Missions Grants Spotlight Meet Dave Wagner!
One facet of our Outreach ministry is Missions Grants—a funding program that invites our members to apply for yearly grants of $1,000-2,500 to support specific projects or programs of their personal ministry.
As applications for Missions Grants open soon, we’d love to introduce one of our current recipients. Meet Pelham member Dave Wagner! For the past two years, Dave has received a Missions Grant on behalf of Sammy’s Mission, a Christ-centered transitional housing ministry in Greenville. Sammy’s Mission serves men in addiction who have recently completed a recovery program and are looking for a stable living environment that is safe, clean, and will hold them accountable. Participants are employed, engaged in community, participating in weekly meetings, and whole-heartedly focused on being transformed by the Gospel.
Dave shared this with us about his experience with Sammy’s Mission:
The men at Sammy’s Mission have spent most of their lives trying to cope with their wounds apart from Jesus. They’ve tried to manage life, numb their pain, and chase their own visions of success. Drugs and alcohol were some of the avenues they went down. I’ve never done drugs or been addicted. But I know what it looks like to try to be my own king. I just chose different avenues than they did—good grades, athletic awards, a promising career, a stable marriage, and good kids. My ways of living apart from Jesus may have been less physically destructive, but underneath it all, I was managing circumstances and sitting on the throne of my heart. They ran their lives the best they could. I ran mine. We just made different decisions about how to satisfy the deep desires of our hearts. But in the end, we were all running our lives, trying to meet our own desires apart from Jesus.
But thank God, the gospel changes everything. It’s not their fault what’s happened to them, but it’s their responsibility to come to the end of themselves and bring those wounds to Jesus. That’s on me too.
We are so thankful to have a small part in supporting men in our community through organizations like Sammy’s Mission. The grants from Grace Church have been used to help provide a vehicle and to help convert a garage into a finished meeting space that is used weekly. If you are a member and part of a non-profit or ministry that would benefit from a Missions Grant, applications are opening on September 21! Click below to visit the webpage where you can learn more and apply.
