If I’m being completely honest, I’m not a great fundraiser. I know, I know. Not a great thing for the executive director of a nonprofit to admit.

So recently, when a man approached me about a matching gift, I was hesitant to take him up on the offer. This man believes in our mission and in our ministry model, and he wants to give Leverage Ministries $15,000 as a matching gift.

I admitted to him that I was a below-average fundraiser, but I committed to praying and letting our ministry partners know about his incredibly generous gift. I also assured him that we would be faithful with every dollar God provides.

I’ve seen God work despite my shortcomings, and I know this man will receive an incredible return on investment. I've personally witnessed how Leverage Ministries has impacted lives. One specific story that comes to mind happened at a local Sam’s Club on a very hot afternoon in mid-June. 

I was rushing to my car after purchasing ice cream for our Wednesday night ministry at the runway shelter. I was almost to my car when I heard, “Hi, Scott!” I turned to see a couple who had been longtime prayer and financial supporters of our ministry. A young man was helping them load a large grill into their vehicle. 

I knew I should stop to talk, but I wanted to get the ice cream home before it became milk from the Florida heat, so I said a very quick hello and took off for my car. As I was getting to my car, I heard a voice calling, “Pastor Scott, do you remember me?”  I stopped and noticed it was the same young man who had been helping load the grill. I looked more closely and realized it was Kendrick, who had been part of our breakfast club years before.  He threw his arms around me and said, “I can’t believe you remember who I am!”

Kendrick proceeded to tell me how camp and breakfast club changed his life. He said, “I am living for the Lord and going to church, and I have never been arrested. Thank you so much for your ministry. If you did not come into my life, I would be in prison like the rest of my family.  Thank you for taking me to camp that week changed my life.”

Wow. I hadn’t seen this young man in more than five years, and here he was, helping a couple whose support had made it possible for Kendrick to go to camp. Their return on investment was standing right in front on them, helping them load up a grill. I can’t help but think what a sweet reunion that will be in heaven.

As we prepare for the holidays and the end of the year, I would love for you to consider making a special gift to Leverage Ministries so we can continue working with so many unreached and underprivileged teenagers right here in Polk County. All gifts will be matched, dollar for dollar, as part of this $15,000 matching challenge. 

I can guarantee you an incredible return on investment as we continue to reach the abused, abandoned and arrested youth of Central Florida.

Each year after a busy summer of ministry, I take time to reflect back over June and July. I think of the hundreds of at-risk teenagers that Leverage Ministries had the opportunity to point to Jesus this past summer.

I think of the little conversations we had with kids each week at the runaway shelter. I think of the conversation I had with a kid named Caleb one hot summer afternoon at camp when he didn’t want to go swimming with the rest of the boys. I think of the short prayers we prayed with the kids throughout the summer—for their brothers, sisters, moms and everything they face each day. I think of the short conversations before meal time about how God provided our meals. I think about taking the teens for ice cream or stopping to get them cold drinks on a very hot summer day. Many times, the teens didn’t know how to respond to all of the love we showed them or why we were doing it.

Was all this work and money really worth it? Are we making a difference? These are the questions I asked myself this past Sunday morning. As church was about to start, a man came up and asked how our summer ministries were going. Before I had a chance to answer, he said, “Scott, don’t ever stop doing what you are doing. I’m old now—at the end of my life and bound to this wheelchair. I was an at-risk youth just like the kids you reach daily. I was headed for a hard life, making bad decisions, and a ministry just like yours pointed me to Jesus. I am living proof that your ministry is effective and changing lives, and you are reaching kids nobody else sees.”

After he left, I realized that he told me exactly what I needed to hear—that God is continuing to change lives even today and that all the little conversations we had this summer would become big things. What might seem insignificant to us is truly significant. What most people would overlook, God is going to use.

Thank you for your continued support of Leverage Ministries. Your prayers and generous financial gifts allow us to continue reaching the forgotten and mislabeled youth in our community.

In His Service,

Scott Hirdes

Director, Leverage Ministries

A few days after Easter, I was sitting around the table doing morning devotions with our Breakfast Club boys. Al spoke up right away—not at all unusual for him—and said something that caught everyone’s attention right away:

“Pastor Scott, Easter was different this year for me.”

I asked Al what he meant, thinking that maybe he would talk about how he ate different food or went to someone else’s house. I asked if he went to church and got an Easter basket. 

But he said, “No, none of that was different. But it was different because of the decision I made at camp last summer.”

That got my attention! I asked him to explain, which can sometimes be very risky, but Al surprised me again.

“Pastor Scott, I now know the true meaning of Easter and celebrated the real meaning for the first time in my life. At camp I was told the true meaning of Easter—that Christ came, lived and died, and rose again. He is now alive, and He did that all for me because I believe. I started believing that last summer at camp and this was my first Easter I could celebrate and tell my family.”

Wow.  I had no idea he made that decision at camp, and I have no idea how many others like Al have made the same decision.  

Our week-long summer camp is one of the most important parts of our ministry each year. We’re able to get these at-risk teenagers away from their normal lives and share Christ with them. 

But these kids have no way to pay their own away to camp. That’s where you come in.

Would you be willing to help us take as many kids just like Al to camp as we can this summer? You can choose to sponsor one or more kids at $400 each or you can give a general gift to our camp scholarship fund. 

You can give online at www.leverageministries.org/give-now or send a check to Leverage Ministries, PO Box 1533, Auburndale, FL 33823.

Thank you so much for your support—both financial and through prayer—of Leverage Ministries. 

“Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner [just like Al] who repents than over  ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” Luke 15:7 ESV 

In His Service,

Scott Hirdes