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Hopeful Story, January 5, 2014

  December 2005 saw a new beginning at Hope Fellowship. I was asked by the Fundraising Committee for the new building if I would be willing to set up and run a gift card program. The Committee had already approached Knox Christian School and they would be willing to accommodate us at 1 ½% of total sales. This was acceptable to all. Durham Christian High and Scucog Christian schools also accepted that arrangement. Council loaned us $10,000 and off I went to the above schools to buy the gift cards. By March 2008 we were able to pay back the $10,000 seed money and since then we have paid $26,000 straight to the capital of our mortgage. We praise God for his goodness!
  How does this work? Well, it takes a bit of planning and adjusting by you to get fully on board, but this is how it works: For your family, start by buying gift cards for the grocery store that you shop at. For example, if you regularly shop at No Frills and spend around $100 weekly, you would buy a $100 Loblaws card from us and go buy your groceries. The card is like cash, so you only spend $95, $5 will remain on your card for next time. For each $100 card the church earns $4.50. Simple as that and corporate Loblaws just made a donation to our church. Once you are comfortable with this, you can look into other stores and restaurants.
  At present we have 14 regular customers and about 12 people who have purchased cards at least once this year. With this number we give $5,000 per year to the mortgage. Imagine what would happen if we could get 100 regular customers!
  There is one very hopeful story that I need to share with you. We had a lady attend our Spaghetti Supper with a friend from Hope Fellowship. She spotted our flyer at the Info Center and called me the following week. “Can a non-member support this program? What a fantastic way to raise funds to pay off your mortgage.” She purchased gift cards for Christmas. About 2 weeks ago she called me again wanting to have a monthly standing order for her favourite grocery store. By all means that can be done! I’ll make arrangements to meet her for the exchanges.
  So if you are excited about this program and wish a standing order just contact me through the church office and you can pick up your order from me Sunday mornings or from the church during office hours.
- Marie

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