THANK YOU!
We’d like to say a huge thank you to all of you who have
been so faithful in supporting our ministry in Auckland, NZ over
the past two years. We are now back in Canada on home
ministries and are enjoying the chance to visit with many of
you. Having the opportunity to share our stories and our vision
for what God has been doing and will do in the future has made
us all the more excited to be in the centre of God’s will and it
has made us even more grateful for your partnership. Your
prayers and giving have made it possible. Please take a few
moments to read this letter carefully and prayerfully as it has
important information about God’s work in NZ.
VISIT OUR
WEBSITE (www.addministries.com)
Some people from NZ have messages for you! If you visit
addministries.com and watch our videos you’ll hear from some of
the people you’ve touched in NZ. Many wished to express their
thanks to you so we recorded their messages before we left and
have added them to the website. If you do not have high speed
internet and have difficulty viewing the video clips please let
us know. We are working on a DVD as well as some other
materials to send out in our supporter packs to churches and
supporters. There is also other information online that might
be helpful to you. You will find information on how to become a
supporter; how to send support in; our schedule of church visits
for the next few months; our current contact information; etc.
THE WORK IS HALF COMPLETED SO WE’RE HEADING BACK
The exiting news is that the Wesleyan Methodist Church of
New Zealand has a plan in place to fully fund the position we
have held in NZ. That means that youth ministry in NZ, which
has begun and is growing stronger due to your support, will
continue strong for years and years to come. The gifts you have
been giving have not gone unnoticed in NZ and we are asking you
to stay on board with us for just two more years to finish our
mission.
WHERE ARE
WE NOW?
Drew and I are currently in New Brunswick hoping to visit as
many churches and individual supporters (as well as friends and
family) as possible in a relatively small period of time. We
have the ambitious goal of returning to Auckland, NZ by early
January. We have set plans in motion for our ministries in NZ
to run smoothly during our absence but in January we have our
third annual Ignite Camp (National Wesleyan Youth Camp). We’ve
been heavily involved with this camp in it’s first two years and
have roles to fulfill for this upcoming camp as well. Also in
January we have our Xtreme Summer Challenge program. This is a
major outreach program for the teens in our area that we’ve had
phenomenal success with over the past two years. It is
important for us to return in early 2009 so that’s why we are
taking on this challenging task – to raise our support in just a
few months. With God all things are possible so He can get us
there by January if that is His will, as we believe it is.
THE BUDGET
GOAL
There are a few things we need before Global Partners will
allow us to set our return dates and buy our plane tickets back
to NZ. First, we must have 100 prayer partners who agree to
pray for us and our ministry at least once a week. During our
last term we had well over 200 prayer partners. We need to know
who is planning to continue to support us in prayer - but with
those who continue and several new prayer partners who have
signed up in recent weeks we are confident that this goal should
be easily met. If you’d like to sign up to be a prayer partner
or let us know that you will continue to be a prayer partner,
all you have to do is let us know – give us your name and
contact information so that we can send you update letters.
Secondly, we
need to have approximately $10,000 available in cash in our
Global Partner’s account before we can leave. There are a few
ways you can help us raise this amount. If you committed to
give during our last term and have not yet done so or still have
more to send in – please do so as soon as possible. This would
be a great boost to our return and would be very encouraging at
this time. You can also help us by sending in one time gifts.
Perhaps you don’t feel like you can commit an ongoing amount or
don’t want to have to remember to give each month or year. That
is ok, some of our key support in the past came from individuals
who gave a lump some at once or churches who took up a special
offering for us. So if you are prepared to do something like
that now, please let us know as that will go a long way to
helping us with that starting amount. Another way you can help
is by beginning your support immediately or continuing your
support during this period of home ministries. That will also
go a long way in the accumulation of this amount.
Thirdly, we
need to have approximately $25,000 in annual faith promise
commitments. The great thing about these gifts is that we can
count the money as raised before it gets to Global Partners.
Even if you can’t give until next year, if you promise to give
at any point during our term it will be counted as raised. Just
let us or Global Partners know. We’ve had some new monthly and
annual commitments made recently and if several of you who have
supported us over the past 2 years decide to continue your
support we should be quite close to our goal. Some of you have
already told us of your intentions to continue your annual or
monthly support and we are grateful for your continued
confidence in us and the Wesleyan Methodist Church of NZ.
HOW FAITH
PROMISE WORKS (For more info visit this website:
www.globalpartnersonline.org/faithpromise )
To make a faith promise is to ask the question “how much can I
trust God to give through me?”. It’s more than just a promise
to give, it begins when a church or individual asks the Lord “in
faith” how much He would have them give and then commits to give
as the Lord directs. The commitment can be made on a weekly,
monthly, or yearly basis. These promises make up 80% of our
budget. We are encouraging the people we visit to consider a
faith promise of $25 or more per month. Our prayer is that some
of you would take this commitment as a challenge and fast and
pray one meal a month that you would normally eat out at a
restaurant. You would save the $25 or more easily and will be
greatly blessing youth ministry in NZ with your prayer
support. If you plan to make this commitment to fast and pray
please let us know.
HOW YOU
CAN HELP
The greatest help you can give us at this time, other than
your prayers, is simply to let us or Global Partners know if
you’d like to continue with your current monthly or annual
commitment or if you’d like to adjust the committed amount. Or
if you gave a one time gift before and would like to do the same
for our next term please let us know.
Some of you,
for various reasons, have already decided to discontinue your
support of our mission. We’d like to say thank you for your
support during our last term and we understand that God may be
calling you to give to His Kingdom work in another manner. We
would ask you to please drop us a note to let us know so that we
can accurately assess our fund raising goals. Also please let
us know if you’d like to remain on our email list; or continue
as a prayer partner; or be removed from our contact list (don’t
worry, we won’t be offended by either choice we just need to
know how to best communicate with you).
IN SHORT
We want to return soon and get back to work serving youth in
NZ but we have to re-raise our support. Our primary method
of support raising will be requesting our faithful supporters to
grant us their ongoing support for just two more years.
Without a large percentage of ongoing support we will not reach
our goal of returning to NZ by January 2009. Please note that
any ongoing support needs to be reported to us or Global
Partners, but it can be as easy as a reply to this email saying
“we’ll continue to support youth work in NZ”. That’s all it
takes! Thank you for all of your prayers and gifts. Lives are
changed and the Kingdom of God is growing in NZ because of you.
Blessings,
Amy & Drew Donovan
Missionaries to Auckland, NZ
