Our Current Financial Picture

I know we're all glad to see 2020 come to an end! This is the first year in my memory of staying in the black all year. We thank God for His faithful provision through the faithfulness of His people! We are humbled and full of gratitude, continuing to trust Him for our daily bread.

The impact of sanctions against Russia, and a weak ruble is both good news and bad news. Good that our dollars go further, but bad that they are much more desperately needed, in part due to increased difficulty in finding support from Russian donors.

A sincere thanks to all who've been faithfully and sacrificially supporting this work and interceding to the Lord of the Harvest for the laborers and resources to continue what He has begun.  

Of course, reaching the end of the year in black is a testimony to God's faithfulness, but it's also sadly a result of some ministry opportunities being restricted due to the Covid-19 virus.  This has particularly restricted our opportunities to travel and engage directly in what God is doing in both Russia and Central Europe.  Yet, God continues his advance on those fronts, and we were blessed to be able to get our team leaders in Greece back on the field, after a brief hiatus forced on them by shut-downs and restrictions in Athens.  They returned to the field two days before the EU closed travel from the US. 

Thanks to the gift of technology, we continue to meet every week and often daily with our team in the field, as well as those of us scattered who continue to work from our homes. More than half of our team have now had the Covid-19 virus including myself, though praise God we have all mostly recovered and were spared the worst symptoms of the disease.  Some of our Russian ministry partners were hit more severely with the virus, and the city of Voronezh in general was hit hard.  

Please keep our health in your prayers, and our needs in your hearts, as you consider your own giving.  We need additional partners, particularly during these times of economic uncertainty and increased physical and humanitarian need, as we support the ongoing work in Russia and Central Europe, along with the additional ministry costs associated with my work in the Europe field.  God has continually demonstrated He is faithful and mighty to provide!  

If you sense God leading you to be part of His provision for this work, you can conveniently do so at this online giving link.  You will be taken directly to our East-West donation page, but for security reasons, you will not see our names, just our account number, #9024.

Those of you who have followed this ministry for long are aware of the way in which our costs are covered.  We have a number of ministry partners who donate on a monthly or quarterly basis.  Those regular donations usually cover our salary, medical costs, and rent for the ministry center in Voronezh, Russia.  The center houses the You Are Not Alone Club, ministry offices, wood-working shop, and ceramic studio, where team members are discipling orphan teens and helping them gain important life skills. 

What regular giving doesn’t cover is most of the operational costs of the Voronezh ministries, and some costs associated with my new East-West responsibilities, mostly travel related.  All of these added costs, which you see itemized below, must be covered by special donations.  

The following is a summary of the basic operational expenses,  a total of $25,000  for fiscal year 2020, not covered by our regular support.

Expenses related to Robert's new ministry role:  $5,500

 (Although Robert's new department has a small budget for helping to cover some of the added travel neccessitated by his role in Europe, some additional funds are still needed for ministry travel and associated R&D expenses. There are also expenses included here for some conference fees, training, and continuing educational demands of this role.)

School for parents of children adopted or fostered from the Russian orphanage system:  $3,000

 (This is a ministry in which our team has already been engaged for several years, but with the changes to the Hope House residential ministry, we've begun to redirect funds into this vital ministry.  For the fourth year in a row, we hosted a camp for these families in the summer.  These families have found these camps to be a huge encouragement, not only for the help and instruction they received from expert instructors on issues unique to their struggles, but also vital was the interaction they have with other families, going through the same struggles.)

“You Are Not Alone Club” Young Life style post-orphanage ministry:  $2,000

 (This is one of the key outreach aspects of the ministry, now in its 16th year, reaching out to new orphanage graduates coming into Voronezh for the first time from the orphanages, to begin their post-orphanage studies in trade schools and colleges.  Much of the costs for this vital work are absorbed by other areas of the budget, with most of this amount used to provide food for the kids at ministry functions and outings.)

Camps & Orphanage Outreaches:  $3,500

(A team of over 40 volunteers serve in various outreaches, among them 6-8 camps held throughout the year, including one for Down Syndrome children & their families, as well as monthly outreaches to orphanages. We typically ask the team members to help cover their costs of living at the camps, so the donated funds can be used to cover the cost of the orphan campers. But, since a number of team members are themselves recent orphanage graduates with limited resources, we use much of our camp budget to help cover the cost of these team members who are giving back with their service, to a ministry that was so transformational in their lives. Obviously, this is a very small budget for 6-8 camps, but much of the costs of camps are covered by fund-raising Gennadiy Petrov is doing himself, with funding now coming from local Voronezh business men & women who are seeing the impact of the ministry first hand. However, due to the economic crisis in Russia, Gennadiy is seeing a reduction in local giving resulting in us needing to dig deeper into our western pockets to make these camps a reality.)

Advocacy / Wood-Working Shop / Ceramic Studio:  $2,500

("Advocacy" is primarily an effort to fund the repair and restoration of uninhabitable homes of graduates, with an aim toward ending the cycle of children of orphanage graduates being taken by the state back into the orphanage system.  The wood-working shop and ceramics studio at our Ministry Center is an opportunity for some of our team leders to build meaningful relationships with some of the older teenage orphans while at the same time imparting important life skills.

Team-Building & Leadership Development:  $2,000

(Though leadership development crosses into most areas of this work in one way or another, we budget annually for special team-building and leadership development retreats, activities, and opportunities, including conference fees & conference travel for team members.)

Administrative Expenses:  $6,500

(This covers a 10% admin fee on funds donated to our ministry account.  These fees cover accounting services and administrative support provided by our Plano office.   We also dedicate a small percentage (less than 2%) to cover support development work.)

Bottom Line:

Bottom line for us, as always, is that we covet your prayers for God to give us wisdom as stewards of the resources He is providing, and also wisdom and direction for how to engage potential new supporters in this work.  Please pray with us for the Lord of the harvest to move on the hearts of those to whom He's entrusted the resources intended for this work, for them to be made aware of the needs that exist, and for us to know what our role is in the process and act accordingly.  If you have any thoughts, ideas, or questions, please feel free to contact us.

rfuqua@gmail.com  or  annrfuqua@gmail.com

As you plan your own stewardship for this year, please consider the needs of this work and the lives it is changing.  If you are personally led to participate financially in this project, you can give on-line through the contribution link set up by East-West accounting services. ON-LINE GIVING

Or, Susan Everard in the Dallas office (The Hope Center - Plano) can set you up for regular bank drafts or provide you whatever information you might need to assist with your giving arrangements.  You can contact her directly by phone at the East-West office.  (972)941-4500  or by email at severard@eastwest.org. 

Checks must be made out to East-West Ministries to be tax deductible, and you want to make sure that the accounting office knows that you are requesting the funds be designated for the ministry account of Robert & Ann Fuqua.

If sending contributions to the Dallas office, please send to ATTENTION ACCOUNTING.

East-West Ministries International
The Hope Center
2001 W. Plano Parkway, Suite 3000
Plano, Texas  75075

Face-To-Face Opportunities?

If you are interested in meeting face-to-face to discuss this ministry further, please let us know, and we will try and give you a heads up when we think we may be in your part of the world.  If you have any brainstorms about support development ideas or opportunities, of which you think we should be aware, please let us know by email. Perhaps you have a Sunday School class or Home Group which might want to hear more details of the ministry in a more intimate setting. We love to share what God is doing!  

Most of all, we treasure your faithful partnership in prayerful intercession.