January 01, 1986 by

Responses to "Last $1000"

"You are on the right track let's get it paid off. God made this extra ($1000) possible and we want God's blessing for you!" San Clemente, CA

"GREAT! Them seems to be good integrity and wisdom in this plan."

Christiana, PA

"Your last bulletin touched my heart. This is not my first $1000 and I pray not the last but that it will be one more on your way. With love and my prayers."   Eureka, CA

"I can read appeals like yours and never ad Shame on me. For at least a year now God has told me to sell my 40 Packard. I said 'Sure, one day I will get around to it' When tread your 'Last Thousand Dollars' plan, God said, "When are you going to act?" I will send an ad to the paper. Pray that God brings a buyer for it.'

Moses Lake, WA

"The 'Last Thousand' plan is exciting and we will feel privileged to share in it. What a blessed and great time it will be when the debt is cleared and all the energy of the many fantastic people you have there can be devoted exclusively to 'getting on' with preparing and sending! God bless you all."

Coiesburg, IL

"We are excited by your 'Last $1000' plan and join those who think it's high time the Center was paid off so you all can get on with the business you are designed for,    , May God bless your efforts as He has blessed us through you."  —Yakima, WA

"I count it a deep privilege and joy to send you $1000. Although my husband had a major stroke and takes constant care, I rejoice in the Lord and His faithful love and provision for us.

To have a significant part in such a work of God is so fulfilling."

Irving, TX

Update

—Bob Coleman

Last month we asked for feedback on a hopeful new campaign to finish paying off the final $8 million still due on the USCWM property. The response has been encouraging! Even before "officially opening the campaign. responses from all over have been coming in each day (see above),

The primary prayer and faith battle this month has been the July 1st quarterly payment of $300,000, still hanging in the balance as of this writing. Even so, there is a new faith and optimism being expressed by many Mission Frontiers readers and many Christian leaders that the Center may be on its way to clearing the ultimate financial hurdle of $8 million.Over $100,000 was pledged or sent as a result of last month's preliminary announcement of the "Last $1000" campaign . bringing the total in pledges to over $600,000! In addition, many gracious gifts were sent for the July 1st payment.

Besides personal pledges, many plan to find others to join the campaign. One businessman has offered to seek pledges of $5000 apiece from churches he encounters as he travels in the Southeast.

Meanwhile, the offer we received of $100,000 or more to adequately fund the campaign is being acted on. Several professional agencies are looking at the possibilities, and we expect to be able to announce the official kick off of the campaign soon. Be watching future issues of Mission Frontiers!

Capsule Summary: The "Last $1000" Plan.

One day, a frustrated friend of the Center called and sao "Why not try to find 8,000 gifts of $1000 each, and be done with your campus payments?"

The staff member receiving the call responded: "A thousand dollars is a lotof money! Would you give $1000 to the Center?"

There was a long pause on the other end of the line. Finally the caller said, "1 don't have a lot of money. But een I would give $l000 if it were the tar $1000 and I knew it would complete your payment I'd gladly do that! Maybe you could find 8,000 people to each pledge the last $1000"

A thousand dollars is a lot of money. But it's also within range for many people IF they are sum that the property won't be lost. We want people to know their money will be used well in the expansion of God's kingdom.

So, now we're seeking to find 8,000 pledges of $t each. Some donors have pledged several units atone time while others have bonded together with s Bible study or Sunda1 school dies to pledge one unit.We we praying that the entire 8,000 pledges ($8 million) will be in hand by the Center's tenth birthday, November 6, 11 that occurs, it will eliminate three, and potentially four, of the five remaining quarterly payments a savings of close to half a million dollars in interest!

What do you think? If you KNEW the Center lacked only $1000 to finish paying for the campus, would you, your church or Bible study be writing to give that $1000? If you KNEW that it would be returned should  we reach our goal, would you be willing to give such a gift by the end of this year? Let us know of your interest by returning the response form on the back of this issue.

An Open Letter to MF Readers From A Man Who Can't Afford to Give the "Last $1000"

Dear Fellow Friends of the U.S. Center,

As I read about the "Last Thousand Dollars" plan in the May issue of Mission Frontiers, I was seized with a single overwhelming thought: "1 wish I COULD do something so significant to advance the cause of reaching the world, but I CAN'T POSSIBLY GIVE A THOUSAND DOLLARS U" I'm sure a number of us fall into that category.

I would like to propose a solution.

I am at the point of agreeing wholeheartedly with those of us who have been saying, "Let's get it over with!" And so! believe that it will be honoring to the Lord if 1) we do get it over with by November (in time for the U.S. Center's 10th birthday), and if 2) we raise more than the amount needed to pay off the Center and pour the overflow either directly into frontier missions or into one of the "crucial neutral" projects for reaching the world. (I am leaving it up to you who are reading this letter, and to the U.S. Center, to make appropriate suggestions.)

I am proposing that we raise the $8 million to pay off the campus, plus another $2 to $3 million for the cause of world missions.

How can I propose this, if I myself can't even come up with "the last thousand dollars"?

First, I would like to suggest 100 percent participation. If we ALL participate, we can CERTAINLY raise at least $11 million in the next few months, and very possibly much more. I am reminded of the time when Saul, newly anointed as king of Israel, left his fields and cut up his own oxen as a call to war for the people of Israel (1 Samuel 11). The Bible records that "they (all) turned out as one man"! Let us each resolve to do the same, and to give as we can, even if some of us may be completely unable to give "the last thousand dollars."

Having said that, I would wish to lay forth two basic approaches for significant participation on the part of those of us who are thinking, "I can't possibly afford to give 'the last thousand dollars' towards paying off the Center":

Plan A: Let's all carefully reconsider our financial situations. It's really a matter of perspective. This proved immensely helpful to me. I asked myself, "If I absolutely had to come up with $1000 by November say, for the Internal Revenue Service, or a doctor's bill could I do so?"

Well, if! had to... I could. I do have about a thousand dollars, stored away for a "rainy day" in a bank account somewhere. Well, this certainly seems to me to be the "rainy day" that I knew would someday come! (And I am praying that you who are reading this letter will also recognize this to be your "rainy day.")

Note that I'm not suggesting that elderly or unemployed people give away their life savings, I am merely noticing that many of us who may not have much in savings do have the earning power to regain $1000 if we should spend it.

Plan B: For those of us who really can't give "the last thousand dollars," from no matter what perspective: the car payment approach. How about giving a certain amount, in monthly installments? (You could write out for yourself a series of "Center Payment" installment coupons and tape Them to your refrigerator to use as a reminder!) I would suggest that an appropriate amount would likely be $50 per month for four months (or until the Center is paid off, if things should happen to go a bit slower than hoped for.) You could designate each "car payment" for the proposed escrow fund so as to be assured that your money would be used for the intended purpose, or be returned with interest!

Even if we 53,000 who receive Mission Frontiers were only to participate in Plan B (which is really sort of a minimum), we should be able to raise the $8 million required (and $2 or $3 million extra) by the November 6th Tenth Anniversary of the Center.

In either case,! can't help feeling that it is necessary and right, with either plan, to purpose to spend a certain definite amount of time in prayer even if only a minimal 10 or 15 minutes for the establishment of the U.S. Center and the fulfillment of the goals it seeks, to God's glory.

I, for one, would like to see the U.S. Center for World Mission paid off and now so that these wonderful, longsuffering men and women of God who man the place can turn with whole hearts to the broader task that God has called them to, and Jam intending personally to implement both plans A and B if at all possible, to help see that this becomes a speedy reality. Yours for the nations, and your brother in the Lord,

John Woodman San Pedro, CA