Covid-19 has had an impact on all of us! It has changed the way we interact, work, socialize and travel. As I am writing this, my state (Minnesota) is moving towards another shutdown. Restaurants, bars, fitness centers are closed to visitors. We are being told to not gather for Thanksgiving with anyone who does not live with us. We are seeing an increase in fear all around us. This virus is getting close to our family as well. My in-laws and my sister and her family have all been diagnosed with the virus. Fortunately, it has been mild cases and no deaths close to me, but I know many families have lost loved ones due to this virus.
In our ministry work, we work with churches and pastors. This virus has hit them hard. Pastors have had to deal with difficult decisions at their church. Things like opening or closing their in-person services; requiring masks or making them optional; budgetary challenges due to lost revenue. They also face a new reality of less people attending church services in person and how to engage with their attenders and reach new ones in this new world we live in. We have not been able to travel to Ukraine to do our conferences and training, so we have had to find new ways to provide resources and material to help the churches there as well.
With pastors struggling with burnout, fatigue, church conflict, staffing issues and purpose, the demand and need for our ministry has never been higher. We are working with more pastors and churches than ever before. Our ministry of providing encouragement, support and coaching is needed like never before, but we cannot do this without ministry partners. We provide our resources at no cost to the churches and pastors who receive it. This is intentional as many are small churches with limited resources to begin with. Your support allows us to travel, as possible, and meet over video calls to listen to the needs of the pastor and provide help and encouragement.
We would love it if you would be willing to be a ministry partner with us. We need your prayers and your gifts to do what we do. Your financial contributions provide the dollars we need to travel and provide resources to train pastors from Ukraine to the upper Midwest. While things are shut down now, we expect that with a vaccine, travel will be resuming in 2021 and we will return to Ukraine to work with leaders on how to learn from 2020 and make the change needed to reach the next person for Jesus.
We have created a fundraiser on Facebook for Giving Tuesday, which is December 1st. We are hoping to raise $20,000 for ministry expenses to wrap up 2020 and start for 2021. Donations are accepted on Facebook on the Potential Endeavors page, or on our website at https://potentialendeavors.com/donate. Will you pray about how God would like to use you to support our ministry?
If you would like to receive our newsletter, send us a message at rick.post@potentialendeavors.com and you can follow us on Facebook or Instagram. Our Instagram ID is @potential_endeavors.