Stories from the Bless Back Project are still rolling in and we continue to be amazed at the outpouring of generosity. I especially love this one. Last Sunday I challenged our high school and middle school students to own this Dominate season and set an example for the believers. I told our students they would be a secret weapon in this campaign, and… well… it looks like I was right!
Can’t wait to see their commitments on November 11th!

Pastor,

We can’t really describe the excitement that we are feeling as we write this. Although you told parts of the story this past Sunday, we wanted to write it up for you and get all of it together.
When we found out about the Bless Back Project, it is safe to say that we were blown away. We had never heard of a church doing anything like that and were really excited to be a part of it. As the buckets came around, that excitement turned into responsibility; the gravity of what we held in our hands became very real. We wanted to use whatever we had to make as big of an impact as possible.
That’s where our small group comes in. We lead a group of 15 high schoolers. In our group is a young lady who is 5 months pregnant. She has courageously decided to keep the baby and walk down the difficult road of teenage pregnancy. Over the past few weeks, finances have been a recurring theme in our group discussions. Even though only a few members of our group have jobs and steady income, all have been very interested in learning how to arrange their finances around God. It seems that God was bringing all the elements together to stir up a perfect storm of God-sized generosity. When we brought the idea of combining our group’s Bless Back money to help out the girl in our group, they were ecstatic!
As we began pooling the resources God had provided, the generosity was humbling. Not only did everyone gladly contribute their Bless Back money, most added from their own money. These are high schoolers who could be more interested in getting more Hollister outfits or XBox games, but instead, who gave cheerfully to one of their own who is in need. One young man, an avid guitar player, had been saving money for a few years to set up his own recording studio. He gave those savings up to add to the pot. Each one gave according to what they had, straight out of Acts 2. Though it’s unbelievable, the story only gets better…
We meet in the house of one of the most amazing men at Elevation. He has graciously opened up his home for us to meet in, unconditionally letting 15 high schoolers take over his house every week. When he is available, he hangs out with our group, providing Godly leadership and wisdom. Little did we know, he was raised by a single mom who overcame financial challenges to raise him into the man he is today. When he heard our idea, he wanted in. Only God could have arranged all these circumstances!
With the contributions from our group, we had collected $500. You have no idea how excited those high schoolers were, knowing that we had that much to give to the girl. Our host asked how much we had raised and then proceeded to write a check doubling our total to $1,000! There are no words to describe the reaction of our group when we told them the new total.
We had the privilege of calling this girl’s mom and letting her know what we were up to. She was absolutely speechless. This money enabled us to get every single one of her registry items that cost $50 or more. Every single one! This frees up her family to help her with the many other costs associated with the birth of a child.
This letter is not to brag on us or our group, although we are extremely proud of our high schoolers and completely humbled by the generosity shown. We are writing this to let you know the impact that Elevation’s faith had in the life of this high school small group and especially in the life of this young lady. May all the glory go to God and may Charlotte see this and say, “We have never seen anything like this before!”

Thank you, Pastor, for your leadership and example.

In Christ,
Brandon and Rachel and 15 God-seeking high school students