At the end of week 6 of our 1% Campaign, here's the update:

Goals As of Friday, July 16 (Week 6)
3,500 new supporters 1896 — 54.2% of goal
$600,000 $398,249 — 66.4% of goal

As we anticipated, with the end of our budget year, our being deeper into the slower summer months, and our pausing to pray about and review our activities, progress on the 1% Campaign has slowed.

Yet, every day God has added at least a few to our number! We are very grateful he continues to help us. And because so many of you joined as monthly donors in June, we have already exceeded July 2009 in both the amount of money given and the number of people donated. This has been a very kind provision from God through so many people.

I may be feeling that gratitude more acutely today because just this morning our Manager of International Outreach, Seth Magnuson, provided an update on International Outreach, including stories of spreading happening around the world:

  • A partner in Kenya is both storing AND helping to distribute the first 2,500 copies of 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die in Swahili. This is a significant cost savings. But more importantly, this partner has a passion for spreading!
  • A new Hindi language landing site has been underwritten. When completed and launched, it will be like our Spanish and Chinese language landing sites, helping to spread a passion for the supremacy of God to several hundred million Hindi speakers!
  • A friend of the ministry who works as a pilot has carried thousands of our resources around the world through our Packing Hope initiative, personally delivering them to spreaders in those countries.

There were many more stories; it was deeply encouraging. And each one, at least to some degree, was made possible because God provided the financial fuel through donations to allow this type of spreading to happen, without cost to the ultimate recipients of the resources.

We also heard more examples of the need to equip pastors around the world with resources that help them serve their churches. There is much work still to do.

So, we continue to pray for additional supporters through the 1% Campaign to invest in more spreading opportunities. When our online friends join together, each giving monthly gifts of $5, $25, or whatever you can afford—or one-time gifts—it greatly helps us extend our outreach.

If you have not yet done so and have benefited from the resources of Desiring God, would you join us?