last letter, Norah and I traveled to Argentina for a leadership conference. During that event, God CLEARLY reconfirmed to us how we are supposed to work and truly launch the church in Santa Cruz. After much prayer, we felt that it was absolutely necessary for me to return home for several weeks. We announced it on our website and on facebook, but it’s hard keeping everyone up to date through regular snail-mail! I arrived on the 17th, and will be returning to Bolivia on October 29. Erynn & Jordan are in school now, so it wasn’t possible for the whole family to travel with me.

We have BIG dreams in Santa Cruz. There is such a need there. In the few short months that we have been traveling to and living in that city, we have seen so much MORE poverty, misery, sickness, crime, corruption, broken families, promiscuity, etc., than what we are accustomed to seeing in Sucre. I admit that at first I saw planting a church in Santa Cruz more as a strategic move, planning to use that church to financially support church plants all around the country. Even though that is still the case, my heart has just been so impacted by the people, the lives and the stories that I have seen and heard there. Honestly, over half of the people we have met there have never lived with their father! Santa Cruz needs GOD!

IMPORTANT MEETING Next Saturday, October 3, at 6:30 PM at Faith U/M Church in Cranesville, WV!

One of the BIG problems that we’ve had over the years is that we have not been able to keep up with our partners very well. We haven’t seen some of you in many years! God Bless you for continuing to be faithful through it all. As they say, “Out of Sight, Out of Mind”, and that has definitely been the true for us in many cases.

Having said that, next Saturday, we want to invite you to a meeting that we will be having with all of our current and former supporters, those who have followed us throughout the years, and with all who would be even remotely interested in what God is cooking up in Bolivia! In this meeting we want to show appreciation for the love and support that so many have given us over the years, share the great things that God has done in Sucre, and to get everybody on board and excited about what he has called us to do in Santa Cruz!

The meeting will last about an hour and a half and I will be sharing pictures & videos. We’ll be serving snacks and I also hope to be able to chat with you and answer all questions that you would have.

May the Lord bless you in all that you do. We know that you are very busy, but ask that, in God’s Love for Bolivia, you would PLEASE try to attend! We hope & pray to see you there next Saturday!

Love,

The Skippers