Can we trust God for Supernatural Provision? 🙌 Year-end Update for 2022
Celebrating 50 Years of Faithfulness
Thank you to all of those who were able to join us in celebrating 50 years of faithfulness! It was such an encouraging evening as we reconnected with old friends, met new friends, and celebrated the goodness of God together. I (Darren) was deeply moved to see the strong bonds of friendship that brought people from many generations together. While those in attendance came from various walks of life, our shared identity, heartbeat, and passion for seeing students encounter Jesus brought us together. Once again, I’m reminded that AFC exists because of who we all are. AFC’s story cannot be told apart from your story. Nor do we exist independently of the communities and people we serve. In celebrating 50 years of faithfulness, we also celebrated 50 years of friendship, generosity, community, and camaraderie. Thank you for being an integral part of AFC’s story. We could not do this without you!
Can we trust God for Supernatural Provision?
As we head into the Christmas season, I'm reminded of God’s generous and gracious provision to each of us. The gospel is the good news of God’s provision of a Saviour to the world so we could experience his renewal, restoration, and redemption.
God is extravagant in his provision to us! And this is a truth that I often remind myself and our staff team: God is generous and abundant in his generosity. We trust that God will provide all our needs in due time.
There is no doubt that this year has been difficult for all of us. With a global financial crisis and a slowing economy, many of us are feeling the pressure. As a Christian non-profit, we have also felt the deep impact of our current economic reality. In this, there is good news and difficult news. The good news is that we are continuing to grow quickly as an organization. Over the last 18 months, we welcomed 9 new staff and 3 new interns. We're also preparing to interview 2 new candidates who are interested in joining Staff with AFC in December, and praying that God will raise up 5 new interns in May 2023. I sense the movement and momentum of God. Each of these faithful women and men has stepped out in faith and trusted God to raise up a ministry partnership team.
The difficult news is that AFC’s organizational giving has not grown at a proportional rate. Compared to this time last year, our organizational giving is down $20,000. Additionally, while we received significant government grants for COVID over the last two years, this funding is no longer available.
If we continue on this trajectory until the end of this year, we will be nearly $100,000 short.
There is no comfortable way to say this: we cannot continue on this path without significantly restricting the work that God has called us to do. We currently serve multitudes of student communities across multiple ministry divisions, through several high-impact events, and in many diverse ways. I believe deeply in the calling of AFC to serve the Chinese student population. The harvest is plentiful and is ripe for harvest! I have seen it with my very own eyes.
So would you join our staff in praying for supernatural provision? Can we link arms, and together, pray that God would provide generously through his people? In lean times, AFC has always experienced the generosity of God and his people. I trust that this time will not be any different.
We have a deep faith that God is leading us courageously into the next 50 years of faithfulness. We have plans and dreams to bring on more interns, invest in our staff’s development, pioneer a digital missions initiative, and expand the reach of CCFs beyond our current scope.
See the attached PDF for some of the initiatives we are trusting the Lord’s provision!
So as 2022 comes to a close, would you prayerfully consider investing in the future generation of leaders and helping us close this gap? Would you pray about partnering with us for the first time, or making an additional donation to turn these plans into a reality?
