Greetings from the Wilds of New Brunswick

Hello friends,

It’s a cold rainy night. As I sit here, we have just returned from a few days away at our little cottage in Nova Scotia. We’ve put a great deal of energy into some thoughts over the past couple of weeks that we feel it necessary to communicate with you. We have not made it a typical part of our ministry to appeal for financing from our friends and supporters. Of course, we did a lot of that ten years ago when we first started out as missionaries, but we have tried, as best we can, to simply rely on the Lord and His provision, leaving the reality that we are Faith missionaries something for people to be a part of or not as they feel appropriate. It is not comfortable for us to talk about money, it is not something that we feel anyone “owes” us or that we somehow deserve. It is simply a reality of the nature of our work that we must live in financial reliance on the gifts that people see fit to contribute to the work we are doing for the Lord here at ANBC. So, thank you for reading this far, and please bear with me as I give you some context for this eMail.

We have lived at 619 Cox Point Road, in the Arrowhead Mission house for a decade. We rent this mini home from NCEM. Our rent has always been nominal - we pay $275 / mo plus utilities. The building is inefficient to heat and not especially large, but we are comfortable here and have justified the high electric bills and limited living space with the fact that our rent is lower than average. It is also a benefit to NCEM to have us living on the property. Two weeks ago I received an eMail from head office informing us that our rent would be going up to $400 in January and then to $550 in June. This will effectively increase our rent expense by 100%. In many circumstances you might think an additional expense of $275 a month is trivial - for us, it is quite a significant change. It is an additional financial burden of over $3000 a year. This is compounded by some financial losses we have had this past year, we have had some supporters with changes in lifestyle that has made it necessary to reduce our support and we have seen our support impacted by a church suffering internal conflict. All of these things combined have left us feeling a bit adrift financially.

A bit of good news is that after several years of requesting paperwork, the NCEM Board has given directive that as the director of the Bible Centre, they will furnish me with the appropriate paperwork to apply for the Clergy Housing benefit (for which I qualify). This will, hopefully, alleviate some of the financial burden of this rent hike.

Another burden I feel in relation to this situation is the Arrowhead Chapel Fundraising program. There are currently 700 beautiful colour letters sitting on my desk all ready to send out in the mail. Most likely you will receive one. It is a fundraising letter for the chapel project. I feel very conflicted to be sending out this personal appeal for financial support and then next week I will send out the letter for Arrowhead. Please understand that the timing of this is not mine. I trust the Lord will compel individuals as he sees fit, and I do hope you will understand that were it possible I would not have planned it this way.

Many of you receiving this message are faithful prayer and financial supporters, and we praise God for you and the care you have given our family. We are not wanting to ask you for more, or burden you beyond what you already sacrifice. We are simply wanting to clearly articulate our need. Perhaps you have not been a part of our ministry team and would prayerfully consider joining our support network. If you would like to contribute to our living expenses fund on a monthly basis, you can do so by visiting www.arrowheadNBC.com/donate. Everything you need to know you can find there.

I have such mixed feelings about hitting send on this message, but I have a very dear Christian Brother who gently rebuked me for never having given him the opportunity to say no (or Yes) to supporting us financially. So, here it is, your opportunity to know about where we stand. And please, feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions or concerns at all - we really do love hearing from you.

Blessing & Peace,
Grant, Liz, Ivy & Willow

Questions about Finances

We are often asked about our financial situation. It can be tricky to talk about and maybe even a little bit uncomfortable. As missionaries, we are open books, our financial situation is open to the public. And there are a lot of different ideas about the lifestyle that should be maintained by missionaries (pastors too). It is certainly not the perspective of us at Arrowhead to seek after wealth, but we want to answer some questions for you that we are often asked.

So I'm going to take a few minutes to help clarify just how we survive here financially. Liz and I serve in leadership here at Arrowhead Native Bible Center. We are full time supported missionaries with NCEM. As full time missionaries we have to raise our own financial support team. Our colleagues, Marcus and Kameron Cook work in much the same way, though they have another income source outside of their regular financial support.

The mission encourages us to strive to be at a support level that will allow us to live in the region we are in without the distraction from ministry that can come with financial burden. Our priority is not money, it is not fundraising - our priority is to serve the Lord fully and faithfully - and to be good Christian stewards of those resources God provides for us. NCEM has made recommended goals for both the Cook family ($5,000 a month) and the Fawcett family ($6,300 a month). These goals sound lofty, but these recommended levels include; all government contributions (taxes, CPP, EI, etc.), a 7% administration fee from NCEM, all planned savings for retirement, health and life insurances and living expenses.

Something that complicates things a bit in the mind of people is the fact that Arrowhead too operates by the generous donations of churches and individuals wishing to partner in ministry with us. Arrowhead is not subject to taxes and administration fees, 100% of money given to our general fund or project funds comes to Arrowhead. These funds are used for the stewardship of the facility, the function of programs and of course our beloved summer camp programs.

I hope this answers any questions you may have, but if not - please do feel free to drop us a line and ask. We're happy to answer as best we can.