Christmas is a great time for stories, right?!? Here is a story from Eric – some may have read this in a letter already, but we wanted to be sure everyone had a chance to hear about it:
Let’s enter the story during my first meeting with Mr. R back in 2010. Being a donor rep, I was prepared to discuss all the exciting things happening at FamilyLife. How his dollars were making a difference and how we could use his continued support. Before I even had a chance to talk, he jumped right in and said these words that would alter the rest of the meeting, “Eric, do you have any recommendations for a marriage counselor?” He continued to share that his wife of over 25 years just told him, she no longer loves him; in fact she never loved him. And she has filed for divorce. I had a choice then, do I continue with the reason I came or do I offer help and hope?
I chose to offer help and hope, finding some counselor recommendations for them. Unfortunately, despite the efforts, they were eventually divorced.
Fast forward several years, Mr. R and I have continued to interact and grow our relationship. I’ve helped at times and he has continued to support FamilyLife.
Earlier this year, I decided to send out emails to several people. In those emails I reported some of the exciting things happening at the Weekend to Remember getaways. I reported on specific events and the salvation decisions.
Several weeks later I had a chance to talk with Mr. R. During our call he quickly said he would like to ‘pre-purchase’ seats to the next Weekend to Remember coming to the town nearest him for his employees. In the discussion he asked, ‘How about 100 of them?’. Did I hear him correctly? When I asked, he said he meant 100 couples!
Through the next several months I continued to work with a contact at Mr. R’s company. They have continued to have the vision of 100 couples from their company attending the event, and they have decided that they want to pay for the full registration and hotel costs.
Although we are still in the process of completing all of the details, the wheels are in motion such that in October we have registered them as a Corporate Sponsor.
We often say in our team, “Ministry comes before money.” I’m excited to see how God has used my interactions from that first meeting with Mr. R to those today, to lead to this impact multiplication. Imagine with me the number of marriages and families that could be changed forever because of the intersection of FamilyLife’s mission and the vision of this businessman.