Our Shortfall, and Our Trust

Dear friends,

Can I share a giving opportunity with you, and say a few words by way of background?

The opportunity: We’re approaching the end of our fiscal year (June 30) with a $145,000 shortfall. It’s certainly not for lack of generosity among so many of you who recently have opened your hearts and wallets to support housing that heals for our residents. We also know many of you sustain our work in essential ways other than finances. So, we’re grateful and trusting—while also recognizing a significant gap between donations and program expenses over the past few spring months.

The background: Why the gratitude and trust?

One of our friends recently sent a lovely handwritten note to say that she had come upon a small sum of extra money. Her first thought was to make a special gift to bless the families of Joshua Station. I know my friend well enough to know that she could use a little extra money herself. What shined through her note was the joy that giving produces within her. When she gives, she feels close to God, as though her heart is beating with God’s.

At Mile High Ministries, we are a spiritual community as well as a Community Development Corporation. When we reclaim blighted places, build affordable housing, and implement best practices of social work and nonprofit management—we are responding to the invitation to follow the way of Jesus. It’s a way of self-giving love, as we share in God’s healing of the world.

I’m a perpetual beginner on this spiritual path. I grow a bit, gain inspiration or insight, and then feel as though I’m starting over. My grasp of God’s abundance is clouded by a head full of preconceived notions, appetites, and fears. Yet God graciously uses people and situations—such as my friend with a generosity-first impulse—to invite me deeper into a life of compassion and giving.

I’m learning to trust the desire to be generous as a reliable indicator of the presence and activity of God’s Spirit in my own life. I suspect that you’re reading these words because generosity is important to you too.

So as we enter the new fiscal year with our residents’ needs, I invite you to discern prayerfully whether a timely gift to Mile High Ministries is the way for you to express your love for God and neighbor.

In Christ,