Dear ABR Friends, Our fiscal year calendar closed on June 30th and we look back with deep appreciation for the Lord's grace and sustaining power for the ministry of ABR. Your continuing faithfulness in giving, volunteering, and praying made 2013-14 a most extraordinary year...
How grateful we are for the critical role you played in providing resources so that original research, writing, publishing, speaking, and a myriad of other activities could happen. Those activities translated into the faith of young believers being strengthened, questions from Pastors and students being answered, and the false statements of atheists and revisionists being dismantled and dismissed. The love of Christ constrains us to reason with unbelievers and believers in helping them to grasp the absolute authority of the word of God and the power and grace of Jesus.
There were many tremendous victories and accomplishments which I outlined in great detail in my last, expanded letter to you. I do hope you had an opportunity to read it. We also fell short in a couple of key areas that became clear as the fiscal year concluded. Please allow me to highlight a few of the accomplishments and challenges/concerns:
1. Although ABR finished the year with a balanced budget, giving for 2013-14 was actually down by 9%. Contributions were strong throughout the year but in the last quarter we did not see the normal surge of giving we had anticipated.
2. Merchandise sales of ABR products exploded in 2013-14, with a staggering 65% growth over the previous year! This, of course, is great news and this additional revenue helped mitigate the effects of our giving shortfall.
3. ABR received critical resources to allow us to upgrade our outdated administrative and management software, begin our website overhaul and redesign, and to fund important program activities (our dig in Israel and our teaching and conference ministry.) Unfortunately, with donations falling short, we may have to suspend the needed website upgrades and our staff will not receive much needed cost-of-living increases. Most ABR staff must work second jobs or raise their own financial support to serve with ABR.
We need your help. We want to be able to meet the needs of our staff and to continue on a healthy path of growth in 2014-15. If you have never sent a donation to ABR, please consider a first-time gift to this ministry. If you're a regular supporter of ABR, please consider how you can help us at this time.
Let us consider the encouragement of the Apostle Paul: 'He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.' (2 Cor. 9:10-11)
Thank you for the part you will play, under the empowering grace of God, in touching lives through the ministry of ABR!
All for Jesus,
Scott Lanser
Director
Associates for Biblical Research
