THE WONDERFUL THINGS GOD HAS DONE
Praise, honor and glory to God for the wonderful things He has done among us!
One year ago the Minnetonka Adventist Church faced a huge challenge. As constituents of the Minnetonka Adventist Academy we wondered, even doubted, whether we would be able to keep the doors of our school open. We had high quality staff, 125 students, but a frightening fundraising goal of $400,000 to meet operation demands. Clearly, that amount was staggering. Many meetings were held to consider our options.
The commitment of our School Operating Committee, church Governing Board, and constituency to provide quality K-12 Adventist Christian Education to our children and youth drove us to our knees and from there we decided to move forward by faith and with hard work.
Near the end of each month during the school year we faced a significant shortfall of cash to fund our staff payroll. We were determined not to borrow any money for operations. Every month we met the deadline in ways that told us that God was making it possible through the generosity of our church family and some who do not belong to our church.
On June 26, 2009, we received a report that a total of $289,000 had been received to date—compared to about $150,000 received in previous recent years. But we were about $30,000 short. By the end of June we needed that amount to end the school year in the black—all bills paid, payroll covered and no additional debt carried over to the next school year.
Would God do it again? Four days to go!
On the previous day—June 25—a check arrived from an out-of-state source for $8,000. The donor wanted us to come up with an additional $2,000 in order for the 4-to-1 matching funds to kick in.
On June 26 another ‘foreign’ donor offered a dollar-for-dollar matching donation of $5,000. And yet another donor (local) did the same.
Now we had $18,000 waiting to be used if our church family would come up with $12,000 by June 30.
The challenge was presented to our church family by email on June 26, and publically after worship services on Sabbath, June 27.
On Sunday night, June 28, the School Operating Committee met and received a report that we had received $8,731. Only $3,269 was still needed to reach the $12,000 total.
ON TUESDAY, JUNE 30, A REPORT WAS RECEIVED THAT ALL THE MATCHING FUNDS HAVE BEEN DONATED—AND MORE!
This means that we have received $330,876 unrestricted funds from about 175 donors like you. That is a phenomenal amount raised in one year. Thank you so very much. ‘Thank you’ is not a big enough expression to adequately tell you how grateful we are to you.
God’s blessings and your generosity has made it possible for us to avoid borrowing any money to meet our operational needs this past year.
Our goal for the year was $400,000. A large portion of that amount was to be used to pay off some of our past debt owed to the Minnesota Conference. Graciously, the conference leadership deferred that payment a few months ago. Therefore our revised goal dropped to $320,000.
With the 2008/2009 school financial year wrapped up—ending in the black, thanks to God and you working together, we look with confidence to the next school year. July 1, 2009 begins a new budget, with the need to raise $170,000 by June 30, 2010. Pledges have already been made. Again, we want to meet our financial obligations without borrowing any money. Can we do it? With God’s blessing and our commitment to building lives for His Kingdom through our school’s ministry, absolutely we can!
With God so evidently blessing our school: great staff, a quality Adventist education, miraculous fundraising results, is it not clear that MCA is the place where our eligible130 Minnetonka Adventist children and youth should attend? Why not take steps today to enroll your children at MCA?
Another wonderful thing the Lord has done for us—The total income from the huge MCA Rummage Sale, which took place on June 24-26, came to $4,460! Our volunteers made this possible. We give them each our most enthusiastic thanks. Many people from the community came onto our church and school campus for the first time—and they did not leave empty handed.
An appropriate description to all God has done for us is found in Romans 8:31-32 (NLT), “What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?”
Yes, He will! And as He gives to us, let us keep giving back to Him!
By Pastor Ivan Blake
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