C3 Missions Newsletter
December 2007
We’ve selected three photos for this month that typify, in images, what binds us in the C3 community. It is, indeed, a small world. These children are our neighbors.
We know… You still need to tie up the loose ends at work and home, and finish your Christmas shopping. So we’ll make this month’s read brief.
C3 Leadership Team Expands
We’ve expanded the C3 leadership team with two servants with big brains and even bigger hearts (although with less hair, combined, than Mike). They are here to help us share C3 with more of you.
Meet Alan Dietrich (above). Alan splits his time between C3 and the Servant Christian Community Foundation. Alan formerly served as a pastor at Pleasant Valley Baptist Church, after a successful business career as the Chief Marketing Officer and a Sr. Vice President at Cerner. Alan’s eclectic giftings and extraordinary competence are tailor-made for C3. He’s a master at making complicated things simple, from business concepts to I.T. and I.S. snags, to all things in between. And he’s even better at relational ministry. Quite a combination.
And meet Rick Heiniger, and his wife, Debbie (above). Rick just “retired” as the President and Vice-Chairman of Hemisphere GPS, a developer of precision commercial and industrial GPS systems. One focus in Rick’s companies has been to develop and refine precision GPS systems that allow farmers to plant seeds quickly and with pinpoint accuracy, to increase the harvest. You think that might apply here?
We’re amazed at the extraordinary talent God is bringing to C3 to help make C3 more accessible and meaningful in your ministry to these children. Please welcome the Dietrichs and the Heinigers to the C3 family.
C3 Advocate Program
In January 2008, we launch the C3 Advocate Program. We believe this will launch the C3 community to new heights for the cause of orphans. And we’re excited.
C3 Advocates are C3 partners who take ownership of this ministry quite literally, and wish to make the C3 children part of their weekly lives. Fully trained and consistently updated on the C3 model and projects, our Advocates will take C3 to new circles to spread this viral Movement for orphans. This is not a cookie-cutter program. C3 will not micro-manage how C3 Advocates use their unique talents and giftings to reach more people here to care for more orphans. We just know that we share a like vision and passion with so many of you. Instead of confining this passion, we want to help turn it loose to the max.
Imagine how many children we can all serve with an army of C3 Advocates spreading this Movement. Well, it’s time that we all put our imagination to action, and radically go for it.
If you’d like to learn more about the C3 Advocate program, call or e-mail Joe Knittig ([email protected]).
C3 First Fridays – Starting in January
C3 is a community of all of us, together, rallying to care for orphans through a God-given model that works. Our community is growing fast, folks. That’s a great thing. But that also means we need to find ways to stay connected. C3 First Fridays is another means to do so.
On the first Friday of each month, beginning in January, C3 will host C3 First Fridays at the C3 office from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. (The C3 office is at 3000 NW 50th Street in Riverside, Missouri.) There is no set program. We’re setting a time range for you to just drop by. We will discuss our common passion, and share the latest God stories and happenings in and direction of the ministry. This will be a time of fellowship, but also a time to put our heads and hearts together to keep advancing our ministry. This will be an excellent venue to introduce others to C3.
Please make this part of your weekly schedule. Come brown bag it with us and talk. And, remember, we’re extending an open invitation to you and anyone you encounter who wants to know more about C3.
Isabelle Update
We told you about 6 year old Isabelle Redford last month. If you didn’t catch Isabelle’s story, go to the November Newsletter at www.c3missions.org.
Isabelle decided that she should build a C3 orphan home. So she started Isabelle’s Art-For-Orphans to raise money. As of today, she has raised enough money to build a home, and she’s still going strong. A professional photographer even called Isabelle to pledge 10% of her 2008 profits to Isabelle’s cause. Apparently, Isabelle is going to take a few days off for Christmas before she starts jamming on her Valentine’s Day cards.
What an encouragement!
C3 Year End – Our Greatest Operational Need
Some of you have asked us the best way you can support the C3 children at the end of 2007, headed into 2008. Our greatest challenge is a natural consequence of our greatest blessing – that so many of you have stepped-up to build new homes.
Every time we build and fill a home, we commit to care for those children – every month. We use local enterprise development to start reducing those monthly costs, but that takes time. Right now, C3 sends out just under $40,000 each month to cover food, clothing, education, and health care for our children. By the end of 2008, we expect that number will be over $100,000 each month.
We’re seeking general donations that C3 can use for sustaining support of our children, and more monthly partners who commit to sending a set amount each month. The more our general donations and monthly support donations increase, the faster C3 grows. The faster C3 grows, the more children we reach. General donations and consistent monthly support fuels C3’s engine.
Please consider a year-end general donation to C3, and/or becoming a monthly partner. And, please introduce others you know to C3 to increase the monthly support for our children. 100% of the funding will go to the field. There’s nothing in it for us.
Concluding Thoughts
Christmas is a time to celebrate the Savior. It’s a great time to think about God’s heart for us. What must His love for us feel like? We know that He loves us so much He sent His Son to die for us and take our curse upon Him, and we can easily say this truth with our mouths. But go a little deeper. If we could feel His heart, really, how would it feel deep down in our own bones?
Take a minute to absorb the following Scriptures addressing orphans: Deuteronomy 10:17-18; Deuteronomy 24:17-18; Deuteronomy 24:19-22; Psalms 68:4-5; Psalms 82:3-4; Proverbs 23:10-11; John 14:15-18; and James 1:19-27.
Taking care of orphans, loving them, is as close as we’ll come to ourselves experiencing and feeling the depth of God’s love for us.
We remain so thankful for you. And we look forward to bigger and better things together in 2008, and for many years to come. Merry Christmas.
Faithfully yours,
Your C3 Partners