Dear Friends,
I wanted to encourage you with some recent notes sent to me by men who read the Great Hunt for God daily blog for men.
Through my E-Mail account Matt sent me this, “I also cannot help but think your blog has given the Christian men in our organization encouragement to endure. After all, there are number of them reading it. God is truly using you to change others.”
Matt works in the Portland area with Juvenile offenders and has influenced numerous men in his organization with bold faith and invitation for other men to read our daily blog.
John via Facebook wrote, “You absolutely inspire me to be more Christ-like in my manhood. Thank you for your words of wisdom.” I have never met John but know that he is a twenty-five year old man that “Friended” me through Facebook.
I am so excited about what God is doing as Shanna and I have stepped out in faith to launch this organization. We are totally clueless but God has responded to our ruthless trust in him. We have been praying about a large donation in order to market our ministry nationally. Last week I was encouraged when a marketing professional approached me to develop a web site for the Great Hunt for God. After we met with her I was amazed to notice an e-mail from a woman who graduated from my youth group in 1997, who informed me that her vocation is to help web sites “bump up” on the Google search engines and she wondered if I could use the help.
Heck yes!
Last week I finished my book proposal for the Great Hunt for God, a 365 Daily devotional for men. The book will be a compilation of our daily devotionals put into book form and divided by topic and day of the year. I believe this will greatly impact the men of our country as well as giving the GH4G a speaking platform. Our goal is to go into every church we can and speak to the men about launching this program in the churches and subsequently in their communities.
I have had a few questions I would like to respond to. First, we are a state of Oregon Non-Profit organization and are about a week away from signing papers for our 501(c) (3) status. Once we do this it will be a 2-4 month waiting game as the Feds look over and approve and recognize us as an official non-profit organization. We are in month two of this process but the government gives a fifteen month window. During this window all donations are tax deductible and you will receive a statement for them at the end of the year.
Second, The Great Hunt for God is not a hunting group. As much as I love to hunt the GH4G has little to do with hunting. The name comes from a the Greek word dioko that Paul uses in Philippians 3:12-14 when he writes, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
Dioko, or “press on”, was used to either describe chasing someone as in a race, or like a hunter stalking game. So, The Great Hunt for God Inc. is a call for all men to pursue the greatest trophy in the Universe-God. We desire that men to unapologetically embrace who they were created to be as men and fulfill their obligation to be a man who “Accepts responsibility, rejects passivity, pursues God passionately, leads courageously and finishes strong.”
An old friend of mine recently told me that he and his wife are already deeply committed to supporting third world nations and my response was a simple, “Men in America have become a third world nation!” Continue to pray with and for this missionary adventure as we recruit our team monthly supporters committed to change a culture of men trapped in spiritual poverty. We cannot express enough gratitude for partnering with us in this endeavor.
