The Closing of the Destiny Foundation

By now, I'm sure that many of you have heard about the sudden closing of the Destiny Foundation. As Grace has partnered with the Foundation in extensive ways (including making them the recipients of 25% of our Generous Life building campaign receipts), I wanted to post a letter that Mike emailed to our Generous Life donors on Wednesday, the day the closing was announced. It will let everyone know where we are in relation to this sad news, and hopefully it will encourage you to pray. God and Grace are not done serving the poor in Central Florida — be certain of that!

A year ago this November, you made a decision in faith to support the Generous Life project at Grace. We can’t thank you enough for that sacrifice, and we are closer than we’ve ever been to moving forward on a facility for Grace. Please continue to give toward your pledge, and to pray that we will be where He wants us. He is at work!

 

Since you are a member of that group of givers, I wanted to update you first before telling the entire church about a circumstance that’s impacted the project. As you know, The Destiny Foundation has been a recipient of 25 percent of all the donations we’ve brought in so far for Generous Life. But today, the decision was made to close the doors of the Destiny Foundation effective immediately.

This difficult decision is a result of a growing financial crisis that has snowballed in the last month. The Board of Directors, which I have been a part of for a few months, made the decision to close the doors and to begin to develop a more sustainable model to try to open again in the future. 

The bottom line?  The economic crisis has led Destiny to the place where it is simply out of money. The primary reasons for this are that

• In its current structure, the Destiny Foundation depended on the sale of donated food — even at the greatly reduced prices it offered — for most of its revenue, and

• The recession has made donated food increasingly impossible to get.

There has been less free food to sell and therefore no revenue to support the ministry, even after severe payroll and ministry cuts. Add to that a greatly increased clientele coming to the ministry because of the downturn, and it was a two-sided crisis — more demand and less supply.

There are some things I want you to know in this transition and its impact on Grace:

1) All the money we have given so far to Destiny has already gone to help the working poor. It has been spent to serve many people. The economy has simply impacted the Destiny Foundation so much that there are simply no funds left to continue assisting the community at this time.

2) Destiny is currently re-organizing and developing a sustainable model to open again in the future. I am praying about what role God would have me take in that, if any.

3) The elders and staff at Grace are going to be praying and evaluating whether we will continue to support Destiny in its new form, or whether we will pursue another local poverty project. 

4) In the meantime, every cent that you have given and will give for the local poor in the Generous Life campaign will be set aside until we make that decision. The 25 percent of the money you've pledged to Generous Life for the local poor will be used for that purpose only — and for nothing else.

Please be in prayer for Scott George and the team at Destiny, including our own Grace attenders who work and volunteer there. They are experiencing great loss over a vision unfulfilled. Pray for those who have sought out help from the Destiny Foundation as well, that they will find other places of help and rest. And pray for Grace as we move forward to give and to serve in the way God has called us. 

We won’t stop.

 

In His grace,

Pastor Mike