07 Nov 2022 Year End Challenge Fund Campaign
By Phil Waldron, CEO, Mission UpReach, Inc.
Burying a son is the last thing I thought I would be doing in this life. It never even entered my mind that it was a possibility until it happened.
Having to bury our only son this year and having watched him struggle for the previous 7-years with a traumatic brain injury, I am now very much aware of how important it is to live well, honor God, and influence others for the better.
Our 2022 campaign is inspired in great part by Harrison’s life and death. Harrison was an integral part of establishing Mission UpReach back in 2009 when we came to live here in Santa Rosa de Copán, Honduras. When his parents decided to return to the mission field, he was only 16 years old. He had his own car and was an active athlete and gifted actor in high school plays. Yet, he was the first in the family to jump at the idea of giving all of that up to go to the mission field. At 16 he became our full-time song leader and full-time youth minister, and he served in that role for the two years he was here before going off to Harding to study. He was also a founding member of the DESEO public school values education program that today teaches Bible inspired values lessons to 817 children per week in the public school.
This year’s campaign is all about celebrating the positive influence that Harrison and Mission UpReach have had on many different lives in our part of the world. Of course, we give God all the credit that He is due for people who have been changed. And now, through the grace of God, these people are now changing the lives of many others.
We need your help. This year, due to the incredible generosity of a small group of donors, our annual challenge fund is $650,000 instead of the customary $500,000 that we have grown accustomed to these last few years. This incredible new challenge from this small group is to match, dollar for dollar, your donations up to a maximum amount of $650,000. We would like to ask that you make a pledge or gift before December 31st of this year in response to this Challenge.
All we need right now, before the December 31st deadline, is your pledge to give an amount over the next twelve months. Of course, cash is always a welcome benefit since there never seems to ever be enough of it at any one time. So, if you can give your pledge by the end of December this year, so much the better. What we are looking for now though is the pledge and the amount.
Why $650,000 this year? That is a good question.
Just before going to the printer with this year’s calendar [see note below**], three donors approached us with the idea of honoring Harrison on his birthdate (October 18th). Their idea was to add $150,000 to our normal $500,000 year-end challenge. As they explained it to me, they want to inspire others to reach down and dig deep so that this year MUR would raise $300,000 additional dollars, over and above what we normally raise, before our December 31st deadline.
These three donors think that raising an additional $300,000 is a really cool way to honor Harrison’s 30th birthday. When we reach our goal, it will mean an additional $10,000 for each of his thirty years that will be added to our campaign goal.
Your support of this campaign is critical. You and others like you that make the pledges and donations to Year End Campaign make the difference in success and failure. And the success of reaching our campaign goal determines whether we can continue to provide these vital, transformative ministries and programs to the people we serve.
Please prayerfully consider giving to our campaign. These funds, in large part, are what fund our ministry programs including DESEO, ESPERO, the boy’s program at the Moses Project and church planting leadership training, among others.
** P.S. If you haven’t yet received one our 2023 calendars with testimonies of people who either have been impacted by MUR’s ministries or are part of impacting others, please let us know and we will send you one.
P.P.S. Please make a pledge or contribution right away, and let me know when you do by emailing me personally at: [email protected] . This way I can inform our other donors of our progress and maintain the excitement in the campaign.
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