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Pastor’s Discretionary Fund and Why It’s Important

Financial hardship may not be a problem for you, but the reality is that many families across the United States don’t have the necessary funds to cover job loss, medical expenses, car trouble or rent increases. One Pew study in 2015 showed that the typical household did not even have one month income in savings. Fourty one percent said they did not have enough savings to cover even a $2000 unexpected calamity (the typical amount for an emergency).

A study from the Federal Reserve in 2019 said that 17% of adults anticipated not being able to cover all their bills in any given month. 

 

If we take a minute to think about it, a crisis like this might not be far off for any one of us:
A sudden job loss.
An unexpected ER visit for a child’s broken leg or a virus. A car accident.
A fire, hurricane or flood.
For many of families, these common and unforeseen events can put them at the edge of financial instability. One unexpected, seemingly small expense is all it takes to create a catastrophic situation.

 

Enter the Pastor’s Discretionary Fund at Lord of Life. Through generous contributions from our community we are able to support individuals and families through some of the most difficult times of their lives. Sometimes it is something as small as a gas card to get a family back on the road so that they can get to the doctor appointment or new job opportunity or reconnect with a safe network elsewhere. Sometimes it’s assisting with utilities or partnering with Interfaith of the Woodlands and other local churches to cover rent expenses. In the wake of natural disasters and global pandemics, these funds have been used to purchase supplies that helped clean out people’s homes or fed volunteers.

The goal of the Pastor’s Discretionary fund is to provide temporary relief and work towards long-term stability.

Your gift makes it possible for Lord of Life to respond immediately to the needs of the community.

Here are a few examples of how your gifts might be used:

$25 – Buys a gas gift card to get a family back on the road
$50 – Buys a meal for a family in an emergency
$100 – Buys groceries for a family of 4

$200 – Makes sure families have necessary utilities like electricity and water for a month.

$500 – Pays for 2 months tuition for children at Kids of the Kingdom preschool through their scholarship program, making sure young children get a great head start and provide families with safe care so parents can work.
$1000 – Helps cover emergency medical expenses
$1500 – Covers rent to keep a family from being homeless

Every gift is put straight back into the community to extend the love of God from Lord of Life out to the world around us.

Want to know more? Read this story from one of our pastors about Joseph and how the Pastor’s Discretionary Fund helped this family:

“I met Joseph over a year ago.  He called the church for assistance with a night at a hotel for his family:  wife and 5 children (at the time the youngest was 8 months and oldest was 15).  They had come over from Louisiana to go to MD Anderson to see a cancer specialist.  While he was telling me his story in the background I could hear the baby screaming and two other kids fighting.  Joseph was almost at his breaking point because he had been feeling ill for quite some time, but his local doctors could not figure out what was wrong.  His family just needed one night’s stay to help them through and then were heading back to Louisiana.

Six months later I received another call from Joseph, who was again back in TX for cancer treatments.   Joseph had leveraged all the other assistance agencies and his friends throughout the rest of the treatment process.  They just needed one night and then were heading back home.

I received a call at the beginning of April from Joseph.  They were again back in TX.  This time without his kids because Joseph’s cancer was at a point where he needed to be put into hospice care after the last treatment.  His wife could not handle the children or the illness.  She decided not to help Bobby on this leg of his health journey.  This time he was in TX for final treatments and awaiting paperwork from MD Anderson before going into hospice care.

Thanks to your support of the Pastor’s Discretionary Fund, we have been able to help this family in the most difficult time of their lives.  I’m not sure if we will hear from Joseph again. But the three nights in the hotel they were affiliated with totaled about $162 from the Pastor’s Discretionary Fund.  I can tell you that Joseph’s life was touched and made whole in a small way through this little amount of assistance.

Your contributions, large or small, can help to make a huge difference in someone’s life – whether a stranger or close friend.  Thank you for the work you allow your pastors to be a part of because of your contributions to this fund.  May lives continue to be touched by your gracious generosity. “

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