I’m sitting at my desk thinking back to two years ago…
Passion 07 had just ended where we had launched a crazy dream among the 22,000+ students who were packed into Philips Arena and the Georgia World Congress Center across the street. In the closing session, the big announcement was that there would be no Passion 2008 and in its place we were heading out to the great cities of the world, hosting Passion gatherings for students around the globe.
While we all probably felt a tiny bit of personal disappointment, there was an overwhelming wave of encouragement from those of you who were there. I will never forget looking into your faces and sensing you saying “YES! GO! We are with you,” a point that was driven home as you then gave $250,000 on the spot to help us get there.
A few weeks later we were in Phoenix to start the How Great Is Our God Tour. One night as I came back to our bus I found a small note in my bunk. That note has been in my desk drawer since and I’m looking at it right now. It reads:
Louie Giglio:
Thank you for your commitment to the young people of this generation. I believe in your vision for the Passion Conference & one day bringing that to the people of the world. May God continue to expand your vision & bring it to pass.
In Christ,
Evangeline
Inside the small envelope was a check for the World Tour in the amount of $5,000. To say the least, I was floored. Here we were, just days beyond Passion 07, on the other side of the nation and a note with this gift from someone, I still do not know, was sitting in my bunk. I don’t know how it got there, but I stood for a long time in the aisle just staring at the handwriting, feeling the wind of God at our back and knowing we were headed in His direction.
Soon enough the plans were laid and the costs were counted, and in the end we were looking at an awesome opportunity and an Everest of need. To be specific: $5,422,490. But, as you would expect, as of January 7 we only needed just $75,115 to completely fund the Passion World Tour! Incredible. Here’s how we got there:
Total World Tour expense: 5,422,920
Beginning balance (money given at Passion 06 for city causes) – 232,742
Student Giving (Passion 07, US Regionals, Word Tour Cities) – 872,346
sixstepsrecords contribution (thank you for buying our music!) – 1,278,944
Other donations (like Evangeline) – 2,852,062
Registration income from ticketed World Tour Cities – 261,281
Total Income – 5,347,375
Needed on 1/7/09 – 75,115
That, my friends, is a pretty phenomenal story! Only $75,115 to go from a starting point of over five million!
But, as you are probably guessing by now, it’s important to note that it’s not January 7. On the morning of January 8, I was still at the house when I got a call from Shelley. She was in her office holding a check in her hands, a check we did not expect, were not planning for, had not factored in…you get the point. We were thrilled about the 75K number and had moved money from our operating funds and paid all World Tour bills. But now the tour was over and done, the year had ended, the economy collapsed…you get more of the idea.
She said, “You’re not going to believe this, but we got a gift from ____…. long pause….it’s for the World Tour and it’s for $150,000. Long silence. Loud yells. Are you serious?!?!?!?!? All I could say over and over was “He did it! God did it!” The World Tour was paid for in full…and then some.
As God’s timing would have it, we were bringing our Volunteer City Team Leads to Atlanta the next night to thank them and celebrate all God had done on the journey. And we were able to share with them what I am sharing with you, and tell them that as of January 9 we had a surplus of $74,455 to go toward our World Tour events in May/June of this year. God can turn things around in a hurry.
It would be stunning if that were the end of the story, but, then again, it’s not January 9 anymore. So as of this instant, the most up to date number we have with additional gifts that have come in is that the fund for World Tour 09 has grown to $118,680. What? Does anyone besides me want to shout?
Obviously, it’s not about the money. But, in a way, it is about the money. It’s about people like Evangeline, and the countless others of you in between who released what God placed in your hands so that faces of students around the world could be changed and lives inspired to live for the thing that matters most.
I wish I could say I never doubted or stressed along the way, but that wouldn’t be completely true. But our team has learned to never count God out.
So to all of you who have a stake in this amazing miracle, we are thankful and humbled. And to the One who is the giver of every good thing, all glory belongs to You.
Louie
