Category Archives: Dwight’s Family

Churchfunding Update 6: Time to Send Your Pledges–Here’s How ($65,895)

Friends, it is with deep gratitude that I announce that we are now ready for you to send in the loans and gifts you have pledged. God has been blessing this churchfunding experiment almost beyond what I dared to hope!

Our total fundraising goal is $80,000, and we will continue to accept microloans until we reach that amount. (Those who join now should still email a pledge first, so we can confirm your pledge is needed before you send it.)

Now that we’ve passed $60,000, we can combine your pledges with some gifts from family and proceed with an offer as soon as God clarifies which house to try for! (More on that below.)

So, here are some options for sending the money you’ve pledged.

Note: If you forget how much you pledged or have other questions, do not hesitate to contact us at dghousefund.gmail.com. And don’t be frightened by the first two options below. I didn’t know about them until a few days ago, and even I can say they are “easy peasy, lemon squeezy,” as one of my little piano students liked to say.


U.S. FUNDS (3 Options)

  • Facebook Messenger (up to $10,000). If you have a debit card, you can send money over Facebook, directly to my bank account. Read about it here, or just follow these easy steps:
    1. Open a chat with Dwight Gingrich (see Facebook help if confused)
    2. Click and enter the amount you want to send
    3. Click Next to add your debit card and then click Pay


      Note
      : If you’re using Payments in Messenger on your smart phone, first make sure that you have the latest version of the Messenger app installed. If you don’t see , tap to find it.

  • Square Cash (up to $2,500). NOTE: Please do not use this option until we solve a glitch that is causing transactions to fail. Thanks! This works much like the Facebook option, by using debit cards. If you already use Square Cash, simply send a payment to [email protected].

If you are new to Square Cash, here are two easy options:

1. Just send the money.  Open the following link, enter the amount and your debit card information, and you’re done! https://cash.me/$DwightGingrich
2. Create a Square Cash account. If you have a smart phone, sign up at the following link, then send a payment to [email protected]: cash.me/app/KNLHDNM. (This will give both you and Rodney Troyer, the CPA helping me, a $5 bonus.) If you don’t have a smart phone, sign up here then follow option one above: https://cash.me/

Note from SQ: “There’s an initial $250 weekly sending limit for personal use Cash accounts. When you send more than $250 in one week, we’ll automatically ask you to verify your name, date of birth, and the last 4 digits of your SSN to increase the sending limit to $2,500 (in most states). Another option is to link your Facebook account and enter the last 4 of your SSN.”

  • Check. Mail a check to Dwight Gingrich the following address, then send an email to [email protected] telling us you have done so:

Dwight Gingrich
25964 265th Ave
Leon, IA  50144


CANADIAN FUNDS (2 Options)

  • Bank draft/cheque in U.S. funds. Have your bank create a cheque in U.S. funds, mail it to the following address, then send an email to [email protected] telling us you have done so:

Dwight Gingrich
25964 265th Ave
Leon, IA  50144

Note: If you are wondering if it is safe to mail a bank draft, you may read this assurance from TD Bank.

  • PayPal. To use this option, contact me privately and I’ll send you the email address to send the money to. (I don’t want to post that email address here.) Important note: If you use a debit card or credit card to send money over PayPal, there will be a transaction fee on top of the exchange fee: “2.9% + $0.30 per transaction (the sender decides who pays this fee).” To avoid this fee, use your bank account or PayPal balance.

No matter which option you choose, we will plan to send you an email confirming we have received your money. (We will aim to send this email within 4 days of receiving your money. Feel free to contact us if you do not hear from us that soon.)


Progress Report
(As of 6:00 a.m. EST, 10/23/2015)

We are over 3/4 way to our goal of $80,000!

Total pledged so far: $65,894.55 (after tithe deducted)
Total pledgers: 81 generous friends
Largest pledge: $12,000
Smallest pledge: $75
Average pledge: $828.89
Most common pledge: $500 (36 this size)

Total loans with interest: $28, 504.55
Total interest-free loans: $26,140
Total gifts: $12,500
Total tithe to share with those driven from their homes in the Middle East and the building purchase fund of the Missions Training Center in NYC: $1,250, plus nearly $2,500 in tithes from family gifts

Current maximum projected repayment time (if we receive more interest-bearing loans to reach $80,000): 12 years, 2 months

Note: Figures here will fluctuate just a little after we know what exchange rate Canadian contributions actually receive.


How You Can Help

  • Pray for the pledger who is about to lose his job. (See “One Story” here). I chatted with him recently, and he said “We can feel many folks praying for us.”
  • Pray that God will preserve and provide exactly the right house for us. (See “Update on ‘The House'” here.)
  • Pray that we will trust him well, so that he can receive the glory he so richly deserves.
  • Pray that God will perfectly control the timing of our move from Iowa to Atlanta, and that we will finish well the work he has for us here before we go.
  • Pledgers, be sure you have emailed all your information to [email protected]. (Your name, pledge amount, mailing address and phone number.)
  • Spread the word to help us reach $80,000.
  • If you want to join in, visit the “Offical Launch” post and send your pledge info to [email protected]. Then join our Facebook group or subscribe to this blog to stay informed. Thanks!

