I am continually amazed by individuals and organizations that give monthly in support the mission of The 1010 Project in the face of their own economic challenges. One such example is The Discovery Church in Broomfield CO.

I had a chance to ask Steve Cuss, Pastor, about their relationship with us and our partner, Candlelight School.

Q: In this current economic climate, it is difficult for all organizations, including churches. Why continue to sacrifice on behalf of Candlelight School and The 1010 Project?

A: We are definitely feeling the economic crunch right now, like everyone else.  We have many “breadwinners” in our congregation who are out of work or earning almost nothing and we’re seeing quite a plunge in our own offering to the point that we’re now on a spending freeze. We continue to give to Candlelight and 1010 because we value the importance of giving to work outside of our own immediate congregation and if we are asking people in our congregation to be generous, we want to lead by example as a church body.  Also, we treat this giving like salary.  We hope to never have to cut salary as we face the economic crunch, either with our immediate staff or global partners.

Q: Kenya is in the middle of a water crisis. Tell us about how you’ve found out this is affecting Candelight School?

A: We keep pretty current with Kenya, primarily through our global advocates, Mike and Kelly Little.  They are in frequent contact with Fred and Alice Afwai in Kenya, and they keep communication up to date between Discovery and Kenya.  Fred came to visit us a few weeks ago and we were able to talk directly about the water crisis, the cost involved and the long term outlook.  Our leadership team voted unanimously to up our giving to support Candlelight through the water shortage and some very generous folks in our church who are friends of the Afwais came forward to help offset this expense.

Q: How does your partnership with The 1010 Project allow you to accomplish your mission as a faith community?

A: Our partnership with 1010 and Candlelight is definitely strategic for us and almost selfish, in an ironic way.  It is our core conviction that western Christianity has a momentum toward being inward focused yet God is at work in massive and radical ways all over the world.  Selfishness plagues the western church!  It is simply in our best interest as disciples to be as involved as we can in what God is doing around the world so we can be part of what God is doing and so we don’t become inward focused.  1010 introduced us to Candlelight who then became our sister church.  Aside from all the other great work 1010 does around microfinance and poverty alleviation, they help us appropriately navigate a deep relationship with a church in Kenya.