Ru Update Good News On The Horizon
BETTER NEWS ON THE HORIZON FOR RU INTERNATIONAL: Thank you to all those who prayed for us during these past ten weeks
. As many of you are aware, we made a tough decision to orchestrate a ten week layoff of our staff, with the state of Illinois allowing our staff to receive a portion of their pay while remaining volunteers for the organization. During these tough economic times, this move proved to be a very sacrificial step for everyone on staff, and has been a huge help. We truly believe that if God had not brought our staff this rare and unique opportunity to unselfishly show our support for this ministry, we would have had to radically change our serviceability to our churches, chapters, and students.
As a team, we have learned to trust the Lord in a whole new way. Many have testified of miracles. Most everyone has begun the process of raising their own personal missionary staff support. For this and many other things we are grateful. We are also excited about many signs of recovery we are seeing in our ministry of recovery.
Can I share with you some of the benchmarks we watch in order to maintain or regain good stewardship in times of recession? There are just a few and maybe you would pray for these benchmarks from time to time. Some are student related and some financial. But all are important, if we are going to be about our Fathers business. Our benchmarks are as follows:
1. Overcomer Registrations: This is an important number for obvious reasons. We pray for 100 graduates per week and see that number often. It is our most important number because it represents those who have entered the program and matriculated through the first book.
2. Product Sales: This number is important for two reasons. Financially, the proceeds pay one- third of our cost of operations. Spiritually, it is symbolic of the depth of discipleship in which our students across the globe are investing. This number has dropped significantly among chapters that are over a year old and it matches the declination pace of our nations economy. Though when times are tough people may not cut off their cable, they do cut off their investments in biblically-based study materials. This number has started trending upward slightly.
3. New Chapters: When we are starting chapters, we are reaching people. Its another key benchmark in our effectiveness in meeting our responsibilities to the Great Commission. This dropped significantly in 2009; however, in January alone we started 13 chapters! That is the highest January number in our ministrys history. That would equate to 160 chapters in one year and we have never had more than about 100 a year. So this is a great answer to prayer.
4. Housing Population: When our homes are full, not only are our investment per person maximized and we see greater growth potential from the peer group critical mass, but we also experience a lower cost of operation per bed. With the inability to find work and people struggling to find the extra income for their loved ones tuition, we have had to lower our pace of acceptance. For the first time in a long time, we had many open beds through the winter. This number is trending upward quickly. We currently have 15 open beds (10 men and 5 women.) This is down from as many as 30 before Christmas.
5. Jobs for our men: The lack of jobs has been atrocious since the end of summer. At one time, we only had one man with a job. This not only cripples our effectiveness, as idle time is the devils workshop, it also puts us into debt quickly and rising every single week. But obviously, you cannot just close the homes when you lose jobs either. You have to weather the storm and work extra hard for every potential earned dollar. At this time, almost every man who is NOT working at RUTH is working an outside job or for the ministry (which saves us dollars). Though the jobs are low paying and we have to pay the workers comp and liability ourselves, we see this as a huge positive and our income in this area is trending upward quickly. However, it will be months before this ministry can climb out of its hole financially. Please pray for an economic recovery in hiring not only in Rockford but across our nation.
6. RUTH: We have had unplanned changes at every turn by a stubborn city bureaucracy that is union and democratically dogmatic. As well, they want an old building to operate as if it were new. We have submitted to every ordinance of man and it has driven costs and slowed us down that we may raise funds for the project. But, to God be ALL the glory what a miracle we have seen taking place! This building was worth $465K when we bought it for $315K last year. We paid cash from equity in our other home and the generosity of Gods people. The remodel would be quoted at $700K. We are within $75K of finishing this project and have only spent $315K to date (all on no interest loans from Gods people). We do NOT want to borrow any more against the building, so when we place our mortgage, it may be low enough not to hinder operations. Otherwise, we will not be able to do many scholarships for the ladies, as they do not earn income in outside jobs. So, we are praying for God to provide the last $75K in the next month. If you know someone who may be interested in helping our ministry raise the last portion of this huge project, please let us know. We would be so appreciative. Please reach out to Tony Richardson or myself at development@reformu.com if you know of someone who could help. Thank you.
All of these benchmarks are trending nicely, in comparison to the last 18 months. We are grateful for the upward bounce in these key areas and just wanted to share with you our good news. Many of you are there for us in prayer, moral, spiritual and financial support. It is our privilege to report to you when God is answering or rewarding your investment into us.
NEXT WEEK I will send updates on the following questions that have been posed recently:
* Can we improve the meaningfulness of the Victory in Christ award? Yes, new criteria will be shared next week for earning this award.
* When will we be receiving our 6 Challenge Badges? Argh! I hate this mix up and will regret it for years to come. But they should be to you by the third week in February. Thank your students for their patience. More explanation next week.
* When will we receive Behold tests for the Uphold Fruits of Righteousness? They are done and backorders have been sent. We will teach everyone how to get these as downloads from the internet soon and we are dropping all costs associated with these tests.
* How long on Uphold Certificates for the tests above? They are in production, but we currently have no backorders for them. (No doubt because you have not had the tests!) We anticipate they will be in stock when your students take their tests.
* New Catalog, New Pricing. We are currently working hard to get items produced at better and lower prices. If we can do this, we are going to create a bookstore rate for supporting churches and chapters. This will be a GREATER discount than your current rates. Our new retail catalog has been sent to most every supporter, overcomer, worker and pastor. This shows the many new items and their part numbers. If you are a supporting church your prices will be lower. You can find your price by calling in or through the internet. BUT new WHOLESALE catalogs are being developed right now that should be even easier to navigate.
I trust this blog has been informative and helpful. I love you and hope you have a great class tonight or watch us live at www.reformu.com.
Steven Curington
by: Steven B. Curington
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