Let me end by repeating our warmest thanks to each of you who are praying, pledging, or otherwise encouraging us in the middle of this faith-walk! We feel God’s love through your love. Thank you.


If you have questions or comments, share them below. God bless!


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Churchfunding Update 5: Almost Ready for Your Pledges! ($60,995)

Hi friends! This is a very short announcement for you who have pledged loans and gifts to help us buying a house in Atlanta.

Thanks to a recent surge in pledges, the pledge total is now $60,994.55. This is enough that we should be able to make an offer on a house! Please stay tuned for another post tonight or tomorrow on how you can send in your pledge money.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, please look for other “Churchfunding” posts, which will be full of details.

Please pray that Christ will be honored as we move into the next phase of this project. Thank you!

For Christ and his Church,
Dwight


You may add your verbal two cents by leaving a comment below.

Churchfunding Update 4: In the School of Faith ($44,240)

Good morning, friends! It’s time for another proper update about our churchfunding experiment. Pledges have slowed down after the first three days, but we are still honored by the pledges that friends keep offering, and encouraged to see the total climbing.


Progress Report
(As of 8:00 a.m. EST, 10/20/2015)

We are over 1/2 way to our goal of $80,000!

Total pledged so far: $44,239.55 (after tithe deducted)
Total pledgers: 66 generous friends (11 more than the last update)
Largest pledge: $5000
Smallest pledge: $75
Average pledge: $683.63
Most common pledge: $500 (30 this size)

Remember, once we near $60,000 we plan to ask pledgers to send in the money you have generously pledged. We are only $15,000 short of this initial goal! So this means we could be asking for pledges within just a few days. We will post that request both here and on Facebook, and ask you to notify us to confirm your pledge is on the way.

Note: Figures here will fluctuate just a little after we know what exchange rate Canadian contributions actually receive.


Update on “The House”

Sunday night just before turning out the light I made the mistake of checking to see if “our” house was still on the market. It wasn’t. More precisely, it is currently listed as pending sale to another customer.

This has happened several times before with this house over the past six months. We first spotted the house in early September while making plans for our late-September house-hunting visit in Atlanta. Then its status changed to pending sale. But it came back on the market just as we arrived in Atlanta, so we were able to tour the house while there. Each time the house has come off the market it has come back on, often within about half a month.

So here are several likely scenarios:

  • The current sale goes through and we continue looking for a different house.
  • The current sale falls through, by which time we have enough funds to make an offer. Then an inspection reveals some crucial reason why other offers have been retracted, and we continue looking for a different house.
  • The current sale falls through, we make an offer, and we decide it is still a good match for us. Perhaps repairs will cost ten or fifteen thousand dollars more than we had hoped, but the ideal location of the house (for our unique purposes) will convince us that it is still a wise investment.

I am hoping it is the last scenario, but we are casting this into God’s hands! Perhaps God has simply been preserving this house for us. Or perhaps he has yet to reveal better plans.

Either way, our churchfunding effort proceeds as normal. Whether it is this house or another, we will need funds to make a purchase, and I’m hoping we can find something in the price range of this house. And I would love if funds were in place before this house comes back on the market—if it does!

I admit that last night some dreams were plaguing me for a while, as my mind tried to imagine ways that it was actually us who already had an offer on the house. I’m glad to report that we haven’t spent a lot of time with such worrying.

Yes, waiting and trusting can take a certain toll on our minds and our bodies, so I’m feeling my need for sleep these days. But we haven’t lost all sense of humor. The other night just before falling asleep—actually, I think it was Sunday night after I discovered the news, but I’m not sure—the other night Zonya started laughing. You must realize that this is unusual behavior for her for that time of day. My wife is decidedly a morning person, not a night owl. Why was she laughing? “We’ve chosen to use midwives rather than hospitals for the births of our children, and we didn’t use a funeral home at all for Dad’s funeral, so is it any surprise that we are finding a way to avoid the bank when raising a loan for a house?”

Yes, from birth to death and lots in between, it seems we have a way of finding unconventional solutions to life’s challenges. This time we’re relying on some unconventional friends to help us do so. 🙂


How You Can Help

  • Pray for the pledger who is about to lose his job (see “One Story” here).
  • Pray that God will preserve and provide exactly the right house for us.
  • Pray that we will trust him well, so that he can receive the glory he so richly deserves.
  • Pray that God will perfectly control the timing of our move from Iowa to Atlanta, and that we will finish well the work he has for us here before we go.
  • Pledgers, be sure you have emailed all your information to [email protected]. (Your name, pledge amount, mailing address and phone number.)
  • Spread the word! Your pledge will help us buy a house only if we find enough funds to move forward.
  • If you want to join in, visit Monday’s blog post and send your pledge info to [email protected]. Then join our Facebook group or subscribe to this blog to stay informed. Thanks!

Let me end by repeating our warmest thanks to each of you who are praying, pledging, or otherwise encouraging us in the middle of this faith-walk! One great side benefit of this churchfunding experiment—indeed, it may be God’s prime benefit for us—is to have so many people surrounding us with encouragement as we work towards moving to Atlanta. We feel God’s love through your love. Thank you.


If you have questions or comments, share them below. God bless!


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