How to Turn $1 into $2 (SPOILER: It isn't magic)

Two short weeks from tomorrow, United Methodists around the world will once again join together to Activate Love, Transform Lives and Change the World by taking part in Giving Tuesday.

Last year on UMC #GivingTuesday, United Methodists collectively raised $2.5 million online through The Advance. As always, when you give through The Advance, 100 percent of your gift directly supports the ministry you designate; overhead costs are covered through other channels.

This year on Dec. 1, United Methodists once again are invited to extend the spirit of giving thanks into the Advent season by participating in UMC #GivingTuesday. Starting on Dec. 1, 2015 at 12:00am CST every gift made online through The Advance to Strong Missions Loaves and Fishes on will be matched up to a maximum of $2,500 per individual gift and a maximum of $25,000 per project.  The Advance will be matching a total of $1 million worldwide. 

Last year through your prayerful and generous support, we raised over $17,000 which goes a long way in supporting all the programming that we offer. Many of you stayed up until the middle of the night to support us and we saw that faithfulness pay off as many of those early donations were doubled! Again this year we expect a lot of traffic and encourage you to donate as close to 12:00am CST as possible.  

As you prayerfully consider a donation, we also wanted to remind you exactly what you are supporting:

Strong Missions has served the people of Costa Rica since 2003 by providing resources and assistance to children and families in at-risk areas.  Now we are beginning the construction of our permanent home in the mountains outside the Central Valley and expanding the program into Nicaragua as well.

Strong Missions began feeding children in Los Guido, Costa Rica, in 2006, and since that time the program has grown into Loaves and Fishes, consisting of construction, feeding, education, and extracurricular activities designed to provide basic needs and raise self-esteem, build character, and enhance the level of academic work of program participants.  In addition, Loaves and Fishes financially supports local pastors serving churches that cannot afford to pay a full salary.

Costa Rica and Nicaragua are also facing the same challenges with drugs, poverty, and gangs as much of Central America. For this reason we continue to implement feeding, education, and extracurricular activities aimed at nurturing Central American youth. We are seeing great benefits, including rising grades and changes in behavior. Some participants even turn from gangs and drug use to participate in such programs. We are blessed to have had students finish university studies and good jobs just after and even been able to move out of the slums. We also have sports and arts students winning local and national events, and even have students being accepted onto national teams.  We suspect that we will see many more success stories in the lives of program recipients as the programs have more time to grow, and as we open additional programs throughout the two countries.

In addition to construction of churches, homes, parks, schools, etc., Strong Missions’ currently provides the following programs.

Feeding – We provide 1 nutritious meal 5 days per week for children in poverty.  We expect to feed 200 children per day in 2016., and 700 per day by the end of 2018.

Education – GED programs are available for teenagers and adults.  Tutoring programs are available for children to supplement public education.  And although public education is free in Costa Rica, there are many costs associated with attending school. These include transportation, uniforms, supplies, etc. Strong Missions therefore provides scholarships to students with little or no resources to help keep these kids in school, rather than follow a trend to drop out at an early age to assist with the household economy.

Sports and Performance/Fine Arts – Various sports and arts programs are in place and many more are being opened to teach children and adolescents self-confidence, discipline, concentration, and provide them positive role modeling through he instructors and parental boards for each program. These programs also help to involve parents in the lives of their children.

We truly cannot thank you enough for your prayers and support! As we enter into Thanksgiving, Strong Missions has so much to be thankful for, without YOU these programs and the lives they are changing would be drastically different. 

May God continue to bless you and your families!