Time for a lab!
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| Northwest Baptist Church pastor Hal Jankusky and me. |
Northwest Baptist Church in Jackson, MI has been a regular supporter of Core Academy for three years now, and I visited their Sunday morning service this past weekend. I had heard that the congregation had voted unanimously to contribute to our building fund, but I didn't know how much they would donate. At the beginning of the service, their pastor, Hal Jankusky, called me up to the front of the church and presented me with a check to Core Academy for $7,000! It was a complete shock. I started giggling and hyperventilating. (I'm OK now.)
Thank you, Northwest Baptist Church, for supporting our ministry! And thanks be to God for showing me how mustard seed faith gets multiplied. Five thousand was just the beginning.
Now, here's where it gets even more amazing: In all the budgeting and planning, I priced out a basic DNA lab (very basic). I was excited to discover that I could purchase used PCR and cloning equipment for about $5,000. I put that on the back shelf for a future campaign, though, since I expected the building to take most of our funds. And I honestly didn't think we could raise $15,000 to pay for the building and lab.
With the money from Northwest, our building fund now totals $13,165. Our need for the building alone was $10,000, so we already have 60% of the money for the DNA lab! We only need another $1,835 to equip that lab!
But wait, God wasn't done yet! We were also contacted by a former student who wanted to do a challenge gift of $1,000 to help us reach our building goal. I shared that we already met that goal, and they agreed to help us raise that last bit we needed to equip the lab instead.
So that's it! We need just $1,000 more to meet our final challenge to renovate the building AND equip the lab. Want to help? Click that donate button at the bottom of this article. Every donation up to $1,000 will be doubled and will help us meet this final goal.
The best part of all of this was the drive home from Northwest Baptist, when my mind whirled with plans and ideas. Seven thousand dollars is a huge boost to our building fund, but even more importantly, I began to think beyond the building to all the students I wanted to work with. I've spoken to hundreds of students this year alone, but we only have a handful that we work closely with on mentoring and training. I want to expand our mentoring in the next year, and with this building, we can do just that. I can't wait to get to work!
Feedback? Email me at toddcharleswood [at] gmail [dot] com. If you enjoyed this article, please consider a contribution to Core Academy of Science. Thank you.