Dear friends and partners,
Spring is here and the Earth rejoices in imitation of our risen Lord!
Sometimes it seems that the work is as hard as the ground. As the days lengthen and the ground softens, our hearts burst forth in creativity. In the winter, we whip the horse. In the spring, we hang on and do our best to steer! (For the record, when it comes to actual horses I’m anti-whipping but pro-steering.)
We’ve come through a quarter of hard work. In some ways, the steady discipline of labor is a welcome relief to the barrage of creative impulses I typically quarantine. We’ve had a productive 12 weeks, and we continue to celebrate the work that God is doing to bring His vision to fruition.
For easy reading or printing, download a PDF of this quarterly newsletter here: https://sokw.org/newsletter/2019-Q1-Newsletter.pdf
Through the winter months we presented the ministry vision to 28 more individuals and organizations. Over a dozen new households have partnered with SOKW by praying and spreading the word, and have promised to support this ministry financially every month! God is raising up a powerful community of believers who are investing in the Kingdom through this mission.
We’re also excited to welcome the Grove City Vineyard (Grove City, Ohio) as a partner. They have provided generous material and spiritual support, and we’re very grateful for them.
Our total fundraising, received and pledged, has passed $150,000. While we still have a long way to go to reach our $1,000,000 launch goal, we’re encouraged by this steady progress. Thank you so much to each of you who have made a sacrifice to support this ministry.
Our public influence is growing as well. Over the first quarter, our messages have been viewed more than 36,000 times on social media, with a permanent audience of greater than 1,500. We’ve invested more time in recent weeks to refine our social media strategy and create content, which we’ll begin releasing in earnest over the next several weeks. We expect these numbers to grow dramatically over the next quarter.
We’ve spent time in recent weeks intentionally developing our culture and policies. Our leadership board has been seeking the Lord in prayer and engaging in productive conversation to determine what kind of organization we’re called to be and how we can best emulate Jesus in everything that we do. By the leading of Holy Spirit, we’ve articulated our core values, developed our media and publicity strategy, and reached a loving, sensible paradigm for our student conduct policies.
In partnership with the Ohio Writers’ Association (OWA), in January we offered a 4-week novel writing class to 14 individuals. The class was very successful with overwhelmingly positive feedback, but nonetheless provided abundant data to refine and improve our curriculum. I’ll be coaching these individuals in their projects for another 7 months, which will allow me to continue to observe long-term results and make adjustments.
We have also developed a 4-week Author Bootcamp to provide professional development and business strategies for aspiring novelists, which will be offered in partnership with the OWA in June. This is an opportunity to serve the public, build healthy relationships, and refine our curriculum.
Your prayer support is critical to our mission and plays an invaluable role in our productivity. Thank you for taking that role seriously, remembering us in your daily prayers and taking time to pray when you receive specific requests in your email. You matter and your prayers are effective!
Personally, Melissa and I continue to face active, overt opposition from the enemy. We are a strategic threat to the darkness. Please pray FOR the protection of the Lord over us and SOKW. Please pray AGAINST the powers of darkness, that evil spirits be broken, bound, and banished. And please pray FOR our family, that we will rise to the calling and not be intimidated.
Please also pray for our future students in the same regard. God has gifted writers who will benefit from this program. But there will be a contest in the spirit realm to influence whether they turn to the Lord or turn to the world. Please pray that God will set apart His future SOKW students and begin to prepare them.
Thank you for your prayers and generosity. Together we are accomplishing something significant, of great importance for the Kingdom of Light, yet a small part of the outpouring God is preparing for our country. Because of you, we will push back the encroaching darkness in the media.
God has called and entrusted your household to take part as His light bursts forth in America, and you have said “Yes!” Thank you for partnering with God in this, and thank you for trusting Melissa and me, and our leadership board, to forge the way.
In the love of Jesus,
Brad & Melissa Pauquette
P.S. We’ve been in preliminary conversations with a potential home for the School of Kingdom Writers in Zanesville. Please pray for wisdom and discernment on both sides of the discussion. Out of respect for the seller’s privacy, that’s all we can share for now, but hopefully we’ll have more details soon!
