A Major Goal Achieved

This morning, I went to the mail-slot to pick up the mail for New Leaf Ministries. It's not unusual for us to have mail, you know the usual proverbial items; junk mail that ends up going right from the mailbox to the garbage can, a few things that get opened then tossed into the can, the bill for the business card or  an occasional donation or two as well. With the year drawing to a rapid close I went with the hope that there was more than just the average.

Reaching the goal to raise $5000 for the Assistance Fund by the end of the year, was turning out to be a pretty ambitious goal. This fund was created to help make counseling sessions affordable to everyone. Based on a sliding scale, going all the way down to ten dollars (and sometimes at no cost to those in dire need), the fund helps fill the gap between the cost to the client and the actual expenses of approximately $60.00 per session involved in providing this service.

Since its inception, ten percent of every undesignated donation goes to the Assistance Fund, which has helped it considerably, but since giving has been down considerably since early in 2008, the monies going into the account on a regular basis have been dwindling as well. With only small amounts going into the fund in October and November, it was decided by the New Leaf board that a Christmas letter should go out to help try and meet the shortfall and possibly our projected goal. A special thanks to a former client who was so willing to write a letter that could be used as a testimonial.

The problem was timing. Even though Christmas always comes the same time of the year, inevitably it always seems to creep up on me. This year it kind of sneaked up on me again. (Yes, sneaked is proper English... our area seems to believe snuck is the correct past tense version of sneak. I've even seen it in print in our local newspaper. It is not. Sneaked it correct, just in case you are concerned about these things.) Consequently, I found myself in the middle of December still trying to get out the Christmas letter. Not good timing on my part at all.

This morning, we received five generous donations, pushing us over the top. It's down to the end, only two days to spare, but we reached the goal with a total of $5063. I praise God for His unending love, and many generous people over the past year who have made contributions to achieve our goal. Thank you so much. God bless you all and I pray all of you have a wonderful New Year.


Mark Hurst