Back in Santa Cruz – We Are 80% Of The Way To Our Goal!

Date: November 3, 2009 Author: Jason Leave a comment

Good Morning Everyone!

Here I am, 4 days after arriving in Santa Cruz, and I can’t believe that I haven’t melted yet! It has been HOT here. It finally dropped down to a decent 78 degrees last night (84 in our bedroom), but since I’ve arrived, it’s been up above 100 in the daytime and around 85 at night. I don’t mind, although I do have to get used to it again after spending six seeks back in Garrett County.

The trip was fine, everything went smoothly until I arrived here in Santa Cruz. None of my bags made it here. The plane that was originally supposed to bring us was being repaired, so they ended up sending a much smaller one to pick us up in Miami. When we got here we were told that the plane was overweight and that they left our bags in Miami. They would bring them on the next flight supposedly scheduled to arrive on Sunday morning. Here it is Tuesday morning, and I haven’t received my bags yet. Oh well, what can a person do? Just be patient I guess. That’s Bolivia for you. What matters is that I’m here and with my wonderful family! (They could care less about the bags… except maybe the gifts that haven’t come yet )

So far, we are 80% of the way to our goal! We are currently at $29,078.22. I shared the progress with the team that we have in Santa Cruz on Saturday evening. They were astounded. One thing that touched my heart and theirs was the sacrifice that so many are making in giving towards this church. One of them stated that evening…

“These people have given so much for us and for this city of Santa Cruz, now it’s our turn to give everything that we have to see this city turn to God. The best gift that we can give back to all of those who have given is to win as many people for the Lord as quickly as possible. We now have no excuse, we must work!”

We still need to raise at least $7,000. As I mentioned before, $36,000 was the MINIMUM needed to truly be able to take off. The original budget was at $55,000! To get the budget to a reachable level, we took out all but the absolute necessary things. (Read our Church Plant Proposal for more info.) So PLEASE continue to pray, and if you haven’t yet, please give towards this! Be a part of what God wants to do in this city that HE LOVES so much!

We love you all! Have a great day! We’ll keep you updated on all that is happening here & with the 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

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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!…