July 2, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – What an AWESOME day! You know that feeling when so many good things happen that you're overwhelmed? You throw up your hands and say “God is good!” and give thanks that He has confirmed that you are indeed doing the work that He has set out for you.
We must tell you that a few days before the launch of our donation campaign, we were just about out of funds. We couldn’t even make the payroll and had to make some humbling emergency maneuvers just to get by. Part of that involved a generous supporter providing a temporary small loan which has been paid back.
We were also nervous, since this fundraising campaign involved a totally novel approach: one that, for all of our careful planning and strategizing, ultimately required a leap of faith.
It was an approach that was given as an inspiration in prayer to a couple who supports our mission. As you know, that couple generously offered us $75,000 as a matching gift. But not a normal matching grant. They felt that instead of a simple matching dollar grant, they wanted their gift to inspire a much greater number of our readers to become personally invested in our mission by financially contributing.
This couple’s vision, although impressive, was uncharted territory for us. And as anybody who raises funds knows, new approaches can be dicey, especially when there's no surplus to gamble with.
But that vision proved indeed to be inspired as today, on the final day of our campaign, we not only met, but exceeded our goal.
The flood of donations yesterday and today inundated our very small Front Royal, Virginia office staff. They were unable to handle all the calls and other tasks related to the flood. It was hard to even keep the campaign thermometer updated since it was a difficult task to determine the total at any one time.
They are still struggling to keep up with all the follow-up processing and tallying of the mail and Internet donations! But at this point we can report that you surpassed our minimum goal of 3500, arriving at an unbelievable 4,250 donations!
The secondary goal of total funds raised has also exceeded our bare minimum goal of $150,000, which is what we needed just to get by until the next quarterly campaign.
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for coming through, for supporting this work, for being there when we were in need. Now we can continue to forge ahead in defense of the dignity of life and the natural family in the midst of this raging culture war.
We were touched by your comments (over 700), your encouragement and your prayers. Many of you let us know of your struggles, saying that despite them you willingly gave from your limited means rather than your excess. What an awesome example!
You've supported this mission, you've grown and strengthened this mission. We have our marching orders. Onward with well-planned haste, for truth in life, faith, family and culture!
This response has also given us the encouragement we needed to pursue a crucial longer-range plan that we have developed in response to the alarming, accelerating conflicts in the culture that you have been reading about in LifeSiteNews.
We know what needs to be done and what our role can and must be. And in response we have developed a detailed plan that we have been presenting to potential major benefactors. We could use some prayer help with this, as well as personal introductions to other potential benefactors who might be interested in becoming involved.
The plan involves an estimated expenditure of approximately $3.5 million on top of our current annual operating expenses over the next three years. The goal is to reach tens of millions more people, in more nations, and in their languages, with news, information and inspiration to fuel a counter offensive against those who are determined to destroy what is left of life and family affirming Judeo-Christian civilization.
In the meantime, we thank you again for your awesome generosity.
May God richly bless you and your families!
Steve Jalsevac and John-Henry Westen
Co-founders
LifeSiteNews.com