Interview for Rescue Magazine

I was asked by the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions, along with some other expansion mission directors, to do an interview for our upcoming trade magazine called Rescue. They won't use the whole thing, so thought I'd share it here:


1. How do you know that God is calling you to start a mission?
Well, for us, it meant trying every other option available because quite frankly, Ken was never going to work at a RESCUE mission again! God kept closing doors in unusual ways. No one wanted us?! How can this be??!! We were too young. Not enough education. Not enough money backing us with our small church. It was a lot of the same excuses that people used when the Lord blocked our path to the foreign mission field, so it became obvious… particularly when our house and all it’s contents sold for a nice profit in only a few days of having it up in a private sale.

2. What are the critical elements in getting a mission started?
Faith… seems obvious, but there are times of extreme discouragement and “what-the- heck-are-we-doing-here moments.” The enemy will try and stop you at every turn and when you aren’t secure in your calling, you will shift with the Saskatchewan winds.

Our entire story is how God did one thing after another. Over and over and over again He proved that He was the one starting Regina RESCUE Mission. We were just along for the ride.

3. How did you select the city in which you started your mission?
The AGRM had asked us to do a needs assessment in another large Canadian city and upon investigation, we knew we could not afford to live there and start a work. Plus, we would have been duplicating service with another well-established Christian mission. We had driven through Regina many times on the TransCanada Highway on the way to visit Ken’s parents. We wondered if this small city of 200,000 could possibly be in need of a mission, so we came and did a needs assessment. The word from other agencies and Christians we met was, “Come! We need a long term Christian recovery program!”

4. How do you get the community to support your ministry while it is still "a vision?"
Actually, we weren’t sure we could do that! We figured having any building was better than none, since not all are visionaries like Ken! So, we prayed for a building to begin the work by January 1st, 2000, and God gave us a great Christmas present: a “crack shack” complete with the live-in clients!

Ken put up a poster that announced the new management of the building. Some of the occupants asked him, “What’s a RESCUE mission?” Ken said, “No booze, no women, and you have to go to Bible study!”

And so, with this castle in hand, we approached churches and Christians in Regina and we all got busy with work bee after work bee, cleaning, painting, removing needles and bug infested mattresses, serving soup, and, of course, starting Bible studies. People were excited, word spread quickly, and churches began coming to US.

5. How do you build a strong financial base for your work?
At first we mailed every human being on the planet that we had known or met once. If I got the business card of my dry cleaner, he went on the mailing list. I think we actually sent our first couple of letter to 700 people! We were fortunate to know a lot of people from our previous ministry, and also from Ken growing up in a small Bible college town. We did not nag anyone. I think we sent out to them twice, and only kept on the list those who responded. Many people whom we had not been in touch with for years actually sent in a faith gift for beginning this work.

We partnered with Canadian Revival Fellowship, and they were also very excited to be part of an inner city ministry. They held a fund raising banquet and donated all of the proceeds to Regina RESCUE Mission. We received some quality donors from that first event.

Our board of directors were nervous about allowing a mail out to the entire city, so we paid for it out of our own pocket. It made money, found us nearly 1000 new donors, and then we were reimbursed for the costs. Each year since our inception we have gained 1000 or more new donors with this annual Christmas mailing.

We supported ourselves the first year through the sale of our home and cashing in our RRSP’s. I think the majority of start-up missions spend their money on salaries. We were fortunate enough to have savings and we quickly moved into the Mission when we took it over. (Of course, this was AFTER we got rid of the bed bugs.) Eventually Ken received a small wage of $500, then it went up from there.

Other forms of media were also taken advantage of. We were nominated for Hero of the Week by CTV, so that was some great TV time. The local paper also interviewed us and we pretty much got our name out in every venue we could. Things were much smaller in the scale of programming back then, so we were able to do this with just the two of us.

6. How important were volunteers to your initial efforts? How did you initially attract volunteers? How were volunteers used in your ministry?
Eventually we desired to start more ministries and partnered with the local Christian college. We set up two groups, “Compassion Teams,” who did door to door and downtown outreach, and “Prison Ministry Team.” We then partnered with another college, and set up a team for a Friday night Coffee House. We had an Intern from Seminary who, with his wife, moved his inner city Care Group to the Mission on Saturday nights. This gave us a bit of a break, and allowed us to run programs without much supervision.

Our goal was to have volunteers whom we could just turn over the keys and say, “You’re in charge.” I think the Lord handpicked the most quality Bible college students and the RESCUE bug bit them. They graduated from RESCUE College and are still with us today. We have a very high staff retention rate and I know it is because God has actually CALLED these young people. I don’t care what your position, you are a missionary if you work at Regina RESCUE Mission!

A few local pastors and Godly men also joined forces with us to lead and teach various groups, classes and studies. They are still with us today and very loved by our LifeChange residents.

7. When do you know that you have "turned the corner" and your mission is going to be successful?

We always gauged success on the 5-year mark. As in business, most businesses that stick around 5 years will be successful. Still, we know of several missions that have not made it and how discouraging for the founders it must be. However, I look at the churches the apostle Paul founded and where are they today? God will rise up a ministry in HIS time and for HIS purposes.

8. What are the personal sacrifices involved in starting a new ministry?

Everything. You sacrifice everything. Not to scare you away, but you better be ready to give every single thing you have to God. Time. Money. Health. Don’t do it if you have a rocky marriage. Don’t do it if you think your children will turn wayward. Don’t do it if you’re afraid of losing anything at all. It’s not a Cruise Ship, people, it’s a Battle Ship!

God desires that we give everything we have to Him. People who aren’t called do not understand that sacrifice, and if you don’t understand it, you will be unwilling to make it. It’s about giving all that you have to Jesus. Not because you have to, but because you want to pay Him back. You want to give Him the honour and debt that is due. Although we can never repay it, we spend our lives for Him because it is He who gives us life.

“I will very gladly spend and be spent for you.” 2 Corinthians 12:15a