Today was one of those days that so much happened, there’s too much to write about. And today is one of those very affirming days and one that will prove to be one of highlights of this one-month Luke 11 ASK Road Tour!
I was in Alpharetta (north of Atlanta) most of the day. I had 3 key meetings. Tonight I need to make my way to Bay Minette Alabama for an ECMC Vision Presentation to a group of people, that my friend Cindy organized to come together at her cousin’s restaurant tomorrow morning.
I am presently taking a break right now at Panera Bread – where there is free wifi. I am trying to get this blog up before moving on. I am at the halfway point of my journey today. I am presently in Montgomery Al. It was a 2-3 hour drive from Atlanta, well perhaps a tad more because of all the traffic.
I have another 2-3 hour drive to Bay Minette (with is South from Montgomery – almost near Mobile Al). So here’s the quick recap on this awesome God-day!
Meeting #1 – 89.1 Faith FM
I had a telephone conference call with Bob & Mark this morning to discuss the real possibilities and implementation strategy to my “North to Canada” daily 2-minute radio ministry. This will help us tell the stories of Canada, increase advocacy and hopefully leverage Kingdom resources of all kinds to help move forward God’s vision for the Eastern Canada Mission Centre for 50% of Canada’s Population and the most unreached people group in North America. Much more to follow on this – but now is the time to really make this happen!
Meeting #2 – The National Christian Foundation
Then I met my new friend Lewis at the NCF. I was impressed by the fact that this man served the Lord for about 40-50 years as a pastor / in ministry. And though he is now 75 years of age, he is still serving the Lord – this time with the NCF.
In a nutshell, NCF is a ministry to help godly men and women invest their money through this Foundation and in return leverage charitable giving and Kingdom investments to help 100s if not 1000s of ministries. NCF will typically write cheques on a daily basis totaling $1-2M! They are in fact the biggest “mission organization” in the world!
But I was also impressed by the stories of the many “Kingdom Investors”. Now I don’t know their names or who they are, and that’s ok (for their privacy and trust in the NCF), but I simply know generic stories of incredible godly men and women who live very humbly, and yet give their wealth away to advance the Kingdom of God. I mean I heard truly remarkable stories.
Now one of the really cool things that came out of this meeting with Lewis was his suggestion that we set-up “an account” at NCF for the ECMC. That way, any Kingdom Investors who want to give to Canada, can simply go through NCF and they in turn, would directly send it to the ECMC. But the minimal amount to get an account set-up is $10K. Wouldn’t you believe it – that is exactly what one Kingdom Investor told me on this trip that the Lord had laid on his heart to give to the ECMC!
So a new process is about to be put in place. This will incredibly streamline the process of giving – ie versus folks in the USA giving to the North American Mission Board, then to the Canadian National Baptist Convention, then to the ECMC in Ottawa. More to follow on this but perhaps this was a key process to be put in place first in order to pave the way for God to unleash the $16M for Eastern Canada!
Meeting #3 – North American Mission Board
My final meeting today was with my good friend Richard, the Interim President at NAMB. Richard has been following the development of Sequoia almost since its inception. He was so impressed today by how Sequoia is willing to build the Mission Centre first before its own “church facility”. I mean really – this has hardly ever been seen before! But even more impressed was he with the vision, strategic plans, organizational structure, logistics, 3-year budget plans and other deliverables of the ECMC (church planting; assessment and on-going leadership development, coaching and mentoring through inSPIRE; the Upper Room Strategy; etc). Richard was also very affirming in relation to the scope of this God-size vision and how it is needed in Eastern Canada. He told me not to quit or give up. God is indeed up to something with this is “strategic, faith-based and local church cutting-edge initiative”! The bottom line is this – we have a great advocate in Richard!
Final Thoughts …
Of course there are things that were shared today that I simply cannot share publicly in this blog. But I will say this – I feel more affirmed today than ever! God is in this vision! The ECMC will be a “prototype”, as many have actually told me before, of things to come. The year 2010 is indeed a must “turning point year” for many – for Canada, and even here in the USA among many of its entities, ie NAMB, SBC, etc
But for sure this crazy one-month step of faith is speaking loud and clear to many. Convictions are often proven by the radical steps of faith we are willing to take – even to the point of being willing to risk failure. There is so much more I could say about today – but I got to get back on the road.
Thanks for praying! God is being glorified! A new day is dawning! We are standing in the gap!
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