Twenty years ago this month, God birthed Cadre Missionaries. THANK YOU for being God's wind in our disciplemaking sails!
This picture above makes our hearts smile. Here's why:
One of the first things we did as Cadre Missionaries twenty years ago was to invite a "cadre" of disciplemaking friends to join us in Central IL for a few days of mutual encouragement and learning from each other. So. Much. Fun! (We're still doing this today. We call it Disciplemaking Learning Communities.) While the Allisons and Gardas had been friends for a number of years before the birth of Cadre, this picture above was taken when we first stepped out in faith together to launch Cadre.
Our hearts were full of Jesus, hope, and disciplemaking friendships. However, our pockets were essentially empty.
Our dear and longtime friend, Tracy Hipps (wearing the blue shirt above), came all the way from the inner-city of Birmingham, Alabama, to join us in Central IL. In between the sessions, I pulled Tracy aside and asked, "How long have you been raising financial support for your ministry?"
Tracy said, "I've been raising financial support for all my years of ministry." And he smiled strangely as he said it.
The Allisons and the Gardas were just starting to raise financial support as disciplemaking missionaries with Cadre—and I desperately needed someone with support raising experience to help us.
I asked Tracy, "Do you ever get tired or discouraged about support raising?" Tracy responded immediately, enthusiastically, and with the steely-eyed confidence of a man who knew God could be trusted, "I love raising missionary support. I could never go back to a normal job and paycheck."
I certainly wasn't expecting that sort of response. Intrigued, I asked, "Why do you say that?"
Tracy said, "Well, take last week for example. For some reason, someone sent $1,500 for our ministry. This week, the transmission in our car failed. Guess how much it cost me? That's right. $1,500. God was already providing for me! I see that sort of thing so consistently in my life that I could never go back to a normal job and paycheck!"
Twenty years later, we totally understand what Tracy means—and WHY!
That's the adventure we've been on for twenty years now! Thanks be to God and friends like you who partner with Jesus and Cadre Missionaries. Our mission from the beginning has been to be disciples, who make disciples, who make more disciples—ad infinitum.
Will you help us celebrate 20 years of making disciplemakers with $20 or more?
We'd love to hear from you—especially if you have never supported Cadre before.
You have no idea what a gift of any size means to us.
Your Cadre Missionaries
Bill & Stacy Allison, Dave & Rennie Garda, Mark & Rachel O'Brien
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