Your Support is Needed

Your Support is Needed!

It is difficult for me to ask for support because I am used to being self-reliant. I have had various jobs for more than half of my life and I have never been in a position where I have had to ask anyone for money except my parents. At World Orphans I am tasked with raising my own support. I always thought I would work in the business world and make millions of dollars and then use my money to help orphans around the world. God had other plans for me and called me out of the corporate world and into a ministry where I am only able to be in full-time service because of the generous support of others. I believe God is using my work for World Orphans to make a difference. I believe He called me into this ministry and I am confident He will provide for all of my needs. God has already been so generous in that I was able to begin my ministry with World Orphans with the support of a donor who made my transition less of a leap of faith.

While it is uncomfortable for me to ask you to consider supporting my ministry financially, it is easy to ask you for something I need even more, prayer support. Your support is needed desperately in terms of prayer. Satan has designs to continue to destroy these precious children who have been victims of all types of abuse and who have been abandoned by their families. God has a plan to rescue them using His church to bring them into His family where they can move from surviving to thriving. Spiritual warfare exists today and will become more intense as we move forward. Please pray for me to be a servant leader within my own family. Biblically, my obligation to my wife and daughter takes primacy over my own desires and I am already convicted as I seek to train others in creating strong and Godly families that I must be very careful to protect and nurture my own. Pray that I will be transparent. I want to be fully yielded to God and act in obedience to Him every day.

Your support financially may or may not be something God wants you to provide. If you do not feel called to support my ministry please take another look at some pictures of my beautiful baby daughter or of the orphans I am helping. No... I am just kidding. I sincerely do not want you to give unless you feel it is something God wants you to do.

This is a very tough time financially for many ministries. During the economic boom, people asked donors to reduce their tax liability by giving at year end to offset gains. Now many of those gains have evaporated and people are concerned about a gloomy outlook that could mean major macroeconomic problems. What a blessing it is during this time to read Matthew 6! God does not own a REIT or a hedge fund or a tech company and His ability to provide for His children has not been curtailed one bit by present economic circumstances. It was an enormous privilege to see my parents obey God in starting Wears Valley Ranch (wvr.org) in 1991. God gave them the land and they obeyed His voice and moved to Tennessee without a donor base or a clear 5 year plan or an endowment. Over the years I was able to witness firsthand God's provision for them again and again. Through God's provision and without debt nor government funding, Wears Valley Ranch has built four houses and provides school, therapeutic counseling and recreation. The children gain an intimate knowledge of what it means to be a part of a Godly family. Now, God has given me the awesome opportunity to take a culturally adapted model of Wears Valley Ranch overseas in the next year to projects in countries such as Moldova, Thailand, Nicaragua, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda.

There are many ministries doing God’s work in your local area, in our nation and around the world. It is such an honor and privilege to be a part of one of them. World Orphans is a member of ECFA and I can endorse their work personally as being aboveboard and fiscally accountable. If you feel called to support me financially, please click on the Donate Now button on the right hand side of the blog and then click on staff support (or click here https://www.worldorphans.org/eComm/store/worldorphans_listItems.asp?idCategory=61) and in the pull down menu choose Clayton Wood.