Dear Friends,
We hope you all had a very blessed Easter season. We are writing to you with an update on our family and ministry. Duane continues to gradually recover from the major surgery he had back in November. We had to cancel our plans to go to Thailand for three weeks in April as it was becoming evident that Duane is not yet recovered fully enough to tolerate such a long and strenuous trip. Even after making shorter trips (2-4 days) to various places here in the U.S. his stamina is still not back to normal. We did not want to risk having trouble if we did go to Thailand. Duane is able to handle trips better if they are spaced out enough to allow him to regain his strength in-between. Over the past few months we have visited churches and Karen/Chin communities in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Minnesota, Indiana, West Va. and Ohio. Upcoming trips include visits to various places in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, New York and Minnesota.
Our family will have two graduations this year. Our son Sean will graduate from Houghton College on May 8th. His major is International Relations, with a minor in History and another minor in Islamic Studies. During the fall semester last year, he studied for four months in the Middle East, based in Cairo, Egypt and has hopes of returning there in the future. Then, our daughter Erin will graduate from High School on June 5th. She has been accepted to all five colleges where she applied. So, she will be deciding soon which one she will attend in the fall. Her interests are in biology and music. Our youngest daughter Shannon just passed the test for her drivers’ license and she will be a senior in high school in the fall. Both girls will be performing in their high school musical “Cinderella” later this month.
As you know, International Ministries (IM) has adopted a model of support that requires each missionary, with the help of their Missionary Partnership Team (MPT), to raise a certain amount of money each year for their “ongoing support”. The amount represents a major portion of our annual salary. This year, we are being asked to raise even more than last year. So far, since the current fiscal year began in October, we have raised about half of the total amount required for this year. To help the missionaries meet their support goals for the year, International Ministries (IM) recently announced a new “360 WEB-BASED MATCHING FUND FOR MISSIONARY SUPPORT”. The goal is to encourage people to commit to supporting a missionary for $1.00/day or $360 per year. Here is how the program will work:
1. Pledges need to be made on the IM website between April 19 and May 31 by individual donors who are new or those who have perhaps made one-time or occasional gifts in the past, but have not previously pledged to the “ongoing support” of a particular IM missionary for at least a one-year time frame. The hope is that donors will then commit to supporting a missionary each year on an ongoing basis. Starting April 19, IM will have a special web site running just for this program at: http://www.internationalministries.org/drives/360_matching_fund.
2. Pledges can be immediately matched as follows: Pledges will be matched on a 50% basis, two for one. So for example, a qualifying pledge of $30/month (one dollar a day) for at least one year ($360) will be matched at the rate of $15/month for an additional $180, for a total of $540. A donor can pledge monthly to more than one missionary and receive the same match. Although donors will be asked to contribute monthly, they can also opt to have their credit cards charged Quarterly, Semi-annually or Annually. A donor can also pledge more than $30 per month to a missionary, but only the first $30 will be matched.
3. The matching funds will be available on a first come, first served basis until the Fund is exhausted or until May 31, 2010. The IM web site will daily report the amount of funds remaining.
4. Pledges will be matched only to the point at which a missionary's needed sustaining support has been reached for the year.
5. The IM web site will also post weekly updates to report the level of sustaining support still needed for each missionary or missionary couple.
*One thing to note is that even though this letter is being sent to you as a church Pastor, missions committee or ABWM group, we are requesting your help in spreading the news about this special matching fund to everyone in your church, so that individuals can have the opportunity to participate in the program before the deadline of May 31st. Churches and groups are always welcome to contribute to a missionary’s support, but this matching program is only available for individual donors.
* Also, all pledges for this matching program need to be made using the IM website, so if you do not have access to a computer, please ask someone who does to assist you in processing the gift. The web process is designed to setup an automatic withdraw of your pledge from your credit card electronically. You also still have the option of sending in gifts to the IM office the usual way by writing checks and marking in the “memo” line “for the ongoing support of Duane & Marcia Binkley” as a “Targeted Gift” (but, doing it this way will not allow you to participate in the matching program).
We are so very grateful for your past interest and support for us and our ministry and we look forward to our continued partnership with you in the future. You are a real blessing to us!
Yours in Christ,
Duane and Marcia Binkley and family