Eric was at a crossroads in his life.

He was a successful businessman with a growing family who had been persuaded to take a class about God’s heart for the nations called “Perspectives on the World Christian Movement”…and he was deeply touched.

He wrestled for months with whether the Lord was calling him into missions before discussing it with his pastor and exploring opportunities with various agencies.

Eric studied the mission websites and talked with reps from different ministries. He was drawn to apply to several organizations, except for one small detail in the fine print—almost all of them required him to raise his own support. That one line struck fear in his heart because he knew he would need to raise a boatload of money just to cover the basic expenses he and his family accrued each month.

Even though he was tempted to turn and quietly walk away from his sense of calling, he pressed ahead. His parents and business associates thought he’d lost his mind. His wife and kids were supportive, but had many questions. How could he work 50+ hours a week and raise support? Won’t people wait to start supporting them until he leaves his job and salary, starts the ministry, and then really needs the funds? He’d heard it took at least 18-24 months to get 100% supported for those who tried to work full-time and raise support—if they didn’t give up first!

So, an idea started to percolate in his mind. They called ten couples they were close with and who had resources to get behind them. They all gathered one night around their living room for some coffee, dessert, and a “take the plunge” announcement time! Eric started out by sharing his testimony and calling into missions and their ministry assignment. Then he leaned forward, looked around, and passionately shared:

   “We asked you here tonight to share with you the biggest step of faith we’ve ever taken. We want to get to our ministry assignment quickly because multitudes are dying without Christ each day. But we cannot move there and reach them until we’re at 100% of our support. I can’t work 50-60 hours a week and try to have an appointment here and there on an evening or weekend. We will never make it! I need a 4-6 month window of time where I can focus exclusively on packing out my mornings, noons, and nights with appointments. Yes, we’re going to come to each of you to ask you to invest in us on a monthly basis, but tonight I’m asking you to consider taking a step of faith and sacrifice with us. Would you each be willing to write an upfront 1,2,3, even $5,000 check in order to ‘buy us’ the time to quickly raise our support? That way, I can quit my job, still cover our bills, and dedicate the kind of time and money required to build a healthy, long-term support team. Will you pray about it and let me get back to each of you this week to see how the Lord has led you on this?”